In the "Narmy" Now....

(ABOVE- CDR, me, Noah, back row- Mike, Doc, Weiss, Big-O, Bills, Mike and Baylor

So, as you know i've been at FT. DIX for some predeployment training. Well i'll try to describe the madness... Above is the group I went through training with. We were a group of 4 navy guys and 6 coasties, all "attached" to a navy command on base. The ten of us did everything together day and nite 24/7 practically, we lived in 4 rooms right next to each other in one part of a barracks. Notice, i'm the only girl in the group.. yeah that was interesting..... The guys were great, they took good care of me... and of course they liked to pick on me a great bit too.

The gang got along real great, nicknames started pretty quick... there were 5 officers and 5 enlisted. Three of the O's were named Mike... one we called doc... bec he's a PA. We called the CDR, CDR bec he was in charge! The senior Navy PO we called Big-O or alphabet soup bec his last name was so long.. BIG-O did a lot of extra work and we owe a lot to him for finishing up! Weiss we started calling the kid, bec he was the youngest and is practically an olympic runner, weiss ran me to shame a couple times, i couldnt keep up! Then of course they had a nickname for me... they called me Princess... well mostly Mike (the NYC mike) called me that.

The gang was pretty good though!

The trng was definitly beneficial, the navy unit hosting us called it "You're in the Narmy now" bec we definitely played army. One thing i'm certain of... I'm glad I didnt join the army! It was fun but I wouldnt want to do this stuff forever.

We got combat lifesavor certified, that was fun, we did real iv's on each other in that class.. check it out

(above- Me just having successfully given a combat IV to Bills)
(below- Me after my 2nd IV, I volunteered to get stuck twice, one in each arm bec i'm not afraid of needles, fun stuff, hehe)

The land nav course was interesting, We went through the training with a lot of Air Force folks deploying. My land nav team was Doc, Doria, Me and Rosanne an AF Major who loves driving the humvee... man that course was crazy... we almost got lost but we actually finished all three courses really fast! we ended up waiting around for almost 3 hrs waiting for other teams to finish. At one point Doc surprised us all by climbing a tree! We couldnt figure out how to get around a swamp and all of a sudden Doc was up in a tree... OMG it was funny!

(Below- Rosanne and Me at one of our markers)

Ok... so one of the STUPIDEST things ever.... the Army has GOT to change this one... OMG, no wonder they have problems in theater with rapes and sexual harassment... they ADVERTISE where the damn females are... like are you kidding me???

look at what i had to have outside my tent on at the "FOB" (forward operating base). LIke seriously... lets advertise where all the females are! and this one I was in the tent by myself bec there were no other girls... not that I'm not tough, I am, I can handle myself, but still, the tent shouldnt be singled out like that!

(below- The dumbest idea the army had).

We did so much trng i'm trying to remember all the stuff we did... it was crazy... long days some days.

I'm really comfortable with my m16 now though, I can fully take it apart and clean it all by myself no problem, I'm really comfortable shooting it. I shot more the past month that I previously had in my entire CG career, so that was cool.

well i think thats all the highlights i have time for right now... i'll try to remember more later...

OMG we made it through!

So today... The 6 coasties made it through FT. DIX A-25 pre-deployment training... We just played army for over a month and OMG are we glad to be done!! I have lots of stories and photos to share with everyone, but dont have time to get the pics and blog right this second, but i'll try to get it up this wkd...

it feels so weird to not be locked down anymore... got a little bit of time before i'm gone and locked down for 6 full months in theater..

Pre-Deployment Trng at FT. DIX

(Above- post egress)
(Above- me getting in the gunner's harness...)
(above- Mike and I post trng, he saved my butt)
So most of you know I left DC for my pre-deployment training. It's been busy, I dont have much time to check email, but I wanted to post some pictures from the HEAT trainer yesterday, our team went through HUMVEE Rollover training, it was pretty crazy. I was the unlucky gunner position which is the position that isnt strapped in and if your team doesnt hold onto you, then you go flying all around inside... here are a few pics...

Just read....

I took this photo today of a memorial of a bunch of old war letters...

man... what a powerful love letter... almost made me cry to read it...

riding the plane down is not so fun...

When the green light comes on... this is NOT the view you want to see =(
Sadly unable to see the dz at all... we had to ride the plane down! I havent ridden the plane down in over a year! Luckily the clouds broke up enough the rest of the day to get some good jumps in, and the sky was GORGEOUS with the clouds, I have some really cool video of the sky yesterday with these clouds, me flying around them =) when I get some more time i'll try to post that stuff tonite...

But for now... I'm off to report in to my pre-deployment training! Wish me luck!

Good bye DC...

So I packed up and left DC this weekend... PRE-Deployment training starts monday am...
I'm starting off in Portsmouth, VA... but will be at a few different places through now and December...
I"ll try to keep everybody updated through trng and before i actually go to Afghanistan...
thanks everyone for the well wishes! I'm excited!

BOOOOOOGIE

(ABOVE- Rick's 1000th!)

So this long wkd was an awesome boogie for Carol Clay's Birthday! I got 19 jumps in... it was SUPER crowded but way fun, we got in Rick's 1000th jump!! check out the video below from Braden's camera, i'll try to post mine as well...

Not a bad wkd of jumping...

(above-Belly flyers- myself, Carol, Dara, Jason, and ANDREW, hangers- Pete, Corey and Brett)
So above is a Hybrid we did for Andrews 100th jump! Go Andrew...

And today we did John's 700th...
a total of 13 for me this wkd... not bad not bad...
whew, i'm beat... now time for some time in the ijoy and then to bed!

Whew... the tour is over...

UPDATE... PIC taken by Irwin Photographer Steve Kifer and was on the front page of the Irwin Paper!




Man oh man, was that a busy two weeks with the 257 Army Band! It honestly was a blast though, the patriotism at each place we performed was amazing and it was great to be a part of the spirit.
I've uploaded a lot of the video to youtube, so just check out my youtube page.

Above, is Sing, King, Swing at Brevard College in NC, and below is Saxophobia



As soon as I get pics from John I'll post them up too =)

Kick off of the tour...

So tonite was the kick off performance of the 2week tour for the 257th Army Band... John and I were brought on as dancers to add some entertainment to part of the show...
above you can see our attempted costume of WWII theme... and below you can see the video... of our first time performing it... we perform almost every nite in the next two weeks, so hopefully it gets better and better, (we still have a few things to work out) but not too bad, we were pretty happy considering we had such few practices to put it all together... the crowd seemed to really like us!

7 yrs and 508 jumps until...

My FIRST CUTAWAY...
yep... had my first one this Saturday... AND Since I was videoing an AFF student I have it all on video... as soon as I have time to dl the video i'll post it up here...
Thanks everyone for spending hours helping me look for my main. SOOOOOO happy we found everything!

raw footage above...

500 Baby!!

UPDATE: HERE's the SLIDESHOW of ALL the PICS!!

So.... FINALLY after all the hold ups, of bad weather, trips to the ER, blah blah... , I was able to make my 500th jump this past Saturday. And it rocked, I was really lucky I had a great group of friends. And Michael was even able to make it on the jump, (though against my better judgment, he jumped with a torn bicep tendon... tsk tsk tsk, which he is now sitting in surgery for, and i'm in the waiting room blogging... ) but he was DETERMINED to be on that jump with me, I couldn't stop him, luckily it all went well, we made it through the points TWICE! and no one got hurt! So I couldn't have asked for a better jump! Thanks everyone!
oh and thanks for the fabulous pie filling that i'm STILL cleaning out of my ears and clothes!!! omg!!

Give me a little bit and i'll add some video and all the pics in a slide show... here's a quick shot of what Corey did... but I still have to DL the video from my helmet =)

Yay for me...

I passed the exam! I officially am a Certified Personal Trainer!!! I'll be working at MP location of VIDA on various nites... sooooo excited that i've added this cert to my resume...

Memorial Day Casa Boogie...

