Congratulations. You've just decoded the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, in care of the Funny Farm. - Pink Floyd, Empty Spaces

OPSEC.

All of us near and dear to the military understand what this is. Basically, don't say anything that might get ya killed. Any pictures that I post or things I talk about are things that would not give away any info that might harm someone.

Pics of a tent, without showing the area it is located at, I believe are fine. Talking about types of cases we get, fine. Some people, I guess, are worried that something might be leaked. I'm just going to be much more picky about what I say and do on here. That kinda sucks, but whatever. I don't want the big guy coming to shut down my blog alltogether.

Just wanted to pass that on.

Other than that, just working, sleeping, eating. I think that's all I do right now. Some day it should calm down and we'll finally be settled.

I breath in dirt and nowhere shines, but desolate and drab the hours all spent killing time. - The Cure, Prayers For Rain

Moving day. Finally. Good and bad things. I can get on my own laptop so I can update easier. I can skype, but we're always on "lights out" because people work shift work and we can't really talk....so I can go in the hall to skype, but then I lose reception. I'll figure something out.

I'm going to put a few pics up from the trip over to Kuwait and our first two weeks in wonderful "tent city". Nothing that would violate OPSEC...some people worry so much. More pictures are going to be at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2253204&l=f3cb2&id=16706036

Things are looking up around here. Work is busy, but I'm much more in the swing of things. I'm getting to learn a lot of stuff I wouldn't get to learn on the med/surg ward, like medication drips, procedures, etc. I'll really have to talk a lot more about this later, but I'm working on 10 hrs of sleep over the past 2 nights.

Also, during the move I think I moved at least 16 seabags up 3 flights of stairs and other various bags to move. I had my stuff up early, but went to help out all our E's with their bags. It's as if I did a thousand lunges...uh. Every time I would put a seabag on my back and a seabag on my front. By the end, my legs were just shaking. Good PT session though.

Don't miss understand me, I'm not getting soft, all I want is a couple days off. - Huey Lewis, Couple Days Off

Pfewww....EMF Kuwait has been a'hopin.

Yesterday, I went to the casualty receiving area (ER...also shortened to casrec). The ward was very busy, but LTjg M said he had it all so I could go learn more over there. I did.

The beginning of the shift was busy, and we had to admit 3 people right off the bat....but then, the rest was very slow. Until the end of the shift. Three guys came bursting in carrying a guy totally passed out. He was a heat casualty. They had put him on ice on the way in to get his temp down, so he was all the way down to 97 degrees. When he started to wake up, he was freezing. I don't blame him. Anywho, we did the whole thing. Labs, oxygen, ekg, IV, fluids....it was kinda neat to see how it all went together. I still hate not knowing where everything is!

That brings me to today. So, there are normally 3-4 nurses per shift to split between the ward and the casrec. One of our nurses on our shift was put inpatient due to bad cellulits that would not resolve...and the other one was scheduled off today. That would mean it would just be me and another LTjg.We have about 10 people on the ward including 5 pretty sick patients. Yuck. I really don't want to do all that by my lonesome. I probably could and they would all survive, but it would not be pleasant. I feel bad they have to call someone in....

I'm starting to get in a routine here in zone 6. After work, I usually hit up the starbucks and then head to the community center to make phone calls, check emails, and play some pool. Then, in the morning, I get up, again go to the community center for the same things and then eat lunch, shower and go to work. It already feels like groundhog day. I can't get over working every day! That's all I ever feel like I do. The past det keeps saying it will slow down and we'll have a lot of time off with nothing to do. I have yet to see how that will ever happen.

It smells like something died in our tent. We can't figure it out....I'm kinda scared to find whatever it is.

I talked to friends back at 5 center. More people are leaving and PCSing. I'll get back and so many people will be gone. :(

Not much else right now. The phones were stupid last night and I couldn't get a line out! Bah! I'll try again tonight.

She's a sad tomato, she's three miles of bad road. - REM, Crush With Eyeliner

I haven't felt much like writing. I feel like all I do is work. I have maybe 4 hr blocks of time, but that's not enough to really relax.

