Weekends are usually fun and great times. But lately, as much as I look forward to them, I also despise them. Because Sunday afternoon, about 5-6 PM you realize that you have to wake up early the next morning and go to work <.< Not only that, but there's an entire week worth of it ahead of you and there's no getting out of it.

The good thing is, I've been assigned to do some chart scrubbing and inventorying since my collateral is navigation. I really enjoy the work because 1) I get to work by myself and at my own pace; as long as the work gets done on time, I'm not bothered 2) I get to work where there's windows and a nice view of the weather; doesn't matter if it's rainy or sunny, I get to see outside 3) I actually, oddly enough, enjoy paperwork at times; it can get monotonous and frustrating at times but when I've been doing physical work for a long period, or something that doesn't require much mental work, there's a perverse enjoyment to paperwork.

I also start physical therapy next week. My hip has been bothering me lately and when I saw Doc, he said that it might be inflammation that's never been given a chance to completely go away. I think my hip's out of joint because it pops too much but to be on the safe side, I'm taking naproxen and doing physical therapy.

I'm nearly done Christmas shopping. Fortunately, I don't have many people to shop for so it's pretty quick and easy. Unfortunately, I don't have much money and I hate feeling like I'm being cheap so I'm trying to find that area where the presents I get are good and useful but at the same time, don't scream thoughtless.

At the pet store I volunteer at, we have the cutest cats right now. Yesterday was Adopt a Kitty day again and we have...I think 6 new cats. There are two Siamese mixes which are adorable! The one with the gray face is my favorite and I think when my other cats are gone, I want to get a Himalayan. As much as I love my mutt mixes, I love the coloring and fluffiness of the Himalayans. But that's a few years away, hopefully.

So that means I actually have a few things to update on.

First and most important, I suppose, I change A-schools. A school is where I learn about the rate or job I want to go. Instead of going PA (public affairs specialist) because I heard it was going to take my entire enlistment, I'm goint IT (information systems technician). That means I'll be learning about computers and phones and systems and servers. Some pretty cool and useful knowledge when and if I decide to get out. I don't know how much sooner I'll be off Healy, but it'll definitely be sooner than another two years.

I got to spend Thanksgiving with a friend's family which was very nice. I had been considering eating on the ship or staying at home, but it was really nice to enjoy the holiday with people, even if I didn't know them well. The dinner was awesome. The turkey was tender and moist and the snacks we had before dinner were good. There was smoked gouda which was delicious and I love cheese. That's something we definitely don't get enough of underway or even in port.

I've been working out more and can feel the difference. The only problem now is my back is pretty tight and sore and my left hip/leg is bothering me a lot. It's difficult to sit for long periods of time and I'm having a hard time finding a comfortable position to sleep in. I'm going in to medical Monday so I'm going to ask Doc about the physical therapy he recommended when we were underway. I'm frustrated that it's been two months and I haven't thought or done anything about it but we'll see what happens.

Today, I'm spending time downtown and maybe looking to buy a few things. I need to get another pair or two of pants since two of mine have holes in them now. I also need to think about Christmas gifts. I have Mom out of the way, will have Chip done shortly. Don't know what to get Dad and Joyce; nearly the same with Trav and Christy. Gena and LaMar just want me to donate some clothes or money to a charity of my choice and as for Grandparents...really don't know :/ If I have some extra money or find some cheap stuff, I may get something for my friends on the ship.

It's been a long two months. Or however long it's been since we returned to Seattle.

Last Monday, we moved Healy to dry dock at Todd's Shipyard which required a full day to move her and pull her out of the water. As the crew, we were just required to be there for damage control purposes; other than that, it was all on Todd to get us out. So now the fat broad sits on the dry dock blocks and is getting worked over. Unfortunately, a lot of the work that needs to be done has been cut out of our budget.

In good news, I've changed my A school to IT (Information Systems Technician) and should hopefully be out of here and off to being rated by March. I'm hoping to make one of the next classes since if I don't, I'll have to wait until July or later.

The weather in Seattle is, as always, horrible. It's been overcast and rainy for nearly the past month which is really making it difficult to be in a good mood. I remember one summer when working at Busch Gardens and it rained for nearly three months straight. No one was in a good mood no matter how well the day went and when the sun came out, it was all anyone could do to just stand and enjoy it.

