Welcome Aboard!

Well, I was going to post all about the battle damage ABOT has incurred, but that was before I found out that tonight there was to be a Hail and Farewell on ABOT! Normally this would include a catered meal, our spouses, a few strong drinks and a lot of good stories. Well, given that some of these things (ok, ALL of these things) are pretty much absent here, we had to get a little creative.

Thanks in part to Chaps (which is the nickname for our Chaplain, who is also our MWR, morale, basically feel-good-about-life officer) and his creativity, a little help from CDR Balzano (aka- the "Mayor" of ABOT) who had someone send him some cake mix and icing, and of course Phizel (pronounced Fi-Zal), our lead cook, server, keeps the beverage cooler filled with more varieties of soda, juice and milk than we could ever want or need; a strawberry/cherry red velvet cake was made in the occasion.














The Hail and Farewell was for Alexi, our N2 (which in the Navy world of office codes, means our Intel Officer). Alexi is truly a wonderful, sweet girl who made our first week on ABOT so much smoother and more pleasant. Here is Alexi:


















Here are some reasons why Alexi rocks my world and while I am excited she gets to go home, I will miss her:
-she and her husband have not one, but TWO pugs. given that dan & i cannot wait to get a pug at some stage in our life, this was very exciting for me to see lots of cute pug pictures and hear pug stories
-Alexi is involved in Junior League back in San Diego, an organization that I would love to get involved in once I get back and stop going out to sea all the time and she encouraged me to apply and would help me out.
-Alexi left us with a ridiculous stash of toiletries and random medicines, vitamins, sunscreen, etc. Being a girl that never likes to be unprepared, this was awesome as I did not have enough room to pack everything I wanted.
-Someone had sent Alexi a copy of the magazine "The Nest" which is produced by the same company as "The Knot" (you married/engaged girls, and dan :) know what I'm talking about). She, being married 5 years was not truly overly excited to get a magazine for newlyweds. However, she knew (before she even met me!) that I was recently married so she kept it for me. It was awesome and full of fun things for newlyweds that are totally useless for me right now like decorating and cooking and whatnot, but it did provide some good entertainment while I was ellipticalling, and hopefully sometime in the future, if I am still considered a newlywed when I finally get reunited with my husband, I will cook him something yummy :)
-And finally, on day one on ABOT, Alexi introduced us to what is known as the "ABOT Double-XL"- which is basically an ice cream bar. but not just ANY ice cream bar. the vanilla ice cream = amazing, the chocolate coating is SO good, and the little crunchy things kinda taste like Heath bars. And, at only 340 calories, you can quickly work one off with a little 30 minute jaunt on the elliptical, plus a few laps back and forth on the catwalk transiting from work to where we eat to where we stand watch to where we sleep. No sweat! And the best part about the ABOT Double-XL? We have almost 600 of them delivered every week. Actually, yesterday, we were OUT; luckily, Wednesday morning a little tug boat brings a LOT of food. Including 600 ice cream bars. They keep them in these big freezers outside, the freezer is FULL of ice cream bars, you can eat as many as you want whenever you want (this should be a good segway into my discussion of food on ABOT possibly tomorrow). You will be happy to know that I have only had 2 this whole time (both of which were on my first day :). Naturally, in honor of Alexi's farewell (and our hail), we had ABOT Double XL's. However, since I had not yet worked out for the day, I passed on the ice cream and had a small piece of red velvet cake. Here is an ABOT Double-XL:









It was a very nice, 20 minute get-together after which I felt sufficiently welcomed into the Little Beavers of DESRON 23. The people here are quite nice and I've heard most of the JO's (junior officers) from the staff are here on ABOT (vice the rest of the fellas that they left over on ABOT) and so it's been great to meet the other "youngins"- you know, who are all at least 3 years older than me :)

Regardless, while I am still new and not as comfortable around them as I would be with people I've known for longer, so far it is going well and I think I will enjoy it. We won't all be really "close" friends since most of them are older and everyone is married/with kids/already established in San Diego and thus has a lot of friends already and stuff, but there are good people to work with. Everyone is very helpful and full of that great Navy dry and witty humor. Apparently ABOT brings out said humor more than most places.

Clearly, you can tell that I am happy to be here in the sunny, tax-free, North Arabian Gulf :)

















Well, that's all for now, folks! Off to sleep because I'm sleepy :)

One quick note, I amend any suggestion at sending food/snacks here to me on ABOT. We have so much food here and snacks and goodies, we wouldn't know what to do with more. However, hard candies (wintergreen lifesavers, soft mints, the peppermint kind, atomic fireballs and wherther's are always appreciated :) As are magazines to read while working out, etc. I don't mean to sound picky but while normally I can just give any extra snacks I can't finish to all of the hungry boys, there is seriously so much food here provided for us that we don't know what to do with it would just be a terrible waste. Hard candies are much appreciated for watch-standing, etc.

Alright, really going to sleep now. Looking forward to some of the other posts that I am excited to tell everyone about. It's official- I've been gone for one week exactly; 24 1/2 more to go!