Brunch on the Nimitz

Hi family & friends! Since the last you heard from me, I was stumbling off the COD carrying a bag of my own puke, I thought it would be a good idea to let you know what I am up to!

I’ve been here for just about 48 hours now and it is really hard to keep track of days & times! I am now 12 hours ahead of CA & 9 hours ahead of the East Coast but since I don’t have skype, it is not so much of a problem to know what time it is back at home. However, we do have the ability to call home sometimes, thanks to an “outside line” we have in the office; it is just like dialing from North Island, the carrier base in SD (unfortunately we aren’t that close, since if we were on North Island, I could see my apt from there L ). I was able to call Dan this morning to talk for a few minutes. That was really nice and I will probably try and do that once a week, especially on “holiday routine” morning since the office is pretty empty. Some people talk to their families almost every day!

Well, let’s see, in 48 hours I have found my way around quite well! I can easily maneuver between my stateroom, my bathroom, the office, the Wardroom, (one of the) gyms (yes, there are FOUR!), and the ship’s store. I haven’t gotten my cash card working yet but I am looking forward to getting a waterbottle so I can carry water around. I wish I had thought to bring my UVA or Chi Omega one, but alas I have not. I still can’t find the flight deck or the airplanes yet but I figure in about a week I will crave sunlight (there really is no need to ever leave the O-3 level that I live on) and will venture out to find fresh air. But when you hear the planes (and the trucks and the elevators and the chains and the catapults and the traps) like JFK just relocated over your bedroom, I really have no desire to go anywhere closer to them. I don’t know what is going on up there, but I am convinced an F-18 is going to land in my rack if I’m not careful. Luckily, I have the bottle rack to allow me an extra layer of defense should the F-18 make it through the flight deck.

I still jump whenever something bangs around over my head- it is UNBELIEVABLE how loud it is! In order to watch a DVD on my laptop, I have to wear headphones, even though it is turned up as loud as it is! It is also very cold in my stateroom so I wake up in the AM with a pretty sore throat from breathing in cold recirculated air. My mom sent me this super awesome set of purple flannel sheets with my initials monogrammed in brown and a matching brown fleece blankets with a purple monogram- not only are they very pretty and I love them, but they are also perfect since it is so cold. I actually have a gray fleece blanket and my red/blue fleece blanket UNDER the brown one!!!

This morning, we had the Hotel Nimitz (that’s what they call the Service Department) Sunday Brunch. Apparently every other weekend (or whatever day is the “holiday routine”, sometimes Friday, sometimes Sunday depending on UNREPs and “no fly days”) is a LAVISH brunch. If you gave me bottomless mimosas & a view of the SD Harbor, I might have believed we were at the Hotel Del!

It runs from 10am-1pm. There is a smoothie bar, where a guy makes real fruit smoothies, a real Belgium waffle station with all the fruit & topping fixin’s, a large carved roast sitting under one of those red lamps on a big wooden board where a guy cuts you a slice however you like. There is also big silver warmed serving trays of pancakes, sausages bacon, eggs, potatoes, gravy, ANYTHING you can imagine. And apparently, the past few weeks haven’t been “that good”- whatever that means; I was totally floored! Plus there’s the usual cookies, chips, snacks, teas, coffees, fruit, salad/sandwich bar. There are 3 main seating areas that make up Wardroom I/II and they take one of them and turn it into a big buffet. They even dim the lights and turn on the regular side lighting and had real candles. I am NEVER going back to a Frigate; that’s for sure!!!

Other than that, I have been very busy with the Battle E stuff, but feel like I have a good grasp on everything. I am not on the watchbill yet due to needing to get all of the Battle E submission in line but it really doesn’t take that much time, at least I don’t think. It was pretty disorganized but I feel like I have it really under control. I haven’t worked out yet so I think I’m going to try that out today.

I am trying to make new friends; mainly I just talk to the people on the staff. Like high school, everyone sits at certain tables in the wardroom (which, is the size of a cafeteria!), I know the 2 tables that the DESRON sits at and I try not to sit at the same table when everyone is wearing green flight suits) Other than that, I’m not really sure there is to meet out there other than for polite conversation “hello, how are you”

Oh, and if you don’t mind, could everyone who’s reading this (or at least people that would like to converse with me via email), could you please send me your email address? I am used to having it from in my gmail but this is my new account and so I have NO one’s address saved & I can’t log into google to get it L). So, if you could just shoot me a quick email @ molly.laufer@cvn68.navy.mil, just to say hi & so I have your address, that would be MOST appreciated. If you want to send an even longer email and tell me what you’re up to, that would be great too but I would just love to have a copy of everyone’s address. Thanks :)

Miss you all, hope all is well!
Love,
M