Lost in Translation

Hi everyone! Not much time to write/ramble because it’s 2:30 and I just finished up so I’d like to get some sleep (let’s not feel bad for me for staying up this late, I intend to sleep until about 11 tomorrow morning :))

So anyone who has ever traveled to Asia realizes that their languages (pretty much all of the languages in that region) are extremely difficult and not easily translatable by the average foreigner (again, having a Chinese speaker in your liberty group REALLY helps out!). However, the disparities between English and Chinese were quite apparent whenever you would see signs or advertisements or tee-shirts that were clearly translated from Chinese to English: it just didn’t quite look right. The grammar and the meanings and the order of words would always be shuffled around in an order that made the verbiage seem extremely funny.

So there we were, walking through the night market in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong. This being our third port visit in SE Asia, we’d gotten pretty good at the pushing through narrow stalls of foreigners and locals alike, bargaining for or pushing to sell “copy watch” or “copy purse” (side note- it turns out no matter WHAT language you speak, “copy” or “fake Louis vitton” is universal) and pashminas and trinkets and fake Ed Hardy tee-shirts and shoes (like my authentic hot pink Chuck Taylors :)) and art and knick-knacks and what not. One of the stalls was a man who would spell names in Chinese on little card stock pieces of paper, so you could get cute cards or whatever.

Also in his stall were these little signs (sometimes big ones that you would hang in your room when you were little that would say like “Molly Blvd” or whatever, others were small magnets). They were all of these “funny” sayings- you know about beer and sleep and work and being lazy stupid stuff like that. However, they were all in Chinese, with the English translation above them. And they were SO.FUNNY. The phrases were these hilarious little sayings that, while stupid in English, were absolutely HILARIOUS when translated from Chinese into English. It was almost like if you had a big set of those magnetic words that you would put on your refrigerator and re-arrange into funny nonsensical phrases.

Of all of the stalls at the market, we probably spent the most time at this one, howling with laughter over the little signs. At like $.50 each, I couldn’t resist getting a few, which are stuck to the wall in our stateroom on the ledge that we keep our toiletries by the mirror/sink. So every morning and evening, we see these little phrases and if anything, I know I’m guaranteed to laugh at least twice a day.

I wish I had pictures of them, but unfortunately I don’t. however, the first one reads:

“You are my Love, my Angle, don’t treat me like Potato”

And the second-

“You talk like Angel, Walk like Model but your body look like Buffalo”

I mean, how can that NOT make you chuckle? Don’t treat me like potato? What does that even MEAN?

Alright well, it’s bedtime for this bonzo! I was super fortunate to be able to call Dan and my mom tonight and chat for about 30 minutes total and it was sooo great to continue getting even more excited for Tiger Cruise and Homecoming! Five months down, one to go- we’re in the homestretch, folks!

The Grass Is Always Greener

Even if your job doesn’t involve painting or writing evaluations, I feel like everyone can relate to this cartoon. [here, the junior Sailor is thinking that the Officer’s job is way better and the Officer is thinking the junior Sailor’s job is easier]

Confessions and Obsessions

My last post about my port visit shopping piqued my interest to peer into the multiple drawers and cabinets of my stateroom as I thought “I wonder what’s REALLY in all of those shopping bags…”- so, I busied myself for the next 2 hours going through EVERYTHING that I bought, putting them in little plastic shopping bags and taping post-it notes on the bags delineating what they were or who they were for, to assist with the unpacking and gift exchange process (lesson: most everything I bought was for myself. Sigh….).

2 hours later I had made it through everything and was able to fit all of my great purchases into 4 (rather large…) shopping bags. I was pleased with this, and also to announce that there were only THREE things that I left off of my list of things I bought:

1. a cute dress for my niece (I can’t help but spoil her cute self rotten J)

2. a pineapple carved out of Malaysia wood (I’m not sure how it is special from your average western wood, but anyways), that you hang on a wall and it has little hooks for hanging keys, etc

3. a wooden spoon, but instead of being a spoon (because yes dan, I’m aware that we have 2 already J), it is like a straight edge on top, that you would use for browning meat. Success!

Also, the record should state that during one of my bi-weekly phone conversations, dan actually said “I’m so excited to see all of the cool stuff that you got for our place”. Not that I needed the validation, but- SUCCESS!

As for me, now I’m just in that “one month til home” phase where I can’t think of anything else. It literally consumes my every thought, every minute of the day (luckily, my job is neither time-critical, nor dangerous, so it is safe for me to be consumed by the thoughts of returning home)- I have to imagine it would be rather dangerous to be flying an F-18 as it is hurled off of an aircraft carrier while thinking about going home. That’s why I just monitor a chat computer and not fly F-18’s. But anyways.

We are down to just over 30 days, which means a strange creature has begun to emerge out of the dusty corners of the NIMITZ (despite how many times the XO gets on the 1MC and yells at people to clean, there are in fact, many dusty corners) and it lurks slowly and sluggishly around every corner. That is, every corner that leads them to…. THE GYM! These creatures are what we call “30 day Warriors” who woke up today and said “OH S#%T! what have I been doing for EIGHT MONTHS- I totally meant to get in shape so I return home to impress my wife with my new David Hasselhoff body!”.

So these “warriors” clutter the gym in a desperate attempt to shed 8 months worth of pounds in 30 days. They cling to the treadmill like a small child, riding on a 2-wheeler for the first time, hogging WAY more minutes than should be authorized. Us “real” runners onboard look at these Warriors with disgust, wishing they would stop hogging the treadmills and let the rest of us complete our weight loss plan with ease and peace. So, that’s what I’m up do, dodging the warriors and squeezing in my few miles each day.

I’ve also cut out midrats (gasp! Yes, midrats! You read that right!). it is SO hard for me too, because every night around 11:30 I would stroll into Wardroom I/II with a good book or magazine or invite myself to a table full of my favorite silly pilots and enjoy a warm, perfectly melted, perfectly (ok, maybe a little OVERLY) buttered and cheesy grilled cheese sandwich. As I speak, my stomach is literally crying out in pain “SHOW ME THE CHEEEEEEEEEESE!” and CS3 is probably thinking “What did i do to offend her?! Why hasn’t LTJG Laufer graced my galley with her warm smile and her chipper response of “you betcha!!!” when I ask her: “the usual?” So, CS3, if you’re reading this (and if you are, that’s slightly weird/creepy)- no, I do not hate you and no, you did not offend me, but unfortunately you and your amazing grilled cheeses, in addition to my friends who lure me into funny stories and 2 hour long conversations while I am surrounded by all the food I could possibly eat are unfortunately NOT supportive of my end of deployment diet. So we’re breaking up, at least for now. (Tigers, you’re not off the midnight feedings so easily- I fully intend to resume midrats for Tiger Cruise. And, given that today I just paid your full Tiger fee, it is now assumed that you will also eat this incredible 4^th meal. Or, at least join me for the company J)

So, since I have given up midrats and limited myself to 2 meals a day, I’ve had to find other things to do to occupy myself and distract my midnight growling tummy. Which, have turned into my 2 new obsessions- reading and eating (and reading about eating).

