Today was my birthday! Someone told me it was a special day. I replied with “I am too old for a special day”. Reluctantly, today has been a very special day. From birthday greetings on Facebook, to the delivery of the F-16 engine at Aviation Challenge, it was a spectacular day! Today would have a been a great day if all I did was hang out on the right wing of Story Musgrave’s T-38 while Snapper and Slip Knot taped the plane. Today would have been great if I had only hung out with Tank and Divot as the engine was lifted off the 18-wheeler. But I got to hang out with all my friends.
My birthday started with a text message to my friend and delta twin Emily Erwin. Emily and I graduated from Delta State together a really long time ago. One spring afternoon, way back in 1996, on a golf course with Ricky Jones we discovered that we shared a birthday. Emily has always been one of my favorite people. Knowing that I share my birthday with the coolest, curly haired chick in the Mississippi Delta is special… Special day confirmed! She pointed out that year 33 should be known as the Year of Boo. Not my dog, but Boo Ferris the former Boston Red Sox pitcher and Delta resident! Emily is the curator of the Boo Ferris museum.
This morning I arrived at camp, and the fact that I work at a camp is pretty special all by it’s self. Breakfast was chicken biscuits in the chilly rail car. All was great I thought, I thought that the plane would be painted before lunch, but I was wrong. Unexpectedly a super secret terrorist organization kidnapped all of the AC management team but me and I had to rush to their rescue. Not really, but that was the scenario I was given. I rushed to the freshly painted Hab3 showers, climbed the Pamper pole, raced to the Davidson Center, right justified, and then toward A Time for Courage. All made sense when I finally made it to the Corporate Classroom, not the Board room, and found all my fellow buds along side a funfetti cake and power point projection.
Slip Knot was the pastry chef this year! She made three cakes, two Dixon Ticonderoga pencil cakes and a chocolate checker board cake for Marcia who doesn’t like funfetti. Marcia didn’t know that funfetti was the official cake of Aviation Challenge! The gang had tried surprising me with a website for my blog. I had forgotten to tell them that graphitefree.com was already my domain name, so that wasn’t an option. They did give me number 2 Dixon Ticonderogas with graphitefree.com stamped on them. I am very excited!!!
Shortly there after, we got a call for the recruiting goddess, Charity N. Stewart, about the F-16 engine making a legal U-turn in front of HR and headed to Aviation Challenge. But the day wasn’t over after the F-16 engine was put into place. I got to help (in a small way) put the stripes on the T-38. Discussing the future paint scheme of the YAV-8B Harrier was another highlight to an already special day. The Harrier will be a great paint testament to all those who love Aviation Challenge. It will show what pride, professionalism, and leadership truly is to all the campers and staff in the next generation of AC. I love my life at AC! I love eating lunch on the wing of the T-38! I love seeing things improve throughout the years. I love funfetti and all the other official AC brands!