So this wkd... the weather cooperated for 2 of the 4 day wkd... I got 15 jumps in and Mike got 12... not too bad! a little bummed that I didn't get my 500 in this wkd... but thats ok...
I have video I want to post... but let me play around with some video editing and see what I can put together...
Thanks Rick for jumping with us all wkd and helping mike get thrown right into 4way!

When the rain ruins our day...skydivers will still play...

So this wkd, the rain pretty much took all our jumping fun away, we did get a few loads in the fireball (cessna)... I got one in, where Brett just watched me spin on my back trying to go into a sitfly... but we did learn that JoAnn and I are on the exact same jump number... pretty cool...

Jo... we better watch out, I heard Jason is gonna pie the hell outta us next wkd when we hit 500!

but anyways... instead we cooked and got our hair cut,... thanks Jarod!! u rok!

next weekend will definitely be full of jumpin our asses off though!!!

Mike's A license jump!!!

ABOVE- VIDEO OF MIKE'S 25th Jump..

So I got to do like half of Michael's coach jumps, and got to do his 25th ... and thanks to Rick (who gave mike a little tip) I got to go for a little ride and then I took Mike for a little ride too... (sorry Jason, I know we're not supposed to goof off until jump 26... but i swear i didnt tell him to hold onto me... i'm blaming rick for that one!)

Awesome job!
Congrats Michael... you know how proud I am... this rocks... we're gonna have such a good time now that you have your license! This is only the BEGINNING...

dude... sooooo funny... jason and I totally struck a pose behind jim sleeping!! haha
*** UPDATE*** oh i forgot to say... this was a wkd of firsts... mike's first casa jump, my first camera helmet jump, and first time with our new camper! they all rocked! i'll post some more video from some jumps this wkd, and hopefully get some pics of our awesome camper! dude... skydiving rocks!! (and YES... we brought BEER for all those!)

Another one of mike's videos:

HONOR FLIGHT....

Above- LT Tongol, USCG and Homer "Mac" McCown, 92, ARMY AIR CORPS group engineering, Middle/East/North Africa/Italy Jan 12, 1942-July 31st, 1945.

11APRIL2009
On 11apr2009, a group of 32 Ohio Veterans were flown to Washington D.C. after my hometown high school raised money for their travel on what is now know as the "Honor Flight."

The Honor Flight Network, flies veterans to see their memorials at no cost. This particular flight flew WWII veterans from central Ohio to see the memorial of which none had seen before.

After my mother forwarded me the article and information of the group coming from my home town, I knew I had to be there at the memorial when they arrived. On the morning of the Honor Flight, it was nothing but thunderstorms and pouring rain, but I put on my uniform and walked from my DC apt to the WWII memorial and waited in the rain to meet the Veterans, as you can see the rain did nothing to our spirits, it was all smiles and joy when they arrived. It was a humbling experience to watch them all see the memorial for the first time, and it was definitely a reminder of why I joined the service myself...

Above is a picture of me with the oldest of the Veterans...

I was also told that when the Veterans returned home to Ohio, there was a large crowd awaiting their return to welcome them home as they deserve! God Bless them all... we all should take a little time to honor those that served before us, for this Country.

We love you Frankie...

A sad day in the lindy hop world today... the legend, the inspiration, the one and only Frankie Manning Passed away...
We will never forget you Frankie...

Time for a change...

Who's that girl???

yep... that's me ;)

Congrats Erika and Kevin

My best friend growing up found out that her 2nd child is going to be a baby girl!

Congrats Erika! So happy for you!
I love you!!

Making Choices...

So over the past couple years, my list of hobbies grew substantially from only skydiving... to skydiving, dancing, working out, triathlons/racing... and wanting to compete in all three...

With being a full time Coast Guard Officer, I really was stretching myself thin... but I thought I could do it all. The truth is, I was half-assing all three... not being able to focus 100% on competing in either, I was "good" at all of them, but not in the top like I want.

I raced, and while in 1 triathlon I was 1 second out of first for my age group, that was the closest I got... and in dancing I am just staying at the solid int/adv level, (which is still awesome and a lot of fun) but not devoting time to go to enough events to get better. Skydivng I was able compete locally and do well, but again not at the level I dreamed of...

So really, I would LOVE to be able to be incredible at all three and compete Nationally at all three and do well, it is just NOT possible, so something's gotta give... I gotta choose...

SO... this year, as most of you probably already guessed, I am choosing skydiving. No more dance wkds, no more racing... this year I'm focusing on skydiving. I want to go to nationals and I want that next level. It's hard, because I LOVE dancing, but I've decided that I can be ok with just social dancing weekly. And racing, while I love the feeling of finishing a race, I can't keep a training schedule that is feasible with the classes I already teach... so... choice made...

Lindy Hop, Racing-->back burner for now...
Skydiving is it...

and I'm thankful Michael now is involved and loves the sport too...

5-way video...

So Jason passed along a video of a 5-way we did a few weeks ago at sunset =)
I'm the one that comes down to the formation after everyone (because I dove out after them)... not bad.... a little shaky at times... but not bad

For the Record...

It sucks being stuck in your own car with your car keys and not being able to start the car bec some random alarm that you didn't even know the car had starts going off and doesn't let your own car key start the car!!!

OMG!!!!! seriously

other than that.. pretty awesome wkd.

Why I do what I do...

Today after I taught my POWER class at VIDA, one of the girls who has been taking my class regularly came up to me in the locker room and said, "Hey, I just want you to know that I love your class! It's my favorite part of the week, I look forward to it all day long!"

She also was excited that she was seeing results from taking the class.

It made me feel so good to hear that. It gives me such a boost of energy and motivation to keep teaching when students come up and tell me they enjoy my teaching and classes.

So thanks guys! I keep teaching because you guys are awesome!

Boston Tea Party 2009

(ABOVE- Mike and I)

So this past weekend I was in Danvers, MA for BOSTON TEA PARTY. Just like last year, it was a lot of fun. The competitions were great, honestly the Jack and Jill Crossover was one of the funniest things I've ever seen... watching it was seriously a good time.

Sadly, I didn't get as many pictures as last year =( Also, sadly, while last year I made finals in the jack and jill, this year I did not... oh well... not too disappointed bec I actually thought I danced well. so no biggie. I'll definitely be back again next year...

I took the Solo Jazz routine class with Andy and Nina and really enjoyed it, and realized I really do need to squeeze a Jazz class in to improve my dancing (and its fun!).
Mike came up from Rhode Island and took a few classes himself.
All in all, the DC representation was awesome, there were DC folks everywhere.

My Cousin Becca...

So this is my younger cousin Becca... singing at her Senior Nite..

gosh Becca I remember when we were all running around in our little swim suits as babies in Michigan... and now you're graduating high school... crazy!
Awesome! You rock!

Awesome weekend...

ABOVE- Jason's 3000's!!

BELOW- the FJC students (and Jason who taught the course next to Mike......aww... Mike standin out in his bright CG shirt! ;)

ABOVE- Mike's FIRST JUMP EVER!!

Did 7 jumps on saturday! it was cold as crap, my hands went numb twice! but it was still awesome..

oh and Mike did his Cat A and Cat B!!! he rocked it, freakin awesome... i hear a new skydiver in our midst... =) yep... he's stuck with us (and me... ) forever now!

and we did an amazing jump for Jason the pilot... it was his 3000th hr of flight and his 3000th jump! all in the same Load... he flew us up to altitude, put his rig on, and another pilot took over and he jumped out, he made his 3000th hr after 6 minutes of that flight and then jumped out to make his 3000... omg we got like 18,500ft too... (that's the highest i've ever jumped! it was freakin awesome)

pics of all to be posted soon...

too tired right now...

A beautiful Saturday...