I am so into reading. Seriously. I know that sounds so funny, but I haven’t really had time to read in what feels like years (other than volumes of essays and books about the causes of war in college). Now, reading is my new favorite thing to do. It started out with my vast collection of Patricia Cornwell novels. I’ve now moved on to more “grown up books” or whatever. When I’m reading, I can totally escape to another time, place, life. I just finished reading “Eat, Pray, Love”, after a recommendation from my sister-in-law, Tammy. Tammy, being a writer, has GOOD taste in books (and hers are the best). I was so happy to stumble on E,P,L in Malaysia. And I quickly dove into it and plowed through the first section at the same speed that the author probably consumed all of the pasta dishes that she encountered in Italy. However, I’m not going to lie, as I moved into the 2^nd and 3^rd section, I started to like it less and less. Don’t get me wrong, she is a wonderful writer, full of the most amazingly descriptive passages that made me feel like I was right there, but especially as the story took her to India and the Ashram for her hours and days and months of praying and meditating and sitting and yoga-ing, I just felt like it got a little preach-y. and she got a little too “woe-is-me”. In my opinion, there are people in the US that have very similar problems and tribulations that she went through but can’t just up and travel the world and “find themselves” for a year. It was hard, because the book was so well written and I could hardly put it down but I just kept getting more and more annoyed with her and wanted to be like “enough already, stop complaining, stop with all the meditating and the soul-searching and pull yourself together." (Tammy, I’d love to discuss this, and probably other books, with you over a good cup of tea [my next book is Three Cups of Tea J ]- do you see where I’m coming from in any of this? How did you get past some parts in section 2?)- that being said, I loved the section of the book where she was in Italy and it was so incredible to escape to a world of great art and great language and beautiful people and cappuccinos and gelato!

My 2^nd obsession? http://www.smittenkitchen.com/

Go there. Explore it. Love it. Bake it. Obsess over it. I’m not even going to go into great detail about what it is, because you can soon see the amazing-ness for yourself. It’s basically a blog that combines my favorite things: blogging, recipes, stories, food, pictures of food. Awesome. My 3^rd obsession: Tea. Hot tea, cold tea, chai tea, any way you present it- I love tea. We drank SO much hot tea in Hong Kong, and I loved the way they served it at a local equivalent of Starbucks- hot black tea, with 3 huge slices of lemons. YUM! I can’t wait to get home and make tea out of our bright red stove-top tea pot and sit on my balcony, drinking tea and reading good books.

Well, I feel like i have more things to obsess over, however, I have been waiting until midnight for the internet to switch to “Navy only website” and I have about 99 million things to do that require the internet late at night when no one else is awake.

So, that’s all for now, sorry for the lack of colorful pictures or anything of real importance.

Until next time!

Four Weeks…

… until I am re-united with 3 of my favorite “M’s”- my momma, my mother-in-law & Molly V! Tiger Cruise kicks off in exactly FOUR weeks and I couldn’t be more excited if I tried. In the words of Julie Andrews from Sound of Music- “these are a few of my favorite M’s”

[molly v., i don’t have any pictures of us on my work computer- they are all on my mac and I can’t transfer the pics right now. This can be rectified in two ways, 1- you sending me a picture of us for me to upload, and certainly we have like HUNDREDS of pictures of us or 2- we take a picture of us together in TWENTY EIGHT days :)]

That means 33 days til home. 33 days til this.

Today Nicole & I built our paperchain countdown [Every single guy in the office made fun of us]

I’m counting already, are you?

Confessions of a shopaholic

Hello family/friends/random readers who secretly (or not so secretly) stalk the blog who haven’t officially listed themselves as a follower (A few months ago I demanded Dan become a follower “how can my husband not be a proclaimed follower of MY blog?!?!”… he’s now a follower and you should be too :)) Anyways…

Greetings from Hong Kong, here this 6th day of the “Year of the Tiger”. Which, if you’re wondering what Hong Kong is like over the Chinese New Year, I’d say it’s pretty comparable to NYC over Thanksgiving. Not that I’ve ever done NYC over Thanksgiving, but now I’m fairly certain that I have no desire to brave these types of crowds again.

It’s pretty late here- about 1am on our last day in Hong Kong but I am on duty until 3am so I figured I would jot down a few things about this port visit. I wont go into TOO many details since I have another 34 days of blogging ahead of me with no port visits to break it up. But let’s see…

I spent the 4 days here with my 2 favorite travel buddies, Nicole & Jean-Ann (JA for short). I think I mentioned this before, but JA studied Chinese in college and studied in China every summer during college. This makes her not only a great traveler, very worldly, and adventurous, but also makes her an ideal liberty buddy when in China. This was her 3rd trip to HK but normally she has been there in the summer when it was like 90 degrees. Apparently the weather gods have decided that we’ve been spoiled enough by our mild Gulf winters and equatorial climate these past 5 months and decided to really throw us for a loop here in HK. The temperatures were in their 40’s! Now, I know, I know, all of my family & friends back East are like “40’s?! mu ahaha, we’ve had 30” of snow”, however; imagine that you had no heat, no jacket, and one pair of long pants. Also, imagine that you have spent the past three years in Florida, Southern California, or hovering somewhere around the equator in south America or SE Asia. You can see where this 40 degree weather really got on my nerves. After piling on my (one) pair of jeans, some underarmor cold weather gear I brought because it is cold in the Zulu module where I stand watch, my one long sleeved shirt (a brown Gap waffle shirt I wore to sleep in) and a Nike zip up jacket I bought in Bahrain at the NEX because I felt like spending money, it was super cheap and it “looked fun” and lasting approximately 15 minutes in the cold, the first order of business was to capitalize on the “New Year’s” sales in HK. I purchased myself a pinkish/brown tweed button up jacket that is sorta preppy with a big collar but is casual with ribbed cuffs and banding around the bottom. However, it was (relatively) cute, warm enough and only cost $30. Sold. This wouldn’t have been necessary if places in Hong Kong actually knew how to properly heat their buildings, but I guess they weren't expecting the freak cold weather.

Then I stocked up on another pashmina. Let me just say, that I never want to see another pashmina for sale EVER.AGAIN. the past 5 port visits (Bahrain, dubai, Thailand, Malaysia & Hong Kong) have all been either near or part of the pashmina trade routes and you can’t cross a street w/o someone trying to sell you a pashmina. The good news is, they were only like $3 and I now own like 3, 2 of which I layered to keep both my neck and head warm. The bad news is, if someone tries to sell me a pashmina back home, I might have a psychotic breakdown. Pashmina Sellers of America- you’ve been warned.

