The Road Thus Far

Why, hello all! It's been about a week since I last wrote, so I figured I'd go ahead and update!!

Since my infinite posts about MEPS, I've not been up to too much. I mostly work. My husband decided to get two new puppies (black labs). TWO!!! I thought I'd kill myself...however no such luck. Hahahaha!! Anyhow, I've gotten to where any time I go to any store, I'm on the lookout for deals. Not like, extreme couponer deals, like travel sized deals.

My recruiter told me that if I see anything that has a good sale on it, to buy it for BMT. You never know how much things can sky-rocket in the future! So since it's back to school time here, we have zillions of backpacks at all the stores. I went to Target after work a few days ago, and decided to look for a backpack for BMT/Tech School. Keep in mind the AFI when getting a bag for Tech School. Anyway, I was strolling through the backpack aisle, not seeing much. I saw a few, but I didn't want to pay $30-$50 for a bag that really won't be used too much. I saw two that were the same brand/style but differed slightly. There were $25, but were on sale for $19.99 so I gave them a look. I had almost decided on one (decent size, relatively plain). It had these elastic things around the zipper, I guess as a handle for pulling. They were neon orange. EEEKKK! Then I realized I could take them off. Okay, that works. Well, I threw it in the cart, and started off. At the veryyy end of the aisle, they had COMPLETELY PLAIN black backpacks!! I flipped! And they were only $10!!! You better believed I grabbed it! I looked it over first, though. It's a little small, but my thought process on it was that it'll prevent me from over-packing. I'm that kind of a girl. I'm not uber girly or anything,  but I'd rather be over-prepared. Even for BMT! Well, this one will ONLY fit the essentials, which is good!

I went through the rest of the school supplies, and found two pretty nice notebooks for $.59 a piece. I grabbed about 4 (you can never have too many at home!), thinking I'd just take one with me down there. I also grabbed a basic pack of black ink pens (remember the military only uses black for official documents, and they just prefer it haha!) for about $2. I want to say it was the BIC brand with about 4-8, I can't remember. Anyway, you should only need one or two, but you'll have the opportunity to go to the BX and mini mall while you're at BMT. Then I headed to the travel sized items aisle. SO. MUCH. STUFF. I just wanted to buy it all! Haha! I didn't, though. I grabbed a 5 pack of make up remover wipes for $.97, some Tresemme hairspray for $.99 and Qtips for $.99. Then I went and grabbed a fresh pack of bobby pins/hair ties, which ran about $6 for both. **Note to ladies: these have to match your hair color, or be really close** I also grabbed one of the Schick Intuition razors with the built in soap, which I think was $6-$7. I plan on getting everything waxed before shipping, that way I can concentrate on getting clean in the shower, rather than shaving. It'll be slightly expensive, but I think a good investment! I also got some black flip flops from Old Navy for shower shoes, since I don't know when I'll be shipping, and where I live, we don't sell flip flops all year long haha!

That's all I've got in my BMT bag for now, but I'll slowly but surely be adding to it. Just in case I get a call one day from my recruiter telling me I'm leaving in one week. I'd rather not panic and forget things haha!

I also had a random financial issue come up, which caused me major stress from Thursday until today. My recruiter was on leave last week, so today was the first day I was able to talk to him. He told me it won't affect (or is it effect...?!) anything, just get it taken care of. So I did! Easy peasy. But all weekend, I was freaking out thinking I'd be kicked out! Ahhh! All that stress for nothing. Hmph.

Another random note: I went for my run today, and we've been having some extreme weather. Our temp was about 103* today, and the heat index ranged from 110*-118* all day. Yikes! And it was peaked at the time I went to run. Of course. I usually do at least a mile, but today I only did a half a mile. I wanted to be safe, and not suffer from heat exhaustion, and I hadn't drank enough water prior to that so I didn't want to dehydrate either. I only had about half a bottle of water, so I figured better to be safe than sorry! My PT regiment is struggling. I still can't do any pushups at all. My situps are fine, though. The last time I timed them (about 3 weeks ago) I had 46 in 1 minute. The standards for women on pushups is 18 in 1 minute and 38 situps in one minute, I believe. My recruiter said that as long as I can do at least 3 (ha!) by BMT, I'll survive. It just seems physically impossible for me right now. I need some encouragement. I wish I could just magic myself into doing them! That'd be nice!