Yesterday was Sunday, so everyone was off. Except me. It was good though because I got to hang out with Laura before work. I never see any of my friends anymore because I'm on shift when they are getting off. Anyway, she and I tried playing halo (they gave us pink controllers!), watched a bit of transformers, played battleship, went to starbucks....and then sat and wondered what else we were going to do to take up time. haha.

I miss my friends that I made in Cali. Three of them work in the same office so they see each other a lot. The other one is a dentist and has the same schedule as they do basically.

At least I'm getting the hard shift out of the way. The other two I should still be able to see people. I'm either having a great time and loving it....or I'm seriously depressed and wondering why the hell I volunteered for this. I can't even complain because Kuwait has about anything you could ever need.

The past week has gone by sooo slow. One more week until we move into the I building and life will get much better.

The hospital is also either hot or cold. Crazy busy or very slow. I would go into work more but I just don't feel like it right now. Speaking of.....I have to go shower and catch the shuttle to zone 1.

Next week when we get in the I building I can set up wifi and get on my own computer and set up pictures and whatnot.

"You might as well be walking on the sun..." ~ Smash Mouth

That's my song for today. Since I don't work til 3pm, I tried to sleep as much as I could, but when I walked out of our pitchblack tent into the midday sun, I felt like my eyes had been dialated (sp?) and someone put me on the surface of the sun. It hurt....and didn't get better until I finally went and put my contacts in so I could wear my sunglasses. It was still bright.

I had a horrible nightmare last night. I dreamt someone had me tied up and locked away. When I finally could get away when I looked in the mirror my face was all screwed up. My eyelids had turned into this pussy, goopy mess that was dripping down my face. My lips and nose were huge things of sand. They looked like you wet my lips and nose and then put my face in the sand. It was nasty. I can't get the image out of my head. I woke up in a cold sweat. Not fun. I did sleep 11 hrs though. Finally, maybe I'm catching up.

Last night, Laura and I went to the starbucks in zone 6. It's freaky weird....when you're inside you would NEVER know you were in kuwait. And it's freezing in there! Laura and I were shivering. She even wanted to go get her sweater and drink a hot drink. I told her I would go outside and sprinkle tissue paper down like snow outside the window. haha. We got our drinks and ran outside...then, we felt a little better. Frappachinos were melting fast though.

other tidbits:
-Def wash your clothes in extra rince cycles....the water was still brown
-i HATE the paper towels they have in the bathroom. it's like drying your hands with kleenex, they're so thin! Just leave them wet, walk outside and I guarantee in 3 seconds your hands will be dry
-the DFAC in zone 1 is called the Oasis. I can't get that damn "midnight at the oasis" song out of my head when I eat there!
-it's going to suck being on the 3-11 shift. i won't see any of my friends with office jobs. the other nurse from my wave is this guy who i think i see enough of at work and don't need to see him outside of it. So, I get to have a lot of me time.....I'm not sure this is good. I laid in my dark rack thinking too much.

First day of work today! Wish me luck. Tomorrow, we have our mass casualty drill and then work again. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

I slowly surrender to the child in me who can't say goodbye. - Jimmy Buffett, The Night I Painted the Sky

So, I miss our time in California.

I miss the beach. I miss beer. I miss bikini's. I miss driving.

It's an interesting transition here....We all had kinda a rough day yesterday all figuring out what our jobs were going to be and who was going to be in charge of us.

Today was much better. We got to see the old tent hospital. It's weird because most of it is torn down, but I can still picture it from images I saw before. Then, we got to see the building we'll start living in next week (getting out of tents!!). It's like a large dorm hall. Army on the first few floors, then, EMF Kuwait. We'll have a large berthing area for officer women. We'll each get our own bunks (unlike the guys, who will have to be one on top and one on bottom) and we separate the areas with curtains and can decorate them. They look like really small dorm rooms. Some area really cute! It's so great to see there is light at the end of the tunnel.

They turned off our power this morning in the tent to clean the air conditioners...it didn't take long for our tent to turn into a small oven. I eventually convinced the girls it was better to go outside in the shade because at least we had wind blowing! It was much better....yay for learning the tricks of the trade of heat from living in Texas.