In addition to the 3 pashminas (pink-ish bronze, light brown, and ivory) and new tweed jacket that I have bought I feel like it is a good idea to detail the list of things that I’ve purchased this deployment. This is in hopes that 1) my husband has a better understanding of our bank statements this past month or so and 2) he can finally say like all good husbands say: “my wife is always going shopping” and 3) he is not totally shocked when I continue to pull souvenir after souvenir out of my suitcase(s) next month.

In Bahrain I found 2 fabulous Persian rugs (which are already enjoying a plush, no pun intended, life at 1455 Kettner Blvd). From Dubai, my favorite souvenir was the time I spent with Dan, but my dad made out pretty great with a “Harley Davidson of UAE” tee shirt and my in-laws received Arabica coffee beans and Iranian dates. I also walked away (or sailed away) from Dubai with a pair of black pearl earrings and a big container of “medium-spicy middle eastern curry” spices. Yum!

Thailand was where things started to get a little out of hand. 2 beach cover-ups, 3 tailored dresses and 2 tailored pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shoes to match this, a woven tissue box cover (Dan: Wow! No way! Not a woven tissue box covers, I’ve ALWAYS wanted one of those!), some fabulous lemongrass spa products, a “Harley Davidson of Patong Beach” tee-shirt, a leather wallet for Dan and some cute elephant outfits for my niece and probably 4-5 other things I’ve already forgotten later, we picked up anchor and headed for Malaysia.

In Malaysia I scored an awesome pair of hand-made and hand-painted Malaysian wooden clog sandals, some woven trays (to match my woven tissue box cover, obviously), a cheap painting of some asian-looking cherry blossoms (a note on cheap art: Dan and I love collecting art from all of the places that we’ve been. Sometimes the art is super cheap, sometimes it’s super expensive, sometimes it’s somewhere in the middle but it’s always something that we love and it’s amazing what michael’s framing department can do with a 3 euro painting. This one is of cherry-blossoms, which I think are really pretty and so we’ll see where it ends up in the apartment), a handcarved owl (I couldn’t resist :)), cheap ($1.20) beige bucket hat to shade my face from the sun [seen to the right], a pewter pitcher (from the famous “Royal Selangor Pewter Factory”), 5 yards of 100% pure raw Indian silk (so my momma & I can get dresses made :)). I also picked up 3 books: Eat, Pray, Love; 3 cups of Tea; and Reading Lolita in Tehran, all “must reads” according to my friends who recommended them so I am excited to have these great books to keep me company the next few weeks. Again, there must be 4-5 more things but I’ve already forgotten. (This was inspired by my roommate Nicole, who went through every single souvenir that she bought this deployment tonight. I wasn’t prepared to embark on such a 3 hour long endeavor tonight so that will have to wait until later once we’re underway). Here is the photographic evidence of the amount of shopping damage that 3 girls did in 3 days in Kuala Lumpur:

In Hong Kong I became a proud owner of: 2 pairs of chopsticks, a tea-set with cherry blossoms (my favorite) painted on it, a set of blue and white printed china (not a full china set, but a serving bowl, 8 small plates and 8 small bowls, as accents to our every day dinner ware since we did not register for China from the wedding), another inexpensive but pretty framed piece of art (I’m not a huge fan of the overly-asian themed art with Chinese characters, but this one was a painting of a blue and white china vase set in a really nice mat and frame), a silk bathrobe, a new oversized cloth bag/purse (which was mainly purchased to help carry all of this stuff back to the boat), a pair of cute “furry” looking (more of a fringe style, but they look sorta furry) gold ballet flats, a pair of bright pink chuck taylors (purchased at the night market from a shady looking lady who sold authentic converse shoes out of her even more shady looking trunk for a grand total of like $10), 2 pairs of fuzzy socks, a cashmere hat (notice the “I’m cold so I need to buy warm clothes” trend?), and again, 4-5 things that I probably forgot. (I can probably dedicate a full separate blog post to the “list of things that I forgot that I bought”. This is all in addition to the copious amount of bath products that were “borrowed” from our myriad of Sheraton hotel stays to furnish our guest bathroom. )

So, the short of it is, you should come visit us in San Diego. I promise great, worldly art; tea from my new Chinese tea set; luxury bath products and more woven trays than even I know what to do with :) All I know is that I am so grateful to have the experience for this 6-month world tour and now I have so many wonderful things to remind me of my time out here from literally all over the world. And besides, after 6 months apart from Dan, well, at least now I have cool things to show for it, right?

Well, I guess that’s about it for now. There is more to say on all of these fantastic port visits, but I should probably let Dan recover from his retail-induced heart attack and I should get back to watch. OH! And I got another hair cut in Hong Kong. It was getting to be just about out of regulation and I didn’t want to have to fuss with trying to get it all stuck up in a bun right around the time that we came home. Here is a picture of me with my new-do in the HK Night Market. It is kinda hard to see amidst all of the layers of clothing I’m wearing, but it’s about 2 inches shorter in the front and about 3 inches shorter in the back. Overall, I am pleased but I think I will like it more in a month once it gets a little more length to it.

A few more Hong Kong pictures---- JA & I at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant- this is her giving me my first (of many!) chopstick lessons. The Chinese girls next to us were laughing at me, and rightly so- my chopstick skills were atrocious! But it’s ok, because the reward was the world’s most amazing, hot and fresh dumplings. I’ve seriously never had anything like this in my life. I can’t even put into words how amazing these dumplings were. And at like $2 for a bamboo steamer of 6, I could eat them for the rest of my life. Here is the dumpling man that would take a HUGE bowl of dumpling filling (whatever secret delicious things were mashed up in here), put them into the dumpling wrapper and wrap them up in these cute little bundles of deliciousness. Here is the end result that I am totally in love with. JA knows how to make dumplings and we’re going to have a girls night after we get back and she’s going to teach us how to make them (this is where the chopsticks will come in handy, see Dan- I bought practical souvenirs!)

Stay tuned for more about our 7th fleet port visits. Til then, it’s Anchors Aweigh for us!

Rites of Passage

Hi friends! The much awaited crossing of the line post!

So the other day, we crossed the equator (yes, it is very hot there). For those of you non-nautically inclined folks, this might not be that exciting. But “the crossing of the line” is a time honored rite of passage in the Navy and all other sea-going professions.

Basically the bottom line is this- the seas are ruled by “King Neptunus Rex” and he is accompanied by his assistant “Davey Jones”. So whenever a ship nears the equator, Davey Jones visits the ship and warns all of the “slimy pollywogs” (a pollywog is a sailor that has not yet crossed the equator) that they will soon be cleansed of their slimy pollywog filth, demonstrate that they are worthy seafaring nautical Sailors, and ready to become Shellbacks (a shellback is a Sailor who has crossed the equator). It used to be a way to “initiate” Junior sailors who had not spent much time at sea to a life at sea for them to prove that they were capable of handling cruise.