ROLLIN into the parking lot of the DZ just after 9am... and this is what we see... GORGEOUS!!! perfect sky, perfect temp, no winds! OMG...
Yesterday the air was so amazing... just beautiful. I can't even describe it. All day, it was like butter, gliding through, so smooth, it was just an awesome beautiful BLUE SKY skydiving day.
I got 8 in! And I even packed for myself and didnt slow myself down, so I was happy with myself for keeping up with folks!
I met some awesome new folks yesterday too... thanks JoAnn for all the email arranging and the carpooling. Can't wait for all the fun this season!
Below are some pics of me waiting for sunset load... don't worry I remembered to put my rig on fully after that first pic...

(BELOW- sun goin down... me waitin on the plane... we ended the day with a pretty good 5-way, i can post the video once jason sends it to me!)
(BELOW- wheres the plane?wheres the plane?... we wanna jump!!)

My annual sweets fast....

So today is Ash Wednesday... the start of Lent for Christians. As a Catholic I find this time of year brings me back to the Church if I've gone astray a little. I give up sweets every year... and so again this year, today marks the start of no chocolate, candy, ice cream or anything of the sort, for me!
And since most of you know how BIG of a sweet tooth I have, its a pretty big deal. I usually lose a few lbs over lent because of the amount of sugar decrease in my diet.

So... what else are folks giving up for Lent?

Red Dress Ball...

(Above- Charlie and I dancing ...)
(Above- Ben and I)

(Above- Charlie and I)

So on Valentines Day, there was a RED DRESS BALL at Glen Echo. The ballroom was filled with red dresses galore! It was quite a sight. And the gentlemen all looked great, as most were dressed up in suits and red shirts. It was a lot of fun...

Ben has a few more pics HERE

POWER is here

So TUESDAY we launched POWER at VIDA at the METROPOLE location. It was awesome. We taught back to back classes that were absolutely packed to capacity. I was totally sore wednesday, but it was worth it. The first class I taught with Adriane and Ty, the second class I taught with Adriane and Lauren.... so much fun!

Wednesday nite I taught my first full POWER class that nite. It was fun, I had a pretty full class, I hope people keep coming back!

The sad part is, We forgot the camera and so no pictures from the launch =(
so sad considering how cute we looked in our matching outfits!

So right now my schedule at Metropole is POWER on tuesday's at 1800 and POWER on Wednesday's at 1915

Pre-launch of POWER

So last nite was our "preview" of POWER at VIDA. Juliet, Ed and I were the team taught at Metropole. It was a lot of fun. We had cute little outfits (i'll get a better picture on tuesday from the big launch). But the class was great, full class! and we had lots of fun!

More to come on TUESDAY when the BIG LAUNCH happens!!

POWER is coming....

TCO at Glen Echo....24JAN09

So last nite was a typical Saturday Nite for the local DC lindy hoppers. Tom Cunningham Orchestra rockin it out at the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo. As always, good times. Here's some videos, Charlie and I just goofin off =) and Ben and I for some reason went into the jam and here's what we ended up doing... a little silly entrance but hey... we got some laughs!

BEN and I...

CHARLIE and I....

(ABOVE- DEB and ME)

(ABOVE- Jerry, Me, Ben)

First Prize...

Soooooo, tonite's Jam Cellar Dance was a Black and White Ball. Everyone came all dressed up in their finest. The JC crew decided to have a Jack and Jill comp for the special nite. I entered because I figured what the hey, and the Prize was a WHITE CHOCOLATE replica of the Capitol!! I SO wanted it....
Luck was on my side tonite, because I randomly drew Doug, which of course gave us a LIL bit of an advantage than the other 6 couples, Lily and Kevin gave us a good run for our money though!.

Result: WE WON! =) and I, of course, fought Doug for the chocolate hehe.

UPDATE:
Just got these emailed to me from last nite... Jerry and I, and Doug and I, before the dancing begun...

Pics from Squeak...

(ABOVE- Ben and Me doing a cheesy dance move which is why we're laughing)

(ABOVE- Ben and Me exiting the Jam Circle)

(ABOVE- Dave and I...Swinging Out!)

(BELOW- The COOL DIPS!)

So, Jennr8r brings Squeak and Mrs. Squeak out to Glen Echo last Saturday for the dance. Squeak is a skydiver from Australia, who Jenn and I know from dropzone.com, and no, we still dont know his actual name, he just says ... call me Squeak. Squeak and Mrs. Squeak were good sports, they watched, they danced, had a good time, and Squeak was nice enough to take pictures =). Which I thought was cool, because I hardly ever get pictures of me dancing. He mostly took pics of me dancing with Ben and Dave.

Baby Pictures...

Ok, so another pic from a while back (not a hundred years, but about 23yrs ago) this is me when I was 4 years old...

Someone mentioned baby pictures to me the other day and I thought it'd be fun to share. This is one of my favorite pics from when I was little =) watcha think? I look the same??

Anyone else wanna share? email me and i'll post it up... hehe

100 Year Old Pic... Gust Family Heritage..

WOW (CLICK PICTURE TO SEE FULL SIZE)- My mother forwarded me an email tonite with this wonderful picture attached. She received and email from her second cousin. My Mom's side of the Family is the Gust Family (her maiden name). The child in the center standing up is my GREAT Grandfather!! How cool is that?!?! This picture is believed to have been taken in 1906.

I think it's so cool to see pictures and hear stories like this...
Below is the text of the email from Cousin Roland... it has all details the Gust Family knows of this picture...


""Attached is a copy of a 16 in.x 20 in.photo of Matt and Hilma Gust and their four children in the front yard of their home in White Cloud,Michigan. From left to right are:Ingrid Sophia Gust (often spelled or misspelled as Ingred, who adopted her mother's first name, Hilma as her own preferred middle name sometime during her school days, Matt Leander Gust (formerly known as Gustaffson until he had his name changed while living in White Cloud Anders Victor Gust (who was called Victor A, Gust from an early age),Hilma (nee Mattson) Gust and Myrtle Eleanor Gust. Garford William Gust sits on stool front and center. I believe the name shortening to Gust was done officially and legally, but the other changes were probably just personal preferences that the individuals adopted. My mother didn't like the name "Sophia" so she went by Ingrid H(ilma) Gust. On her birth certificate copy the middle initial is S, and her brother, Vic, occasionally would tease her in their senior years by calling her "Ingid Sophia" which annoyed her mildly.

There is no date on the original but I judge that it must have been taken about 1906 in the summer or early fall, based on my opinion that Garford (Garf) looks about three years old. He was born July 29th 1903. If 1906 is the correct year, then Ingrid would have been nine years old; Matt,about forty-six; Victor about twelve years old; Hilma about thirty-eight yrs. old; Myrtle, about ten years old. I'll check some other records at a later date and let you know if these need correction. In any case, they must be very close to the actual ages at that time. Another sibling, Elvira Gust, who died in infancy had been born in 1893 and would have been about thirteen years old had she lived to be included in this photo. I have a portrait of her as she looked when about one to one and a half yrs. old.

As seems to be the style for formal portraits in those years, everyone is supposed to look serious. Too bad that we could not have seen them smiling. Of course, the process took quite a bit of time and multiple exposures, so the subjects may have just the serious look the photographer was seeking. For some like Myrtle they were on the edge or just past the stage of grumpiness. My mother told me that our grandfather had this house constructed and it was the birthsite of all five of the Gust children in an upstairs front bedroom. I think the name of the street is Charles St., White Cloud, on the SW side of the intersection of M-37 (which runs north/south) and Charles which runs east/west. I don't remember the house number but I believe it was about two houses in (east) from the intersection corner. I don't know how long the family lived there, but the house was razed for a parking lot about twenty or so years ago,long after the family had moved to the hotel on Wilson Ave. (White Cloud's main street) or the four children had left White Cloud after graduation from old White Cloud High School.The lots remain vacant as of 2008. I have no information on when Matt Gust sold the house nor to whom it was sold. The old archives in White Cloud probably has that on
record.