I'll end this post here. Hopefully, there will be more to come soon! I think we have a job drop this week, so *fingers crossed* I get a job/ship date! Highly unlikely, but one can hope! =]

MEPS, MEPS and more MEPS.

Okay, final MEPS post! Hopefully....

So, we left off at the end of the medical exam. Well, I processed out of there, and went and met with my liaison. He was somehow surprised I finished before the 3 guys. Maybe because there was a whopping total of 3 females, and a bajillion males. Anyway. He had to pull up some files to go back over, and I had to verify, of course. Then, we made my contract! This consisted of making a list of jobs (Max of 10), and picking an Aptitude Area. As with anything, more is better! Try to pick the max total of jobs. But, don't list something you don't want! You may just end up with it! When doing this, your liaison will present you with a list of alllll the jobs you qualify for. Mine was roughly 5 pages. When picking your aptitude area, look and see what category most of the jobs you listed fall under. Or (if you want something quickly), ask which Aptitude Area your squadron gets the most of. That'll really help. I was torn between General and Administrative. I ended up picking Gen, because it's apparently rather difficult to get Admin, considering there's only about 5 jobs or so total.

So my list was made, my contract was drawn up, and that meant lunch time! They had announced over the intercom it was ready, about 20 minutes before I left his office. Make sure you eat at this point! It had been roughly 7 hours that I had been awake, and hadn't eaten. I demolished my sandwich. Anyway, I ate lunch, went back to my liaison, and he sent me to the control desk to find out where to go next. I went and did another interview with a DoD employee, then was fingerprinted. This is tricky, as your fingers can't be wet, this includes sweaty!! Mine didn't take nearly as long as some, maybe 10 minutes. She printed off some copies, told me to take them to my liaison and say I was ready to swear in! When I went back to his office, I was pleastanly surprised to see my recruiter there!! We instantly started talking about that I made weight and all that good stuff. I handed over my prints to my liaison, and he told me to sit in the waiting area.

Of course, I figured since I hadn't waited long all day, it'd be the same process. WRONG. I waited for close to 2ish hours before I was able to swear in! They had to assemble a group of people, and I was farther ahead than those left that hadn't sworn in. I was bored out of my mind! And the exhaustion was getting to me! I had been so full of nerves/excitement up until that point, I wasn't tired. But it was getting close to 1500, and I'd been up roughly 12 hours with about 3.5 hours of sleep the night before. Finally I heard them call my name, along with 7 others. We were escorted back to the ceremony room, where a civilian instructed us on what to do. Luckily, I thought, my recruiter had already shown me how to stand at attention, rest and parade rest. This differs slightly branch to branch. The way I was taught, the AF rests their hands above their tailbone, while Marines for example, rest theirs on the small of their back. She corrected me, though. Oh, well. She explained a few more things, then the 8 of us (only one of my AF guys was with me! One was DQ'd and John was still waiting to be finger printed) patiently waited for the officer to come in. He was an Army Colonel, I believe. And he was so very nice, and inspirational. He gave us a fantastic speech about the Military, and then thanked us at the end. That was an awesome feeling; the first time I was thanked for my service, that I hadn't even provided yet! Anyway, we raised our right hands and repeated after the officer.

That was such a rush, such an indescribable feeling. I knew in that moment that I wasn't "signing my life away", I was willingly giving it to a greater cause; something bigger than all of us. I knew I was making the right choice, and was implementing what I was born to do. When you take the Oath of Enlistment for the first time, you'll understand why I can't elaborate. It's like explaining why you love your children. You get choked up, emotional, and know that it's just.....right. That particular feeling there, will override all negative feelings you have when you get to BMT. It will give you strength when you think you have none left, it will give you courage, faith, and so much more. It gives you life. I've been a completely different person since that day, only a short 6 days ago. But my life was eternally changed, and I couldn't be more thrilled.



MEPS Part Deux

Okay, where did we leave off? Oh, right. I headed to have my bloodwork done after the interview with the Doc. It was exactly like donating blood, except they just stick the needle in, pull some blood out really fast, then the needle is out. Basically painless. I'm a regular blood donor, so this didn't bother me. Anyhow. That was one of the easiest parts of the day! The technician (a TSGT in the AF, I believe) and I were discussing how cold it was. I said it was no good for my bladder. I had to go. She said that as soon as she did the next guy's blood, we'd do the urinalysis. Thank the heavens!!!