So the idea is that the shellbacks are responsible for the “cleansing” of the “nasty slimy pollywogs” and then at the end, when they make it through the events, they are presented in front of “King Neptunus Rex’s” Royal Court: King Neptune, Davey Jones, the Royal Baby, and a few others. The shellbacks all wear funny costumes- mostly pirate themed outfits. There is the “Royal this” and the “Royal that”- depending on what your job is in the ceremonies. The wogs all wear either blue or khaki pants, depending on if they are an officer or enlisted, and a white shirt with “WOG” on it. I was, if you could guess, a “molly WOG”. Here is a picture of both the Royal Court, and our Deputy Commodore, who paired his O-6 Mess Dress blue jacket with sweat pants and a red bandana.

Now, way back in the day, when women and decorum were not as prevalent in the “Gentleman’s Navy”- the crossing of the line ceremonies used to be a bit different. All of the members of the Royal Court were men, many dressed in drag- the events were something probably resembling pledge scenes from Animal House, wogs were forced to eat a cherry out of the big greased up belly of the fattest man onboard (the Royal Baby) and other mildly homo-erotic inspired events; pretty much the most gruesome hazing things you can imagine. However, now that we are more PC and less hazing, the Crossing of the Line ceremonies have taken on a more mild tone, which frankly, is fine by me. it is however, very interesting to hear stories of some of our Chiefs and other senior enlisted, especially the ones who served on submarines, as they talk about their own crossing the line experiences.

On February 13th, USS NIMTIZ initiated 1,500 wogs to mighty honorable shellbacks. The morning was long and tiring (I never want to sing “Row Row Row Your Boat” or perform the chicken dance EVER again!!) but a lot of fun- certainly no hazing or anything degrading, it was all in good fun and was a great event overall. I certainly wouldn’t have participated in anything that was not in good taste. Afterwards, we celebrated by a big steel beach picnic.

I am going to include some pictures to this email and write a quick caption for each:

Here we are waiting to ride on the elevator. I was really excited to ride on the elevator that is used to bring jets up and down from the flight deck to the hangar bay. You can see me on the 2nd row from the bottom, all the way on the right, I have the “CDS 23 on my sleeve”

Also, here we are on the elevator, sitting and waiting to go up, this is where the fun started.

There were SOOOOOOOO many pictures on the sharedrive from the event- almost as many as from our wedding! I will pull out a few that included me, or are just plain funny!

Here we are after going through the dunk tank- you have to go in front of the Royal Court, where you are “put on trial” and have to prove that you are ready to be a trusty shellback. I am on the far right, doing the sit-up chain.

Here is an example of a shellback costume.This isn’t me (obviously) but this is the tank that you come out of, emerged as a shellback. I know the stuff looks like the green ‘goo from Nickelodeon- it had a very similar color but was just like water.

So, after 3 years in the Navy, 2 ½ deployments, many many days, weeks, months at sea, and a few hours of chanting “I’m a Slimy Wog”- I emerged a trusty, honorable shellback. I can’t wait to get my official certificate and card!!

I hope you all enjoy and stay tuned for some stories about our last port visit in Malaysia! Hopefully you all enjoyed your snow days and your Valentine’s Days! As for me, I’m just trying to keep the excitement from Wog Day and port visits up for the next few weeks. Just under a month til I see my mommy and my new mother-in-law for Tiger Cruise and then a little longer til I’m back HOME!!!!!!!

All You Need is Love

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Being 16 hours ahead of time means that we get to celebrate little holidays like this twice- the first in our time zone, and then the 2nd as we patiently wait for our loved ones to wake up on their February 14th so we can call them and send/receive emails. For me, Valentine’s Day started off great- a midnight bed time, sleeping in until 9am, enjoying a heart-attack-inducing brunch (biscuits, hash browns, bacon, waffles w/ strawberries, AND donuts J), going to church services here with some people I have grown to be very good friends with and then mosey-ing down to the office to check my email.

This morning, we also conducted a RAS (replenishment at sea), for food, parts, stores, fuel and MAIL! For the first time since January 15th, we received mail, GLORIOUS mail. I am so incredibly grateful to receive an amazing valentine’s day care package from dan (how perfect too- the only mail we’ve gotten in a month, and we happen to get it ON valentine’s day, and it’s full of valentine’s goodies!). I eagerly torn into a huge box full of candy hearts (my FAVORITE J), 2 books, 5 gossip/girly magazines, 2 issues of TIME and more Valentine’s Day candy than I could ever possibly eat. In order to ensure I did not have a cavity-inducing experience this afternoon, I carefully sorted the candy, leaving well over ½ on the “community table” in the office for my fellow Desronians to enjoy. I also received a new Patricia Cornwell book from mom, which I cannot wait to read (I am reading one book right now and have FIVE books waiting in the wings- I actually think I have enough to take me through til home!) I also received a pink card with red and glittery hearts on it from Cathedral City High School, Room 311. So thank you, Cathedral City H.S, wherever you are! I was the only person on staff to receive a Valentine’s Day themed package, which made me feel very, very special. I even talked to one guy who has been in the Navy for 15 years and has only ever received one care package from his wife, EVER! Now, I’m not encouraging Dan to only send one care package in 20 years, but it made me incredibly grateful for all of my family and friends who have continued to brighten my days (and weeks and months and years) that I have spent at sea with emails, letters, books, magazines, funny stories, great blogs, packages and gifts.

Reflecting back on the 6 years of Valentine’s Days I’ve had with Dan, 2 of them were together at UVA and then the last 3 I have spent at sea. 2008 was spent underway while ’09 & ’10 have been spent on deployment. That being said, each year I am continuously filled with more love and happiness than the year before. Being apart for every single one of the “our first married insert holiday here”s certainly hasn’t been easy (especially since this follows 3 years of a long distance relationship!), but it is made a little better by all of the love that I know I have back at home waiting for me. (Which, by the way, only has to wait for 40 more days!!!)

The other day marked our 5 month anniversary, which I called dan to wish him a happy one. (I guess you can’t call 5 months an “anniversary”, so maybe more like our “5 months since we’ve been married”) and as the months crawl by, the ratio of time we spent together and time we’ve spent apart gets bigger and bigger. But that ALSO means that the amount of time we have left to go is getting less and less, which is a good thing.

It was during this conversation that we also realized that on our “real anniversary” we will have only spent 4 months together. But don’t feel bad for us, this means we get TWO “first anniversaries”- one on September 12th and a 2nd one whenever we have actually spent 12 months in the same country. That’s the best part about being a military couple and the deployments and hardships and the time at sea- you ALWAYS have something to celebrate (whether it’s the million holidays that you missed, the birthdays, the accomplishments and the major life events- or even if there aren’t any of those, just celebrating getting to be TOGETHER). We, and many other couples in similar shoes that I know, never ever take one minute together for granted. It’s an experience and a feeling that unfortunately comes at a very high price, but the feeling of being incredibly grateful for every opportunity we have together is something we will cherish and carry with us forever.

