FREEDOM!

FREEDOM!!!  Well, for three days anyway.  As I wrap up my mini-break at home, I get set to return to the final seven weeks of training.  As expected, this past week was very helpful to me.  Once we got to New York, we spent the first day and a half at the JFO covering more program related stuff.  I thought this was sort of strange to do this like this.  These sessions were speakers standing up and talking to us as we sat in a classroom.  And many of these speakers themselves flew into NY to present.  I am not sure why they did not just bring the speakers to Anniston and have them teach us there like they have for the past five weeks.

However, once this was past, the afternoon of the second day was GREAT!  I finally got to meet someone that is doing the job I will be doing.  Five weeks in seems like a good time to start actually learning what my job is.  My California counterpart and I spent the whole afternoon with the gentleman and even went out to dinner together afterwards with him.  Those six hours spent with my peer were more valuable than anything else we had done so far.  I wish that since they brought us to New York that we would have had the entire time with our counterparts to see the real day to day operations required in our positions.

But alas, all good things must come to an end.  As rumored, Thursday was an all-day exercise.  This was similar to the prior week’s events, focused mainly on the program areas.  The cool part about it was that our team got to do it at the New York City Office of Emergency Management’s Emergency Operations Center.  This setting was an amazing facility to work in.  Friday morning they had us write a brief paper about our experiences in NYC and then it was off to Rochester.  A quick three days home to see some friends and then back to Anniston to keep on keepin’ on.