Life just keeps getting weirder for us every day. - Everclear, Learning How To Smile

Everclear came to Camp Arifjan the other day! I could only remember a few songs of theirs, but at the concert I realized I knew a lot more.

They came by the hospital that afternoon and I jumped up to meet them. The only problem was I was getting report for my patient coming from the OR and as we were all taking pictures, the guy rolled around the corner and I had to run off. The 2 brown haired guys were pretty cute. I'm just being a sucker for rock stars. ;) And not the kind that stay up late and play all night in our lounge. haha.

Later that evening, we all got cleaned up and headed out to the shuttle to go to zone 6. One of my friends got called into work, so he had to go take care of patient stuff. Poor guy. I'd be so upset if I was in his place, but he was pretty cool about it. So, that left 2 of us. We went and got some near beer at the PX to feel like we were really at a concert. We sat down way in the back bleachers at first, but eventually started making our way up and were at the front of the stage at the end. It was such a fun time. The lead singer lost his voice, so it was in and out, but it was still good. Then, the last song they wanted to have a bunch of girls come up and dance on stage, so they started picking girls out in the crowd. He picked me and even winked at me! I don't know if he recognized me from earlier at the hospital or not, but that was cool.

I got up there and then looked around at everyone and really wondered what on earth had possessed me to want to dance on stage in front of everyone. I saw a ton of people from the hospital that I work with and was really embarrassed, but I figured I'd just go with it and have fun. They played a cover of 867-5309 and we all jumped around like idiots. One girl had to stop because she said she wasn't wearing a bra and then this other girl was a skank jumpin around in little white shorts and I don't think she had underwear on. Oh well. I felt a little out of place with some of those girls. They were rubbing all up on him and everything. I'm still kinda embarrassed when I look at the video and stuff, but figured I'd share it and just be proud I had the guts to get up there.

I'm going to try and load a bunch of my old videos on my youtube page. I'll try and keep it updated. Check out the link on the right.

Some balls are held for charity and some for fancy dress, but when they are held for pleasure, they're the balls that I like best. - ACDC, Big Balls

A few months ago I ran into a Chaplain that I knew from Officer Indoc. He later invited me to be his guest at the Marine Corps Birthday ball at the US Embassy in Kuwait City.

I got to go! Not only that...but my CO signed my memo stating that I could participate in the open bar! The down side. For military, the dress was our camis. All the civilian women were wearing beautiful dresses. But, alas.

I ran home from work today, showered and cleaned up real nice. Chaplain picked me up and we grabbed my weapon and then sbux before heading off base. We got to the Embassy and they had a cocktail hour at first. I got to meet all sorts of big wigs and important people. For the civilians that live here, this is THE event of the year. I met so many people that worked for Chevron. It was strange....why a ton of people from Chevron would be at the USMC ball? I got nothing. I also saw some of the navy nurses I knew from my detachments that were sent to different camps.

I met one woman who graduated from Texas Tech's law school back in the day so we talked about that for a while. Who would have known??

Tons of enlisted and higher up officers, but like always, barely any junior officers to meet and greet with. There were a couple. The guys that Chaplain knew were pretty cool and it was neat to be a navy person invited.

I've been to 2 Marine Corps balls in the past, but I was with enlisted guys and I was not in the military. This was totally different! Almost not as fun, but I felt more honor out of it. This time I actually stood at attention when they played our national anthem, had colors, played Anchors Aweigh and Marine Corps Hymn. Very cool.

Good dinner. Good dancing. I had beer! (The first time since July) It was a really great night. I almost felt like I wasn't even in Kuwait...had it not been for me wearing camis. This is going to be a night I will remember for a long time.

Semper Fi and happy birthday Marines! (a little early birthday wish)

Check out more pictures HERE.

Tonight this 'hood will be a pyre, I'm gonna set your house on fire. I'll dance around the pretty flames, such a wonderful game. - Offspring, Burn It

Oh my good lord! We did it! I took some ambien and slept from 4pm-midnight, then woke up and couldn't sleep any more. I "decorated" a fellow nurses' room, who happens to be a Texas alumn. Then, grabbed my monster energy drinks, got dressed in all my Texas Tech stuff and went to the hospital to set up on the quarter deck to watch the game! My stomach was in knots the entire time! Both my friend and I hung our flags up and both prayed God would smile on our teams. I just knew it. It's our time to show the nation what we are capable of!

