Sideways

Let me show you how this is done. First thing, hold the glass up and examine the wine against the light. You're looking for color and clarity. Just, get a sense of it. OK? Uhh, thick? Thin? Watery? Syrupy? OK? Alright. Now, tip it. What you're doing here is checking for color density as it thins out towards the rim. Uhh, that's gonna tell you how old it is, among other things. It's usually more important with reds. OK? Now, stick your nose in it. Don't be shy, really get your nose in there. Mmm... a little citrus... maybe some strawberry... ... passion fruit... and, oh, there's just like the faintest soupçon of like asparagus and just a flutter of a, like a, nutty Edam cheese... ~Miles Raymond, Sideways

So long, blogger friends & family. I know I've been terrible about updating, I haven't even been busy with work, just busy soaking in the real world.

But for now, Dan & I are off to the heart of wine country tonight! We'll be sipping and tasting with our friends Jeremy & Laura (J. worked with Dan at Bain and L. is his girlfriend) for 3 nights in Napa with 2 full days of wine tours (one to Sonoma in a big bus and one in Napa in our our private limo) followed by the weekend in San Francisco. 

Can't wait to  taste some great wines, eat some fantastic food, relax, travel and get away for a little bit. Looking forward to San Fran too for some great food in Chinatown, a bike trip across the Golden Gate Bridge and who can go to S.F. and not check out Alcatraz.

We'll be back Sunday night with lots of stories to update on, I'm sure!

Ode to Yogurtland

seriously, i really really REALLY love yogurtland. there aren't enough words to properly express my love for yogurtland, but my friend Sarah did a great job of explaining the self-serve yogurt concept awesomeness here. i knew i had a problem when one of my friends that i stood watch with while in the NIMITZ said to my mom when he met her during Tiger Cruise: "i have spent a lot of time on watch with your daughter and for 4 straight hours a day, i talked about my kids, and she talked about yogurtland"

This really wasn't that far from the truth (although, in my defense, I only got to have yogurtland (well, actually Pinkberry, which is yogurtland's vastly inferior second cousin) 2 times in 6 months. Now, I've had yogurtland about 4 times in 7 days! And I did talk about Dan alot in those 4 hours a day too.

About a week before I came home, Dan told me that there was a new flavor at Yogurtland- Red Velvet Cake Batter. Now, given my love for red velvet cakes (and that delicious, creamy and slightly tart cream cheese icing that adorns it. Let's be honest, red velvet cupcakes are nothing more than a brightly colored sturdy vehicle for delivering such delectable icing to your lips) and yogurtland, Dan said it would only be more appropriate if it was named "Molly's Homecoming Flavor"

And thus, my first reunion with Yogurtland on Friday, March 26th. The USS NIMITZ was moored at approximately 0955. By ~1059 I had attacked Dan on the pier (by attacked I mean that Dan was looking at the ship, trying to see if he could see me leave when little did he know I was running up to him with his back behind me and he turns around just as the pitter patter of my little feet alerted him to the fact that I was on my way and then I pretty much jumped on him... good thing he's strong!). 

Anyways, we speed walked the 1+ mile to the car, loaded up Timmy (the XTerra), zipped across the Coronado Bay Bridge in record time given that 10,000+ people were on the pier/parking lot for Homecoming and were at Yogurtland by 1127 (to which Liora, Dan's mom said "don't we eat yogurt AFTER lunch?... after all, it was 1127... and Dan said "shhhh, she's REALLY excited about yogurt") and I walked in to see this sign hanging up.

My first reaction was "OH THEY MADE ME A SIGN!" until Dan said "actually, Rachel made you a sign and I brought it here to be hung up"... but the point is still the same, and this was awesome. I truly do have the best husband/friends ever. I think I squealed. No, I definitely squealed I was so excited.

I will try and update some more this weekend, I'm just having so much stinkin' fun in the real world! This is my first real weekend in the real world and tonight we are hosting GAME NIGHT at our apartment. A group of folks that Dan knows from UVA/their group of friends in SD are coming over and so I should probably head off to the grocery store to get the rest of the ingredients tonight. On the menu: hummus, guacamole, salsa, spinach & artichoke dip, sangria and homemade mini red velvet cupcakes. A motley menu, you say? Yes well, the theme is "Foods that Molly Likes to Make/Eat"- it's only been 7 days, I still have that prerogative, right? :)

Happy Friday!

It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere!

Hi everyone! As I s-l-o-w-l-y re-adjust to life back in the good ole US.. of A (which, given that I have never lived here, can't find any of my clothes in the apartment, the fact that California drivers abominable driving skills, and I am uber dependent on my GPS/husband to get me anywhere, is surprisingly more difficult than I expected), I wanted to still take the time to update everyone to prove that I am still in fact alive and kickin'.... I'll try to do a blog a day til I get back up to speed.

The past few days have brought the return back to work (boo hiss!), a few trips back to the NIMITZ to move my stuff off, the delivery of 35+ pounds of laundry (which, if you're trying to get an idea of how much 35 lbs of laundry is, it completely fills the trunk of your standard 2009 Honda Civic) from deployment to Posh Wash (our local fluff 'n' fold) for a much-needed 24 hour turnaround on all of my laundry, a major holiday Passover (our first newlywed holiday finally!) and a lot of organizing and Yogurtland.

They've also brought not one, but TWO rounds of margaritas (which if you know me, you know I love a good marg!).

The first round came on Friday night at a fantastic restaurant in Old Town, San Diego. While I didn't drink this whole pitcher myself, I did enjoy the performance by the mariachi band that Dan called over to play for our table.

The second round of margaritas came on Saturday afternoon when I received a call that I had a flower delivery from a local florist and would I be available for delivery that afternoon. You can imagine my excitement (I audibly squealed) when I opened the door to see this  bouquet? glass? pitcher? of margarita shaped flowers from a group of wonderful, thoughtful, sweet and caring Chi Omegas. The gals were in Vegas this last weekend (I was obviously a little booked this weekend & couldn't make it) but we were still able to share a good marg (figuratively, I suppose) together, despite the distance. Thank you Bridgee, Lizzy B, molls & Noodle- I'm so grateful to have such wonderful friends as you- thank you for thinking of me and can't wait to hear stories of your trip to Vegas!

