Thursday, June 26, 2008

Radar

For a long time things on the Mobile Bay were very bland. We did the same thing every day, saw the same people every day, and every 21 days (we have a 21 day menu cycle onboard), we ate the same thing. Things got boring and monotonous. I didn’t write in this blog for quite some time because of it. I didn’t have much to say, and you fall into a lull of doing things over and over again, and your schedule gets hard to change (a good thing that working out was part of my schedule, otherwise I would be a fatty… otherwise I would be more of a fatty).

And then one day one of our radars broke. We could no longer do our duties and were told to switch places with another ship and go off and do other things, like defend 98% of Iraq’s economy, a little oil platform. Well let me tell you that when this happens, it sucks. First off I have to write like 800 messages telling everyone that we are leaving one job, and going off to do another job. 800 might be an exaggeration, but my point is that I got really busy.

When you get really busy, you suddenly have lots of things to talk about. I wanted to blog and let everyone know what was going on, but when you are busy, it is hard to find time to blog. As Mobile Bay went off and changed its mission, Mitch (why am I talking in third person?) realized how much more he liked it when things were routine and boring, and he had the time to do the things that he wanted to do regularly, like work out.

Long story short, (already a bit of a long story, that probably doesn’t make sense, but whatever) we got our radar fixed and we are back doing the boring and monotonous. In that time a lot has happened.

Marty and Nisa left the ship. Poop. It is tough when two good friends, the people that you interact with most and feel comfortable with both leave within two days of each other. I miss them both, and I wish I could have gone with them back to good ol’ San Diego where I could be eating what I want, wearing what I want, and doing what I want (for the most part).

Marty left his last installment of the blog with me. From now on he will be a commenter just like the rest of you:

Marty says:
Well, unfortunately my time here on Mobile Bay is coming short. For the last few nights I have had trouble sleeping, I just lay there in bed and think about some of the people and things that I am going to miss out here. And then I think that maybe I don’t really want to go just yet… and then I slap myself and remember how good it is going to feel getting back to summer in San Diego!

I have had a remarkable couple of last weeks here. Probably the most important milestone was the completion of my EOOW qualification. It is a very nice feeling, being done with that. I am in the process of evaluating and saying goodbye to some really great sailors that have done some really great work for me over the past two years. I doubt that I will really miss this job, but I will miss them. I received an award today that said that we received over ten million gallons of fuel during my time here as 1st Lt. I don’t really know how much that is, but considering gas prices, I can understand why taxes are so high.

I am packed up and ready to transfer on a one hour notice if necessary. It seems a little extreme but, that is about how long Nisa had to get her stuff together before she was gone. We miss her out here already. I am traveling across the globe with my ex-boss. He transfers the same day. He has already mentioned sharing a hotel room to save money… can anyone think of a polite way to say no to that? “Gee boss, I would rather pay an extra $200 just to not have to see you!” Sad, but true story.

So, for all of the folks who have been reading Mitch’s blog, this is Marty signing off. Of the great people I am leaving behind out here, Mitch is probably the one that I am going to miss the most. Luckily, I am leasing his place in SD until he returns… something tells me that our adventures have just begun. Thanks for your comments and words of encouragement. Take care everyone! –Marty

P.S. This may not be the last you here of me. I will probably just sign in, view, and make comments on from the states like everyone else.

Before Marty left we had a little bit of fun. A fairly new person on our ship, Tim was asked if he wanted to take over Marty’s job as 1st LT. What the job is isn’t that important, what is important is that Tim accepted and started turning over the division with Marty. Now I don’t know exactly when this happened, but at one point Tim was lying in his bed and Marty commented on the thick mane of chest hair that Tim had. So in all of his boredom, Marty convinced Tim to let Marty shave whatever he wanted into Tim’s chest hair before Marty left from deployment. I took a video of Tim promising this, and the day before Marty left, we got to work:

We had to color in the “1st” so that we knew where to shave, and then the marker wouldn’t come off right away, so we filled it in. I think it is some good work. A masterpiece if you will (I did the shaving, high quality work, and now I can say I have shaved another man’s chest. I don’t think I should say it, but I can…).


Before Marty left, we took a picture of the infamous duo:

















Things as always are pretty good onboard. I have been trying to stay busy, and I think today is the half way point of deployment. Soon enough the Mobile Bay will be on its way back to San Diego.

Before I had my slight blog hiatus (High five Hiatus?) I talked about going to SWOS. It turns out that SWOS is not currently paying for people to come back from deployment, because it is costing too much money. So I will have to go to SWOS after I get back from deployment. In the meantime I will start working on my Engineering Officer of the Watch Qualification which will prepare me well for the Engineering part of my Surface Warfare Officer Qualification.

Things have slowed down some out here. The first two months flew by, but now the days seem a bit longer. Don’t get me wrong, I am not sad or bummed, just saying how things are. In fact I have been in a consistently good mood. I am starting to miss things that I did on a daily basis, which I don’t get to do now. I miss going out to clubs (not that I did that daily) and I miss listening to music loud in my own house. I miss going on the internet that doesn’t run at 56k pace. I miss driving and hearing the new music on the radio (I used to be able to always call which songs were gonna be big, “Soulja Boy.” I hope I haven’t lost my touch). There are things that you just take for granted. I am sure when I get back, I will go back to the way things were, but I do miss them for now.