I've been working really hard on losing weight and toning up. I've dropped over 8lbs since our last weigh ins in April. I'm hoping to lose another 8-10 by the next weigh in. I'm scheduling an appointment with Doc because I know there's something not right with my body but I just don't know what it is. Hopefully, it's just a case of me needing a vacation and getting to some place warm but who knows.

Anyway, I'm going to enjoy the internet a bit.

hello everyone! i know it`s been a really long time.

healy arrived back in homeport seattle oct 1 and we got a nice two week break. during that time, i managed to snag government leased housing so i no longer live on the ship. it`s nice because now i can go somewhere and just relax, play video games, watch movies or whatever. i really don`t cook because there isn`t a lot of time and i usually only eat dinner at home.

the only real problem are my neighbors and how loud they are. i don`t know if that`s something i take to the leasing office or try to deal with myself. i spoke with the family next door and now just really have to deal with the people above me.

oh. i have to finish this ppost early cause it looks like we`re starting the dry dock process. that means the shipyard is taking healy out of the water to do repairs. i`m at the shipyard now taking pictures of the process. all 12 hours of it.

hope ya`ll are doing well! will try to post more when i find internet

hello everyone! i know it`s been a really long time.

healy arrived back in homeport seattle oct 1 and we got a nice two week break. during that time, i managed to snag government leased housing so i no longer live on the ship. it`s nice because now i can go somewhere and just relax, play video games, watch movies or whatever. i really don`t cook because there isn`t a lot of time and i usually only eat dinner at home.

the only real problem are my neighbors and how loud they are. i don`t know if that`s something i take to the leasing office or try to deal with myself. i spoke with the family next door and now just really have to deal with the people above me.

Did I mention that AWS09 was continuing on it's second part?

We departed Seattle July 6, stopped quickly in Seward, AK for nearly two days and are now currently picking up our guests in Dutch. Again. My sixth time here and it's really not getting any better.

Seward was a real nice change of scene for Alaska. A group of us went hiking up the mountain the last day there and nearly died. The town has a marathon which takes place up the mountain every July 4. This marathon is fairly dangerous and many participants end up hurting themselves. So we decided to hike up this path and successfully did not hurt ourselves. The trail was steep for the most part but didn't become dangerous until we reached the shale/rock portion near the top. After a few close calls with some rock slides, we decided not to try to get all the way to the top and headed back to the ship. In total, the hike took 5 hours.

Healy heads back to the Arctic July 19. I'll be bumped up to the JOOD rotation since the red cadets we have are qualified now. I don't know if that means the other non-rates will have off and not have to stand any watch or not. It bothers me a little but it can't be helped since I qualified up. All I have left to be as fully qualified as possible on Healy is crane operator and boat crewman. The crane stuff is nearly done and the boat crew will take a bit longer.

After that, I can concentrate on my EPMEs (advancement stuff) and also possibly relearning Japanese. The new A-school list came out and I moved up another 4 spots to #18! It's been 8-9 months so far since I put my name on and I've already moved up almost half the list. I think that's pretty good progress so hopefully I'll get my orders before I hit the 2 year wait.

Well, it's getting a little late and I'm slightly hungry so I'm gonna wrap this up and go grab some food and drinks for the those on duty. Hope everyone's doing well!

I`m sitting in a parking lot waiting for a dry cleaner to open because i told Brittney I`d take her uniforms in since she has duty. Why oh why didn`t i push for us to do this yesterday afternoon? I could be sleeping now, or just getting up for work instead of having to rush around doing errands. Maybe I should see if they can take this early so i can possibly get some breakfast.

And this does mean I`m posting from my phone. Awesome, isn`t it? So sorry for inconsistencies with my typing.

Other than today`s fun, life hasn`tv been too bad. Work is going well even if we are getting underway in a week. A few work related dramas but nothing directly involving me. I`m gonna go see about turning in this dry cleaning now.

I'm standing watch again on a Sunday which is quite enjoyable. While standing watch on the weekends isn't all that fun because I lose a day off, it's not that bad because there's nothing to do during the day so I can just relax when I'm off watch. I'm standing the mids again but unlike last week, I'll actually get to sleep in tomorrow.

The past few weeks have gone by in a blur. We finished TACT, did I mention that?, but I have no idea how we actually did. I missed quarters last week due to watch and will miss it again tomorrow, if it's in the morning, due to sleeping in from watch. I should be receiving my first year of sea service award but I think I can wait on that a little bit more. Other than that, life is fairly ordinary right now.