More to come later on True Life: I'm Home From Deployment

I'M HOME!

Hi everyone! So sorry I haven't blogged in the past SEVEN days (eek, sorry :/ )

But I have a good excuse, I swear. These two lovely ladies who watched the launch cycle of F/A-18's from Primary Flight Control and who met just about every Sailor onboard the Nimitz and who were CHAMPION Tigers for the past 5 days just kept me totally, completely busy!

That, combined with the fact that I was restless, emotional, stressed, nervous, anxious and everything in between meant that I didn't have a lot of time for work-related stuff, especially blogging.

But, I am HOME sweet home in San Diego, California, U.S.A! I promise to update over the next week or so about Seattle (which you can read about here, thanks to my good friend Molly V. who much more expeditiously documented our Seattle adventures), Tiger Cruise, Homecoming and re-adjusting to life back at home.

Thank you for all of your love, emails, blog post comments, care packages, facebook wall posts, prayers, shout-outs, support and help over the past 6 months. I know I certainly couldn't have done it with out you.

Well, as for me, I'm up much earlier than Dan (back to life as usual, right?) and am enjoying this perplexing set of remotes, Netflix, DVR and cable boxes sitting in front of me :)

Round 2

It looks like we're going to need to start Round 2 of this game. I am sorry to report that all of you are way, way, under. It has been fun for me to try and figure out exactly what kind of logic you used on this, but I feel like I can't declare Gaby the winner since he is SO far under

I can tell a lot of you tried to calculate the distance from San Diego to the Middle East. And while this was a logical route, unfortunately you may have neglected to remember that we are continually underway, all day, every day. Unlike a plane that flies, lands, waits for whatever it has to do and then flies back, we are continually moving and once we got there, we steamed around for 5 full months without stopping.

So, a clue is (which doesn't really help you calculate it, but it should give you a better gauge of how big a number it is): our total mileage steamed to date is more than if you circumnavigated the globe THREE TIMES at the Equator. Also, figuring out what speed a carrier NORMALLY steams at could also be of some help...

The game will run until Sundayday at 0800 PST (which is 1100 East Coast Time). That will give me some time to check my computer before I LEAVE THE SHIP!

Speaking of PST, today was yet another epic day because in addition to being only a week out, we officially arrived in Pacific Standard Time. My watch, iPhod, clock, computer and iPhone are now all in the same time zone, which is the same one as Dan, which makes me very very happy.

Well, it's only 11pm here but I am seriously hurting (I am trying so very hard to get rid of this cold that I have, but something tells me it can only be cured by San Diego sunshine and a good night's sleep in my own bed!) so I am going to try and continue to get as much sleep as possible. (Deployment record of 9 hours last night!!!)

Thanks for all of the well-wishes and encouragement, I really appreciate it and it's definitely helping me get through this next week! Tomorrow my Tigers fly to Seattle and only a little over 36 hours til I get to see them!!!

Let's Play a Game!

Who loves games? I do! I do!

You do too? Ok good, we're going to play a game!

This game came to my mind after I wrote the post yesterday about taking pictures of the little Civic's odometer every morning on our cross-country road trip (see yesterday's post). Tonight in the Zulu module, I found the big Nimitz's "odometer" which displays how many miles we've steamed since July 31, 2009.

This is going to be like the Price Is Right (Dan- you'll be good at this then! Everyone remember to ask Dan about the time that he and his 10 friends also coincidentally named "Dan" were on the Price is Right in Vegas during his Bachelor Party. Dan won a dinette!... ok, small fib. Dan actually won the choice between cash and a dinette and he went with the moo-lah, good choice Dan!... but how fun is it to say that "Dan won a dinette on the Price is Right!"? I feel like that is SOOO P.I.R. to win a "dinette"- who even uses that word in their vocabularly OTHER than when watching the Price is Right? Anyways, once again, I digress...) - the person who guesses closest WITHOUT going over is the WINNER!

So, now it's your turn to get to be on Price is Right (feel free to sport an oversized price-tag shaped nametag too while you post your answer). All you have to do is guess how many miles the USS NIMITZ has steamed so far this deployment.

There are two ways to play the game and I think that Dan and I take 2 opposite approachs to this problem, which is very much like "Guess How Many Jellybeans Are In This Jar?"- (I was never good at as a kid. I quickly picked a random number and instead pondered if I could eat them all myself and would they let me try?). Dan is much more strategizing when it comes to these types of things (which is probably why he won the dinette on Price Is Right, and illustrates in another way how smart I think he at Systems Engineering) and is very calculating and methodological at solving problems and challenges.

While not normally liking to admit that I am wrong, when it comes to this problem, I guarantee you that the Dan approach is much more effective and will most likely yield you an answer way closer than that one that I would have initially said ("I dunno, 2 MILLION nautical miles!!!").

I'm not going to give any clues yet, other than that fact that 1) I am on an aircraft carrier and 2) we've been gone since July 31, 2009. I look forward to hearing what you come up with. If everyone guesses the same way I usually do, then I will give a little bit of information to help you try and calculate it.

Winner gets a cool prize*. Submissions will be accepted until Sunday March 21st. I promise to read all comments/guesses and I will give a clue if it gets out of hand. Ready? Set? Go!



*Prize is yet to be determined. Coolness of the prize is in the eye of the giver (which is me), and the giver and winner's definition of "cool" may be different. That's not the point, but I promise that there is a prize involved. Thank you for playing and good luck :)

Single Digits

I feel like the title to this post says it all. I remember, back toward the end of December, when we went from being triple digits away from home to being double digits.

Today we hit single digits. Even more awesome is that my lucky number has always been "nine." Coincidence? I think not!

I've Been Everywhere

I love music. I really do. Even though I'm not in the US 75% of my life (ok, slight exaggeration, however I did do the math today and of the last 18 months, I have been out to sea for 13 of them, which equals being gone for 72.22222% of my most recent past, so for once in my life, I'm not actually THAT far off) and so I rarely can keep up with the Joneses in the "New, Hip Music" department. I have also been (rightfully) accused of butchering the lyrics to even the most simple of songs ("eat that old Georgia pie, anyone? :)) and only a complete deaf man could call my singing anything other than completely 100% off key, 100% of the time (has that ever stopped me from doing karaoke? Absolutely not. In fact, remind me to do another blog about Asian karaoke in Hong Kong).