My mother Ingrid, and our aunt Myrtle were separated in age by only 13 months. Myrtle should have graduated from high school in 1915 but she had missed a year of school early in childhood due to "spinal meningitis". When she had recovered, she ended up in the same class with Ingrid and they graduated together in 1916 from White Cloud High. Almost like twins, they remained close throughout their long lives,

Matt, we believe, had a brother, Anders, the Swede/Finn name equivalent of Andrew, who had come to the USA from Finland earlier than 1881, the year of Matt's passport. We hear that he had settled in Wisconsin or Minnesota where he was a successful farmer. Victor A. Gust, Sr. as Matt's elder son was known through most of his life apparently chose to be called Vic rather than Andrew or Andy at some early age. Victor or Vic is the name that his childhood friends always used in referring to him when I interviewed a number of them in later years. The quality of the original of this picture came into my possession unframed and with some damage from light, water, abrasions, and some edge tears. I believe Shirley had it from her mother and then gave it to me after Myrtle's death. I only flattened it, photographed it, did some minor coverups which did not include any of the faces. No doubt further professional restoration could improve this old image.

I wanted to share this antique as it is now so that our family can enjoy it. I wanted to send it before Christmas but was sidelined by a cold and snowbound for three days just before the holiday.
Please transmit to any and all the Gusts on your group list together with my love and warmest best wishes to all for a Happy New Year.
Roland"

Look out... Coach Kelly has arrived =)

ABOVE- The Coach Course- 5 of us took the course (and the rest in the picture are the awesome instructors who played students and taught us)
So... I am Officially a rated SKYDIVING COACH! yay! I'm so happy. I passed the course, learned a lot and had a blast. I thought the wind was going to get the better of me and stop me from getting my rating, but I waited it out and was able to get my eval jumps in.
So watch out everyone... here I come =)
(seriously though... can't wait to get out there and do some coaching to students!)
Next goal.... AFF instructor rating!

Zhills update...

(ABOVE- Jane found this pic of me on laszlo's website and got it for me!! thanks jane you rok!)
(ABOVE- a gang of skydivers at the local mexican restaurant one nite for dinner)

So... 4 days into my trip and 19 skydives later. Good stuff. It's been an awesome 4 days so far, hanging out with old friends, meeting new ones, making some really awesome skydives. Even with the sadness of losing our good friend Debbie, everyone is still in good spirits and doing what she would have wanted us to do... enjoy the boogie. Of course she and her family and all of her friends are in our prayers.
... in this sport long enough... you'll be on the dz when an accident happens... it sucks... but at least we all support each other and are there for each other.
Blue Skies Debbie.. Muff Muff...

... now off to the tunnel tonite for some training then right back at it tomorrow morning.

(Hope everyone down at Lindy Focus is having a blast, I'm sure you are, and probably dancing as much as I'm jumping... i'll see you guys at ccb on the 5th though)

Merry Christmas from Zhills....

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!!
This morning JennR8R and I got up at 4am and went to the airport... by 11am I was at zhills. Sadly the entire afternoon was overcast... but I met some awesome new friends to keep me company all afternoon. Joe and his pet sugar gliders, above is me and gizmo. He has two, stripe and gizmo. I have to say I think I may have found my next pet...
But after an afternoon of gizmo sleeping on my arm. The clouds cleared and I got two really fun jumps in... not too shabby for Christmas =)
I'm happy.. .off to Christmas dinner at the dz... stayed tuned for more updates throughout the week ...

VIDA Holiday Party

UPDATE- Lauren emailed me some pics!!
ABOVE- Lauren, Me, Catherine
ABOVE- Alyssa, Lauren, me

ABOVE- Angelica, Jessica, Me, Mark
ABOVE- Jessica, Me
So this past weekend was the VIDA holiday party. It was a lot of fun, it was at TOWN night club, i'm not really into clubs, but the company of the VIDA gang was good that nite. These are fellow cycle instructors in the pics above... I'll have more pics once I get them from Lauren, then you can see the entire fitness gang, lol.
I really like everyone at VIDA... working there is so awesome!

Office Holiday Party at Topolino's

Dec 10th, My directorate went to Topolino's for a Holiday Office Party. It was a lot of fun. Marie planned a great event. I helped some with the secret Santa. We all had a great time! Yay for Morale!
I was going to post the picture of the whole group, but then realized everyone prolly doesnt want to be on my blog... so instead you just get me and Marie =)
and thanks Mike... you didnt have to give me back the best Secret Santa gift. (Mike gave me back the Eggnog liquer gift at the end of the game, even though he stole it fair and square... just to be nice because i've edited some papers for him... way too nice of him to do that!)
Topolino's is a pretty good restaurant too!!

Videos from Monday nite CCB..

So here are two quick videos of me doing some social Lindy dancing. I know a lot of my friends are non dancers and are wondering what I do several nites a week... well this is pretty much what I do... These are both medium tempo songs... so not super exciting or anything, but still a lot of fun... I'm the one in the suspenders =) THANKS ABA for the AWESOME DJ-ing!

(Above: Doug and I)
(Below: Bob and I)

My favorite sandwich....

Yes... I LOVE this sandwhich so much that I took a damn picture of it! Every time I go home to Ohio I make sure of stopping at W.G. Grinders to have my favorite lunch in the entire world. Grinders has been my favorite sandwich place since I was in High School. I miss it like crazy since they aren't here =( But anyways.... Mom and I went last Saturday, I got my regular order... Club Grinder (minus honey mustard and dressing, extra mayo). OMG, i'm drooling and my stomach is hungry now just thinking about it! If you've never been there... you seriously have no idea what you're missing.

Turkey Trot 5 miler...

So this morning I ran the Columbus, OH 5miler Turkey Trot. No official times or anything because we didn't have chips, but by my watch I ran it in 40min 40sec. Not bad considering I haven't been running at all lately. I got caught way behind at the start line and had to spring through the mob to get out running so I think I might have finished sub-40 if I had been up front... but oh well. It was fun. This picture is post-race, with the pie I got for being in the first 1000 females to finish.
The pic below is me and my nephew Sammy, (he was kinda cranky today)

Black and Gold 2008

So for the better part of the last week I was on permissive orders, down to NC to jump with the U.S. Army Golden Knights at their annual Black and Gold Event (a skydiving competition and jumping for all active duty military skydivers). It rocked. I jumped, I competed, had a blast...

So check out the slide show... I couldn't pick just a few so I put all the ones I had in a slideshow =)

The competitions were a lot of fun. My 4-way team, Non + Com (Freddie and Kramer are NCO's and Alicia and I are both O-3's), ended up taking 4th place out of 12, which is pretty good considering we had never jumped together before, we would have gotten a medal if it weren't for the ringer West Point team, boo! =( oh well, we're still happy we did so well. Check out the video

And our 8-way Speed star team.. We took the 3rd place 4-way team, and added us (except Tom came in for Alicia) and voila, that created the 8way team, "Mostly Officers." We ending up taking 3rd in 8-way speed! We could have taken 1st, I think, but we had a few issues =( but it was such a blast/challenge doing speed star out of the C31. Here's that video....

Love your Failures

Good timing.....

So a lot of you know I'm having some trouble lately... this image came in an email today for one of my workout gear stuff.... and all the sayings on the collage are great (except for the eat organic ;)... but just so happens the one that was highlighted is probably the phrase I need to embrace the most right now... bec I feel like I've failed at a lot and I keep beating myself up for it...
But, they were failures because of decisions I made, and I have to deal with that...so to move forward I have to deal with the consequences and make sure I don't fail again....

I'm workin on it..... it's going to be a difficult path

Scary Way Weekend 2008

(Formation Load attempt: Me, lower right corner looking back at Jane-who is docked on my leg but not in picture)
Above- Jane and I high-five in the landing area after both successfully docking on the formation!

