2.1.10

Hey Everyone,

Check out that first pic of Ryan, he looks 17 again! He is down another 3 lbs bringing him down to his lowest since we have been married. Ryan had a better week last week: PT was tolerable, no visits to the Staff Office, he did not receive any gigs and he passed a uniform inspection without incident. 3/4 of the class received gigs from that uniform inspection which means Ryan looked like perfection! Ryan and his roommate decided that all brass and their boots must be polished everyday to look their best, obviously it paid off.

Ryan's class was able to participate in 2 new activities this week: one, was cleaning all of the brass in the CHP Museum. Ryan said that it was very cool to see all of the pictures, cars and equipment kept there. Unfortunately, we may never get to see it except for on graduation day. The second activity was attending the Fountain Ceremony. This ceremony takes place every Wednesday after lunch, its purpose is to honor fallen officers. The senior cadets do a special salute while the junior cadets are in formation and one of the senior cadets polishes a plaque containing all of the names. Ryan's class will soon be the seniors who will have the opportunity to perform that special salute. When families of the fallen officers visit the Academy they attend the fountain ceremony.

Wednesday night Ryan was on restriction from the previous week's gigs. (Every 3 gigs you lose your Wednesday liberty.) Usually the cadets will write a memo on a subject chosen by the Staff Officer on duty. This last Wednesday the Staff Officer decided to motivate the cadets with a 2.5 hour lecture about what it means to be an officer, CHP pride, etc. Ryan loved it and was very motivated by the stories and information shared by this Officer.

The senior cadets are graduating in a few weeks and most of them have maps and the names of their locations on the back of their PT uniforms. This is exciting and helps the tiny pin hole of a light at the end of the tunnel get a little bigger and brighter.

Most of Ryan's company started driving last week and he will start tomorrow morning. They begin with vehicle placement, acceleration and braking. I will have more details after he actually participates.

Ryan is doing very well academically and has passed all of his tests thus far with a 90% or greater. He had to write an autobiography this week which will remain in his permanent file and will be sent to his assigned location. They were instructed to keep it to the facts only, no funny embellishments...boy are they missing some good stuff!

One last bit of info. Ryan was told that in 2009 there were 50,000 applicants and he was one of the mere 800 chosen to attend the Academy. Yeah Ryan! Ok one more - Ryan got his first paycheck on Friday. He no longer feels like a volunteer for cruel and unusual punishment.

We are both doing great and hope that you all are the same.

Love,

Amy