Anyways, I digress (I've also been accused of that too :))

Like Chris Cagle, I too feel like my life can be a country (or any other genre) song. I've danced with George Strait, I've lived those teenage Friday nights with a pyramid of cans, and I definitely remember where I was when the world stopped turning. And like Kenny said- "every time I hear that song, I go back".

So it comes to no surprise that pretty much everything on my iPod that I've listened to in the past 2 years or so has had connection to my life. I was reminded of this today on the treadmill when I flipped to my "Deployment Workout Mix"- however, when you've spent 14+ months on deployment alone in the past 3 years, you soon realize that one workout mix is not sufficient. Specifically, I tuned to "D.W.M 68 style"- as in, when I was on the NIMITZ (CVN 68). This mix includes a classic travelin' favorite by everyone's favorite Johnny Cash- "I've Been Everywhere".

Other than the cheesey Motel 6 commercial, this song strikes a particular chord with me (no musical pun intended. ha ha ha [insert sound of me cracking myself up, which is a more frequent occasion the longer we stay out here]). Last August (which feels like a life time ago!) Dan and I drove cross country. Armed with Coke Light, plenty of snacks, comfy shorts and tees, and 2 full iPhones of music (plus free Pandora, in case we ran out of songs!), we spent 7 glorious days driving across America. No seriously, they were truly glorious days and minus one (very small) hissy fit that I had after a 2+ hour excursion OFF the highway to see a some petrified forest that we couldn't POSSIBLY miss which turned out to be a slight disappointment to say the least, it was an AWESOME trip. (actually, in hinds sight, the trip to the petrified "forrest" was worth it. I will have to do a few blog posts on the road trip for a few good laughs).  If you've never driven cross country, I urge you to fill up your gas tank, grab your BFF, log onto roadtripusa.com and head out. We didn't even get lost once! (thankfully, that would have been embarassing. Our directions were as follows: Get on I-10 at the Atlantic Ocean. Drive West on I-10 for 7 days. If your car splashes into the Pacific Ocean from I-10, you've gone too far. The End)

So with 7 days on the road, we were able to get into a bit of a RTR- Road Trip Routine. Every morning, we would take a picture of the odometer and hit the road, kicking off the drive with our routine of songs. First we listened to Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again", followed by Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" and then conclused with our geographic-specific song of the day. "From Callin' Baton Rouge" to "Rock and Roll in Pensacola"," God Bless Texas",  "There is No Arizona" and "California Girls", thanks to our 2 iPhones of music, it was super easy to come up with songs about states as we drove through them. In fact, I think there was a whole song about I-10!

It made me smile so much when I was on the treadmill today and "I've Been Everywhere" came on my iPod. It took me back to our roadtrip and 7 glorious days gladly stuck in the car with my favorite person in the world. It also made me realize that after the road trip, the adventure was no where near over! In fact, after this deployment, I feel like I've been everywhere too! From Bahrain to an Iraqi oil platform (eww) to Dubai and an aircraft carrier, to Thailand and Malaysia and Hong Kong and ending up right back where my road trip dumped me out 7 months ago, I feel like I could give Johnny Cash a run for his money. I'm just not sure my song would be as catchy, or rhyme quite as well...

How Do You Measure (Half) a Year?

The folks in RENT measured all five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes in many different ways: in day lights, sunsets, midnights, cups of coffe, inches, miles and laughter and strife.

As for me, I haven't counted up all of the miles traveled in the past two hundred sixty two thousand eight hundred minutes (but I'm sure someone on the NIMITZ has and it will be part of our "End of Cruise" deployment statistic). However, there are many ways in which we all look back and reflect on the past six months. Over the next few days, I'm going to spend some time (when I'm not furiously trying to finish up everything that I want done before Tiger Cruise) reflecting back on all the ways to measure this deployment.

But the first one came tonight when I sat down at the computer and read the Plan of the Day for tomorrow. Over the past week, we have all submitted to one person on the staff how many pounds we had each lost this deployment (10 for me, thank you very much!). He has tallied up the numbers and the total thus far (we still have 12 more days to go) has been ~170 pounds lost on the DESRON staff.

Using the staff-decided average of 1 Laufer = 120 pounds, it was declared tonight that "so far, the Little Beavers have lost 1.4 Laufers- how much more to go?"

So then, this guy Pete, who's lost 40 lbs said "So I lost 1/3 a Laufer!" Now the joke on staff is to report everything in weight in relation to "a Laufer."

Also, today was a milestone day- our LAST Sunday underway. Which meant, our last Sunday church and Sunday brunch. And believe you me, at brunch I ate as though it was my last brunch on earth. I finally slowed down after my 3rd full plate and I haven't been able to think about or get near food since (that was at noon!)

Alright well, off to sleep. I think I'm coming down with something. Most of the crew has been getting really sick and of course this would happen right before Tiger Cruise and Homecoming. I think it is because it is getting really cold. It's about 59 degrees where I stand watch and 62 degrees in my stateroom so I am continually at a perpetual state of freezing. My head hurts, my body aches and my throat is sore. I'm pretty sure that's a recipe for disaster so despite how busy I am, I think it is most important to try and get some sleep.

Til next time!

Groundhog's Day

I know what you're thinking- "now she's REALLY lost track of time- didn't anyone tell the NIMITZ that Groundhog's Day was LAST month?"

And I know that I say that "every day on deployment is Groundhog's Day." But this time I REALLY mean it.

In a few hours, we are actually going to re-wind our clocks 23 hours and re-live Saturday, March 13th all over again. I know what you're thinking "that's AWESOME! I wish I could supersize my weekend with TWO Saturdays" and yes, I'm sure if I had the weekend off, I too would think that extending it by 33% would be swell.

