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 4th 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 2nd and 3rd 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 2nd 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 3rd 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!
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