The second day I was here my nose was cracking and bleeding, my lips were chapped, and I had started my routine of drinking the equivalent of a full bathtub before lunch. This also means the routine of getting up at 0200 and grabbing my buddy to go to the head. They won't let us go alone where our tents are now. Apparently, there have been multiple rapes, including one male... our area is a "transient" area where people move in and out of and a lot of the TCN (third country nationals) work and live. Slightly bad that my fear comes more from within the wire than outside...

I can't get the song "I've been to the desert on a horse with no name...." out of my head. Bah bah bah bah bah baaa....

The computers are slow and I can only be on for 30 minutes. I can't wait to pay for wifi in the I building when we move...

I can only talk on the phone for 20 minutes. I feel like it's prison. BUT! I got a DSN number and a code so I don't pay for a cent! That's helpful. No phone cards for me.

Gotta run. Time is up.

Sadly, earlier today I missed Bethesda. ha. Never thought I would say that.
I know once we move into the fixed building and the transition is over that we will be loving life! Everyone has had a blast out here.

(oh, and I can't believe how many people I have seen out here from Bethesda. Makes me wonder who works back home...haha)

She devoured all my sweat love, took all I had and then she fed me dirt. - The Monkees, She

Greetings from Kuwait.

I arrived at 2212, in 104 degree heat, and a bladder that I thought would explode any minute.

I'll back up, but that was my first impression of Kuwait.
So, we got up at 0400 Sunday morning, packed up all our gear, got on buses and headed to fly out. The hanger was equipped pretty nice. It's a good thing because we were there all day. The USO was there to feed us, there were pool tables, tv's, etc...we weren't the only group that flew out that day. In fact, some Marines flew with us. (I'll get into that a little more...but MAN I'm not used to that much yelling!)

Finally all crammed on the hot airplane. They had to have people move to the back for takeoff because of our weight. That did not help me feel better. We had one stop in the US (the USO was again there to greet us in the middle of the night) and then one stop in Europe. We wished we could have stayed there longer. Then, it was on to Kuwait. Overall, the flight wasn't bad. Watched a few movies. Sat with the friends. Slept and ate a LOT.

The Marines part...every time we would get off and the plane would refuel, they would all start yelling and assigning who was going to stay on with the weapons while everyone got off. Poor little PFC's and LCPL's. Then, when we were in, they would all yell when the plane was ready and that everyone wasn't moving fast enough to get back. They wouldn't say anything to us Navy officers, but they would stand right next to us to yell it, so you know they meant to be saying it to us. When they wake me up from my beauty sleep on the plane by yelling about something....urg. It was just frustrating. Kinda glad I went to the Navy side.

Now, we landed and I pushed everyone out of the way to get to the bathroom on the plane. Who knew how long we'd sit there. They were all full so I sat and waited....then some Marine started yelling at me to get off the plane and go on the bus.....fine. Whatever. So, I get on the bus and there is NO bathroom. Oh shit, no. Thankfully, we just drove over to a staging area. And then I sat and looked at portapotties through the window for an hour and a half.

Eventually, they let us off and we sat around for a few hours while things got arranged. We got to the base early early in the AM. LONGGG day and night. We unpacked, found our tent and headed for chow. We got a few hours sleep after that, but there was a dust storm and I couldn't sleep because it felt like our tent was going to take off. Plus, my bed was moving from it too....but at least we have a bed now and not a cot.

We started orientation yesterday with powerpoint briefs. Whoopie. Today, we went to the hospital and started getting our assignments. I'll be on our inpatient ward. The hospital is SO nice. Cold, clean. I can't complain. I've seeen so many people from Bethesda here from the last det. It's been a nice reunion. Especially with one of my friends who extended here and I haven't seen in over a year! I'll be on PM's at first. 1500-2300, six days a week. I'll have Sunday off.

It'll be nice to get in a routine, but it won't be for a few weeks before I'm settled. We have a ton of stuff during turnover. We won't get a day off for a while. Plus, we're still living out in BFE in the tents. Yuck. Soon, we'll move over to our berthing building right next to the gym and hospital.

