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!