So, to my husband, my parents, my family, my extended family and all of my amazing girl friends- THANK YOU for the love that you have given me throughout my life.

As for me, I’m going to start unpacking all of my loot and sticking my nose into some of these magazines (what I really need to be doing is plopping myself on a treadmill instead to counter the brunch/candy) but i think I will wait until tonight after watch. I’m sorry I haven’t written much recently, since leaving Malaysia I have been VERY busy with work for my new boss and midnight VTCs (we had to attend a conference by video-ing in that started at 8am- SAN DIEGO TIME!; which means it started at midnight for us!) and working out and various other events.

To keep you on your toes, stay tuned for my next 2 big stories: our port visit to Malaysia and my epic nautical milestone of Crossing the Line (don’t know what that is? Can’t wait a few more days? Google “Crossing the Line”, “Pollywog”, and “Shellback” to get some ideas!

Home Fires 2

Today I re-read the article that was published about our wedding in “c-ville weekly”, so I thought I would share it with you all too!

Patience and rewards

Newlyweds savor their honeymoon, then settle in to wait

BY JESSIE KNADLER

Dan and Molly Laufer dated for half a decade before getting married. Three of those years were spent in separate cities. Dan, 25, lived in Atlanta, where he worked at a business strategy-consulting firm; Molly, 24, lived in Jacksonville, Florida, where she was stationed with the Navy. (The first two years were spent together in Charlottesville, where they met at UVA.) It’s a five-and-a-half-hour drive between Atlanta and Jacksonville, which the couple endured at least twice a month.

Dan and Molly Laufer September 12, 2009 Photograph by Sarah Cramer Shields

After so much long distance, they finally decided to close the gap by getting married this fall. But as wedding plans heated up over the summer, Molly, who is active duty in the Navy, had to transfer to San Diego, where she was expected to deploy to the Middle East (she’s had two prior deployments). The couple, who had hoped to dazzle their wedding guests with smooth moves on the dance floor, had signed up for a series of lessons at a Jacksonville dance studio. But the transfer cut the lessons short so they had to practice what little they’d learned in hotel rooms and hallways during the cross-country drive to California last August.

No sooner had the couple settled into their new digs on the West Coast, they had to fly back east again for their September 12 wedding at King Family Vineyard, in Crozet.

Molly, a Baltimore native, had been informed that she was to deploy a day after the wedding, which meant their honeymoon to Greece and Paris would have to be postponed. Luckily, plans changed at the last minute; she found out (during her bachelorette party, no less) that she was allowed to go on her honeymoon after all, but she was expected to ship out a mere three days after arriving back to San Diego.

With her deployment imminent, Molly and Dan did everything they could to ritualize their special day. On the day of the wedding, Dan, who’s originally from Charlottesville, decided it was bad luck to talk to his bride, a decision that can probably be explained by Molly’s description of him as “the most corny person I know but also someone who is deeply passionate about everything he does.”

“I was so excited to see him all day,” says Molly. “All I wanted to do was give him a giant hug.” At one point during the interfaith ceremony—Dan is Jewish, Molly is Episcopalian—the couple had to bless the wine. As Molly looked into her cup of wine, she noticed an insect floating in it. Her first words to her groom—even before “I do”—were “There’s a dead bug in there.” Dan’s hushed response: “It’s O.K.—it’s protein.” Molly whispered back: “O.K., I’m hungry.” No one understood why the 6'2" groom and his 5'2" bride shook with laughter as they stood under the chuppah.

For their first dance, the newlyweds twirled confidently across the dance floor—“probably more times than we were supposed to,” says Molly—to Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

At one point, Molly stepped out of the reception hall to take a breather. “I closed my eyes and all I could hear were glasses clinking, the band playing, people talking. I thought this was the one chance in our lives to have everyone we know and love in the same place—the wedding was the best going away party I could have ever had.”

And now Dan, who just got a new job in his new city, tries to keep the home fires burning during his best friend’s absence. Molly is currently deployed with the NIMITZ Carrier Strike Group where she works as a surface warfare officer on the Al Basrah Oil Terminal, an offshore Iraqi oil facility in the North Arabian Gulf that, she says, “looks like something out of the Kevin Costner movie Waterworld.” To stay in touch, Dan e-mails her pictures from his iPhone nearly every day. And “We live on Skype,” she says.

It’s not easy being apart, but Dan says he’s “reminded that a lot of people have it worse than us.” For now, he’s just looking forward to the day she comes home so they can enjoy the little things together—and share the same ZIP code for once: “Cooking dinner together, taking day trips, walking around our neighborhood,” he says. “The reality is that I can do all of those things right now, but it’s just not as fun or as satisfying without Molly.”

Home Fires

Hi everyone! This is an article that I read the other day- an OpEd in the NYTimes by a man who spent 4 years as an Army Officer, left the service (but continued in the Reserves) and now is a student at the Kennedy School of Government/Harvard Business School. I think it is incredibly well-written; it really speaks to me and brings up a lot of interesting ideas and questions that enter my mind when I think about leaving the Navy after my commitment is up, what will I do next, and how will I adjust to the change in lifestyle. Enjoy.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/the-two-worlds-of-the-citizen-soldier/?scp=1&sq=home%20fires%20erik%20malmstrom&st=cse

V-Day 2K10

Other than the fact that I don’t have a “boat boo” (which is NIMITZ lingo for a relationship with someone onboard), this cartoon could not be more spot-on. But thank goodness for brunch!

[Editor's note: The comment bubble reads "February 14, 2010....Valentines Day. I'm 14 billion miles away from home, we still have six weeks of deployment left, our next port call isn't for another three days, boat rlationships are going to get ugly when one way tickets to Dumpsville get handed out, and Patrick Swayze is still dead. Aside from brunch I can't think of any reason to get out of bed."]

Doppleganger?

Yes, you read that right- this post is actually written and posted by yours truly!

Greetings from Malaysia! I am not going to do a full Malaysia brief yet (why would I, when Dan LOOOOOVES uploading 18 pictures a day to blogger? :) --- actually that's not why, but I don't have my camera cord yet. Jean-Ann had to go back to the ship today to do a little work so she's going to pick up my camera connector cord.

As for me, I'm enjoying a quiet morning in the beautiful Sheraton Imperial in Kuala Lumpur. Despite everything being SO cheap here, wifi in your room is unfortunately very expensive, but I figured it was a small price to pay to be able to skype home and upload some pictures and actually be connected to the world, even if for only 2 days. While Jean Ann goes back to the ship until early afternoon, Nicole and I are going to be lazy around the hotel/pool. I know, I know, we SHOULD be out sightseeing but there is plenty of time for that, given that everything stays pretty hustling and bustling until 11pm.