So, maybe 2 minutes passed, and she took me and one of the two other girls into the restroom. She didn't get right up in our business, like most people say. Then again, different MEPS have different personnel, so who knows? Well, she handed us each a cup, told us to fill it at least halfway, set it on the floor when we were finished, do our "thing" then pick the cup up. We had to keep it above waist level while carrying it over to the window. The tech in there did a pregnancy test, which I said there would be something wrong if mine was positive! As I mentioned earlier, I had just gotten off of my period, about 3 weeks previously, ha! Well, they did that then sent us on our way.

OH!! Somewhere in the middle of all of this, we went into a briefing. That's where we filled out our medical questionnaires, and they informed us of the rules for doing so. They also performed a breathalyzer, my first ever! It took about an hour or so.

So after the pee test, I went and took my vision test. I wear contacts, so I had to do 2 tests; one with contacts, one without. I did a basic test like at an eye doctor, then we moved to the depth perception and color blind tests. It actually seemed to take a while to do this, but probably because I had to do each twice. Bummer. Anyway, I finished that, and was directed into another room for *drumroll* the Underwear Olympics!! I almost feel like this topic needs its' very own post, but I won't do that. =] So I go into that room, where one of the other girls was already waiting. I sat beside her, and she told me she had been waiting in there for about 30 minutes or so. I was lucky enough to not wait any longer for anything for more than 5 minutes, other than swearing in, which I'll get to. So we waited on my roomie, since we were the only females. She arrived almost immediately. We went into the stalls located on the left side of the room, and undressed to our skivvies. No socks, though! Luckily, our tech knew how cold it was (even though she was in her ABU's!) so she provided 2 space heaters, which we flocked to like starving mice. She called us each up to get weighed and measured. I was first, of course. This was the moment I had been most nervous for, anxiously sweating about. I stepped on that scale and saw 142. Phew! I still had 3 pounds to spare! She had me step off the scale and stand against the wall to be measured. She measured me right at 5'2" like we had hoped for!! I knew from then on out, everything else would be a breeze. I didn't care that I had already passed all my other exams, this was the one I had been killing myself for for over two weeks. Sweet, sweet victory was mine. Back on track: she then weighed and measured the other two, then called us over to her little stand to inspect our tattoos/scars/birthmarks. Here's another mythbuster: They won't disqualify you for basic scars. I had heard this repeatedly. No matter what kind of scar, you'd be DQ'd. I found this to be appalling! How do they expect any person to not be a Jake Gyllenhall character, and not get scars?! It's called life! Of course, they do DQ for certain scars. If they could present a problem in the future, like if they're really big and deep or something. Cooking scars, scars from when you were 5 and fell off your bike and scraped your knee don't count. You can now relax. All tattoos have to be documented. If you have a full sleeve comprised of 27 tattoos, you have to go through each and every one (which you should have already done with your recruiter, but of course have to do it again to make sure you didn't add any). She had to document what it was, the size, and meaning of it. Mine are very simple, so it took just a couple of minutes.(Side note: I'm going to dedicate a post to tattoos and the Air Force.) Anyway, here comes the fun!!!

The Underwear Olympics

At this point, our tech brought the doctor in. We did a series of stretches/exercises so he could see what our range of motion is. Also, you were in your skivvies throughout the weighing/measuring and bodily identifiers. Anyway, he checked out our spine, bottoms of our feet, joint use, etc. They don't look too much into it if you have awful balance when doing this. They realize not everyone is an Olympic Gymnast. After we completed all of this, we did the infamous duckwalk. Oh, I would practice walking at least 5 paces on your tippy toes and heels if you can't already do this. Anyway, duckwalk. Right. The key to the duckwalk is to do exactly as they say. I was rather nervous about this just hearing about it, but it was SO easy. Firstly, you squat into like a backcatcher in baseball stance. Your butt should be resting our your heels. We could either place our hands on our waist, or in the crook of our hips. I opted for waist, because I felt like I was pushing down on my legs by putting them on the hips. You then begin to literally waddle. You MUST walk heel to toe while doing this. We only did 5 paces one way, turned around, 5 paces back, and turned around again before standing. No big deal, I promise. After that we did this weird thing where we got on our knees in a classic kneeling position, resting kind of on the toes. You had to roll back onto your heels, then roll your body up without balancing yourself on the floor, or your own body. I accidentally bounced up the first time, which you can't do. But I did get another try. You're not DQ'd for that either. That was it for the Underwear Olympics. Again, no big deal!