However, given that I am anxious, desparate, excited, dying to get home, re-living March 13th isn't all that dandy of an idea to me. The good thing about this is that we will be on (relatively) the same day as San Diego so I won't have to do higher level math or whip out my "iPhone world clock settings" to make sure I don't wake Dan in the dead of night (you have to admit that I've been pretty good about that most of this deployment). So instead of being 18 hours ahead or whatever ludicrous time zone we were in, we'll be 5 hours behind San Diego time. Which is a LOT more manageable.

Also, the Media Department clearly has a sense of humor because one of the movies they are showing today (and tomorrow) is Groundhog's Day.

Alright well, off to bed in hopes that time will pass more quickly while I'm sleeping!

20 days

I know what you're thinking "20 days?! Molly, clearly you have forgotten how to count this deployment, you have WAY less than 20 days left of deployment"… and you're right, I have DO have way less than 20 days to go (thankfully, I am reminded of this by the shortening paper link chain hanging from our overhead lights). We are at now is a point where I have fewer days left to go of deployment than I do number of days that Dan and I have actually been together since we've been married (which is 20). And if these next 15 days go by half as fast as the 20 days that we were together went, well, then consider me pretty much home!

So of course, that got me thinking to the past 6 months that we have been married and the (extremely) limited time that we have spent together. And thus the following was "Overheard in the Zulu Module" this evening:

Me: "so my husband and I have officially been married for half a year today!"

Random Girl Sitting Surface Tracker: "haven't you been gone for like, half a year?" [said in an incredulous tone as she clearly is trying to do the quick math in her head of how long I'd been gone and how long I'd been married]

Me: "That's correct"

Random Girl Sitting Surface Tracker: "So, you haven't gotten to see much of him since you've been married have you?"

Me: "No, not much at all"

I can't believe it was exactly 6 months ago that we were here at King Family Vineyard, surrounded by the most incredible family and friends we could ever have been blessed with. I can't believe it has been 6 months since I felt this kind of happiness (ok, Dubai was just about this happy too). Most couples who are newlyweds can't believe how fast the early months/year of a marriage go by. These couples obviously must have spent more than 20 days together their first 6 months because I can't believe just how darn SLOW time is moving. It's funny, because I wish I could look back and reflect on the amazingness of being a newlywed and comment on all of the joys of marriage and just how wonderful it is to be together. Instead, I will continue to keep close to my heart the only things I do have- memories of the hours and days we were together and the anticipation and excitement for being together again soon (oh yeah, and 1,544 beautiful wedding pictures- thanks Sarah Cramer :)

So here's to the next 6 months being sweeter than the last and the worst days of our marriage being (almost) behind us. And happy 20-day anniversary to my loving and equally anxious husband. I love you :) [editor's note: i love you too :)]

Operation Thin Mint

I know I've already blogged for today but as I continue working (aka- getting distracted ever since I discovered that the NIMITZ Internet Gods have not yet discovered blogger and I still have unfettered access to blogger 24/7…) I came across something that I just HAD to share.

As it will probably surprise no one, I was put in charge of making our "Deployment Slideshow" that we show the Tigers during Tiger Cruise. Despite the fact that DESRON doesn't have a PAO, it probably comes as no surprise that I am in charge of this production. And of course, being the sappy, overly emotional and detail oriented girl that I am, I was unsatisfied with the pictures that I received when I solicited my fellow Little Beavers (no, I do NOT want pictures of you and the "ladies" you met in Thailand…) so I took to the NIMITZ Media department share folder to look at all of their pictures. I figured if we were going to show our families all of deployment, it would be unfair to leave out the holidays and Wog Day and leaving San Diego way back in JULY (!) and all of the other great things that the Media Department documents EVERY single day. I found the folder that they put like 20-80 pictures in EVERY.DAY (this, as you can imagine, has become quite the undertaking)

However, as I was looking through the pictures to find some great shots of the crew manning the rails and the ship pulling out of San Diego harbor way back on the fateful morning of July 31, 2009, I found these pictures. I don't know enough about the Girl Scouts (despite being one at one point in my life) to know about this project called "Operation Thin Mint"- however, being a relatively logical and intuitive person (ok, that’s' a lie, but still, work with me here) I think it has something to do with girl scouts giving troops/Sailors cookies to take with them on deployment. Who can turn down a project like this? Do you have any affliation with the Girl Scouts? If so- keep this program up! And I guarantee these cookies probably barely made it past the Coronado Bay Bridge before they were devoured!

These pictures just about broke my heart (in a happy way of course) and as I look at them, there were tears coming down my cheeks. No, I'm not kidding. I just had to share these precious, adorable pictures. And finally- when did they come out with such cute Girl Scout parka/cape things. I definitely was never that stylish in my outfit!

Looking all the pictures of everyone manning the rails almost 8 months ago got me SUPER excited to think about putting on my dress uniform and manning the rails as we head IN to San Diego Harbor in a few weeks (let's be honest, does anything NOT make me excited about going home? Even an email from my good friend Cole in the Navy who's in San Diego this month when she said that it rained in San Diego this weekend. Even rain in SD is better than a sunny day out to sea!)

Enjoy!

What's Your Soundtrack?

Does your life have a soundtrack? Is it one particular artist or is it a mix of artists? If it could only be one artist, who would sing your life soundtrack?


If you're one of my fabulous Chi Omega girl friends reading this, it might be Lady Antebellum's new CD. And thanks to one particular Chi-O, I too am the proud owner of her new CD. After many weeks of following on various blogs and f-book posts about the glorious-ness of her new album and wishing I too could hear a new song or two, I was excited (no, excited is not a strong enough word. I was ecstatic, thrilled, full of joy and happiness) to walk into our office after Mail Call and see the only package on the table was ("surprise, surprise", according to the people on staff that I work with) addressed to me with a pretty pink return label from none other than Ms. Annie Coghill.


Inside, was a plethora of things to keep me entertained these last few weeks, including the NEW (ok, not newest, but February, which is pretty new in my book!) issue of Real Simple (also introduced to me by another Chi-O, Bridget) in addition to a few other magazines, a new book, a sweet card, an equally sweet bag of Jelly Bellies (yes, I ate the ENTIRE bag on watch in one sitting- but I did share with some other people in the module) and the NEW Lady Antebellum CD in its entirety. YESSSSSS! I am SOOO excited to finish up my work (and no, blogging is not my work, but it is quite excellent at distracting me from my actual work) and go upload the CD to my iPod so I can listen to it while I lay in bed and read my new magazines, wrapped up in my sheets and blankets that I just washed and dried (with a dryer sheet) so they are soft and smell nice and fluffy. Life is good, yes?