However, I thought I would get on here for 2 quick things. 1) I have posted ALL the pictures from Thailand to facebook, so that Dan does not have to upload any more. So if we're friends, you can see them. If we're not facebook friends, you should friend me. and if you're not on facebook, well, where have you been for the past 6 years? (Just kidding :)

The other thing is, that in honor of what was apparently called Doppleganger Week on facebook last week (where you're supposed to upload a picture of what celebrity looks the most like you for your profile picture)- I bring you the "Molly Laufer Doppleganer" (true story: I don't even know what doppleganger means!!) . I of course, having an internet connection on the ship that makes dial-up look like speed racer, missed out on all of this. (I was online enough to experience the whole "Urban Dictionary Your Name" day, to which I was pleasantly discovered that my name, according to Urban Dictionary, means, extremely hilarious person, very good listener, loves melted cheese sandwiches, which I like to think is pretty spot on. And, it's a little creepy that even Urban Dictionary is aware of my love of grilled cheese sandwiches...).

So it is only fitting to write about my "Doppleganger" moment yesterday at a local mall. This was one of those Middle Eastern Dubai/Bahrain mega-malls. At the information desk, when we were asking for directions, the lady smiles and me as says "your face- your face looks like I have seen it before, how do you say it, familiar?" and of course we laughed and I said "really?" thinking to myself, "no I don't believe we've met before..." and she says "you look like the actress from the TV show- on the Ghost Whisperer". We of course smile and I say thank you (I assume it's a complement?) and then we leave. Of course, neither myself nor my travel companions (I think between the 3 of us we've spent a combined total of about 9 months in the US in the past year and a half) have ever seen the Ghost Whisperer. So this AM I google it, to learn that it was Jennifer Love Hewitt. I thought that was pretty funny b/c 1) I don't think I look like her and 2) no one has ever told me that. It took a few minutes of searching to find a picture where she didn't have ridiculously long hair but this was the closest thing I found to looking like me.

What do you think? I'm not sure I pass for this pretty, but if some Middle Eastern lady tells me that (who, incidentally is FAR more caught up on American culture than I apparently am...) I'm going to go along with it :)

And this picture was OBVIOUSLY not taken anywhere that has humidity even REMOTELY mirroring that of southeast asia...

My New Threads

Hi everyone! Greetings from hot and humid Malaysia. No snow, no ice, no shovels or days off for weather here! Instead, it’s about 92 degrees and muggy and buggy. (I’m finally recovering from the ridiculous bug bites from Thailand- I don’t get it- why do they love to gnaw on my precious skin?)

Before we continue, let’s talk about snow in the mid-Atlantic region. I feel like I can speak relatively freely and intelligently on the matter, given that I was born and raised there. It was only 3 short years ago that I fled my MD/VA roots and ran south then west where I haven’t seen temperatures below 50 in at least 3 years.

I heard most of my loyal readers experienced a lot of snow. 24+ inches a lot of snow. I heard even 95 was shut down- and you know you can hardly go anywhere in the b’more region without using 95. My favorite elementary school teachers, jumping with glee at the thought of a snow day; UVA and various other grad students equally celebrating a day off. Folks have even gotten days off of work for snow! It sounds AWESOME!

But let’s talk about the way people go PSYCHO over going to the grocery store for snow. I’ve heard the horror stories of lines all the way down the aisles to the back of the store. And it’s hard to argue that the most popular and sought out supplies are: bread, milk, cereal, etc (or for my younger generation- copious amount of booze or for my girl friends- baking supplies to keep you occupied). So even in a REALLY bad snowstorm, you might be stuck in the house for what, 2? 3? Maybe 4 days? That is, unless you’re a doctor, nurse, EMT, etc (thinking about you Meg, spending yet another weekend sleeping on a hospital cot between your night shifts!) who have to make it out to work regardless. But let’s say you’re the average Baltimorian who has 2-4 days stuck inside. How much milk could you REALLY need in four days? Or cereal? One bowl at day, maybe 4 people per family for 4 days. So what if you ran out of cereal? Or milk? You would make pancakes, or eggs, or even eat a frozen dinner for breakfast if times got really bad and you had no milk or cereal. Can most people honestly look at their refrigerator or freezer or pantry and think “good thing I am going to make it to the store, otherwise I’d STARVE the next 4 days”. Probably not. In fact, I haven’t had milk in almost 5 months, and I’m still alive to talk about it. Is it ideal? No, not really. I really miss milk. But it is possible to survive without it (or cereal or bread?)- yeah, I think so. But let’s be honest folks- running out for a whole new package of toilet paper? How many times could one use the bathroom in 3-4 days to need THAT much T.P?

Ok, now that tirade is over, I will continue. That rant was not directed at anyone specifically, just the way that people FREAK out over not getting to the store before a snowstorm. [I will now pause and give anyone a chance to rebuttal the rant of this sunshine/mid-70’s lovin’ girl- how bad was your snow experience? Power outages? Or- tell me how GREAT it was- an unexpected day off? A chance to bake cookies? A beautiful view from your window? ß send your stories my way- I secretly miss snow and snowdays for sure! Dan says “this is why we have to move to Boston, so we can be snowed in together,” but I think my sister will argue that somehow Bostonians can handle 24” of snow.]

So back to my final chapter on Thailand. I went straight to the tailor my first day in Thailand with a few ideas in my head. I wanted a cute party dress- v-neck or sweetheart neckline, thin straps, flattering around my waist, and an A-line pleated skirt in a cute print. I also wanted a button up dress that tied around the waist- my inspiration was a picture in Vogue in a “gardening inspired layout”- except in the magazine picture, the dress was green, appeared to be of a cargo-pant type of material, with “cargo-style” pockets on the front. I wanted this dress, but with an Ann Taylor twist to it. I also wanted a pair of linen cropped pants.

The pants were easy- at first I wanted white, no- that was too white. Then I wanted off-white- no, that one wasn’t good with my skin. So I settled on a creamy khaki (so still summery looking) colored. I liked them so much that the 2nd day when I went back for the fitting (they were a little shorter than I wanted at the first fitting, so they took them out an inch in the hem), I ordered a brown pair! Nicole kept encouraging me to pick out a brighter color but I went with Jean-Ann’s advice to get something that could look casual, or dressy if pairs with dressy flats or heels. Here are the brown pants on me and I was holding up the cream colored ones. (pardon the fact that I look terrible and am wearing a camo uniform t-shirt which clearly does not match and have huge bags under my eyes and huge looking forearms. I swear I’m not a total wreck).

