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?