Four Weeks…

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

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

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

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

I’m counting already, are you?

Confessions of a shopaholic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rites of Passage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All You Need is Love

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Home Fires 2

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

Patience and rewards

Newlyweds savor their honeymoon, then settle in to wait

BY JESSIE KNADLER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Home Fires

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

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

V-Day 2K10

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

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