Multicultural day

So, hello again everyone! I am sorry I haven’t written in almost a week. I wish I had some excuse like I am so terribly busy and getting only 4 hours of sleep a night, but alas, that is not true.

Since my last post about the steak, I am yet again in awe of the quality of life onboard the Nimitz and how different this is from any other kind of ship I have been on.

Last night, we celebrated “Multicultural Day”. Nimitz, being quite the multi-cultural city of 5,000+ it was sure to be a good time. It started with a Captain’s Call where the CO talked a little bit. He talked about how excited he was to see the multicultural show coming up after the All Hands Call and so he started talking about how he was down on the Mess Decks, kicking off the show when he started talking to people about what kinds of acts they would like to see in the show. He said he had gotten a few suggestions of people he should invite up on stage to perform some sort of semi-embarrassing act (like when General Petraeus was here) such as the Electric Slide. So he starts calling about 20 people up to the stage. We all had no idea what he was calling them all up there and we were hoping that the Talent Show wasn’t going to be kicked off with another round of the Electric Slide. After a few minutes, he said he was going to give these people a chance to show all of their shipmates their best talents. We of course were like “where is he going with this….?” So he tells them all to close their eyes and hold out their hands. As the 20 Sailors eyes were closed and hands out, some of the Chiefs went down the row and placed in their hands a uniform shirt (depending on what kind of uniform they wear) with their next-highest rank insignia sewed on. The CO said something like “by the power appointed to me, you are all here by authorized to wear the rank of the next highest and assume all rights and responsibilities of that rank and receive the pay for your next highest rank starting today” It was REALLY cool. This is what we call a “CAPing” ceremony in the Navy- Command Advancement Program. Usually, Sailors have two chances a year to advance, from the March and September advancement examinations. Last week, we received the results of the September examinations and advanced everyone who was advanced through the normal process. However, Commanding Officers have the power to “CAP” a Sailor- basically decide that they should be promoted, regardless of what the examinations board results say. Obviously this is not an easy way to get promoted, and it certainly isn’t a “free pass”, CO’s only have a limited number to give away a year (on the frigate I was on, I think it was like 2 a year, obviously here on the NIMITZ, he gets a few more). So anyways, 20 people got spot promoted to the next highest rank, which was awesome and really really cool to see. They were of course totally surprised and it was such a cool way to advance them in front of 5,000 people all cheering for them.

Then we went on to the Talent Show. This was a talent show to put all talent shows to shame. Some of my favorite and most memorable performances were a guy from the South that played “Turkey in the Straw” on his “fiddle”, a Sailor of Native American descent who played his Native American flute, a few rap groups, a rock band, a girl who played the violin, a guy who played the alto sax, the USS NIMITZ’s own Gospel Choir (who knew we had a gospel choir?!?!) and the battle of 2 beat-boxers who opened his act by saying “I love Diversity. That’s why we’re all here, right? Diversity. I love Diversity because to me, diversity means a Jewish white boy from Minnesota can be the best beat-boxer onboard” It was absolutely hilarious and he had the crowd screaming and laughing and hooting and hollering. It was so great!

The night ended with a performance by the NIMITZ Salsa Team. They had ordered their costumes on the internet and picked up some black dress shirts and purple ties in Dubai, and the group of 5 guys and 5 gals performed a salsa dance (choreographed by one of DESRON 23’s own Chiefs who leads the salsa classes) that rounded out the talent show and had everyone on their feet. It was really quite an amazing performance. Despite loosing a few work hours to stand up there and watch the full 2 ½ hour show, it was really quite spectacular and I had no idea how talented so many of our shipmates were!

I am also working on making more friends and while I wouldn’t say any of them are my BFFs, I certainly am trying to get out there and meet more people. Last night I was sitting with my friend on staff at Mid Rats (Midnight Rations) which is a meal served from 11pm-1am. On a small ship, Mid Rats are whatever is left over from dinner or worse, lunch. On a big ship, Mid Rats is just a big of a meal as any (because some people legitimately use it as a meal if they work the night shift) and for others, it is a social hour, a way to end the night and hang out and talk. From the ice cream, to the espresso machine to the cooked-to-order omelets, all the breakfast foods you could normally imagine and a “fast food line” of hot dogs, fries and chicken fingers, there’s pretty much nothing you can’t eat at Mid Rats. My favorite is the movie-theatre style popcorn machine. I love eating popcorn at midnight! Anyways, I guess my friend Steve & I looked less anti-social than usual, because a group of 4 pilots came and sat down with us.

They were all jet pilots from this one F/A-18 squadron, and while most fit all stereotypes about F/A-18 pilots, they had us rolling in laughter with stories of port visit in Guam, how guys get their call signs and stories of people accidentally ejecting from their airplanes. It was such a funny meal and great to meet new people. I was practically crying I was laughing so hard from their stories. One of the guys was BRAND new to the squadron (he had just arrived there the day before!) and he was an ’06 USNA grad. So he JUST now (3 ½ years after commissioning) got to his first real squadron, and NOW his 8 year ticker of obligated service is beginning. This made me feel a little bit better because this guy has almost 4 years in the Navy! By the time I’m at my 3 ½ year point, I’ll be almost out!

Also, I think I might have met some people to help make my dream of sitting in a real jet plane and have my picture taken come true! I have always wanted to scurry up the ladder into one of the jets to take a quick picture but now I think I have met people that will let me do that! I offered to let them come into the Zulu module where we stand watch and sit in my chair in front of a large screen to monitor chat and take a picture, but for some reason, that didn’t quite seem so appealing to them J

Anyways, things have been looking up around here which has been nice. I’m just trying to quickly get through the next NINE days and take care of everything that I have to take care of before I get to see DAN!!! I’ll write in a bit about how the holiday season has been on the Nimitz.

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday spirit and gearing up for some good festivities. My fingers are crossed that everyone gets just enough snow to get in the spirit but not so much that your travel/holiday plans are messed up!

xoxo!

Molly