*wow, an old draft that never got posted*

So, 1 more week of training (in theory). The last 2 weeks of training are split tween hands-on projects and then 1 week of, uh... classroom followed by the 2 finals. I've spent 4 days doing various hands-on projects. From the get-go, I was really out of shape in terms of hands-on skills. Tuesday-Thursday, my confidence level was plummeting faster than a relationship for me. Projects weren't getting finished, I was doing things poorly, couldn't focus, etc.

Come Friday, everything seemed to turn around. While I still have 2 projects that are unfinished, everything that we were to do Friday got finished (we had 1.5 days to Drilling & Countersinking; started Thursday. Friday = 90 degree drilling/gun barrel drilling which Mike and I raced thru).

I even got to work on the Shamrock project (started Wednesday, was in last place (again) when we closed up that nite so I wasn't feeling so hot about it) and got quite a bit done.

The order of projects was kinda goofy, imo. For the group I'm with, the Shamrock project was 'hard', the Drilling/Countersink was so-so and the 90/gun barrel was easy. Kinda going backwards here! (If I had started the other way around, I woulda been able to 'warm up' better so each project was a progression, y'know?)

Anyway, I was feeling pretty good Friday nite as the shift ended. Finishing just a few small projects really helped with my self-esteem. Next week is classroom stuff then gotta finish up the 2 hands-on projects. should take me about a day unless I can talk one of the instructors into letting me pass one of the projects. (I have to safety wire 2 projects so if I do the Shamrock, maybe they'll skip the wing safety wire. ;) )