Not what I expected

All those wonderful AF moms and dads out there in www land prepared me well for hearing nothing from my daughter for 6.5 weeks. No news IS good news. Well, after the first mandatory address call that is.
My experience has been a little different.

You see, Avivah called again.

It's the middle of the morning, with me in the middle of Michael's, buying ribbon for the tables at Stef & Rob's vow renewal this Saturday, and off my phone goes. I just about dropped all the stuff I was carrying when I saw area code 210.

This time there was no tact to be had... "OMG V. Are you ok?" I said.

"Umm, yeah Mom. I'm ok. I'm ok, but are you sitting down?"

Oh crap. My heart took a dive and I lied. "Sure, lay it on me."

"I'm in an office building most of the day today. The jobs I want need me to have a security clearance so I'm testing and working on that today. I need some numbers from you so they gave me a phone pass. There's no one around me here and I can talk!"

This is what I heard: Everything's fine and they want to give MY daughter a high security clearance! Eek!

Here's more of what I heard after that... her MTI went ballistic after their limited base liberty (the Subway feast) because SOME trainees did things they weren't allowed to do (not her), the MTI got taken off their flight for a day and apologized when she returned, there's another inspection coming up (isn't there always?!) which is very important (isn't it always?!).

This security clearance testing includes things like "fear testing". Is she afraid of guns, of combat... Sheesh, do I really want to know??? Ok, yes, you're right, I do.

They're getting ready for Field Training week (Warrior Week) which means a "bay" of them (about 22 girls) will be putting up a huge tent. In her words: "This is a HUGE tent, Mom. And I'm in a SHORT BAY!" I cracked up. Her wingmen aren't much taller than she. Not sure how they're going to solve that one, but I have faith that they will.

She's having a little trouble with her left knee but is doing all she can to take care of it while still keeping it strong.

At the end of this week is a Blue (rope/line... i dunno what) where they line up as a flight and, if they're name is called, they step up and fall back... which means they're being recycled. Oy.

"V, is there any chance that you'll be called?"

"I don't think so mom. I'm doing pretty well as long as my run time keeps improving."

Ok, breathing again.

OH! and since this is a really long post titled "Not what I expected"...

I got home from work around 7:15 and was greeted by Tim saying "V CALLED!" This time it was dad's turn to be flabberghasted.

She put him through his paces though, LOL. She needed something from her bedroom. Now if you remember back to my description of this war zone she calls a room you'll have some smidgen of an idea what a big request this was. But we're parents and dumpster diving (homage to Hallie ) is what we do if asked. Avivah needed her passport number as part of this security clearance process.

Well Dad faithfully tried for about 5 minutes while holding the phone with V guiding him in one hand. I can't imagine how funny looking that must've been. V was called away and Tim gave up but we still needed this number for her.

It was a good thing he suggested going out to dinner before diving in. I needed the fortitude! In the end we came home, dove and found it. So now both of us are walking around with this number in our pockets for the next time she calls.

So... Who was it that prepared me for not hearing a peep?!?!? :)