-first intercollegiate football game: October 3, 1925
-1932, the program joined the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Five years later, the team won its first conference championship and was invited to the Sun Bowl
-1960, Texas Tech was admitted to the Southwest Conference (SWC). The Red Raiders won conference co-championships in 1976 and 1994.[7] The team remained in the SWC until the conference ceased operations 1996. Following the dissolution of the SWC, the university became a charter member of the Big 12 Conference
-The team has the distinction of being the only one in the Big 12 to have a winning season each year since the conference was created in 1996.
-On November 1, 2008, the Red Raiders defeated long time rivals Texas Longhorns in an upset 39-33 Texas Tech; the historical game marked the Red Raiders' 500th win and is currently deemed the "biggest game in Texas Tech History."

(That was all taken from Wikipedia. They already amended it to include the game the other night. Sweet.)

Everyone just jumps on whoever is hot at the time. Everyone would cheer for UT just because the name was out there. So many of the guys that gave me a hard time all week leading up to the game had NO idea what our team was like. They saw it Saturday night. It was great to see their faces. We came out of no where for them. Best feeling in the world.

I seriously can't explain my happiness for the city and school. It's so exciting to be part of a school who is just getting to their prime. Everyone else has had their time. It's our turn!

I really hope we can continue with the next two games. Oklahoma State will be a tough game this week and then we have a bye and then OU. If we can hold out and play the same way with those two teams, this will be the most amazing season of football!

Man, my heart was right there with all the thousands and thousands of black shirt students that ran on the field....3 times...and with the hearts of all Red Raiders watching in bars, at Victory Park in Dallas, overseas locations, deployed military camps. (haha!) When Crabtree caught that pass my heart stopped and I fell down in front of the tv on my knees. Simply amazing.

And the victory bells will ring out!

I believe in you, even though I be outnumbered. - Bob Dylan, I Believe In You

A past patient of mine out here sent me his reasons why Texas Tech will win tonight and I like them!
1. If Tech wins Texas falls in the rankings from #1 and moves up other schools
2. My brother is an A&M alumnae
3. Texas is soooo overated!
4. Texas Tech produces cute female Naval Officers! ;-)

Especially #4. Now, there are tons of people actually backing us up on this. Just google Texas Tech football and you'll get allllllll kinds of news stories.

Hold on to this Tech!

She looks uptown, but she ain't really. She's into football, she likes my chili. - John Anderson, Somebody Slap Me

As his team raced onto the field, he gazed into the stands filled with screaming fans and wondered about the several thousand “cadets” from Texas A.&M. clustered in one end zone. They wear military uniforms and buzz cuts, holler in unison and stand at attention the entire game. “How come they get to pretend they are soldiers?” he asked. “The thing is, they aren’t actually in the military. I ought to have Mike’s Pirate School. The freshmen, all they get is the bandanna. When you’re a senior, you get the sword and skull and crossbones. For homework, we’ll work pirate maneuvers and stuff like that.” ~Mike Leach in 2006.

A great article about Mike Leach


Another one about Mike Leach and picking our new kicker!

All of Lubbock has gone crazy.Hotels are at max capacity for a 100 mile radius around the town. ESPN's GameDay team will be heading and setting up on campus. It's one of the biggest things the town has seen. I'm so excited for them. Lubbock and Tech has grown so much in the past 10 years.

We have a chance tonight. A chance to show the world that we're not just talk. We mean buisness. No one ever will watch our game, but they just hear about us and assume we're mediocre. I don't think that we are this year. Maybe our past hasn't shown how good we can be, but I hope we can show that tonight. It's on. It's going to be vicious. And I hope we don't blow this chance.

What I hate is that it's all or nothing. If we win...I'm sure they'll make excuses for Texas losing. The wind was in our favor, the refs were calling bad calls, the sun was in Colt McCoy's eyes. If we lose, they'll just say, "see. We always knew they were a crap team." Even though we're going up against the #1 team. It's so black and white with our school. I can't wait until people finally start to open their eyes.

Again. I hope we don't blow this chance.