Seriously Banoodle, cannot thank you enough for such an AWESOME care package! Especially at this point in deployment when it's all downhill from here but not fast enough. JUST the pick me up I need to get through another 2-3 weeks. And my response to the eye-rolls from my colleagues for receiving yet ANOTHER care package was that it was not my fault that they didn't have sorority sisters who loved them as much as mine love me :)

On the note of soundtracks, I had my iPod on random today after my run while I wandered around and stretched and what not. During this time, my iPod skipped around to some songs that make up my "un-official Deployment Soundtrack".


What is an Un-official Deployment Sountrack, you ask? It's a compliation of songs that have always remind me of different points of deployment. And for the first time, I was able to listen to the "Homecoming" songs and actually get excited!

Here's my "Deployment Life Playlist":

• "Save Tonight"- well we know, I'm going away and how I wish, I wish it weren't so, so take this wine and drink with me, let's delay our misery... save tonight, and fight the break of dawn, come tomorrow, tomorrow I'll be gone so save tonight..."
• "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing" -i could stay lost in this moment forever. 'cuz every moment spent with you is a moment i treasure. i don't wanna close my eyes, i don't wanna fall asleep cause i miss you babe, and i don't want to miss a thing"
• "Leaving On a Jet Plane"- every place i go, i think of you, every song i sing, i sing for you, when i come back i'll wear your wedding ring. 'cuz i'm leaving on a jetplane, don't know when i'll be back again, oh babe i hate to go..."
• "If You're Going Through Hell"- you know those times when it feels like there's a sign there on your back it says I don't mind if you kick me, seems like everybody has. Things go from bad to worse you think they can't get worse then that and then they do
• "Other Side of the World" [this song was introduced to me by a good friend Austin when our then-boyfriends, now husbands, were away for a month adventuring around Vietnam and China after graduation] - and the fire fades away, most of every day, is full of tired excuses, but it's too much to say I wish I were simple but we'd give up easily, you're close enough to see that you're the other side of the world to me
• "Home"- maybe surrounded by a million people i, i still feel all alone, just wanna go home oh i miss you, you know. i've been keeping all the letters that i wrote to you, each one a line or two, i'm fine baby how are you? i would send them but i know that it's just not enough, my words are cold and flat and you deserve than that. another aeroplane, another sunny place, i'm lucky i know, but i wanna go home.
• "Here Without You"- a hundred days have made me older since the last time that i saw your pretty face, a thousand lives have made me colder and i don't think i can look at this the same, but all the miles that separate, disappear when i'm dreaming of your face
• "Soldier Coming Home"- I saw a husband run off the plane to his wife. He was full of emotion, didn't care who could see. It made me stop and wonder when's the last time you looked at me like you were a soldier comin' home. Like you counted the nights you were gone. Like each moment together's more precious then ever now that you're safe inside of my arms
• "Today"- I woke up this morning, with a feeling inside me that I can't explain like I weight that I've carried has been carried away. I know something is coming, I don't know what it is but I know it's amazing, you save me, my time is coming I'll find my way out of this longest drought and it feels like today
• And hands down, the BEST homecoming song EVER- "Home"- staring out into the night, trying to hide the pain. I'm going to the place where feeling good and love don't ever cost a thing. And the pain you feel is a different kind of pain. i'm going home, to the place where I belong. Where your love has always been enough for me. not running from, you know I think you got me all wrong, I don't regret this life I chose for me, but these places and these faces are getting old, so I'm going home.

Yeah, so I'm pretty stoked. After my workout, I put all of these songs (and a few others) into a "Deployment Playlist" mix and was pleased to skip to the last 3 and listen to those on repeat. Do you have songs that remind you of home or take you back somewhere comforting?

Alright, back to work. I am trying to work quickly and furiously and tire myself out so I can fall asleep. We're 18 days out and I ALREADY have channel fever and can barely sleep because my mind is already racing. If I were a puppy [a pug, of course], my tail would be wagging 24/7 til March 26th!!!

paradise (in no particular order :)

yogurtland. SVU. the smell of fresh air. dan. taking a shower without shoes on. wearing make-up. coffee with real milk. driving my car. iPhone + 3G. running on the pavement. cooking my own food. going home every day. making up for lost time. weekends. hugs. doing whatever i want to do whenever i want to do it. planning our next vacation. familiar faces. catching up with my friends. being a newlywed. the farmer's market. baking. flip flops (but not in the shower). my own bed. sunday nights. road trips. not having an airplane take off/land directly over my bed. making new friends. telephone calls. the dinner table. flowers. finally unpacking from august. exploring a new city. getting lost. getting found. going home. making a wedding photo album.  celebrating. holidays. music on the radio. purses. seeing the sun every day. taking walks. eating out. sleeping in. going out. staying in. singing in the car. singing anywhere i want. following the news. having fun. yoga. visitors. afternoon naps. cupcakes. pedicures. high-speed internet. my credit card. seizing the day. wasting time. doing nothing. doing everything. reading magazines that aren't 2 months old. Gossip Girl. making memories. laughing. loving. living.

are we there yet?

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

So a few days ago, I posted about Congress passing a law that would allow the women from the USNA 2010 commissioning class to enter the Nuclear/Submarine pipeline to serve as the first female Submariners. Again, not to beat a dead horse here, but regardless of your opinions, what a great advancement for women in the Navy!

Then I saw this article on "Early Bird"- Early Bird is a compilation of news articles from many different new sources. It's then organized by subject: "Iraq", "Afghanistan", "Healthcare", "Elections", "Taxes"- whatever the articles are about. So it will list a few different articles about a time when the Iraq elections are a hot topic from multiple different news sources. Then someone uploads a webpage of all of these stories to what we call "the high side" which is our classified/secret computer system. This is great because when you can't rely on NIPR (which is our unclassified server) browsing to allow you to read the news (or, if you are on watch, which is at a secret server), then you still always have access to the news. I'm actually kind of going to miss "Early Bird" when I get home. After the title of the article, they give you a 2-sentence summary of the article so you can read it and decide whether or not you want to actually read the article. Plus, you can read about the same topic from multiple news sources.