Above- Jane and I Hug and walk back! =)

So what was this past weekend, Scary Ways? Well for my non-skydiving friends, we use the word "way" to describe the formation, i.e. if there are 4 people in it, we call it 4-way, five people, 5-way. This past weekend we attempted "Scary-ways" which was a play on words for halloween, and partly because when you do formation loads (more than one plane of jumpers building a formation) it can be a little "scary." But this weekend, we did several formation loads and only one dangerous thing happened (but no injuries and no one got hurt) and we built some beautiful formations. No records made, but this one that Jane and I were in, I think 25 made it into the formation, which is pretty darn good!

This weekend, was cool, I met Jane, from Pennsylvania, we surprisingly have a lot in common and she was great company , a great skydiver... definitely a cool chick! Should have met her sooner...
(Above- prejump pic by McDuck)

All in all, a good weekend.. missed dancing of course =( but I have one more big weekend of skydiving (Golden Knights Black and Gold event)... then it's all dancing for a while...
Juggling hobbies is sooooo difficult :/

ALHC 2008...

Well... just got back from the American Lindy Hop Championships (ALHC). I have to say, people were right, this event is dying. It had some great dancers there, but not nearly as many as should have been there. But nonetheless, I had some fun.
Doug and I competed in the OPEN Strictly Lindy competition, and went up against some really good dancers, but we actually felt really good about our dancing and had people tell us we did good! Here is video from the spotlight portion of the comp, (sorry for the ghetto video, but it was kinda done on the DL) .
Doug and I placed 6 of 10, but 1 judge placed us 3rd and another 4th... so i'm happy two of them thought we were pretty good =)

SPOTLIGHT:



And despite not making finals in the jack and jill, (not sure why) here is one clip from one of my prelim dances... i'm number 217 (teal shirt black pants)

JACK N JILL PRELIM:

Facebook....

Ok Folks... so apparently you all want me to join facebook. I get the hint, I've gotten I lost count of how many suggestion emails to join facebook from countless friends. And severe badgering from you all verbally too.

Last Nite, I got another one of these invites, from Paul, (Paul not your fault, it just so happens things happened after you sent your invite). I deleted it, like I usually do, BUT for some reason... after that... I've gotten A LOT of notifications that you all have "added me as a friend" on facebook! WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON? How can you add me as a friend if I don't have an account?!?!? Someone splain to me please!?

Anyways... so fine.. here's what i'm doing... LOOK RIGHT----> SEE POLL... VOTE.. if enough people vote and convince me to get an account... then I'll get a damn account so you all stop sending me invites....

Great Grampa Gust

Above- My Great Grandfather- Victor Gust, WWI, picture taken in 1919.

My mom found this link on line HERE and she emailed around and My Great Uncle Jim confirmed this is definitely my Great Grandfather and that he has the original photograph.
I thought this was pretty cool to see my great-grandpa in his WWI uniform. Priceless and awesome!

Carrie, does this type of puppy look familiar?

Gosh, this made me miss Devin and Leo! Carrie you gotta bring your puppies up here so I can see them!
(above: Me with Nina's puppy, Minerva)
Gotta love those little Italian Grey hounds! ***SIGH*** some day I'll have one of my own!

Why do people keep telling me "I'm crazy?"

Ok, so today I ended up doing 3 spin classes. I taught one at lunch, then after work, I went to one of my gyms downtown to teach... but no one showed up (not unusual for this small gym) so I left... went to VIDA and took 2 spin classes in a row =) . Hey it was fun, and I needed more practice on the real ryder bikes they are so AWESOME, but I want more practice before I teach on them. Then of course I went to my normal Monday nite dance...
Yes, I know I'm busy and always doing something... but come on people... I'm not crazy =) I'm ....uh... there's gotta be a better word than crazy....

I got zapped today...

i.e. Nerve Conduction Study done today.... Neurologist said she couldn't find anything wrong with the nerves in my arm and I can return to normal activity =) YAY!!**** happy dance**** She said as long as the symptoms don't change (i.e. I notice weakness or pain, which I haven't yet) then I'm good to go. I do have to go get an MRI, she wants to look at my brain just to look at a few things but said nothing to worry about that it's probably fine and that the tingly will probably just go away. So... the MRI looks like it won't happen till November bc the entire DC area is booked till then... So
looks like I'm back =) yay!

Personality in Geography...

A lot of you know that I'm a Personality Freak... as in I LOVE MBTI and social sciences and love talking about it and learning about it...
My friend Megan was nice enough to share this article and I find it fascinating ....

so ENJOY CLICK HERE

VIDA Grand Opening...

As most of you know I've been teaching several gym classes a week. I've been lucky enough to be on the staff at VIDA at the verizon location as a sub instructor. The great news is that VIDA is opening another location and I am now on the permanent staff, I have a weekly class at Metropole, Wednesday's 1915, BOOTCAMP. Hehe. Should be lots of fun.

We had a staff meeting yesterday and the walk thru of the club was amazing, it's gorgeous. The grand opening party was last nite and the place had hundreds of folks walking through. I feel real lucky to be on the staff there and hope to get more classes. My new friend Steve came to the party with me, we had a good time, free food and drinks... it was fun, only got one picture the whole nite though.... well actually keep your eyes peeled, some photographer asked to take our picture on the way in for some luxury DC magazine, it was pretty funny bec he actually came and grabbed us as we were walking down the stairs to get our picture... =)

Update on my arm...

Saw the Neurologist today... I thought they were gonna do the nerve conduction test, but apparently that is a separate appt (next wed). She examined me, and good news is that she doesn't think there is anything wrong with my neck... she thinks there is a "stressed" or "irritated" nerve in my arm, most likely from overuse of some type of activity (dancing most likely). She said the test next week would not only confirm diagnosis but should be able to tell how badly "irritated" it is. Which will determine how long I have to rest, bec apparently rest is the treatment. She said I didn't have to stop dancing altogether though... so thats good news.

And on a side note, the PT doc said I could try to run again...

Update...

Went to the PT doc yesterday. We worked through a few things. Discovered I have scoliosis in my back, not severe, but definitely there and part of the reason my back probably has a few problems. But we're working through it, she's gonna try to get me better and back to everything I want to do.
My nerve test isn't until next wednesday, between now and then I have 3 more PT appts, so hopefully I'll be all better soon. but for now, no running and I'm supposed to rest more. I can elliptical or easy spinning, I told her I still want to be on track for the marathon at the end of OCT, so we'll see. I think i'll be ok... I can't lay around for much longer, it's killing me... next week i'm dancing... i dont care what they say! i cant take it anymore!

Doc says NO TRI =( =( =(

So really bad news today.... I CAN'T race this weekend. I'm really disappointed. For those of you who don't know I was supposed to run The Nations Tri this Sunday. I ran it last year and it was amazing. This year I wanted to beat my time. I've been looking forward to it, (despite my lack of time to train in the swim).

So, Last week my right arm started to Tingle, and this morning at the Doctor, the doc said I need to go for a nerve study test thing, and until then I have to "take it easy" and I explained about the race and she basically said NO! So i'm stuck doing nothing for the next ...um I don't know how long =(

Ok, so i'm having a pity party for myself, but come on, I really wanted to race, PLUS it cost 165 bucks in registration,

ok.. I just took the muscle relaxer for my back... time to rest!

West Wing Tour

(Above- Cecilia, Tracy, Me and Steph.. right in front of the White House! inside the bars!!)

So today... I was lucky enough to have a friend who works for the U.S. Trade Representative at the White House, give a private tour of the West Wing, which was special bec it's not open for public tours. So pretty cool, we couldn't take any pictures inside.
But these pics are from "inside the bars" which was pretty cool... and there are a few more that i'll post once I get them from other folks' cameras.

Idiocracy Scrambles 2008 FIRST PLACE!!!

So this Wkd was the 2008 4-way Idiocracy Scrambles!! (for all my dancing friends.. that's just like a Jack and Jill competition... where we have no idea who are teammates are until they draw)

My team "Particular Individuals" named by Tony, included, Tony, Frank, Marie and myself. None of us had EVER jumped together before so we were quite surprised when we did so well. (Weelll... truthfully they were calling us a stacked team bc we all had some good flying experience... but HEY! that's not our fault we drew so well!) hehe.