So then the button-up dress. I explained to the guy exactly what I wanted, same dress, above the knee, no pockets, and linen. I settled on a vibrant watermelon shade of pink. I was “tickled pink” if you will, by my 2nd fitting. Despite the fact that there were no buttons (so I had to hold it close) and one of the sleeves hadn’t been sewn on and there was no lining in there yet, I was SOOOO happy. I loved it! Until I went to pick it up and there were YELLOW buttons on it. Yes, you read that right- YELLOW buttons on a PINK dress. (ICK!) I had requested a “shell” or “Khaki” color like the buttons in the picture! The guy tried to explain to me that “well, it is a different dress, that dress is green” and I said “I KNOW! But I said I wanted shell colored buttons!”. This was about 4pm the night before we were leaving the next morning but they had made my black & white dress RIDICULOUSLY too big so they had to fix it in the next 6 hours anyways, so I was like “you MUST change the buttons!!!” (I’m paying for it, after all!). This is Jean-Ann, helping me with some advice, and if this picture had a caption it would be “seriously? Yellow buttons?” so they did, and at first we didn’t like the buttons b/c they were obviously bigger than I wanted, until I put the dress on and we all liked the dress with the big buttons. We decided it kind of has a “raincoat look”. Here is the finished dress, in my stateroom. I am in LOVE with this dress. It might be one of my most favorite dresses I’ve ever had. It’s light, linen, springy/summery (so we need to stay in southern California for awhile!), SO well made to fit me perfectly. It will be good with flats/sandals or heels. I am SO happy with it!! When I picked it up dress and it was all done, I loved it soooo much, I ordered one in black (with black small buttons, I made that SOOO clear :))- it’s being made right now and will be sent to my apartment- yay!

Then on to the black and white dress. After my first fitting (no lining, really baggy), I was pretty skeptical. So I went back 2 days later to pick it up and it was STILL huge. I mean, I guess I’m flattered the guy thought I had such a long torso but no no no it was too long! And very big around my middle. The whole point was that it was supposed to “cinch” my waist to show off a smaller middle, but the pattern (oblong sized and shaped polka dots) and the fact that it was too big make me look even bigger and “frumpy.” However, this time, the straps and neckline were done and the lining has been sewn in, so I really got a much better idea of the shape of the dress. The cutest part is the little pleats around the waist of the dress that helps it “go out” from my hips.

Unfortunately, when I went back the 4th time, late at night (around 10pm) on our last night there, the straps were STILL a bit too long (maybe ½ an inch?)- however it was hemmed to just above my knee (Jean-Ann said to make it longer, like tee-length, Nicole said to chop it off and make it more sassy around mid-thigh, so I stuck with in the middle, I am going to wait and see how looks with bright red sassy high shoes and then take up more if necessary). Speaking of red sassy shoes, I have these GORGEOUS satin ivory shoes that I wore for our wedding. I LOVVVEDD the little rounded toes, they were comfortable, elegant and matched the dress perfectly. However, right now I don’t (and probably never again will) have very little demand for ivory satin shoes. I planned to dye them, but have not been able to decide on a color. Here are my sassy wedding shoes- what are your thoughts on dying them bright red for this dress?

However, overall I am pleased with the B&W dress. I love the little waist and the pattern (do you think it makes me look frumpy?) and the little pleats around the waists that go out from there, which is very “forgiving” of my hips :) It was a good purchase, and I just need to have the strap taken up a teeny bit when I get home. But the dress is very well made and I love the fit.

Well, that’s all for now, folks! I’m on duty today so should probably take advantage of the time to get a run in and have watch tonight so I’m finishing up some work here while on watch from 9pm-1:30am. Tomorrow morning, we (myself, Nicole & J-A) are heading out into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! We are staying right in the city center by the Petronas Towers at the Sheraton for 2 nights. I can’t wait for more DELICIOUS food, seeing a big city, and some great shopping!

p.s. In summary: I want to hear your best snow story and thoughts on dying the shoes red!

NIMITZ at Anchor

Here we are at anchor in the Gulf of Thailand (I think that’s what it’s called). Such gorgeous sunsets here! (makes me excited to get back to watch San Diego sunsets from our apartment balcony!)

I have a new boss finally! The real N7 showed up so it is great to have a real department head! He comes to us from the ROOSEVELT, a Mayport ship. He is really knowledgeable and might be equally, if not more, organized and into trackers and spreadsheets as I am. This is obviously a great thing but I have been SUPER busy trying to scurry to get it all done. I love having a sense of ownership of my job and really understand where my little role or niche is here.

I did a little fashion show with all of my new tailored clothing today in my stateroom to take pictures, but looks like I’m going to have to pass on that one (it’s already 2am and molly is sleepy!)

I am on duty tomorrow so I promise to wrap up the Thailand tales before I check out Malaysia! Thanks for all of the comments and emails from family & friends- you all keep me going!

Love,

Molly

Another Blog About Seafood?!

But no, it’s not necessarily what you think. One of the things that we did while in Phuket, Thailand was indulge in multiple trips to multiple spas. In 3 days I enjoyed a grand total of two 1-hour massages, an hour full-body scrub, an hour long pedicure, a manicure and an hour long foot massage including scrubbing at least 5lbs of dead skin off of my feet for about $120. 2 of these things were done as a package at our really nice resort spa. After 4 months of wearing the same boots every day, my feet could really use some TLC and Thailand is just the place to go for great therapeutic treatments at pennies to the dollar for what you’d pay in the states. One of the spas even sold their AMAZING smelling products. Lemongrass is the signature scent here, the scent of it is AMAZING (we had lemongrass ice cream one night!) so I picked up a few heavenly spa products- lip balm, oils, etc in the incredible scents to remind me of my time here.

But one of the coolest things we did was the “Fisho Spa”. As seen on Oprah, Phuket was full of these fish spas, where you put your feet (or your hands or your WHOLE BODY) into these pools of “Doctor Fish” which nibble away (though they have no teeth) at the dead skin. It was SOOO funny- I giggled and squirmed and squeamed the whole time- it tickled SOO much! Thailand is a culture that puts a lot of focus on the feet- it is rude to wear your shoes inside anything (like your hotel room or someone’s house or a spa) and any spa treatment starts out by them washing your feet, as seen here. Here is also a picture of the “Doctor Fish” attacking Nicole’s feet. Overall, it was a fun experience and I am glad that I could say I tried it. I’m not sure if it got a lot of my dead skin off, but it did help circulate the oxygen in your feet more, so we felt like we walked a little lighter in our sandals after leaving the “Fisho Spa”.


So then we checked into our hotel- the “Diamond Cliff Resort and Spa”. A lovely gem of a hotel, situated at the farthest most north point of Patong Beach (Patong is the ridiculously wild and crazy and crazy part of the island). We could walk there for outdoor market shopping (or bartering) and street-food eating in about 15-20 minutes or take a tuk-tuk for about $5. What is a tuk-tuk you ask? A tuk-tuk is a basically an oversized pick-up truck, with the back converted into 2 long benches for seating and covered. Here is a tuk-tuk. Yes, it felt slightly unsafe and probably wouldn’t pass any sort of government safety requirements in the States, but it is vastly safer than the alternative mode of transportation in Thailand: mopeds (with or without a food stand attached :)). Here I am with my 2 travel buddies for the port visit, Jean-Ann and Nicole in our Tuk-tuk.


