FINALS WEEK (14-19 Jul)

. . Wow – what a week! It started off pretty good - I had just had my final TMO pickup and sold my car so I was walking around base, quite content to having no keychain to worry about loosing, and really the only thing that I had to actually do is show up… by Monday evening I’d finished two of my finals, one I felt I ace’d and the other I felt I bombed! All was well by Wednesday when I picked up my parents at the airport… but then…
. . The final class was Thursday afternoon and all day Friday when I had the most to do to finish my Korea preparations. My parents were able to help me take care of a lot of things while I was in class, but certain things they couldn’t do, like get the tickets for the Tournament of Kings (like Medieval Times) dinner/show at the Excalibur. Will Call required the card the tickets were purchased with and photo ID, and with Friday’s class scheduled to get out at 5pm, there obviously would be no way to get through traffic and drive from the base to the Strip, by the required 5pm on the evening of the event. We had never been briefed on how that final class was going to go, so were unprepared for the assignment that came down Thursday afternoon, and most of us had to stay late, and I worried I wouldn’t be able to get the tickets… then we, as a class, decided our final group presentation would be at 2pm… which held until about 1pm… it was quickly pushed back to 3pm and eventually to 4. Our 20 minute presentation lasted almost a whole hour and I actually had to leave when the instructor was still giving feedback to some of the students so I could make the show on time. I was able to make it down to the strip just in time for the show, and it was awesome :-)
. . We went home to pack and get some sleep (ie. download more books!), then had a slew of errands I had to accomplish Saturday morning before graduation. I got a letter from a good friend in Iraq with my held mail, which made me smile, though I was then scared because I hadn’t been planning on holding my mail… silly really, since I wouldn’t have been scared if I just didn’t receive it. The graduation was a small affair with only 19 of us “walking” but it was very nice. Our class speaker covered the diversity of our class and had compiled how many days, flight hours, sorties, etc we’d contributed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which amazed me, and then ended on a happy note with a compiled “top ten reasons” :-) The guest speaker basically gave us an academic lecture on the MSGL program, how it started and how its been used since – which was actually really neat and interesting, with its military roots and such. The food at the reception was pretty good (it was at the Red Rock Casino), but with all the pictures and knowing I wouldn’t see most of these folks any time soon, I have to admit I got a little choked up. My folks drove me back to billeting and I took a nap until our graduation social. I was surprised at how late my parents and I stayed, though only a handful of students showed up, everyone had their families, and we ended up playing team SuperScrabble... it was so fun...

drivers in Vegas, it’s a sickness

So I’ve just about talked myself out of driving in Las Vegas. I had one friend, a good driver, rear ended on the highway almost a month ago, and another friend was just hit a few weeks ago while riding his motorcycle. My first friend is fine, just the normal aches and pains that went away in a few weeks, but my second friend is in a coma (please pray for him and his wife). I am trying to sell my car and so now I’m paranoid that the next time I drive it I’m going to get hit (I’ve been hit quite a few times driving here, the cheapest was $800 with no visual damage to the car, to $6K in damages, and even totaling a vehicle), but its more than just a few incidents. I am literally afraid to walk along most roads, uncomfortable even if there’s a sidewalk, which there isn’t always, and that’s not right.

The stats show that 25% of the folks on the road are under some kind of influence (drugs, alcohol, fatigue), but its also that this is the first society I’ve come across that propagates the idea that you don’t have to be responsible for your actions. I’ve been in one hit-and-run that was costly, but to leave the scene where a person might be dead due to your actions… its almost unimaginable… but not here… read the news, it happens all the time. On base, one of the few places where you should be able to leave your home unlocked, gangs of children vandalize the neighborhoods… this behavior would be immediately adjusted/stopped in another town, on another base, but not here, they're too uncontrollable. The sense that you can do whatever you want and get away with it, because its fun, because there are too many people for you to get caught, I don’t know the reason, but some people just feel they have these rights. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is something that even the locals take to heart. It’s a sickness.

And this is something I’ve noticed among some of my own ‘friends’ even. Have you ever heard the song Big Rock Stars by Nickelback? That just about sums it up for me – the “at risk” guys and gals, 25-30, who have big dreams and don’t even see what they’re getting into because the possibilities are just too tempting. It makes me so very sad that such intelligent people can be so easily misled. But according to the pictures, they’re partying like a rock star *sigh* It makes my heart sick for them, and for what they might have become… Thankfully I will be leaving for Korea soon, but that certainly doesn't fix the situation for the 1.5M residents of Clark county. All I can do is continue to pray.