Anyways, I saw this article yesterday and then tonight found the "TIME.com" version.

The Rise and Fall of a Female Capt Bligh

This is the story of a female Captain in the US Navy who was recently relieved of command (she was the Commanding Officer of a guided-missile Cruiser stationed in Japan).  I encourage you to read the article for yourself and I will try and withhold too many of my own opinions.

However, I hope that this event does not cause people (the general population, Navy officers, junior Sailors, etc) to look at it and say "well that's how women act when you put them in Command" or any other way that relates her actions to her gender. This kind of terrible situation could have easily occured by either a male or a female Commanding Officer and the outcome on their career would have been similar.

The only thing that frustrates and hurts me is that there you had a very successful (at least initially), pioneer female officer that could have gone on to even greater roles in the Surface Navy and touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of her fellow lady SWOs for the better. Instead, she seems to have had a harmful effect on junior Sailors and Officers, both male and female at every level of the chain of command. This is where the real tragedy lies.

And while sometimes I complain and say I hate my job and get frustrated by many of the SWO-isms of my community, I am incredibly grateful that I have never worked for or with a person like this. This is a tragic illustration of how not to be a leader, regardless of your job or your community or your profession.

What do you think? Do you think the board's findings were fair and accurate? Sound off below!

Non-Sequitur

[*Author's Note post-publishing: Eventually the internet did come back up and I was able to finish the blog ALMOST all by myself. Except I can't get the pictures to upload so luckily, since that is Dan's FAVORITE thing to do, you will have to wait to see the associated pictures after I send them to dan and he has a chance to upload them*]

For those of you who are not familiar with the word (as I previously was not until described by a good friend as one), non-sequitur is Latin for "it does not follow" as in, an argument in which its conclusion does not follow from its premises; an inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premises or evidence. Basically, in a nutshell- something that does not logically follow another.

For those of you that know me (and presumably, if you have committed this much time to reading this much nonsense for so many days/weeks/months/years, then you must know me. If not- who are you?) you would probably be inclined to agree with my good friend, Bridget Barry (aka Bridgee, author of this blog which I love to follow to get my sometimes daily, sometimes weekly, fill of random honesty. We can probably all admit that we probably need a little more random honesty in our lives too.) who once described me as a "non-sequitur". I think this is a pretty spot on description (after I learned the definition of the word). I wouldn't say I have ADD or anything like that but frequently I easily and deftly jump from one subject to another, skipping around stories and ideas and thoughts. (again, if you've been following my blog, you are probably already aware of this fact).

So it should only be fitting to warn you that this blog is going to be a non-sequitur because I came up with 4 stories today, none of which have anything to do with the other nor are they really all that important. Don't worry though, I won't even try to come up with grandiose conclusion at the end to tie them all together. I don’t have THAT much time on my hands!

First. Let's talk about some new changes to the blog. You might have noticed on the left hand side, half way down the page, the new section entitled "My Cheerleaders." This is the section previously known as "My Followers." Apparently, most of my family/friends/readers think "My Followers" is a creepy thing to call yourself (i think stalking is technically considered a misdemeanor in some states), or else only 6 people are actually reading my blog. If that's the case, then apparently I need to come up with some better stories to start drawing in the readers. I am pretty sure though, that I have more than 6 readers. And for arguments sake, we will discount my parents/dan's parents who I don't believe have gmail accounts and probably don't religiously "follow" blogs at the rate at which our generation does (that means you get a free pass for not being "official" followers, mom and dad. I am excited that after 3 deployments you both finally started posting comments. This means a lot to me :)

Anyways, back to the point (here we go again with this "it does not follow" theme again). I changed around some things about the blog to help better tell "my navy story." So then I thought, I will call the followers section "My Fan Club"- but then again, that sounded too creepy as well. I mean, I think fan clubs dissolved sometime back in the mid 90's, right around the time that New Kids On the Block dissolved (the first time around).

So then it hit me- who are all of the people that read my blog and comment on it and send me emails? They are really my own personal cheerleading squad. Yes, that's it! They are my cheerleaders who bring a smile to my face and keep me going with their funny stories and comments and knowing that my family & friends are actually reading this blog (other than Dan who I think is required by some antiquated marriage law to faithfully read his wife's blog posts, even if they are super lame) helps me feel connected to them and to home. And let's be honest, who DOESN'T want to be in a cheerleading squad? Let's just say that if YOU had a cheerleading squad, I like to think that I would be on your team, cheering you on from the sidelines. That was basically a long-winded and overly desperate attempt to convince my loyal readers, whoever they are, to join "My Cheerleading" Section of the blog. If not, that's cool too, you can cheer quietly from in your heart. And if you have a blog that I am unaware of, please send the link my way because I would loooove new blogs to follow!

Two. Tonight as I was getting ready to leave the watch floor, one of the Surface Trackers (I don't know who she was because she was a NIMITZ watchstander and I don't really know that many of them) said "Ma'am- do you know who you look like? You look JUST like Jennifer Love Hewitt!" I was like "whoa, no way, that's the SECOND person to tell me that this deployment" and she said that all of the other watchstanders have been talking about it for awhile. I thought that was the funniest thing ever! I didn't see it a month ago and I don't get it today either. So tonight, I googled "JLH" again and after finding MANY racy photos (apparently she's quite the babe these days!) of her, I found this one that I held up to myself in the mirror. Now, I know I've been gone a long time, as I looked at this picture and looking at myself in my rumpled, frumpy coveralls with no make-up on, I thought "there is no way that ANY amount of time away would give me such long and healthy looking hair and such a great tiny waist to large chest ratio, topped off with killer toned arms" (in fact, the longer we are away, the SHORTER my hair is getting!). Anyways, I thought that was funny because I feel completely opposite of this polished movie star right now. I don't even think I remember how to apply eyeliner. I should probably brush up on that over the next few weeks, lest I return home looking like a Halloween costumed-girl.