I miss friends and family, and the little things that I did with them, Taco Tuesdays and family get togethers, Five Guys with Fries on a Sunday night even though you got a shit ton of homework, and playing catch in the hall with the football that you swear will only take ten minutes and you’ll be right back to work refreshed as can be.

I am saving money though. And a good amount of it. I have been trying to think of something productive and effective to do with my money, when I get back to San Diego. I can’t think of anything that sounds really useful or will really enhance my financial situation. I think I need more money to make more money. Stupid Capitalism.

I think I am starting to blabber, but I am looking forward to getting all of your responses, and I will definitely start doing the blog and emailing more often. I hope people are still reading this.
I will see you all in 4 months.

4 comments:

Fashion Addict said...

Hi Mitchell,

It's really good to read a new blog entry. I was beginning to let my imagination run wild with thoughts of the Mobile Bay having to drown a few Taliban & other bad actors in your area of the pool :)
While everything seems routine for you it sounds like lots of excitement and changes have taken place over the past month!

I will miss Marty's guest spots here. Now the pressure is on for him to keep in touch via the comments section. Marty, you're responsible for the "San Diego Update" along with all the Taco Tuesday folks.

The "fancy-work" you guys perpetrated on Tim's chest is a bit weak. Maybe another color Sharpie would have worked better.

Summer days here at home are dragging by. It seems that half the state is burning right now due to dry lightening strikes & I suspect a few sick arsonists thrown in the mix too.

I continue to check iTunes for new music & Target for new DVD movie releases, but it seems the new stuff is probably not what you'd enjoy. I'll keep my radar out :)

Tonight Move America Forward is holding their streaming telethon to collect donations to fund the largest ever, shipment of Goodie Boxes for the Troops. We did our part with a donation. This is the group that will be sending some packages your way for distribution in your Division. Big names such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Mark Levin, Laura Ingram, are all involved with this cause. They had already collected over $800,000 several hours ago. Now that's a lot of packages!

Glad you're doing well. Keep up the good work so the rest of us lucky stiffs can hang out here at home in peace & safety.

xo

Anonymous said...

OH NO, prepare yourself for the greatest new music mix of all time coming your way! It will be like San Diego's 93.3 but sadly, I will not be able to capture the essence of your much-loved morning host, Geena the Latina. She'll be waiting for your return to Daygo, though.

I can appreciate lots of what you wrote -- after my months traveling Europe, I wanted nothing more than to listen to new music (not Bob Sinclair at the club!), put on heels (those same "charming" Italian cobblestone streets eat shoes like woah), and not live out of a backpack. And though your experience is quite different, I have a feeling you're missing your sneaks and famous tees just as much :)

In the meantime, I'm sending you sunshine and hot beats from the Right Coast... and, of course, keep up the good work shaving chest hair. Someone has to do it!

Leah

Unknown said...

Wow you moved from growing a 'stache to shaving chest hair, bravo! =)

San Diego is still good 'ol SD. No fires to report around here but up near San Fran/Napa they are keeping busy fighting some fires; like your mom said. Last week SD had a bit of a heat wave where we were running in or around 100, but now things have cooled down a bit and we're back around the 80s.

Nothing too exciting to report from Taco Tuesday. Two weeks ago I was out of town, but from what I hear Joel had an accident. He had a chip with some salsa which managed to drip on his lap. He got a phone call and stepped away to talk, and in the meantime everyone else noticed where the salsa had dripped. So being the good friends they are they called Joel back to the table; Joel was a little irritated cuz he was talking to a girl. Alex pointed out to Joel that he had salsa on his crotch, so Joel hangs up the phone and everyone is cracking up laughing. April comes over to see what's so funny and they all point to Joel's crotch so she leans over and takes a peak. So Joel, right on queue, asks if she has a tampon or something, and apparently April lost it cuz she bolted. So, now Joel's "bloody" crotch is an ongoing joke.

Last week for Taco Tuesday it was a quick dinner because we were off to see The Hulk 2. Not a horrible movie but not the best one I've seen this summer. Next up for sure is Wall-E and Dark Knight with a potential for Wanted or Hancock to fill in dead weeks.

This week was restaurant week and last night we tried out McCormack and Schimicks; the food was good but we preferred Jacks that we tried in Feb for restaurant week. The service wasn't that great at this place. Tonight Rome and I are going to try Bertrand at Mr A's, so I'll let you know how the food and view is from there.

Hmm, think that's it to report from SD for now. Miss ya, clubbin isn't the same w/o you =)
<3

Comrade said...

Damn, Susan already filled you in on the Taco Tuesday shenanigans.

"Captain O'Hagan: I swear to God I'm going to pistol whip the next guy who says, " Shenanigans."
Mac: Hey Farva what's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?
Farva: You mean Shenanigans?
Mac: OOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Thorny: OOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
[as they hand the Captain their pistols]"

Haha, I never get tired of that scene.

Anyway, our diving certification has been pushed back until August. Damn scheduling is a pain.

Comic Con is also coming up from the 24 to the 27 of July. That should be a lot of fun, although there is a rumor going around that an actors strike might happen. If that is the case, then a lot of speakers won't show up to promote what ever projects they are part of. I guess we'll wait and see what happens with that.

I think that's about it. See you in 4 months.