Anyways... after some awesome jumping!
First round: 8pts
Second Round: 11pts
Third Round: 19pts
Fourth Round: 8pts

We WON FIRST PLACE!! and got big obnoxious medals! HAHA. I can't lie, all I wanted was this big medal to have laying around!
So Rob's Team (Full body Latte, got 2nd) and Willie's team got 3rd.. nice try guys ;) And Steve did video for "Family Style" and well we'll just not mention how they did ;)
I'm still waiting on getting video and pics of the actual jumps to post.. so stayed tuned for that!

Thanks everyone.. it was a blast!
(ABOVE- My Team- Particular Individuals- Tony, Frank, Me and Marie, bottom row, Larry and Figgs- video guys, and Franks daughter)
(ABOVE- Willie, me and Rob- Olympic Podium style with our medals!)
(ABOVE- 3--2--1) hehe
(ABOVE- Me and my BIG OBNOXIOUS MEDAL!)
(ABOVE- Willie and I with our Brawndo!)

(ABOVE- lastly.. me in the landing area after attempting a sitfly)

I learned to Sit...

Ok, So I know I'm strictly a Belly Fly only girl... But for some reason this wkd I let McDuck take me for some sit instruction...

and here's the video of my 3rd attempt ever at sitflying... not bad not bad...

But no worries, i'm not switching over to the darkside...

VPC

23AUG08 Spare Parts VPC meet....
check out our jumps... not too great, but not piss poor either

Now all you dancers who are always asking me what I do when I skydive... now you can see...

What a WKD... VPC and ILHC all in one wkd

(Above- Jens-outside center, Jenn-point, Me- tail, Lynn- inside center and Tre-video)
(Above- Jump 4 of the day... launching a round)
(Above- I believe this was jump 3...)


So this wkd was RIDICULOUS insanely busy and FUN. It started off Thursday Nite where my friend Bromley flew in from Cali. I picked him up at the airport and we headed off to Ozio where the pre-ILHC party kickoff was. We danced till midnite and it was awesome! Friday at work was a little rough, but I made it through, went straight to teaching my gym class (bromley actually took my class hehe) then we got ready for ILHC fun to start. We met a group of dancers at a Thai place in Crystal city... then danced the nite away. I left at 1215 because I had to get up at 0515 saturday morning to make it to my skydiving meet....
Which I did... I got up and drove the 2+ hours to Skydive The Point where I competed in another VPC 4way meet. Our team (named "Spare Parts" by Jenn) had a lot of fun. We started off kinda on the wrong foot as our first attempt at jump #1 of the day turned out to be an expensive plane ride with no jumping as we had to ride the plane down due to cloud cover over the DZ... that sucked! So we waited the weather out and eventually got 4 jumps in. So Spare Parts did not get first (like last time) BUT we got the bronze... which is better than nothing! So after the awards at the DZ I jumped in my car, drove the 2hrs home, drank the 5th energy drink of the day and headed back to ILHC... where I stayed until 515am.
Eventually I got to bed on Sunday Morning about 630am (after taking brom to the train station)... I finally got some sleep and after waking up... um yeah.. I was back at ILHC at about 230pm and stayed until 930 dancing...
WHEW! what a wkd!!!
craziness... but in a good way. I'm sad to say I don't have any pics from ILHC =( but lets just say the dancing was amazing!
I'll post the skydiving video if I can get a copy =)
ok... time for bed....

COVER girl!! =)

So there it is! Aug 2008 issue of The Bulletin! Thank you Tara, (editor of the Mag) for all the work to get it on the cover. The Q&A article was great too!

Yesterday, I walk into work and a few people are like, "Great Cover Shot!" and my response was "Um, it's out?" Apparently it got delivered to most folks this weekend and I hadn't gotten mine yet so I hadn't even seen it. But it was cool to have a bunch of folks notice it and then say something to me at HQ.

9-way pics into a video

(Above- 9-way belly formation on 16 AUG 08) CLICK TO ENLARGE! then you can actually see it!

So This wkd, I got in 3 jumps, an awesome 5-way, a 9-way (above and video below) and an 8-way. All in all a good wkd of jumping... cut short again by bad weather =(
anyways...
Notice me geekin the camera in the pic above (top left black and teal suit, blue helmet, hehe)

So I couldn't get the video, only the pics... so I just made a quick video rotating through the stills to make it look as close as I could to the video... check it out... =)
Thanks to all those in the jump, it was awesome! and the clouds in this jump were freakin amazing to fly around; omg, can't even describe how awesome it was to track away from this formation before opening!

Pentagon Row Lindy Bomb

(Above- Steph and Me)
(Above- The whole gang, Carolyne, Steph, Jerry, Doug, Me, Beth, Michelle, Toby)
(Above- Beth and I being silly and showing off our guns.. hehe)

So thursday nite, The Joker's Wild, a local swing band played outdoors at Pentagon Row.. so of course us local Lindy Hoppers had to organize to be there and Lindy Bomb. Besides the pain and difficulty of dancing on concrete, we did, bc we love dancing... It was a lot of fun!

Ohio State Fair...

That's my brother John and his son Sammy (notice any family resemblance?!) at the Ohio State fair... soooooo cute!! I love you guys! John and I have the same birthday (yes, 2 years apart same day); we used to celebrate by going to the Ohio State Fair (the best state fair!) but I've missed the fair for many years since I haven't lived there... at least John and Sammy and my parents had a great time!

Camp Hollywood!

(above- Doug and Me)
(Above- Charlie and I at dinner)
(Above- Doug, Sanna, Charlie at dinner)
(Above- Jamie, Rajeev, and Me)

Just got back from Camp Hollywood! It was great, the dancers were ridiculous, crazy amounts of good dancers everywhere. I got to see lots of my friends from San Fran (Orhan, Grace, Jeff, Arnold..) It was great to see everyone!
The competitions were so incredible to watch! While I didn't do that hot in the Jack n Jill, it's all good, (I ended up 21 of 58) oh well.. not bad considering it was the first real dancing i've done since I hurt my back... maybe I can redeem myself at ILHC...
There are more pictures on other peoples camera's... so hopefully I get those and can post them.
The gang did some sight seeing. Went to the Tar pits! and saw Ryan Seacrest in his Bentley Convertible driving right next to us (in Charlies Mustang convertible hehe) so that was funny. And of course made it to the beach and ate at In and Out. Other than that.. 4 straight nites of dancing till 4am (which means I was up till 7am east coast time).. so yeah.. I'm EXHAUSTED... I know I know.. Kelly actually is tired... BUT with that said.. TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!! Sooooo... damnit.. I'm going to CCB because I want to dance.. what else is there to do on my birthday??
and to top it all off.. I start my brand new job in the morning... should be interesting...

Out for the count...

Ok... so it seems my active lifestyle decided to catch up on me ... and not in a good way.. Thursday while teaching my 2nd class of the day at the gym, I somehow did something awful to my back.. Intense pain and not being able to move and a few hours later I went to the ER and was there from 9pm till 6am friday morning (Jerry I owe you big time!). The doc said I have a lumbar sprain... but I swear it hurts like hell. They gave me percocet and told me to rest for a week..
The only comfortable positions are lying down on my back or belly or standing; sitting hurts and I cant bend fwd at the waist =( so sad...
So, I can't workout, I can't dance and I can't skydive.. which leaves with basically NOTHING to do. I'm going freakin stir crazy not being able to do anything... grrr.
Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be better.

A Tribute to NDIC 08...

So, with help from some incredible friends, and some 4th of July Pride and Flag jumping... Here's the final video (hopefully to be played at Graduation)

as a tribute to my classmates... To all those who said they'd like to "chuck their thesis out a window" at some point during the past 10 months... this one's for you!

Thanks to everyone who made this video happen... You guys rock more than you know!!