Back to the hotel. The hotel was on a cliff (which made for some good exercise walking from the open-air lobby to our room). We booked the room through MWR (morale, welfare, and recreation) who sold hotel reservations on the ship the week leading up to the port visit. The hotel was incredible- normally the MWR hotels aren’t always the nicest and sometimes you don’t even get as good as a deal as you would online. However, this was reasonably priced at $160 a night for what is one of the nicest hotels in Patong Beach (most of the ones right in the heart of “downtown” were like $60). In fact, one of the stipulations of our hotel was “this is a family resort- no local joiners”- a local joiner being a lady you might meet out at “a go go” club. So we paid a little more for peace, quiet and relaxation.


The hotel had a lovely spa, 3 pools- one that had a swim up pool bar!, one halfway up the cliff with a view of the ocean and one across the street- ON the beach! The hotel reminded me a little bit of the hotel that Dan & I stayed at in Crete on our honeymoon- it was a very sprawling complex up a hill and the beach was small and rocky but gorgeous and quiet. Our room was wonderfully appointed with 3 double beds and 3 little sets of comfy bedroom slippers (since you’re supposed to take off your shoes!). everything was hardwood and the linens were white and had little wispy “curtains” over each bed! It really was a beautiful room and the whole properly was spread out and felt very roomy- I would have loved to have been there with Dan!


The 2nd day that we were there, we donned our new beach cover-ups that we bartered for at a local market and checked out the beach. Jean-Ann and her fair skin spent most of the time under a shaded palm tree but I wandered down to the beach. The beach was a little “alcove” part of the Andaman Sea, and the water was warm (but not too warm) and calm amidst the rocks.

Here are some pictures of the beach area. You can see the pool here- and to the right of the infinity pool was the beach
You could even see a cruise ship here in the background- what a cRaZy place to pull into! Overall, it was a GREAT place to stay- my only regret is that our duty day did not allow us to stay for more than one night at the Diamond Cliff Resort!

Other than spa-ing and beaching and eating, the only thing we really did was shop-shop-shop! And what fun it was, given that you could barter for EVERYTHING. And, like the rest of SE Asia, every single stand sold knock-offs. Knock off purses, knock off polo shirts, knock off Haviana’s, knock off Ed Hardy teeshirts (there were THOUSANDS of them! They must have known that 6,000 Sailors from SoCal were swinging through!). Like a good Aunt, everything I saw I wanted to get for my precious niece, Alexandra (baby kimono’s anyone?) and had SO much fun shopping for her. In an effort not to go totally over the top, I settled on an adorable bring pink polo shirt dress, one of the ones where the little skirt looks like a tennis skirt (a knock off, of course, but she’s 4, so that’s ok :)) and a tee-shirt with a patchwork elephant with 3-D floppy ears and a matching patchwork skirt. I am so excited to get home and send them to her! Given that I have NO idea what size children are, I bought up, hoping that she can grow into it if it’s too big. That’s the thing about kids, they’re always going to grow but rarely shrink, right?

I am already giddy for the markets and shopping in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I am obsessed with local crafts and gifts- I think it has to do with being at a stage in my life where I don’t have a lot of “knick-knacks” (although my mom would probably argue otherwise) and it is so much fun to collect things for our new apartment that represents our travels and this stage of our life together (unfortunately these are travels without Dan right now)- serving dishes, art, picture frames, etc etc. Kuala Lumpur has one of the world’s most famous pewter factories and I cannot WAIT to check it out. It will be a perfect place to get us some nice things for ourselves and family and gifts to have on hand. But I am just as happy bartering for knock-offs and local crafts and jewelry too.


One other interesting thing about Thailand is the way in which the people there express their religion. Buddhism is obviously the predominant religion in Thailand and you see small temples all over the city. People come up to them and leave flowers, lei’s, water bottle, half empty soda cans, pictures, toys, etc to show respect. Almost every restaurant, shop, etc (and apparently people’s homes) have a small corner like this. It was very interesting.

Well, I’d love to keep writing but it is already 2:30am and while I would love nothing more to stay up and continue chatting away, I should probably get some sleep. I am furiously finishing up Thailand blogging though because only a few days til we’ll be in a new port again! Hope everyone is doing well and I promise to do the best I can to keep you all entertained during the supposed massive snow storms that are about to pummel the east coast. Stay safe and warm!

Hugs & kisses!

Unrelated (but Equally Important) Things

I’ll make this short and sweet because I have no pictures or long stories to accompany these, but they are very important nonetheless:

1. One of my very best friends from middle and high school had a BABY last week! Diana Correa (formally Hufziger) and her husband are now the proud parents of baby Natalie Paige Correa. I am SO incredibly happy for them. Diana and I were best friends in middle and high school and we lived in the same neighborhood. She and I got engaged the same day and she and Aaron got married about a year before us. What a wonderful couple and I am SO thrilled that they are parents. That being said, I cannot believe we are growing up! It seems like just yesterday that we were playing in trees in Grier’s backyard and having sleepovers on snow days (I’m sure my mom thought the same thing the day I got married, but still). Mom and baby are healthy and beautiful!

2. 6 months after packing up our little Civic and driving the 3,000-some miles from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA, the Navy FINALLY paid me the thousands of dollars that they owed me from our PCS move. from gas and mileage and per diem and temporary lodging expenditures and dislocation allowance and hotels in Bahrain while I waited to go to ABOT, the Navy has taken its sweet old time (and requiring me to fill out excessive amounts of paper work AND audited me) but they have finally paid up. It is SO exciting because we practically forgot about all of this money they owed us, Dan said if only we could have charged interest :)

3. as of today, there are only SEVEN weeks of deployment left. When you think that I’ve already done EIGHTEEN, it doesn’t seem so bad, does it? I’m sure I’ll have some bad days around the end of February to the middle of March, but for now it sounds pretty good and I’m going to keep counting down the weeks for awhile.

4. Gold star of the week goes out to the amazing Dan who has so expeditiously posted all of these blogs and accompanying pictures with only minor grumbling about how annoying blogger is to upload pictures. You are the BEST Dan- thanks for doing this for me. (But I figure if he ever does quit the “Molly Blog Posting Job”, I have multiple blog-savvy friends- Bridgee, Lizzy, Molly V, etc who would probably volunteer to step up and help). I love you!!!

How Could I Forget?!?!...

… my OTHER most favorite street food!!!

I love fresh spring rolls. Love love love love love them. You know the kinds- the sticky-ish rice paper filled with glass noodles and veggies and pork or shrimp, with some kind of garlic or peanut or spicy dipping sauce. Those delectable little appetizers that run you about $9 at your average Thai restaurant for 2 or 3 rolls? Well, we found a mobile spring roll lady- she sold shrimp, veggie & pork spring rolls, with a green sauce that was super spicy on it, out of her little stand. At 10 Thai Bant each, you could get 3 spring rolls for 30 Bant- the equivalent of about $.90. She served them in little plastic containers with little plastic forks.

And given my love for spring rolls, I think it’s only fair that they got their own post with three big pictures. This.is.heaven. :)