Thursday, July 7, 2011

Math Deployment - Days 1-3

These next few weeks have been lovingly dubbed by Art and I as Math Deployment. Being married to a military man, you'd think HE'D be the one traveling for weeks on end for work. For IPs, especially FAIPs, that does happen very often, and when it does, it's just over a weekend. I can kiss that goodbye once Art gets assigned an MWS and gets deployed, so I am grateful for these days.

Acronym Key...
IP = Instructor pilot, what Art does.
FAIP = First assignment instructor pilot. First assignment out of pilot training is to be an instructor. That's what Art does.
MWS = Major weapons system. Real airplane. :)

Anyway, I will be gone until the 21st, traveling around what seems like the entire state of Texas. Here's a rundown:
  • July 5-8: San Angelo for the Texas Regional Math Collaborative Summer Institute I. This is a grant I got from the state of Texas and ESC Region XV to be a Math Mentor at my school (I'm one of one from my school who applied, yeah!). So far, we have spent two entire days on one fraction problem. It's pretty intense, but I'm glad to be brushing up on my math for next year!
  • July 8-10: Austin to hang out with our friends Tony and Betsy! We have all lived in the same state for over a year and haven't all met up. I'm SO excited for sushi!!!
  • July 10-15: Back to San Angelo for Summer Institute II of the TMC
  • July 15-21: Up to Grapevine for the CAMT - Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching. Two other teachers from my school are going, but since I'll already be in San Angelo, I'm just driving up myself. But at least my district is paying for food for this one!
I made a little map to chart my travels:

In total, I will spend 21.5 hours driving and put 1,209 miles on Job the Jeep. Speaking of Job, the air conditioner officially hit the dust once the average temp hit 95 degrees, which was in like, March. To be honest, I could do without air conditioning forever, even in the 100+ temps, so I hardly notice that the A/C in my car doesn't work. In Del Rio, I'm only in the car for 15 minutes at the most, and I love driving with the windows down. I really don't ever see getting it fixed, although Art might insist for the one or two days a year he has to drive it to work. Other than that, Job is working like a charm. As long as I remember the sunscreen for the 2 hour drives with the top down!

Once we were back from Mackinac Island (after a one hour drive to the Columbus airport, a two hour flight to Detroit, a three hour flight to San Antonio, and a three hour drive home), I had about an hour to unpack and repack for my two and a half hour drive to San Angelo.

Back story: Last summer, before I was gainfully employed but newlywed, I would wake up with Art sometimes and Peanut and I would see him off to work. Totally 1950s, but Art and I are pretty sure that's the decade we were meant for anyway, what with his good ol' boy mentality and my affinity for just wanting to stay home all day and needlepoint myself to death. Sometimes, when I leave first for work, he does the same thing. Let me tell you, I did NOT want to leave when I saw this:

But I did. I may rag on Texas sometimes, but driving in West Texas is actually quite lovely, especially at sunset. Here's my favorite spot, Lake Amistad, as I crossed over the bridge:

This picture doesn't really do the sunset justice, but I was loving my little road trip!

Since I'm going to be in San Angelo for so long, I got a hotel room with a kitchenette so that I wouldn't have to go out for every meal. Funding, plus the fact that I'm doing the low-carb thing for a while, means that I need to cook my own meals while I'm away. It's little, but it'll do!


Of course, I had to bring a few essentials to my temporary home:

My tea kettle, of course. I drink at least two cups of tea a day, so this was a must.

 
I mustn't forget that I still have a Masters to earn.

An audio book for the long drive! I'm only a few chapters in. It's kind of hard to hear with all the wind (and Job's volume dial is broken too), but so far it's pretty good.

There's about a square foot of floor space in my hotel room to do this, but I have made a visit to Tony Horton this trip. Art says I should bring my laptop down to the fitness room here, but yeah right. As if working out by myself isn't already humbling enough!

The training is going well, although I'll be anxious to see how tomorrow goes! I miss Art and Peanut though. I'm glad Math Deployment is only three weeks long! :)

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