And just for kicks.. here's me jumpin out the plane on flag jump attempt no.1

4th of July in Style...

Loading the Plane... (Above)



First FLAG Jump for Kelly! So on 4th of July, I did my first flag jump, it was awesome. These pics are from the 2nd attempt, bc we had to rerig the flag so it would fly better. Thanks to Kevin and Kevin for the awesome pics, and Steve for riggin it up and showing me how to fly it.
Here's one of Steve flying the POW flag and me the CG flag... We couldn't quite get close enough to see the flags in one picture, but Kevin and Kevin sure did a great job taking the pics

OFFICIALLY COMPLETED THE THESIS!!

It's official, as of 24Jun08, my thesis was printed, bound, copied, signed and approved, and.. drum roll please... I'M DONE! as of 26June08, it was turned in to the college and I am approved for graduation! 259pages bound in that picture above.... and 10months of hard work... but it's done... what a relief! stay tuned for some video of something I have in mind for the thesis now that its done... hehe...

20s Night at Jam Cellar

Me

(above) Me and Glenn
(Above) me and trace

Last nite was 20s nite at JC.. a good group of folks showed up all dressed up. I didn't have a flapper girl outfit.. but I tried. It was fun... gotta love dancing and looking vintage =)

1st Place Medal at VPC!!

(Above) Jeb (video), JennR8R (point), Tim (outside center), Me (tail), Jens (inside center) : "Spare Parts"

This weekend rocked! My team (pictured above) put together by Jenn, (thank you Jen for all the hard work finding teammates!), competed in the Virginia Parachute Council (VPC) 4-way meet this Saturday. We got off to a slow start, but after we got goin.. they couldn't stop us. We ended up winning FIRST PLACE! not to shabby for it being the first time we jumped together as a team.
With Tim and Jens, 4-way experience and Jen and I's eagerness to do well, we did quite well. I actually did not fly like I normally do and thought I might have ruined it for the team.. luckily my mess-ups did not do us in.
For all my nonskydiving friends.. the scores below represent the number of correct formations we did each round in 35 seconds from the time we jumped from the plane...
Stay tuned for possible video.. Jeb is burning a dvd of our jumps.. hopefully I can upload it.
AND.. my new canopy flew great.. by the end of the day, my landings were awesome...=)

Mama and Sammy came to visit!

So this week, my Mom and my nephew Sammy came to visit from Ohio! Sammy is quite a handful... who woulda thought.. a Tongol having lots of energy.. hehe definitely my nephew!
We had lots of fun. I cant believe I didnt get one picture of me and Mama.. oh well..
Here's one of Sammy giving his Auntie Kelly a kiss =) He can't quite say my name.. but its close

SKYFEST!! Finally got my 300th Jump!

So this past weekend, JennR8R and I drove down to South Carolina for SKYFEST. It was awesome! besides the ridiculous heat of over 100 degrees every day, I did get in my 300th jump on Saturday! I kept it small, it was a 6-way, with Jody, Mike, Paul, Bill, Jenn and Me, (my zhills bomb-squad peeps, +Jenn) and of course they decided to mess with me, after we finished our planned dive, Mike chased me and deployed me at 6000 freakin feet, I didnt land until AFTER the load that took off AFTER us, so yeah, I was up there for a long damn time.
I also was able to demo the Spectre 150 canopy for almost all my jumps on Saturday, and fell in love with it, the good news was that they were auctioning off a practically brand new Spectre 150 that nite.. and I wanted it... thanks to Jody.. I got it =) and thanks to Steve, it's now in my Rig. =)
So.. all in all, a great weekend of jumping, and seeing old friends.. meeting new ones.
BLUE SKIES!

SATC!!!!

Me, Tracy, Stace, Irma
Me =)
Stace and Irma

So the girls went and saw the movie!.. we decked out SATC style getting all sexy and in heels to see the movie... as you can see =) and it was AWESOME!!!
I wont spoil the movie for you guys that havent seen it, but it rocked =)

Me and Alex
Tracey, Steph and Me

BIX 2008!

Above: Bella and I blues dancing at Copley Square
Above: Alex and I walkin around Downtown Boston,
Above: James and I in a Quincy Market pub.

Memorial Day Weekend.... A big group of us went up to Boston for the 2nd Boston Independence Exchange It was 5 days of NONSTOP dancing. It was a lot of fun. I got a lot of blues dancing in, which I love, and also some great LINDY, so all in all, a great weekend. Met and made some awesome friends... Bella, Sanna, Raj, Andy, Mike, and too many more to keep listing...
Funny story.. on thursday nite, in the middle of dancing, I glance over at the door and see someone walk in, and I take a 2nd look, and I'm like "OMG" James! It was James Miller.. an old friend from the Coast Guard Academy. I hadn't seen James in 5 years! He and I were in Hotel Company together... the good ol' days.. argh! =)
Anyways.. it was a blast.. here are some pics...

and heres a really bad video from my phone of Raj and I doing a pancake.. only having tried 2 prep attempts.. not too shabby if you ask me =)

Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon

****UPDATE*** OFFICIAL TIMES... SO CLOSE TO MY GOAL.. BUT NOT TOO SHABBY =)

So today, I did it, I ran my first Half Marathon; and I have to say, for not really training for it, I think I did ok, by my watch, it was 2hrs 11sec. hopefully official time will put me under 2hrs.
I'm proud of myself, I'm hurting now, but it was worth it, i'm so glad I meet my goal.
This pic is me POST-RACE, so thats why I look dreary; (and yes, thats a skirt i'm wearing! convirt to skirt girls)
this was the first half for the marine corps.. it was a great race! I'll post real results and pics once I get them

Carrie's Visit

So, my friend Carrie from the academy was up here this weekend. It was so great to see her, Carrie and I were friends at CGA and were stationed together in Alameda at MIFCPAC. In Alameda, Carrie got me into running, so she's the reason I'm in such good shape. Folks in the CG always mix us up, because apparently in uniform, when two asian girls that workout a lot and are both hard workers, and in the same unit, its too hard for people to actually tell us apart. I can sometimes tell, but really Carrie and I don't look all that alike. But I take it as a compliment when people do think we look alike =)
Thanks for visiting Carrie, have fun underway.. we'll miss you up here! come back soon!

Tunnel Wkd and Raeford DZ..

This video, is John (my coach) and I playing a drill which worked on a lot of skills, This follow the leader game was a lot of fun.. and for you non-skydivers.. it's a lot harder than it looks!

So this past weekend, JennR8R and I went to Raeford, NC. It was AWESOME. We did an amazing tunnel camp at the Paraclete Tunnel, where we got 75 minutes of tunnel time (for you nonskydiving friends, thats equivalent to 75 skydives)... so yeah.. I'm beat right now. I even got one of the nicest random compliments ever.. someone was like "yeah, i've heard through the grapevine you were a good little flyer." that made my day!
I also did two jumps at Raeford DZ on friday. An 11-way track dive, and a 6-way. Both were a lot of fun. I got to meet some great people, and see old friends, it was just a lot of fun, no other way to put it.
The dance lesson at the dz got a little crazy after Kevin decided to teach another Kevin some charleston, It was pretty funny, but I enjoyed it, sorry we were only able to do some basics, next time we'll do some more fun stuff.
Here's JennR8R and I in front of the tunnel
Here's McDuck (kevin) and I..Oh... and I did my "Sonic Beef" Jump and became sonic beef #190 officially and am "Sonic Swing" =)

hmmm... strikingly similar

hehe.. me, tracy and cecilia all sat next to each other at the diner after dancing saturday and someone was like.. hey.. you girls all look the same!... so we took a picture..
what do you think??

I think we look pretty cute =) but hey, thats just my opinion
The funnier thing is that I'm pretty sure we all follow very similarly as we dance too.. well at least tracy and ceclia are two of my favorite follows when I lead =) so that just my opinion (but doug says we all follow very similarly too!)

Blast from the Past...