Plus, I really don't want to lose this bet.

Why are you dressed like it's Halloween? - Ministry, Every Day Is Halloween

Every day is Halloween. haha.It was the typical day at work.I got a package from my mom though with cookies so I was sharing with everyone! They loved them!!

Then, ran to the PX to grab a few more things for my thrown together costume. I have to thank Jim and Kristi for this because I wouldn't have had anything for a costume if it weren't for them sending me stuff.

1st stop: Trauma room nursing party! They decorated the trauma room and were showing scary movies all night. I watched part of Blair Witch Project. Oh, memories.

2nd stop: costume contest and party on the quarter deck at the hospital. We mingled and took lots of pictures of me trying to chomp on people's necks. Too bad I couldn't find my camera. I'll try and get some pictures soon.

3rd stop: community center for haunted house and buffet. Good times!

4th stop: back to the quarter deck to hang with some people and watch Ghostbusters for a little bit.

I wish I could have walked around with the blood capsule in my mouth, but I was drooling blood and dripping everywhere. I had to lean over the trash can for these pictures. I did in fact dye my hair black. I needed to dye it again anyway, so I figured I'd do semi permanent and let it rince out over the next month. Everyone loves it though. I just may keep it for a while.

Dreams stay with you like a lover's voice. - Big Country, In A Big Country

From Wikipedia:

The Texas Hill Country is a region of Central Texas, USA, that features rolling, somewhat rugged, hills that consist primarily of limestone but includes the Llano Uplift and the second largest granite outcropping in the United States, Enchanted Rock, which is located some thirty miles northwest of Fredericksburg. The Hill Country also reaches into portions of the two major metropolitan areas of Central Texas, especially in San Antonio's northern suburbs and the western half of Travis County, ending just west of downtown Austin.

Several cities were settled at the base of the Balcones Escarpment, including Austin, San Marcos, and New Braunfels, as a result of springs discharging water stored in the Edwards Aquifer.

Several tributaries of the Colorado River of Texas -- including the Llano and Pedernales rivers, which cross the region west to east and join the Colorado as it cuts across the region to the southeast -- drain a large portion of the Hill Country. The Guadalupe, San Antonio, Frio, Medina, and Nueces rivers originate in the Hill Country.

The area is also unique for its fusion of Spanish and Central European (German, Swiss, Austrian, Alsatian, and Czech) influences in food, beer, architecture, and music that form a distinctively "Texan" culture separate from the state's Southern and Southwestern influences. For example, the accordion was popularized in Tejano music in the 19th Century due to cultural exposure to German settlers.

In recent years, the region has emerged as the center of the Texas wine industry.

Frederick Day, a demographer with Texas State University in San Marcos, said that the Hill Country life-style reminds one of the small towns of the recent past. "Like old America . . . [the] cost of living is pretty low. To people who have spent their work life in Houston or Dallas, the Hill Country is very attractive."

I think about this place a lot. It's my dream. I do believe in love at first sight. It's Texas before concrete and noise and cars and exhaust. It's the real Texas. I go back to a time where it was me, my good friend, my boyfriend, his best friend and a couple dogs and we were out on some random road playing in the river. The sunset was gorgeous and life was free. It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. I never thought I would miss it all this much. What I took for granted then. All the Texas country singers I missed that always came through Lubbock. Road trips to San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth. What I wouldn't give to risk studying for an exam and run off for the weekend. What I wouldn't give to find a good 'ole Texas boy who wants to take me 2-stepping to Pat Green, Cory Morrow, Randy Rogers band, Robert Earl keen.

I'm thinking more and more about becomming a nurse practitioner instead of a clinical nurse specialist. Then, after I retire from the Navy, moving to the hill country and opening a small clinic and just living peacefully. Having my friends down for a cookout by the river and playing some good music and maybe even sleeping out under the stars.

I started thinking more about being a nurse practitioner after we got a new one here on our detachment. He's been working in the ER and he let me I&D (cut open and drain) an abscess and then basically work up this one patient (who I think has the exertional compartment syndrome that I have). It was a fun day. He was prior enlisted as a MM1 (machinist mate 1st class) nuke. Just the same rate and everything as my brother. He was on a different class of submarines though. Anyway, after his time as a prior enlisted, he went through the nursing program and they paid him for school and everything. He's very knowledgeable with the Navy and nursing, so I hope I can work with him some more and maybe even be able to use him as a reference some day.