Three. I have beat the Navy internet system. Yes, the one that doesn’t allow Gmail or skype or anything else EVER. The one that limits our “open internet hours” (anything non-Navy or banking) to only 8 hours a day. Well, it turns out that google is always available (however, after you click on the link that you would like, then you get blocked out). But, because you can physically log onto Google, type in something and see at least the results, that means that you can always log onto blogger (since it is now supported and run by Google). What does this mean, you ask? Well, this means that even after midnight, I am able to read and write blog posts. SUCCESS! This also means that I am not QUITE as dependent on my husband to get out the good word. However, as I was proudly blogging all by my self (a very fulfilling thing to do after months and months of having to email off my posts for uploading), the internet cut out. Stupid, stupid Nimitz internet system. Totally predictable. UGH. Just when I had the system beat!

So now I am blogging with slightly less enthusiasm, knowing that I will have to wait until the internet comes back so that I can email it to Dan and have him post it for me like 15 hours from now when he gets back from work (no, Dan doesn’t work 15 hour days but we’re SEVENTEEN hours ahead of west coast time so he is just getting up and getting ready for work so he won’t get around to this until after he gets home. Apparently he is a very busy/important person at work and doesn’t do frivolous tasks like blogging at work. Weird, I know since that is the norm for me. However, Dan also doesn’t live at his office, or at least to my knowledge he doesn’t… I think/hope he still lives & pays rent at 1455 Kettner Blvd, since that’s what I’m counting on… and apparently they do let him go home at nights so he will get to it them shortly)

Four (finally, I know right? You’re wondering when this will end already!) I wanted to tell you about these awesome shoes I bought in Malaysia (and given that I have bought no fewer than SIX pairs of shoes this deployment… oops?... I have to delineate where I got them AND the story behind them).

These sandals are AWESOME. They are definitely different than anything that I would buy back in the States (my other 5 pairs of shoes were all flats. Right now as they’re reading this Dan/my father are thinking “FIVE other pairs of flats?! Molly, you can only wear one pair at a time!”). These sandals were procured at the Central Market in Kuala Lumpur. They were made by this little old lady and man out of “the official Malaysia wood” (which I promptly forgot what it was that made it so special/official). The old man (he is over SEVENTY and still making shoes EVERY DAY!) takes the wood from the trees and sands them down into this wedge/platform style. If I could best compare it to something back home, it would be like the shape of the sole of a Dansko clog. Some of them were higher than others, but I picked out a medium height wedge. After he sands them down, the old lady hand paints Malaysian flowers on the sole and the wedge part of the bottom of the shoe and stains/finishes the wood so that it is shiny. Then, they take this material known as “Batik” which is a very traditional and brightly printed cloth, with flowers, geometric designs, birds, etc etc. It runs a range of colors and styles, but it's basically a really pretty material that they use for skirts, sarongs, napkins, table clothes, whatever.

So after the painting of the wooden part, she takes a small piece of batik and drapes it over where you would logically place fabric to make a sandal. Then, she uses a big staple gun to staple the fabric to the shoe. Then she takes a hammer and nail and hammers the nails across the fabric to secure it to the shoe and then removes the unsightly staples.

This process was made much cooler by a few facts. One- these handmade right in front of you shoes will run you about $25. Which is more than I paid for some shoes this deployment, but I thought was pretty reasonable after watching the process of how they were made and how special they were. Two- the lady didn't have the 100% combination of what I wanted (the height of the sole, remember, I didn't want a really high one) with the brown/gold/tan printed batik cover. Also, your average women's foot is much wider than mind, so I could tell by trying on a few pairs that my foot was going to slide around and thus it would not be a good purchase. So, she lets me pick the exact size and height sole and the Batik print that I wanted and then fit the fabric directly to my foot. Three- she was about to use these brown-ish nails when I saw that some of the sandals had gold colored nails, which I thought matched this fabric more. So, since she was already going to go through the whole staple and nail process for me, I thought I'd ask if I could have the pretty nails instead. No, no, no, she explained to me, those nails make the shoes more expensive, this price does not include these nails. Remembering back to my childhood with my economist parents who I think at one point explained that in capitalism, everything can be had for a certain cost (or was it everything can be had at a certain price? shoot, i forget. that's why I'm in the Navy and not an economist...) Anyways. So I ask the lady "can I pay a few extra dollars (or ringits or dinars or dirans or bat or whatever ridiculous monopoly money currency were were in at this point in the deployment) for the gold nails?". She immediately picks up on this idea and says that yes, for $2, I can have pretty nails. Given that we're already spending the time and effort to make these specially for me, I figured an extra $2 for the prettier and less-unsightly nails was a good idea).

So here is the final product- my less than $30 hand picked, hand painted, hand made, made to order like a Sheetz sandwich batik covered flowered wooden Malaysian wooden clog/sandal. Ta-Da! And of course, what else to show off next to my shoes, but a can of Coke Light (I have NO idea why I took a picture of these shoes next to a Coke Light can, but in light of the blog from a few days ago, it is interesting to note that as you move into South East Asia, they have apparently figured out how to master the non-removeable soda can tab, as evidenced here).

And a side note, as she was hammering away at my shoes, I look across the market and see a girl in a similar pair of shoes and I asked the little old lady "are those your shoes too?" and she looks up at the shoes and after studying them for a minute says with enormous disgust "those are commerical, not hand-made, fake" and I immediately felt EVEN better about my purchase.

Whew. Ok. That is done. That's all I've got. Back to work for a little bit and then good night. I'm sure in another 24 hours I'll come with more logically unrelated things to say.

"Ma'am" the Torpedoes?

No, not damn the torpedoes and yes, ADM Farragut, you read that right.

And if you read this article, you'll learn about some awesome, incredible, sweeping changes taking the US Navy by storm.

With the graduation of the US Naval Academy's Class of 2010, as soon as NEXT spring, the US Navy Submarine force, the all-male force since its conception, is going co-ed.

Wow- what an incredible idea! 14 years after women were allowed by Congress to serve on combatants (read: Warships and fighter aircraft), the submarine force will allow Academy women to go straight to Nuclear Power School to be the first women to serve onboard a submarine.