I know most of my friends that know me from today and not from Ohio would never believe that at one point in time.. slightly embarrassed to admit that I used to be a tomboy (I know, gasp, not me, hehe) ok so I still may have some of that in me today, but at least I don't dress like that anymore...
but wow.. look at this picture... So.. do you believe this is me??so from that ... to this... needless to say everyone probably prefers the new me =)

Deadline's apparently mean nothing...

So the deadline for orders was yesterday 15APR... but do I have my orders? NO!!! and as of right now.. nothing... still waiting on that phone call or email deciding my fate....

DCLX 2008!

Becca, Me, Steph... How cute are those Lindy outfits!! go trumpet skirts!
Me and Tracy

Ok, so this past weekend was RIDICULOUS! and in a good way.. dancing till 5am, (twice) ... so tired... but it was sooo much fun.
Karyn taught us the term "lindy drunk" - definition: the feeling of being drunk at 5am after dancing all nite long, but not drinking any alcohol at all.. then waking up at noon feeling hungover.
So yeah.. so we definitely got lindy drunk this weekend, it was crazy.

Here are a few pictures.. I only have pics of the girls so far.. hopefully Jeff will email a few soon so there will be more posted soon.

ok found some more pics...
Becca, Me, Deb at the group dinner!
Me and Deb-Friday nite dance
Doug, Me and Tobias, group dinner
And Saturday late nite... second nite in a row of dancing till 5am.. this was about 4am I think
me, steph, francis

Performance.. Take 3

Ok.. so thanks to Jeff.. we FINALLY have a decent video of the performance.. good job jeff.. you got all of us in the frame and it looks great.. best video out of all of them =)
This was taken on 14MAR08

BTP Pics

Becca, Me, Steph, Jeff, and Jeff
Steph, Me, Becca, Dougie
So this is before the Int. Jack and Jill.. Doug and I both made finals... but sadly we had to leave Sunday morning before the finals... we really thought they would do everything Saturday... sucks that we had to get back so early on Sunday... (damn school work) but the good news is, I had a horrible third partner in the pre-lims but still managed to make finals, so I must have done something right =) next year we'll stay the whole time.
Had a blast!! now time to work hard for 4 days then have a blast at DCLX!

Thanks to Jeff for the pics!

I'm at Tea Party!

yay! I made it to Boston! (well danvers, actually)
Well, I'm HERE
now time to nap and get ready for NITE 1= 9pm-3am dancing!!
=)

It's ABOUT TIME!

Ok.. all I have to say is IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME!
most of you that know me know that I absolutely LOVE the show SEX IN THE CITY! I own the big box set and I can tell you about almost any episode.
So when my friend Carrie sent me the link that the MOVIE is coming out, I was estatic!! OMG!!!

30 MAY- PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDER GIRLS... IT'S GIRL's NITE OUT!!! SATC style... Let's put on the dresses, makeup and high heels (yes I actually own a pair for rare occasions)

Motivation to finish my thesis...

Ok, so most of you know that the reason I havent been able to skydive (despite the winter weather) is because of grad school and my thesis. Jenn invited me this past weekend to go to a boogie with her the first week of June, so of course my mind got all excited about jumpin again, I do miss it a lot, and while dancing has become my other favorite hobby, it will never be enough to push skydiving aside... so I can't wait until I have time to jump again..
with that said..
here's a video of my first helo jump... if I get my thesis done, I will hopefully have another one of these to show after Jen and I go to the boogie. (the helo jumps are fun.. but RW flying will always be my favorite!)

How cute is that...?!?!?!

ANDRE is so cute!!!

Performance.. Take 2

Last Nite at Glen Echo, The Jam Cellar Performance class took another shot at performing. A little bit bigger of a space, and a little more time for us to remember the routine. It was a lot better than the first time. Though Doug and I got stuck in the back row and the front row didn't stagger that well, so the video is mostly of the couple in front of us =( BUT Tracy used her camera and got video too.. so maybe hers turned out better than this. You can see me because I'm the one with the knee brace on my leg, so I'm easy to spot. Doug has on a spiffy vest and looks quite lindyish =)


To TOP this off, my favorite skydiving chica (the infamous JennR8R, pic of us shown above), showed up unannounced and TOTALLY surprised me by being there. I was SO surprised and happy when I saw her. Hands down to Jenn for not emailing me back when I sent out the email about the event, and I feel so honored because she gave up going to one of the most important skydiving days of the year (safety day) to come see the performance (my fellow skydivers are probably the only ones that understand how big a thing it is to give up a day going to the DZ). Love you Jenn. You rock!
Anyways.. heres the video.. *UPDATE- Tracy's camera footage HERE (a little different angle)...
UPDATE number2.. another video was found.. a little better quality and angle click here.
Next Friday we are performing it one LAST time and there will be only one row of couples so take 3 may actually be the best video we get... tune in for take 3 later this week..

Performance.. Take 1

ok, so I wasn't even gonna post it, but I'm going to anyways for kicks. Last nite we performed our performance class routine at the Jam Cellar's Jammiversary. We didn't learn the last part of the song until an hour before, so the routine is a little rough, the good news is, the better performance will happen MARCH 8th, at GLEN ECHO, so come there and watch. Also, the battery on my camera died, so only 3/4ths of the performance is actually on this video =(
So after we perform this better on March 8th, I'll post video again (hopefully of the whole routine too)

Andre and his strange habit...

Ok.. so here is video of Andre.. This is actually very mild, He usually jumps into the sink and gets under the water... I've never in my life seen a cat that loves water like Andre does... he's so cute. It's is kinda troublesome to wash dishes though, because he always wants to get in the sink when he hears the water running. He'll come running all the way across the apartment to the kitchen counter if he hears it come on too.

George Washington 10K

UPDATE: OFFICIAL RESULTS: 286 out of the 810 overall. 33 out of 161 in my division!!! holy cow thats awesome for me!! Official Time: 52:06.. =)

So today I ran the GW Classic, a 10k Race. And I'm actually pretty happy with my time, especially since this was the first running only race that I've done since before my Triathlons, so it was a lot different,
Anyways, by my watch, my time was 52:07, it will be cool to see the official time too, I was just happy with sub 9min pace. (Pic of me sprinting at the end)
Heres a pic of Stace and I prerace.
..

Stace was supposed to kick my butt (She's way faster than me), but she hurt her foot 2miles in and had to stop =( I was really bummed to see her out.. but she's strong.. at the Dr. now, so hopefully she has good news when she gets back from the dr. and isnt hurt too bad.
I'll post official results when they are up!

Starbucks Update...

Ok.. so here is my drink... it only took 4 times of repeating my order this time. So I still have to repeat my drink a minimum of 3 times each time, and DC still needs to get their act together. I'm still in my search for a starbucks barista that knows what they are doing... =(

Asian Triple Threat...

Sue Mi! Me, Tracy
hehe.. gotta love all of us little Asian Lindy Hop follows...
love you guys!

Oh, I forgot to tell everyone..

I'm now officially certified as a Group Fitness Instructor, Powerpump instructor and Spinning Instructor! yay! I'll be teaching various classes on base.

Powerpump ( a weight training, body sculpting class) is my favorite, it's such an awesome class to tone up your body and look lean. I'm not as badass as Jillian, but maybe someday...

Starbucks is pissin me off!

Ok, so Starbucks has seriously started to piss me off. Are there no gosh darn good freakin Baristas anywhere in DC?!?!?! In the last month , I swear I've had to have them remake my drink half the time, even after repeating it like 4 or 5 times to them. OMG! It's not a freakin difficult drink starbucks! Double Tall, Nonfat, 1pump, no whip, white mocha. You take the syrup, pump it once, add two shots of espresso, stir, add skim milk.. boom you're done. Not rocket science!! But apparently Baristas in DC are getting no training anymore. I got a drink last week that they forgot to put espresso in! and today they added vanilla for no reason. WTF?!?! I just want my espresso drink made right without having to watch to make sure they make it right!! GRRRRRR