Best of 2010

I am pretty sure I am the worst blogger ever. If anyone is still reading this, I apologize for the 2-month absence... all I can say is that sometimes (specifically in the last 2 months for me), life gets in the way of writing about it. I thought about writing once over the Christmas break, but realized I would be summarizing the last 2 months and thus decided to just wait to come back with my year-end highlight blog for 2010. I really can't believe how fast this year went by... I feel like I just wrote my 2009 highlights. I've hit my halfway point here in England (year and a half), which is a little scary, but for the most part I'm not thinking about it that way... just enjoying the time and the people around me.

Just for a little background before I start the best-of list, the end of the year has been pretty stressful, hence my lack of entries. I thought life would go back to normal after the TACEVAL, but instead another obstacle reared its ugly head: SEPWO. This is an inspection of the weather flight done every two years by higher-ups in Air Force Weather. To make a long story short, we failed ours in August, and have a re-inspection planned for the end of February. My boss deployed in November, then we had a pre-inspection in the first week of December to check our progress... and it was bad. So I'm basically responsible for performing a miracle to get us ready by Feb. Lucky for me, I have a smart, hardworking flight chief to lead the charge, and an array of young but quick-learning people to make it happen. I believe we will pass, but life will not be fun by any means until after Feb. So, enough about that, let's get to the good stuff!

January: Traveled to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas to support one of our F-15E squadrons at Green Flag and Red Flag. An unbelievable operation to be a part of and an experience I will remember the rest of my life - working with over 100 aircraft and several hundered aircrew from all over the world. My parents flew in for a weekend and we hiked Red Rock Canyon, saw "The Lion King" show, and climbed the Stratosphere. The next weekend, I rode roller coasters with an awesome group, then got my outdoorsy fix visiting Hoover Dam and Mount Charleston with my new friend Martin, a fellow Lt from Lakenheath supporting Red Flag.

February: Finished up at Red Flag and headed back to England, but missed a connection in Chicago and got stranded for a whole day, resulting in some unplanned sightseeing of downtown Chicago, most notably the famous shiny "bubble" reflecting the skyline. After returning to England, traveled to Dover for a half marathon, but ended up spending the weekend sightseeing at the White Cliffs with travel buddy and fellow runner Martin after the race was postponed due to snow and ice. Celebrated weather flight chief and good friend Greg's last weekend in England with a fun group, though was sad to see him leave, such is the way of the military.

March: Training for the Edinburgh (Scotland) Marathon kicked into higher gear with double-digit weekend runs, mostly in beautiful Bury St Edmunds with Martin. Managed to squeeze in a "girls' weekend" trip to Bath and Stonehenge with 3 new friends. We relaxed in a spa, toured the historic Roman Baths, and wandered around the world's most famous pile of rocks.

April: Possibly the craziest month of the year. First weekend was a 3-day in Warsaw, Poland, with good friends Alex and Martin. We ate pierogies, toured the beautiful "Old Town", and discovered a crowd celebrating International Pillow Fight Day (no joke) in the city center. The second weekend was another 3-day in Newcastle with Martin, where we shopped, ate great food, toured a castle, and ran 7 miles along the river. The day after we got back, I flew to Trieste, Italy, to meet college roommate Carrie! We toured Venice and Trieste, then our flight back to England was cancelled due to an Icelandic volcano eruption which closed UK airspace for almost 2 weeks. Our epic journey back spanned 40 hours, 4 trains, 3 buses, a night on a cold train station floor in Milan, a ferry, and a very good friend (Martin) driving an 8-hour round trip to pick us up from the southern coast of England. Since Carrie's flight back to the US was also cancelled, we toured Cambridge and London with her cousins Mark and Kathryn before she had to leave.

May: Marathon month! I ran a 20-miler 3 weeks before the race and felt great. Celebrated Cinco de Mayo with friends, took 2nd place in a base 10K race, went to a spring bazaar at Mildenhall, and said farewell to my Red Flag weather buddy CeCe. Marathon weekend in Edinburgh was a blast, though I didn't meet my goal time in the full marathon, set a new PR for the half! Martin was my travel buddy and support crew for the race, so I returned the favor on Memorial Day weekend as we traveled to Dover for him to run the rescheduled Dover Half.

June: My parents visited England for the first time since they were stationed here almost 30 years ago. We spent our first weekend seeing all the sights in London, did day trips to Bury St Edmunds, Ely, and Cambridge, then spent our second weekend in Dover and Canterbury. After they left, I was busy hosting 21 AFROTC cadets on base and teaching them about the Operations Group. At the end of June, Alex (one of my best friends) left for her new assignment in Boston, but we had a great farewell out with friends on an overnight trip to London.

July: Began training for an August half-marathon, took 2nd place in the base 4th of July 5K, and had an awesome time with friends at the base 4th of July carnival and fireworks display. Hosted another group of AFROTC cadets, and traveled with friends to an international air show at RAF Fairford to watch our F-15s and Alaska's F-22s put on an impressive show. Sister Lisa came to visit for 2 weeks, and we finished July by celebrating her 21st birthday on a 3-day trip to Paris.