There's so much more I want to tell. Overall, this isn't bad. I have been questioning myself why I begged to come here. It's going to be fun once we settle in. It's good to finally feel like we're helping out with our soldiers and sailors.

We mostly support all the army here. It's interesting living with them. I'm also having to get used to saluting. I never wear my uniform outside in Bethesda, so my arm is def getting a workout. The army salutes even when they're not in uniform. That must suck.

Other name changes:
Army: Latrine
Navy: Head

Army: duffle bag
Navy: sea bag

Army: DFAC
Navy: Galley

We also have a lot of Brit's and Australian's here. I held the door for one guy and he said "cheers". It made me smile.

I also enjoy rocking out to the Arabic radio on the shuttle. Most of it has a pretty cool beat to that I wouldn't mind listening to even after I come home.

Food is good, but my appetite is SHOT. I'm in love with the sandwhich bar. They make a mean wrap.

The weather. Like Lubbock, but 1000x worse. Flat, dusty, HOT HOT HOT....You're mouth completely dries out in seconds. It's crazy. It's tolerable though as long as you can take breaks inside. I don't know how these guys do it. I'm glad I'll be in an air conditioned hospital.

Pictures will come much later when I can use my computer and not the army ones.

I'm sorry this was so long! Much more to tell.....

I miss you all. More than I thought....but we have a good team here. :)

Catch a wave and your sitting on top of the world. - The Beach Boys, Catch A Wave

Okay, so we had flight plan changes....we got an extra night in California. We grabbed some beverages at the NEX and headed to the beach on base. We played cards (some game called asshole) and hung out. Later on, we met up with the corpsmen, who had a fire going on the beach. It was a very fun night.

The sunset was beautiful. I think I could be stationed here....especially since they have their own private beach. There were a lot of people out surfing and even a woman who had a prostetic leg.

We'll be starting to pack up and all that and eventually be moving out of here and getting on our lonnnnng flight to kuwait. Right now I have my carry on with all my electronics, two seabags, my MOPP gear backpack, and my alice pack (with all my body armor....not a light bag). That's a lot to carry.

One of the female CDR's is very artistic and she started painting things on the bottom of people's seabags so they can identify them once we get there and they're all piled up. I felt bad because she was getting overwhelmed with all of them, so I just went and got paint from wal-mart and painted double T's on them. They're not perfect, but I think it's supercute. I also included a picture of my messy rack in our seahut. That was in the middle of me packing so everything was thrown around.

That's all for now. I hope the flight is as fun as it can be. I think the longest I've been on a plane is 6 hrs. Twenty-six just doesn't sound fun....

Hotel, motel, Holiday Inn, if your girl starts acting up, then you take her friend. - Sugar Hill Gang, Rapper's Delight

We got overnight liberty last night and didn't have to muster until 1600 today, so Laura and I got a hotel room in San Clemente. It was so great to take a long bath (the last one I will have for 7 months) and sleep with real sheets and a real bed and not a cot for one night.

It was also the first time that we got to sleep in. They call reveille at 0530, but there are people in our seahut that get up at 0500. I have NO idea why, but whatever. We all slept until about 1000. It was fabulous.

Last night we walked across the street to a mexican restaurant. It was freakin awesome. Then, we stopped by the 7-11 and came back to relax at the hotel.

We all feel very rested now. I'm not sure how much time I'll get to get online for a while. Travel will be starting soon....and probably the next time you hear from me might be when I'm settled in Kuwait.

I'm kinda nervous....
1. It's a new job. New boss. New coworkers. New floor. New patients. I hope I do okay and impress them as a nurse.
2. It's weird thinking that I'm going to a base and that I won't be able to leave for 6-7 months. Granted, we will have MWR trips out, but I don't know how often I'll get to do those.
3. I wasn't worried about being in Kuwait until yesterday when I saw that Iran is playing with long-range missiles. With that, Israel will be within their distance. So will Kuwait. If something goes down while we're over there, they can always pull us and send us to another country. It will be interesting. Also, with the presidential campaign...a lot can happen politically. I'm still not really worried. Kuwait is a very safe country and we really have NO threat. It's just peaked my interest.

