ahhhhh snap!

the adventure for the day was the helo dunker. basically it simulates being in a helicopter that crashes into the ocean. i was kindof nervous just because...well, you are strapped into a seat, dropped in the water and turned upside down. you can not release your seatbelt until the 180 degree turn is complete. hahahaha...yea. i was worried that i would run out of breath before that happened.

we got 3 rides. in the first ride i was "the pilot" of the aircraft. turned upside down, had to push out a window, release the seatbelt, flip out of my seat and then swim to the surface. piece of cake. it was a little nerve wracking but still, i made it with no problems.

ride number two was a little more difficult, and i had a bit of a malfunction. never good when you are upside down underwater. lol. i was in the back of the aircraft and had to pull out a window that would always stick. the call for "crash" was made and we were goin down. as soon as the water hit my feet i started to pull on the window. ofcourse..it was stuck so i had to wait until i was completely submerged and upside down so that i could release the seat belt straps and get leverage. well, there are 5 straps to this seatbelt. one of which did not come loose so when i spun to get out, it wrapped around my neck and started choking me. lol, i stayed calm because, well, i was already holding my breath so that wasnt an issue. however, 6-7 seconds off of your escape time underwater is not good. i managed to pull the belt over my head after spinning back around a couple of times, pull out the window and shoot myself to the top of the water without showing signs of panic. heck yea! inside, i was almost to that point.

one more ride to go. this one...yea, it was the one i was worried about. i was stuck in a seat in the middle of the aircraft. before you can release the seatbelt, aside from waiting until you are upside down, you have to have a reference point. or, something that you are holding onto to guide you to your exit. okay, i can do this. BUT for this ride we were wearing black out goggles because we were crashing at night. haha. nice...you are gonna put me in the seat that i have to travel the longest distance and find a little hole by pulling myself along the seats and give me goggles that i cant see out of. holy bad scenario batman! thats just awesome! we flip, i get out of the seatbelt, without trying to hang myself, pull myself along the seats....or try to. when something that you are in flips upside down and you have no way to see, things get a little confusing. to me, the seats were below me. haha...not anymore, they are above me. im pullin and i get to the back of the aircraft. i thought i felt the window, but then i felt wall. what the heck is goin on? i feel around some more and find an opening, however, i soon realize that it is not one that i can use. before i could take my hand off of it i felt someone smack my helmet. lol...the instructor was letting me know i was going the wrong way. i gave him a thumbs up, or atleast i think i did, and found the window. i was on my last few seconds of air when i popped up to the surface. its over!!!! i made it. easy day, right? lol. well, to truly finish things off in a hayli fashion...i went to pull my goggles off and when i did they slipped out of my hand and popped me right in the eyeball. not the general area...the actual eyeball. hahaha...it stung, but i didnt care. i just got out of the pool and thanked God that i was still alive. then i was getting out of my flight gear and thought...wait a minute! im not even going to be on helicoptors. oh well, it was fun.

anyway...that was my adventure. if you would like to see what exactly it is, you can go to youtube and type in helo dunker or something along those lines. it should pull it up. some videos are better than others. it is a really awesome training tool. i hope you have enjoyed another silly story from this silly sailor. have a wonderful memorial day weekend!

on to disney week

i made it through hell week. by the end of it i decided that it was definitely an appropriate description of my life last week. however this week should be fun. today was boring though. all we did this morning is do a cpr class. we will play team sports this afternoon so that will be fun. tomorrow we go to the spin and puke and the low pressure chamber. the spin and puke is self explanitory and im not excited about that. the tea cups get me at disney world! the low pressure chamber will test our ability to pop our ears at different altitudes and see how our bodies react. they will take the pressure down just enough so that you start to experience signs of hypoxia. (spelling???) not a doctor or anything but i think it is just lack of oxygen to the brain? correct me if im wrong. anyhoo...they have a couple of people playing patty cake or playing with toys. and apparently its pretty funny to watch because you lose the ability to do those things after a while. patty cake turns into smack your face and toys start to confuse you. haha...im excited.

that is the plan for tomorrow as of right now. i will keep you informed on how things go...if i do, in fact, puke during the spin and puke. haha. and when i find out how the rest of the week is going to go, i will let you know that too. why? because i have nothing better to do apparently. and im okay with that. i hope you all have a wonderful day. and i dont know how to respond to peoples comments, so someone could inform me of how to do this i would greatly appreciate it.

just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

we all know that i love the movie finding nemo. well, i never realized how much i would use it. haha. this week, hell week, we pt in the morning and swim in the afternoon. 1st day-tread water for 2 minutes,float for 5...this is just in a swim suit. then u put on the flight suit and boots and do the same. easy day! day 2-flight suit, boots, gloves and this vest that feels like it has some sort of weights in it. tread 2 minutes float 6 minutes. little harder, but got thru it. day 3-flight suit, boots, gloves, heavy vest and helmet. tread 2 minutes float 7 minutes. that ended the tread and float session i believe. lol. i can float, we have established that. today we had to jump off of the tower in flight suit and boots then swim 15 yards underwater. got it on the first try....thank you, thank you! the old one still has it! haha. then we had to learn how to use our pants as a floatation device. it was pretty cool actually. tomorrow is a basic stroke test then friday we do our mile swim. i believe i can do this. we will be in a flight suit i know, but im not sure about the boots. hopefully just the flight suit. this is such a random blog, but i was extremely bored. lol.

so how is everyone else doing? i would love to hear from people. it makes me smile really big when i see that i have comments. really! gives me something to do. ooohhhh! and i recently bought the movie amazing grace. it has the video for amazing grace/ my chains are gone..on the special features part. its really an interesting movie. heartbreaking actually. but it is $5 at the walmart if you wanna check it out. lol. wow...okay, im stopping with all of this nonsense. i have to go eat!!!!! BIG GIRL HUNGRY! haha. hope that everyone has a blessed day!

just wanted to throw this one out there...: )

some days you just have to love your job!