After that, the tech gave us dressing gowns and instructed us to put them on with the opening in the front. We walked into a smaller room connected to the room we were in for the female exam. I, again, was first. I guess because I was oldest and had "more experience" with these types of things. I was the only one of us all to have had a pap smear before. Weird. Anyway, when I entered the room, I walked over to the doctor so he could check my ears/eyes/nose. I also had to hold my nose and blow to pop my ears since I'm joining the AF. John didn't have to do this, though. Which I found odd. That took maybe 5 minutes, then I saddled up. (Because of the stirrups...get it? Maybe not...) The tech laid a sheet over me, and the doctor started the exam. He pressed on my tummy, which made me giggle because I'm ticklish. They laughed at me, too. =] Then was the "vaginal" exam. Basically all he did was lift the sheet to verify I was female. I counted, and it was less than 2 seconds. I kid you not! Then he did a standard breast exam, and I was done! I had passed my medical exam, and was ready to process out of there, and go to my liaison for job selection interview.

I think I'll now break this up into 3 parts. This is why I chose a blog instead of YouTube. You'd be watching this video for DAYS. =]

MEPS

Okay, time for my longgg tale of my adventure to the MEPS. This was another video attempt (I broke it up into two parts) that took roughly an hour combined. Who wants to watch the same person talk for an hour?! Yeah. Anyway.

So, I received the call I would finally be going to MEPS on the 4th of July. I was floating on the river (something my family always does) for over 5 hours. I get back to my car, check my phone and immediately notice a text from my recruiter. He said he finally had all my waivers/paperwork cleared and if I was ready, I'd head to MEPS on 18 July. Of course I said yes! But, with exactly two weeks to go, I immediately realized I needed to lose 8 pounds to be at max weight, and 13 to be at the 5 under my recruiter wanted. It was time to buckle down. I literally survived off of tuna (straight from the can) and water for those two weeks. Actually, 11 days. My recruiter gave me an amazeballs diet to get the last few pounds off. I would lose a max of 5 lbs in those 3 days, and would eat the weirdest stuff. Now, I'm a girl and we generally don't share our weight, but I honestly will share everything with you. Nothing to be ashamed of, we all have our things. My recruiter measured me at 5'1", which meant max weight was 145. I had JUST finished my period (TMI, I know), so I was still a little bloated and had gained a few pounds. I was at the highest I've ever been, 153. EEEEEKKKK!! I had my work cut out for me, but I managed it! My recruiter measured me again roughly a week, give or take, before MEPS. I was somehow 5'1" 7/8, so he was hoping they'd give me 5'2" for an extra 5 lbs, just in case.

Anyway, that's the little bit of background I will give you into this. It actually plays a significant part in this story.

So MEPS. Right. We departed on a Tuesday around 2:15, 2:30 ish for our closest MEPS. It generally takes 30-45 mins to get there. However, we got stuck behind the WORST drivers doing 50 in a 70. We ended up arriving at the hotel around 3:30ish. Oh, another thing, another guy in my DEP came with us. Anyway, we got there, went into the MEPS arrival room, got our room keys, checked in, blah blah blah. We were on separate floors, of course, but I was directly above his room. We went and got settled in our room, and I realized I didn't have a roomie. I was rather excited about it at first, but then.....well, more on that later. =]

