Oh, Dear...

Yup.

So today's frustration of a student pilot is that I'm all set to do my studying and get ready for my review flights, and I can't find time to DO any of it. I'm still full time at work, and the past two nights have been taken up by Red Cross trainings. This past weekend was pretty much devoted to family, since my sister had her birthday and my grandmother from Tennessee was visiting. So when the heck do I have time for the studying?

And let's be honest - given the choice of studying or games... :-[

But anyway, it was a great visit with the family. I went up to visit my sister on Thursday night, because she was hosting us all for supper, and then they all came down here on Sunday afternoon for supper (we went out. I don't want to subject my family to my cooking!). We even got my cousin at Cornell into the party on Sunday - and she's from my mom's side of the family; the grandma in question is my dad's mother. Good sport, that cousin o' mine. Then again, she got supper at ZaZa's out of the deal!

I have such mixed feelings about the Red Cross. I love the opportunities to help people who've been hit by disasters, yet when I'm on-call, I dread getting called. I love the kind of work we do, but sometimes the people I work with drive me nuts. The classes I just took are great cases in point. Monday night was "Fulfilling Our Mission" (there's some subtitle there about "Translating Your Compassion Into Effective Community Action" or some such dumb, let's-use-way-more-words-than-we-need-to title). I liked the old title better: "Intro to Disaster Services." It said what the class was about. Anyway, National Headquarters decided that the old course was too old, so they're making us take this new one. Waste of time, if you ask me. The second class, last night, was on the new Client Assistance Cards (CACs. Yes, "cacks." I don't name 'em) - basically a debit card the Red Cross gives clients now, instead of paper disbursing orders. Better class, but more annoying classmates.

I apologize to any of my classmates that may read this, but it is absolutely infuriating to hear so many questions asked on a topic that THE CLASS IS DESIGNED TO ANSWER ANYWAY. If they just had the patience or presence of mind to WAIT FOR THE COURSE TO EXPLAIN, they might find that their question will be answered. Seems like I learned that concept... oh, in about kindergarten. But that's just me. Another concept I learned that it seems the other folks in this class missed was that if you actually pay attention, you might learn something ("You can observe a lot by watching" -Yogi Berra). I was amazed at how often people asked a question that was just answered. Sigh.

Well, anyway, now I'm trained in how to translate my compassion into community action or whatever. Problem is, my compassion was wearing pretty thin at the end of last night.

Haven't been doing any flying (other than simulated), either - and that's probably got me a little cranky. I was reflecting on this a while back - it doesn't matter how bad my day goes if I've flown. If I've gone flying - even just patternwork or whatever - it's a good day. I need to get myself up there again, apparently!

In other news, I'm seriously trying to plan out how to spend my vacation time. I have two weeks to use up, and I'm thinking I'll use 'em like this: rent a car. Drive across the country to a flight school I'm seriously considering. Take some introductory lessons. Sit in on a couple classes, maybe. Drive home by a different route. Take lots and lots of pictures.

I think I'm up for a nice, long road trip. It would probably be cheaper to fly it, but what the hell? This sounds like a whole lot more fun. What kinda car should I rent, d'ya think?