I am also really excited though....we got briefs on things that go on around there. There are tons of MWR parties and we'll all have major holidays together. We've been throwing around costume ideas for Halloween.

Bye for now....hopefully our plane isn't too heavy (that's another one of my fears. haha. We have a TON of crap to move)

Crank up the Beach Boys, Baby. - Randy Newman, I Love L.A.

See my next post to get my facebook photo albums and you can see pics from san diego and san clamante beach. It has been a blast. I finally have a good tan and we spent hours playing on the uss midway. we're big navy dorks singing anchors away through the whole thing and quoting top gun. I'm still lacking on sleep, but we're having a great time sight seeing.

Today, we're just waiting on our Kuwait CO to come in this afternoon and brief us, then a few of the new LCDR's are having their wetting down parties in San Clemente. It's going to be a good night.

I'm loving having our group. Laura (guts), Andrew (Mongo), Doug (papa bear), and joe (thumbs) are having a good time getting to know each other. I miss having guy friends and laura and I do a good job of being just "one of the guys".

This is what I wanted from the navy. God has really given me a great life. A free ride to california and a place to stay. I am blowing through money like crazy though, but I never would have come out here if they hadn't done it for me. It's not even using my leave up either.

We're trying to soak it all in now because soon we will just see sand for 7 months and no beer. :(

We've got 3 seabags (including our ridiculously heavy body armor) to pack and then my backpack for the plane. Moving all this around is not going to be easy.

We don't have a wifi area, so right now we're all at a cafe on base. I'll try and get on more so I can post pictures on the blog, but the same ones or on those facebook photo albums.

Out. :)

The wonderful world of technology, napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare. - The Kinks, 20th Century Man

So, we're now at Camp Pendleton by San Diego. This place is huge, but it's pretty cool because you hear Marines shooting artillery, helicopters flying over, and get to run around like we're in the real military. :) We've done field navigation (while the three of us girls entertained our guide), mopp gear (for gas attacks) training, the gas chamber, M9 quals, litter carry and evacuation procedures, and convoy training. Then, a lot of powerpoint briefs.

We're in seahuts, which aren't too bad. The cot is kinda hurting my back, but I'm just glad i can sleep now without coughing all night long.

The gas chamber was horrible. I wanted to rip off my skin and gouge my eyes out with rusty spoons.

Mopp gear is hot, but tolerable. I was excited to see how I can drink with my canteen while I still have the mask on. We had all been wondering what that opening was in our canteen. We got issued our kevlar. Oh dear jebus. That stuff is heavy and they want it on the top of our seabag because we will have to wear it when we land at the airport in kuwait.

I got to be the vehicle commander for our convoy training because I am the only Ensign here. hehe. I got to yell for all the commanders to jump off the truck when we got hit. I had a blast. I felt like Private Benjamin because my helmet wouldn't fit over my bun and I didn't have time to adjust it, so it kept falling on my face when I'd hit the ground and roll around. Then, it would smash my oakleys onto the tip of my nose and I couldn't see to order all my "troops" around. I had sooo much fun. I should have been an infantry officer or something. This is what I've always wanted to do. Now, granted. It's not the real stuff and it would be a completely different experience if I was actually being shot at.

check out my other photo albums at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2247207&l=51999&id=16706036
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2247213&l=0b48f&id=16706036

I don't know why I go to extremes. - Billy Joel, I Go To Extremes

This was from the past few days. We went to the Santa Monica pier and then Six Flags Magic Mountain. I rode the most freakin awesome ride of my life at six flags. It's called tatsu and you sit in the ride and hang from a track, and then your legs are brought up also so that you're belly is just hanging as you fly around. It is seriously awesome. yes. seriously. I'll post a video of it that I found on youtube.

I'm going to miss Port Hueneme. We've all been getting to know each other really well. Next stop is Camp Pendleton where we will actually be out in the middle of no where camping in seahuts. It won't be quite as fun. Darn. I don't really know if I will be able to get on the internet and I have been told the cell phone reception is not good. I hope I'll be able to stay in touch, but if not, then I'll try soon.

You all need to get skype so I can talk to you guys on the webcam. I keep getting on, but no one is on. :( so sad.

Buuuuhhh bye!