After getting settled in, we went to dinner at 1700. He had a couple of rolls, while I had a spinach salad. When I say that, I literally mean it. Only spinach leaves. I hate dressing, so I never eat it anyway. But I ate it just to satisfy myself, since that wouldn't add any weight to me. We decided we would meet in the fitness room a little later. I piddled around in my room a bit longer, and Skyped (from my phone, I had forgotten my laptop) my sister in law and her husband. They gave me a few pointers, of course and just told me to stay calm. After that, my fellow DEPper and I met in the fitness room. I had on 6, yes SIX layers of clothes. We both needed to sweat off as much weight as possible, so we took it pretty easy, not wanting to stress our bodies. He went harder than I did, because my knee had started to feel a little sore. I did the stationary bike for about a mile, then alternated walking/running on the treadmill for about a mile. I then went and sat outside in allllll of my clothes in about 98* heat. It sucked, but you gotta do what you gotta do. We had a briefing later that evening at 2030, so it was about 1800 at this point. I decided to run to the ice machine to fill up my bag/bucket so I could ice my knee. I didn't take anything for it, not wanting to jeopardize anything. I sat in the room with that ice on my knee until roughly 2015. I went and met my AF buddies I had made in the MEPS room, and just hung out until the briefing. It was over pretty fast, so we all decided to hit the fitness room one last time. (For privacy purposes, we're going to call my fellow DEPper John.) John and I stayed a bit longer than the other AF guys, then went back to our rooms. I took a shower, and decided that sitting in that tiny bathroom with the door shut and shower on full blast hot water was like my own version of a sauna. I sat in there like that for about 10 minutes, then got up and got dressed. Almost as soon as I was dressed, my roomie walked in! She was going into the Navy Reserves, I learned. (The reason I was excited about getting a roomie at the end was because there were about 6 creepers lurking the halls/property of the hotel, and wouldn't leave me alone, so I felt better having another person in the room.) Anyway, we chatted for a bit, and then went to bed late, around 2300. Next thing I know, I hear the foghorn alarm of my iPhone blaring. That meant it was 0330, and time to get up and start getting ready for the day. We both got dressed, did our hair and full make-up (a feat in itself at that hour), packed up, and headed to the check-out. Breakfast was being served, and smelled oh so delicious! Of course, I didn't eat OR drink anything at all. All in the name of the Air Force. All the people (about 25 or less) processing that day met in the front of the hotel as soon as they finished eating. We all waited around for about 15 minutes before the bus was ready to be loaded.

We arrived at the MEPS around 0600, when a soldier came onto the bus and called role. He then explained the rules and regulations of the MEPS, and then we went inside. (I have to add, it felt oddly what BMT may feel like. Minus the yelling/scrambling/overall fear) We had to put our bags through the x-ray machine, put all metallic items in the bin, and walk through a metal detector. Just like an airport. We then were directed to metal lockers to place our bags in (keep in mind that you absolutely are not allowed to leave anything at the hotel, as you won't be going back, and are checking out). We did that, were sent to a large waiting area, and waited for our liaisons. The AF liaison was the first to walk through, not even 5 minutes after we had sat down. He briefed us on what would be happening, and how he expected the 4 of us to behave. We then did the lift test, where you lift 3 different amounts above your head. Easy peasy. We filled out a small survey, and wrote in letters in the corner. Those letters are a code that states how much you're able to lift. He then printed out a label with our name and branch, that we had to have on all day. Anyway, from here, it gets a little blurry. There was so much going on, and so many people going in different directions, I hardly remember anything. First, I think I processed at the control desk, where they took a few fingerprints, and a picture. I was then sent to Medical to start on my physical. I think I did the hearing test first. Tip: hold your breath as much as possible when doing this. It keeps from hearing the LOUD whooshing sound as you're straining to hear the light beeps. After that, I had my BP and pulse taken. My pulse was a 96, because of my nerves. My BP wasn't bad, 105/78. After that, came the interview with the doctor. The doctor I had was very nice, as was the entire staff at my MEPS. They truly tried to make you feel comfortable, since they knew how you were feeling. Best experience ever. Anyway, he asked me the basics, "Ever done drugs?" "Piercings, tattoos, etc.?" It was very quick. And painless. Hahaha!

I'm going to end this post here, since I have a few errands to run right fast. I'll post the rest tonight, I'm about halfway through! Happy Reading!

To Enlistment, and Beyond!

Hello, all!

I've decided it's about time I started documenting my journey through enlisting in the United States Air Force. I've attempted to make a few YouTube videos, but never uploaded them. I find myself talking for at least 12-45 minutes. No exaggerations here, folks. Anyway, let's get down to business.

