Did I Shave My Legs For This?

Day 134

Well, we've been extended. So now I don't get home until April. I am so tired of this deployment. I am ready to go home. But everything else is okay. Thank you for the birthday wishes. Now I have to get to work.

Day 116

I apologize for the delay in posting. The ship did indeed pull into port (back in Bahrain!) and though I had duty the next day, I did celebrate New Years Eve - sober. We've worked every day since, and today I get to go drink myself stupid because I'm celebrating the big 3-6. Wooo! So now I get to finish work and take a shower. Go me!

Day 110

So now that the bitterness over working and getting all sweaty all day on Christmas is over, I can settle down and woosah. I got a few presents, some of them silly, and a card from Mom. Yay. We celebrated Christmas on the 26th, with all the dinner trimmings and caroling, etc. It was pretty lame actually. But what else are you going to do way out in the middle of the ocean with nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic. I really am glad that this is my last Christmas at sea. It wasn't all depressing, but it wasn't a barrel of laughs. Next year though, right?

Supposedly, we are planning to pull into port for New Year's but you never know. It'd be happy to celebrate my birthday inport, let me tell you.

Day 107

Merry Fucking Christmas from a deployed ship in the middle of the fucking ocean getting fuel.

That is all.

Day 106

It's Christmas Eve in the part of this world. Well barely anyway. The ship is conducting a Replenishment at Sea on Christmas Day (nothing like getting gas for 6 hours on a holiday!) so we will be "celebrating" on the 26th. Yay. Supposedly, we are to receive 27 pallets of mail, I just hope what I ordered is in there somewhere.

It doesn't feel like Christmas. Sure, some divisions have put up lights in the passageways (hallways) and we're playing Christmas movies on our movie system, and even our messdecks is decked out, but it doesn't feel like Christmas. Hopefully this is my last one underway, ever. Praise be to the baby Jesus!

Day 102

We left Israel yesterday, and I was sad to see her go. It really was a beautiful country. I was mildly disappointed in the tour on Thursday. We spent most of the day in Masada, with a late lunch at 2:30 and only about half an hour at the Dead Sea. Well, a smidgen of it really. About 20 yards across. At a resort. With a bunch of other people. So I got a bottle of Dead Sea water and a few chunks of Dead Sea salt directly from the source. I also bought a lot of mud and salts from a store to bring home as souvenirs. By the time the bus got back to the ship, I was way too exhausted from walking around a bunch of ruins that I'd never heard of to go back out for another chance to eat some regional food - like a fresh falafel. I did get a leftover one though.

So now we're back doing circles and I'm in desperate need of a looooooong nap.

Day 99

Jerusalem was awesome. I took tons of pictures. Once I can upload them (I cannot log into flickr from the ship - damn Yahoo) I will. I bought a Jewish cross inlayed with opal for my mother and had it blessed at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We went to the Mount of Olives and through the Old City, including the Wailing Wall. It was a long day, but I had a good time. And I got to eat hummus. Yum.

Today I have duty. Yay fun. The diamond sellers from Tel Aviv are supposed to be coming to the ship sometime this morning - I have my credit card ready!

Tomorrow is the tour of the Dead Sea. I'm really looking forward to getting some Dead Sea salt scrub. Hopefully the duty day will be nice and easy.

Day 97

So we're in Israel. Haven't been out looking around yet because I had duty yesterday. The landscape looks a lot like Japan, with buildings up the sides of the hills and mountains, stacked so close that they look like building blocks. And that's just the view from the ship.

I'm supposed to go on a tour of Jerusalem tomorrow. It should be interesting. Then Thursday I'll be going to the Dead Sea. I'm really looking forward to all of it - since I've never been here before and I don't plan on coming back this way into the foreseeable future.

The plan is to go walking around the city today and do some shopping. But we'll see. I have to find another girl to go out with because that's the ship's policy. Now I'm off to exchange some money. Have a great day.

Day 95

I'm standing the 02-07 with an hour left and I'm fighting really hard not to fall asleep. So I've decided to share with you a few of the sites I surf to keep from falling asleep. Some of them you might have even heard of. /sarcasm

I Can Has Cheezburger LoLcats
I Has a Hotdog LoLDogs
XKCD Webcomic
Kingdom of Loathing A web-based game that I have seemingly made six other people start playing.
Cracked This site amuses me for hours.
Den of Geek Yet another that I get lost in.

Day 94

So umm...yeah.