Despite all of the issues and debate and drama behind it- (and there are a lot! cost, integrating the crew, what do you do about fraternization, how do you alter berthing/bathrooms for women, blah blah blah)...

Whatever your opinion is (and for the record mine is: this is great but I personally would not like to be a submariner), this is an awesome time in our Navy's history. In the mid-1990's it was incomprehensible that I would be sitting here right now, doing the job that I am (ok, not blogging, but my ACTUAL job). All those grumpy old retired salty Sailors saying women could NEVER be on warships and could NEVER drive ships and could NEVER be leaders in the Surfare Community... All the same naysaying arguements were prevalent and here we are, doing the exact same job as the boys (and frankly, in my opinion, doing it better :)

What do you think?

This or That?

Today I had a “whoa!” moment. And I’m not talking about when I was running at a 7.0 on the treadmill and the ship took a little roll and I grabbed onto the bar and went “whoa” so I didn’t fall off. No, not that kind of whoa.

Today I merrily skipped to the vending machine to have my allotted one a day Coke Light (no, the Navy isn’t rationing our C.L. allocation, but rather I am limiting myself to one a day to keep up my health- with it being so cold I need plenty of tea and water to keep me healthy and plenty of water to keep me hydrated for my daily treadmill sessions and definitely don’t need too much caffeine- in fact, I need something to calm my excitement so I sleep more soundly through the night. Channel fever 26 days out? Oh dear- it’s gonna be a long month!)

So, anyways, there I was, in the Zulu module, where we stand watch when I absent-mindedly crack open a nice cold artificially sweetened diet soda. KPPPPYSSHHHH. (that’s the sound of me cracking open a cold one) when I stop in my tracks and think to myself “that didn’t sound right…”

I looked down and noticed what I had in my hand was not a Middle Eastern born and bred Coke Light, splashed with un-readable Arabic, with its environmentally UN-friendly removable tab (seriously? Who thought of that? How inconvenient!). What I had in my hand rather, was a good ole American, Capitalist produced, and red, white, and blue as the colors we fly on the NIMITZ, Diet Coke. With a non-removable, more environmentally friendly (what do you do with that tab? Who is within a trash can range when opening a soda? What do you do with that tab? Put it in your pocket? Throw it on the floor? Try not to cut yourself with it? Hello- this is 2010! Get with the trend, Middle Eastern Coke Producer!) tab. A KPPPYYYYSSSHHH sound producing Diet Coke.

Now, if you know me, you know I LOVEEEEEEE Coke Light. I love it as much as I love a cold glass of 1% milk with breakfast or a skinny vanilla latte when it’s cold outside (not that I know what that’s like anymore) or a crisp glass of Sauvignon Blanc on a warm day. One of my favorite things about traveling abroad (aside from the food), is the plentiful abundance of Coke Light. I love Coke Light like all good Americans love baseball and apple pie (neither of which I am really a fan of, but I’m still a good American, I swear). But today in the Zulu module, being only 26 (I think it’s actually now 25 days, given that it’s past 3:30 in the morning--- clearly I shouldn’t have had that Diet Coke!!!) days from home, that Diet Coke, was the most glorious taste and sight I think I’ve ever seen or tasted. It tasty of home sweet home and America and capitalism and freedom and 3G access for all and all of the other little idiosyncrasies that you never really realize are so important to you or that you would ever miss until you completely pick up and exit American society for 6 months at a time.

And with that, I think it’s time that I hit the hay. I know that was totally pointless and rambling but I couldn’t help but share. Also note, the Diet Coke photo illustrates a proper can opener tab. I can’t find any picture of the other kind, but I think you know what I’m talking about.

Counting Down… again

Hi Everyone! Not much time to write as I have to run to a staff meeting in about 15 minutes but I just wanted to say a quick “hello!”

Well, here we are, the first day of MARCH! Yes, you read that right- MARCH. In like a lion, out like a lamb, right? That means I can officially say “I’m coming home THIS MONTH!” Ahhhh!

As you can tell, I’m pretty freaking excited! Yesterday marked 3 weeks until I see the three M’s! We have a great day and a half planned for Seattle. I am excited to try a little crumpet shop in Pike’s Peak or Pike’s Place or whatever that market area is in Seattle. I’m not 100% sure what a crumpet is, but it has a pretty positive connotation in my mind- something flaky and fresh and doughy full of good-to-eat things. Which is awesome, in my book.

I also cannot WAIT to have a latte with REAL steamed milk. Oh, and milk. I haven’t had milk in over 5 months! (other than in one Starbuck’s latte in Dubai). And I think Seattle is a GREAT place to be re-introduced to American coffee- yum!

Wow- I literally can hardly contain my excitement. Our conversations and emails from home have slowly started migrating from “what did you do today, what are you doing tomorrow?” to “Oh my gosh I can’t wait to see you, it’s so soon, what are we going to do? Where are we going to go? Ahhhh!”. I was just thinking last night back to October, when I was living on ABOT. Where it was hot, and unfamiliar, and lonely. We were on SUCH a wedding/honeymoon high, but depressingly, we weren’t on that high together. It was so bittersweet to be able to look back at memories and pictures and so much happiness, but being so incredibly lonely because we weren’t together, and had just embarked on a very, very long time apart.

And I’m not saying that it’s gone by fast. Looking back at October, it’s like it was years ago. The wedding seems ages and ages ago. I literally feel like I have been all over the world and met a hundred new people and experienced a million new things. It’s been one heck of a roller coaster ride. But now that it’s almost over, I can’t believe 5 months are already behind us.

The winter Olympics are over, the snow is melting back on the East Coast and (I think/hope that) it has stopped raining in San Diego. We’re making our post-deployment plans, making our lists, checking them twice. It’s so great that March is finally here and the seemingly endless months? Well, 5 of them are behind us, and only 26 days to go!

Nicole and I are diligently counting down, we are cutting off one of our paper chain links every day and the chain that used to do a double loop is now almost to a single loop- we can actually see the chain diminishing, right before our eyes.

Like I said, you can tell that I’m excited. Alright, well off to our staff meeting and a workout and watch but I will try and think of something of actual interest to write about.

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!