August: Spent the first week with Lisa visiting London, Warwick Castle, Hunstanton Beach, and Cambridge. Then it was off to Nottingham with Martin for our half marathon, with my goal of finally breaking 2 hours. Hot weather kept me from reaching the goal, but had a great time in Nottingham at the Robin Hood Festival, shopping, riding the swings at a city carnival, and eating at Hooters. Martin's mom and aunt visited for his birthday at the end of the month, and I joined them in London to celebrate at the original Hard Rock Cafe, visit the Beatles studio, and walk over the famous crosswalk on Abbey Road.

September: Began with a Labor Day weekend trip with Martin to Alicante, Spain, which was probably one of my favorite trips ever. Alicante is gorgeous, and so much more than a beach... there is a castle on a mountain, a marina full of beautiful yachts and amazing restaurants, a palm-tree-lined boardwalk... just incredible. The second weekend, I hosted a Penn State football party for our big game against Alabama, the current #1 team. We lost the game, but I had 15-20 people in my house and all seemed to have a great time, so that was a success. The next weekend was my 26th birthday, and Martin surprised me by giving up tickets to a rock concert in London to show up at my house with steaks for the grill and Glee Season 1 on DVD. Awww...

October: Returned to Nottingham with Martin to see Mayday Parade, one of our favorite bands, in concert. We also went shopping, toured a network of caves (got to wear hard hats!), and ate at Hooters again. The next week, I met my friend Megan in London for a Lifehouse concert. My favorite band ever put on a great show and Megan caught Jason Wade's guitar pick! The big inspection the base was preparing for all year began, and we got a one-day break for Halloween between that and the NATO TACEVAL.

November: Made it through the TACEVAL!!! We scored very well and everyone was thrilled it was over. I surprised Martin with tickets to the Top Gear Live supercar show in London, and we had an awesome weekend getting up close and personal with Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and the amazing Bugatti Veyron (fastest production car in the world). Base leadership gave us a 4-day weekend over Veterans Day, and Martin and I took advantage of it traveling to a resort in Tenerife, Canary Islands. We hit the slides at a water park, explored the many different shops, some fun restaurants, and just enjoyed relaxing in the sun after all the stress of the TACEVAL. The day after we got back, we went to Norwich to see the Goo Goo Dolls in concert, an amazing show that proved how timeless great music is. Thanksgiving weekend took us to Rome, an absolutely gorgeous city with much more to see than we had time for. We went on an incredible guided tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, took a moonlight walk to the magnificent Colosseum, walked through St Peter's Basilica, and joined a crowd in St Peter's Square to see the Pope speak from his famous window.

December: Holiday festivities were in full swing, as well as the stress of the weather flight's pre-inspection. Martin escorted me for the OSS holiday party the first weekend, then I joined him for the 494th Fighter Squadron party the second weekend. The fighter squadron rented out one of the college halls at Cambridge University, and it was an awesome venue and exciting to get dressed up and party with a fun group. Christmas dinner was at my house, with Martin cooking the turkey and a couple friends bringing over some side dishes. Then we rung in the New Year with a group of friends traveling north to Edinburgh, where we celebrated the festival of Hogmanay.

Whew! Just writing all of that makes me tired. I think I must be getting old, because every year seems to go by faster than the last. 2010 was a crazy, busy, up-and-down, whirlwind of a year. I just read my parents' Christmas letter last week, and they wrote that I was in my "dream assignment" here at Lakenheath. I can't really think of a better way to say it... it stills blows my mind every time I stop to think about where I am, the opportunities I have had, and the things I have done here. Not every day is a dream, especially recently with the overwhelming pressure at work, but nothing can dim how much I love this country, this base, and the people I've met here.

SO much has changed during 2010. I began the year with a weather flight as close as family, just a taste of the international travel I had already fallen in love with, and all kinds of ideas and plans in my head about what 2010 would be like. At the end of 2010, my weather flight friends have either moved or just grown apart, but I have many more friends in my peer group who I have so much more in common with. I still love my flight and miss the ones who are gone, but I think I have grown as a person by defining myself outside of a given group. I had international adventures in 2010 that I never could have imagined. And I had these adventures with people I didn't even know on New Year's 2010, people who would become some of my best friends. Martin and I started dating in November, after cementing a friendship at Red Flag back in January.

So... did any of my ideas and plans for 2010 actually come true? Just a few, but for the most part I was surprised by the beautiful unpredictability that is life. I don't have any New Year's resolutions for 2011, really, but there are a few things I'd like to do... more like goals than resolutions, I guess. An obvious goal is to get the weather flight through the next 2 months and pass our inspection. Another thing is to be better about keeping in touch with family and geographically separated friends. I want to run a spring half-marathon, and maybe a fall marathon if I don't get deployed. I want to clean out the "box room" (aka junk room, ideally office) in my house. And then there are a few I'll just keep in my mind for now.

Thank you for reading this, and I will try to write more frequently this year! Happy New Year and love to all! :-)