Single

Blah blah blah single...blah blah blah...sucks.

Airshows and other disasters.

After 4 years at an aviation university and nine years of working in the industry, I went to my first air show today. This is a big, free public airshow put on at Dobbins Air Reserve Base/NAS Atlanta. I almost didn't go because the guys at work told me the crowds would be insane. My friends guilted me into going and I thought...hey...stop being a crybaby, you can handle a crowd. On my way to meet everyone for lunch before the show, I got a text from Rich. You cannot just drive onto the property where the airshow is. You have to park at either Lockheed or Whitewater and be bused over. Rich's text message said that it took his family an hour and a half just to get on a bus. I told everyone at lunch that I was not going but they stole my purse and would not give it back until I agreed to go. We lucked out and as we drove onto Lockheed property, we were directed to drive onto NAS Atlanta property and park at Hanger 5. We only had to wait 15 minutes to get on the bus. Now, the airshow was just on the other side of the base but this involved driving off the side we were on, driving around to the other side and then sitting in a line of busses...which equated to another 45 minutes.

We walked around, met up with Rich's parents, met Joe's "friend" Michelle, watched some planes and decided to leave before the Thunderbird finale was over so we didnt have to wait for a bus. What a disaster the exit was. They had three large "areas" for people to gather in order to get on the right bus. The "areas" were poorly marked and crowd control was basically zero. There was no designated stop for the buses so they just stopped wherever the soldiers told them. More than once we were at the front of the line, then they would move the bus stop and we'd end up towards the back. We ended up splitting up our group just to get on a bus. It took another hour and a half for us to make it back to the car. I realize they probably had more people show up than they planned but crowd control was just a joke.

Oktoberfest

I just got back today from Oktoberfest. Myself, Jenn, Jason, Paul, Jimmy, Ashley, Greg, Rich Dan, Joe and Kelly shared a 12 person cabin in Helen this weekend. We left Friday about 1:00 and headed up. After checking in at the main lodge, we had to drive 2 miles to the actual cabin. It was pretty sweet. 3 stories, 4 bedrooms, each with private bath, pool room, grills, hot tubs. Neat. We soon discovered one of the hot tubs and one of the grills were out of commission. We were able to make due with the other working hot tub and grill. The first night we made the rookie mistake of bringing our A game. After a dinner on the grill,we decided to kick the night off with shots followed by games of flip cup and beer pong. Then we went to the game room for games of pool and an impromptu dance party. Late in the night I was taking pictures of myself and Ashley on the pool table and dropped the camera right on my nose. I didn't even realize I was bleeding until I went upstairs and everyone pointed that fact out to me. Apparently, Tuba ran through the forest at some point in the night and had random scratches on his arms.

Good times but the next morning was rough. I got up first, had a bottle of water and tried to chill out in the hot tub. Everyone eventually got up and made breakfast. Greg, Jimmy and Rich went up to the state park for a hike. Several of us went back to bed for a nap. After lunch Saturday afternoon, we made the hike into town. We had ice cream and then walked down to Paul's on the River for drinks. Spent a few hours at Paul's. We headed back to the cabin...except for Rich. Rich made a special friend at Paul's and we didn't see him again until later that night with a giant smile on his face.

Back at the cabin, we threw dinner in the oven. Joe, Kelly and I climbed back into bed after dinner to watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith and chill out before we went out again. Joe brought chicken to bed. Paul and Dan were done for the night and had already passed out downstairs. Seymour came upstairs and tried to talk Joe, Kelly and I into heading back to the Festhalle in town but we could not be convinced. We were having too much fun giggling and watching tv in bed. Jason, Jenn, Greg, Ashley and Jimmy hiked back into town to finish the night at the Festhalle. Joe, Kelly and I fell asleep for a little while. We all woke up at the same time and decided to pick up where we left off. The crowd returned from Helen and we got to hear of Rich's "adventure" in town. Rich and Jimmy decided it was a great idea to climb on the roof and check stuff out.

We slowly got up this morning, made breakfast, cleaned, packed up and hit the road. We all decided this should be a yearly event and I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time.