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As promised... My vacation in its entirety:

WARNING! This won't be brief...

As many of you know, I celebrated my first day back in the States by going to Columbus, OH for the SG Spring/St Patty's Party. And I shit you not when I say this, but if that was the only night I had off and I needed to be back in Afghanistan by that Mon, it would have been worth it!!!

Took over 20 hours between 5 flights to get there. But at least I wasn't as tired as this guy:

I had a blast meeting so many lovely ladies and cool hombres! I just hope I didn't make (too big of) an ass of myself. If only I didn't have a tattoo appointment that I booked months ago that Monday morning, I would have loved to have stayed at least Sunday.

The pictures I took with Radeo, Ackley, and Essence with the intension of making people I know who are fans of theirs insanely jealous... Worked like a charm! Mwahaha!

The following Saturday I drove down to DeLand, FL to go skydiving. I've always wanted to get into the sport but as with most goals of mine, time and/or money was always a problem. After 5+ hours of ground school to prepare me for my first jump, I was ready! The weather... Not so much. It was too windy! I tried waiting it out, but with no luck. So I drove back up to Jax.

But this was the Drop Zone:

Shortly after getting home, I got a call from my friend Mike inviting me to a Sharks game, Jacksonville's arena football team.

I did my best to make it a short night as I was going to drive down to try skydiving again. Still, with no luck. The winds started off high right off the bat. Another day of waiting it out and three hours on the road for nothing.

Monday though, was a beautiful day and I was able to knock out my first two jumps (levels 1 and 2 of an Accelerated Freefall Course)! These were the basics, experiencing freefall, pulling my own chute, and turning my body with the wind.

Finally geared up with the other two students and one of the instructors:

Tuesday I was able to get three jumps before the wind picked up again. The first of which (level 3) involved the instructors letting go of me for the first time. The second jump (level 4) was with just one instructor and again he let me fly assistance free once we were out of the plane. The last for the day (level 5), I actually left the plane BY MYSELF! That's when shit really got fun!

On Wednesday I drove down again for what I hoped would be graduation day from the . Sure enough, I knocked out levels 6 and 7, which evolved 360 turns, and flips while in freefall. It really does feel like you're flying! Since I had the gear already rented to me, I made 4 more jumps that day! I couldn't get enough!
Once the planes shut down and the bar opened up, I stayed and bought the instructors some drinks.

One of the girls from the DZ gear store:

And fun time were had by all! One dude I was chatting with was describing a rough day at work, "I said to myself, 'if I don't get outta here and jump out of a plane, I'm gonna kill myself!'"

I laughed and pointed out the dramatic irony...

It was getting late and I didn't feel like driving home yet again for just a few hours of sleep just to come back again in the morning. So I got a bite to eat, got myself a hotel room, and knocked out 5 more jumps the next day.

I meant to get some video/pictures of at least one of my jumps but with the chaos being caused at the drop zone by 200+ people from all over world trying to break a record for the amount of people in formation during freefall, I didn't get around to it.

On Friday the 29th I flew to Dallas for Tough Mudder Dallas 2012. One of my original flights was cancelled and rescheduled, which put me into Dallas later than I hoped. Mucking up my plan for a good diner and a full night's rest prior to the event.

My hotel:

If that weren't the only hiccup, parking at the event the next morning was so backed up that the line stretched 3.2 miles down the road and it took me over an hour to drive just one mile! By the time I was over a hour late for my 10am start time, I joined others who had decided to just walk the rest of the way.

What did we care? We were about to run a 10 mils obstacle course! So I paid some woman $10 to let me park my rental car in her yard and commenced the 1.5 mile hike.

Come to find out though, what was advertised to be 10 miles turned out to be damn near 12! Oh well...
Over all, the event was really fun. Exhausting... But fun! The obstacles themselves were cake to me, but I've never been a great runner. Getting too pumped up at the start and going too hard too fast didn't help either. I burnt myself out in the first mile. And I won't lie, I walked a fair amount after that.

Still, I finished. Not everyone could say the same. They were only half way through the first day before they had sprained ankles, heat strokes, and even a heart attack that was air lifted out! I did get sunburnt though...
I've already signed up for the one in Illinois in June!

Again, I didn't get any video/photos since I left my camera in the car and the event photographers weren't too interested in me as I wasn't part of a team.

But here's someone else's video from the event:



And now... NEW WORK ON THE TATTOO!!!

While I was expecting two 6 hour sessions, what I got was half that. Still, my artist finished most of the shading the first sitting and started color on the next. I'm loving how it's turning out and continue to be eager to see it finished!

During the many cumulative hours of road tripping between Jax and DeLand, I got quite addicted to this song:


Why? It's a catchy jam of course! Why else?! Oh... Well, my girl and I did break up shortly after I arrived back home.

Before i say anything else on the matter (which wont be much anyway), keep in mind that I'd been single my whole life up until we started dating. Having said that, it was pretty much a mutual break up. I knew I couldn't be the guy she deserved with my being away 80% of the time and tendency to be emotional distant and she was frustrated by a guy who only knows how to live as if single.

Still, I always thought I was lucky to be with her and will miss her. Which is also why the song brings this to mind. We were friend for years prior to dating and my greatest fear is losing her all together. Guess time will tell...

Just like I did last time, I spent a couple night in Dubai before coming back. This time though I actually played in the giant "indoor amusement park" in the Dubai Mall with my friend and coworker Jeremy:

Virtual bowling sucks, btw:

But I won stuffed goodies at the strongman game:

Fun time was followed by one last good diner with a nice view:

Well, that pretty much covers my vacation. Except for some random photos!

And to talk briefly about work now that I'm back:

1) After being back just a couple hours, I came pretty close to quitting this job and giving up a $13K bonus I'm about to get when I learned I was about to get screwed over, AGAIN... And in the same way as before. But the company resolved the issue.

But damn it felt good to put my foot down a basically telling them to "fuck off"!

2) The transition to the new company in June continues to appear iffy and rumors are flying like crazy. This much is certain, if this new company continues to act like idiots and show their ass, I'm not gonna stay with them.

Of course, one of the rumors is that they are fucking up on purpose because they wanna back out and not take over. So they have to at least make it appear as of the are trying.

Ah... Contracting to the lowest bidder. Fun times!

3) I shaved!

I look weird...