We had our Shellbacking ritual today, where all the people who have not crossed the equator get hazed. It was pretty tame compared to stories of how I heard the ceremony being done in the past. We just got PT’d a lot and yelled at for no reason. It was all in good fun though. I’m now a shellback instead of a pollywog and will get a cool certificate that I’ll be able to show you later. We were basically woken up at 5am, and brought to the ready room. All officer pollywogs had to wear a white t-shirt with our name written on it and the word Pollywog on the front and back. Then for about 3 hours all 80 of the 192 wogs were in the ready room just having people yell at us. The prior shellbacks could draw buttons on your shirt, and then push the buttons to have you do things. I had a button that whenever it was pressed I had to say “pull my piggly tail” and another that when pressed I had to sing Barbie Girl. It was pretty funny, some people get way into it.
After the Ready Room stuff, we get taken to the Hangar bay where you have to do PT and crawl through smoke filled tunnels and whatnot. Then they bring you up onto the flight deck using one of the big elevators, which was a neat thing, because normally no one is allowed to ride them. On top of the flight deck they spray you down with firehoses full of saltwater. Then you have to swim through a trough filled with seawater and neon green dye before standing before “King Neptune’s Court” and they determine if you are fit to be a shellback. By the end of it, you’re covered in dirt and grease and soaked with saltwater. Whatever, it’s a Navy tradition so I’m happy to have done it.
After all the shellbacking stuff, I took a shower which felt great, ate some lunch, then came back to the room for a re-rack (going back to bed after having woken up in the morning).
Tuesday, June 30
Shellbacking
A letter from Dave, (From last week)
Monday, June 29
Hello, Friends.
Hello, Friends.
I realize it's been a while since my last update. It's surprising how busy you can become without a job! Over the past week or so I've been hanging out, doing things, a lot of not exciting-ness. I've been reading a lot. It's actually absorbed my life. My friend Laura introduced me to the Sookie Stackhouse novels. There are 9 total, each about 300 pages. Just long enough that you can read it all in a day. So that's what I've been doing to the detriment of other things. I even got an email from Dave saying my emails were impersonal. Sorry boo, i've just been reading! It's better than watching tv, right? (The thing that's annoyed me about the series is the name: Sookie. What!? I feel like the author chose the name because of it's oddity. The other main character's name is Bill. So plain-old-Bill and severely-weird-Sookie. Ugh.)
Finally, Laura has run out of books to lend me. So after ordering the remaining books off Amazon, I have time to devote to life.
I've been going to the gym most mornings. Except last friday when it was POURING rain and it took me 30 min to get to the train station - only about 1/3 to base. Then I gave up and turned back.
I've been working on Hamlet! Which has been fun! I'm writing some information for my mom's theater company Their production of Hamlet opens July 16.
I leave for vacation in Australia tomorrow! Laura and I will be there for 9 days. We've got some winery tours lines up, and even a chocolate factory tour! Yum. I'd been hoping to go to Ayer's Rock, but it's about the distance from Washington, DC to Alaska. Therefore tickets were $700 to get there and back! Nothankyou!
So now I must use the next 10 hours to:
1) Clean my whole house so that when I come home I won't be stressed.
2) Pack. For Winter. It's like 100degrees outside and I can't comprehend packing sweaters.
3) Finish some analysis for Hamlet.
I realize it's been a while since my last update. It's surprising how busy you can become without a job! Over the past week or so I've been hanging out, doing things, a lot of not exciting-ness. I've been reading a lot. It's actually absorbed my life. My friend Laura introduced me to the Sookie Stackhouse novels. There are 9 total, each about 300 pages. Just long enough that you can read it all in a day. So that's what I've been doing to the detriment of other things. I even got an email from Dave saying my emails were impersonal. Sorry boo, i've just been reading! It's better than watching tv, right? (The thing that's annoyed me about the series is the name: Sookie. What!? I feel like the author chose the name because of it's oddity. The other main character's name is Bill. So plain-old-Bill and severely-weird-Sookie. Ugh.)
Finally, Laura has run out of books to lend me. So after ordering the remaining books off Amazon, I have time to devote to life.
I've been going to the gym most mornings. Except last friday when it was POURING rain and it took me 30 min to get to the train station - only about 1/3 to base. Then I gave up and turned back.
I've been working on Hamlet! Which has been fun! I'm writing some information for my mom's theater company Their production of Hamlet opens July 16.
I leave for vacation in Australia tomorrow! Laura and I will be there for 9 days. We've got some winery tours lines up, and even a chocolate factory tour! Yum. I'd been hoping to go to Ayer's Rock, but it's about the distance from Washington, DC to Alaska. Therefore tickets were $700 to get there and back! Nothankyou!
So now I must use the next 10 hours to:
1) Clean my whole house so that when I come home I won't be stressed.
2) Pack. For Winter. It's like 100degrees outside and I can't comprehend packing sweaters.
3) Finish some analysis for Hamlet.
Sunday, June 21
My Poor Gardenia
This morning I went outside only to notice that some mall creatures had feasted on my gardenia! At least I can say it was not I who killed the Gardenia.
UPDATE: Culpret discovered. Some cheeky caterpillars! What jerks!
This guy was hanging out on the wall. Bryce and I enjoyed him.
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