It's been going okay out here. I used to go on highs and lows and lately I feel like someone put me on mood stablizers. I just feel blah. I'm battling being sick again and I just had a long week of work. It's my day off today, so I'm laying in bed recuperating. Much needed.

No sign of any guy interests and you know, that's fine with me. I'm just not in a place where I am really ready to open up and start that whole process again. It's just difficult to fit that in with all the things I want to do with my life. I'm going to be moving here, there, etc. I'm holding out for a Texas boy. Especially if he went to Tech. haha.

Now! Speaking of Texas Tech! How 'bout them Red Raiders??? I hope we can stomp all over UT this weekend! Man, I wish I was back in college! Well, another nurse out here went to UT, so we're gonna be up at 3 in the morning watching the game live...I think we might end up betting on it. Not with money. But, thanks to Andrew's idea, the losing person would have to wear the winning team's gear and put that picture on their facebook until the end of the season. I think if that happened, I just might just lose some friends. haha. It kinda makes me scared to think about having to wear her vince young jersey. ::shutters:: But, I have confidence. My red raiders better not let me down!

Okay, I'm going to close out this very long update. I hope everyone is enjoying themselves. Only 2 more months and about 2 weeks and I'll be on my way back from the desert!

I've got this little problem that I cannot control. You put my heart in jail, but now it's on parole. - Prozzak, Infatuation

I got a "get out of jail free" card yesterday! We have planned morale trips every now and then and if you can manage to arrange your day off to fit in with one of the trips, you can go! This was the first one I got to go on. We went to Kuwait City and visited the aquarium and the marina mall.

The aquarium was actually pretty fun. It's right on the water and you can kinda see across to downtown where the Kuwaiti Towers are. It was kinda foggy outside though. They had some interesting animals and some damn good coffee! We sat outside by the water and enjoyed that.

Then, we went to the marina mall. That was pretty fun, I guess. It's just another mall, except more expensive. I did buy a couple long sleeved shirts from H&M here. I don't have anything for when it gets cooler.

We all had to do "rover" and "watch" duties. The rover got to walk around and make sure everyone was behaving and being safe. The watch people had to sit on the bus and watch our weapons. I got lucky and got to rove.

Dr. Saperstein, Dr. Minnich, the Chaplain and I all ate at this really freakin good Lebanese place. We were there a long time. Here, meals are an event and they don't rush you. I really like that.

Back to work today. That was the most I'll get of the outside world for a while...I did enjoy it.

Check out my facebook album for our mass casualty basewide drill and more from the Kuwait City trip! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2276328&l=569ee&id=16706036

See the gear shift for the high gear of your soul, you've got to run like an antelope out of control. - Phish, Run Like An Antelope

Happy birthday, Navy! 233 years of tradition! :)

We had the navy birthday 5K today! I ran the whole thing and didn't stop. it's not that much, but 1K into it my shins were already on fire and tight and painful. I pushed through the whole thing. It was a great run and only made me want to do it more. I spoke with one of our ortho surgeons after the run and told him about the problems I have with my shins. He said it did sound like classic exertional compartment syndrome. He said he sees it all the time in Pensacola and that they could do the fasciotomy here and I'd be fully recovered by the time I got home! The only problem. I would have to be off work for a week. I gotta ask mamma bear. I'm kinda nervous. I'm also afraid the people I work with would think I was trying to get out of work. I'm not...at all! I just started to tear up at the idea that this problem might be fixed.

Bethesda always made me do the run around. I did PT for 6 months. Nothing. Bone scan. nothing. I can never get an appt for ortho. Plus! I have people all around here to help me. I wouldn't be living on my own. The ortho docs have enough time. I have a physical therapist that sleeps right next to me. It's all good. This would be a dream come true.

I even talked to Julie about it and we talked about training for the marine corps marathon in DC. Man....that would be truly amazing. It would be hard work, but well worth it.

I'm going to get dressed and go over to work and talk with my dept head about it. Hmm. I wonder what she'll say. I pray I can do this.

It's a beautiful day!