I started the process of enlisting for AD (Active Duty, get used to the acronyms, it's all the military knows!) in early April, 2012. I had started thinking about it in mid-March. On my very first meeting with my recruiter, we went ahead and set up a date to take the ASVAB (I think I'm just going to make a page solely for acronyms. But this one means Armed Services Vocational and Aptitude Battery). I spoke with him a couple of times between those dates, then I headed across town at 1800 on a Tuesday to take a 3 hour test. We didn't start until 1900 ish, so I finally got my results around 2230. It was an exhausting night, but I more than qualified for the Air Force. My recommendations for studying for the ASVAB are to purchase the book, ASVAB for Dummies. It literally (figuratively) saved my life. I'm 22 years old, haven't been to college in 2 years, and been out of high school about 4 years. You could say I'm a little rusty. Anyhow, I bought it on my Kindle, for roughly $9, I don't remember exactly. I'm just kind of guessing =] I took it everywhere. I was reading bits of it on my break, walking into stores, walking out of stores, taking baths (I had to be careful on those!). You name it. The best study tips I found were to just concentrate on the parts of the exam that you needed to score the best in for the particular job(s) you wanted. I was dead set on getting Public Affairs when I first started. More on that later, though.

So, you've got your ASVAB test date, you've got your book, now what? Study, of course! But really, what now? Well, what I did was extensively research anything and everything Air Force. Luckily, my sister-in-law and her husband in currently AD. They just went through BMT and Tech School less than a year ago. She was able to give me TONS of info, it also doesn't hurt that we have the same recruiter! Anyway, I was watching videos, reading blogs, Googling, just absolutely going crazy. I was on my phone constantly looking things up (my laptop had been out of commission for a while, so I just got a new one about 3 weeks ago). www.airforce.com was my lifesaver. I was on that all day, every day. It was my homepage on my phone. It still is, and I've gotten a new once since then. It's even my home page on my laptop. Back to the ASVAB, though. Another great tool, is www.military.com where they have practice tests! They've got short versions, and the full length versions. Those actually helped out a lot. I got the same score every. single. time. on there. I ended up making like, 4-6 points higher on the real deal. Awesome sauce. Where do you go from here, though?

Your recruiter should be contacting you within 5 days (at least mine did!) to tell you your sub-scores. These include the General, Administrative, Electrical, and Mechanical aptitude areas. These are the areas I was talking about earlier that help determine what job(s) you qualify for! From there, you should be submitting all of your paperwork (DL, SS card, HS diploma, transcripts, BC, Marriage License, etc.) so your recruiter can prepare you for MEPS. From what I've heard through some friends, they all went to MEPS within a couple of weeks of initially meeting with a recruiter. Mine had been on extra overload starting like, a month after my ASVAB. He was literally doing two jobs at once, so he fell a bit behind. I was okay with that, because I get where he was coming from. I'm going to dedicate a whole post (possibly two) to my MEPS experience. So stay tuned for that!

A little about me, though....

As I said earlier, I'm 22. I'm also married! It'll be 3 years in December, but we've been together for 6, and were BFFs for 2.5 before that. Basically, I've been married to him like, half my life haha! He's very supportive of the military, and my decision to join, he just doesn't want to leave home. I'll pretty much leave it at that, since this is supposed to be an uplifting, informational place =] Let's just say, I have no idea where we'll be at in a year. Anyway....I have a sister, she's exactly 1 year and 2 weeks older than me. She's a super nerd. You can find her website at www.noobtheory.com and search Noob Theory on Facebook and like it! She is a master at physics and all things science. So is her husband. Weirdos. I just wanna make sure nothing blows up around me, and that's all the science I need. I love her, though. =] My mom had me laaaaate in life. Like, 38, late. She'll be 60 next month. Yikes, that's weird to think about! She raised us all by herself. My dad passed away when I was 3 years old of Bacterial (idk what different kinds there are of this) Meningitis. I also had an older sister who passed away 3 months after he did. She got the Ecoli virus, and her immune system couldn't fight it off. I got a tattoo that says A^2 (Asquared) because both of their names start with an A. It's on my left shoulder, close to my heart. My mom raised me to be a strong willed, independent, confident person that never lets anyone bully me, tell me I'm not good enough, or tell me my beliefs are wrong. I admire her so much for that. She truly is my hero.

I'm here to help every person I can go through the enlistment process of the Air Force! If you have any questions at all, I'm more than happy to answer. Although I haven't been to BMT, I know plenty of people who have. I can certainly ask them questions you may have, or might even answer them based off of what they've told me. As soon as I make it through BMT (whenever that will be!) I'll definitely update with everything I'm allowed to tell! =]