I did get myself a new phone though! Have my own contract and everything and have even more bills to pay. It's all money management, though. I just have to stop buying books and games and stuff and I should be fine. Find better things to do with my time. I also bought a longboard the other day to get around Seattle a little better. My friend Brittney talked me in to it when I was taking her to the doctor. She had ridden Marshall's the other night and was going to get her own so I said why not? At least when I want to go to the park downtown it won't take me an hour to walk there.

We have another two weeks in port till starting the second part of AWS09. Next trip is going to be really hard, I think. Almost 63% of the crew is changing out this in port and that includes my best friend, Mark. He's staying in Seattle and will be starting school in the fall. I'll miss having him around but at least I won't be completely alone.

Anyway, I'm going to enjoy making some ringtones for my phone. Hope everyone is doing well!

Finally got around to changing my layout and icons :D!

We started TACT today so it's been a long, busy day. I really don't enjoy having to dress out in full fire fighting gear twice in a day to do drills. At least I'm not partaking in the inport drills for the next two days.

Guess what favorite ship is back State side?! Yep! Mine! That means three weeks of land and (some) sun and just overall happiness as we try to decompress before heading out for another mission.

It was a busy and pretty difficult three months. I can't explain why but this trip actually turned out to be harder and worse off in many ways than the last deployment. I wasn't the only one who thought so either. But I'll talk about the trip later, if I can work up the energy.

Some amazing things did happen this time. I was deployed on the ice for the first time and nearly fell in thanks to pressure and ice cracking. Exciting story to be retold later. I completed more work on my boatcrew member packet and should be getting helicopter tiedown qualified soon. We did some training exercises for the HH-65 pilots in Kodiak and I got to go under the blades once more. It was really exciting as this time, I was a low tiedown and was fairly close to the tail rotor as it was spinning.

The port calls sucked but we managed to make the most of them. My brother got to ride with us from Juneau to Seattle and I think he had a great time. He got bored really quickly and I wanted to boot him because I was happy to have a little down time and a chance to rest and rejuvenate.

Starting next week, we go into an evaluation called TACT which checks to see how well our DCTT (Damage Control Training Team) is training the ship to respond to casualties. It won't be fun and I'm not looking forward to it at all.

Anyway, it's still great weather outside so I'm going to go enjoy it while I have the chance.

I'm heading out to the freezing lands again. I've got nothing more to say other than I really don't want to go.

I'll try to keep in touch through email or have some pictures and such once I get back.

Really not dead though sometimes it feels like it.

I don't know how long it's been since I posted last but I'm guessing it was well before shakedown because I don't think I've been online in the past month. Unfortunately, I'm going to make this quick because I am le tired and have a headache or some kind of behind the eye ache that isn't going away. Actually, I think I'll just leave it here for now, letting you know I'm still alive and working like a fiend because I am ready to crash.

Life has been incredibly busy lately.

With the start of the new year, and month, I went in to two weeks of mess cooking. I was lucky and ended up being paired with my favorite fireman. The mess cooking deal is never bad, in my opinion, but long days get longer when you have to work nearly the entire day, from 0630 to 1830. Plus, during the last week we had to go to firefighting school for three days. It was an amazing experience and really, really fun but incredibly tiring.

For the past week or so, I've also been house sitting for our FS1 since she has two dogs and has been out of town. I really enjoy being able to get off the ship but with mess cooking and the 40 minute drive it takes to get there (that's without traffic), I'm beat by the end of the day. Yesterday, I went to bed around 1930 and woke up at 0600.

Unfortunately, because I've been so busy, I've had to put off working out. I feel like I've gained a lot of weight and I really don't want to weigh myself right now. I'm hoping this is just my body adjusting to a new weight level and such, but with my uniforms feeling uncomfortably tight, I'm wondering if I am putting on more weight or just really suck at drying my clothes. (The dryers we have are crazy hot and shrink clothes if you don't pay very careful attention to how long they're in there at what temperature)

On the brighter side, I'm on the verge of starting a relationship...I think. I'm really not sure what's going on or where we stand since we haven't spent any time together for the past two weeks. We've both been busy and he's going through a really stressful time right now. I want to spend time with him before we get underway and I'm worried about starting something before we head out for almost 8 months. I suppose it's just something to think about and such.

I had to run some errands today and ended up not being able to do my interval training because I got back so late. I hate Seattle traffic; I hate traffic in general but Seattle is just worse because no one drives the speed limit! Seriously. They all drive 5-10 under.

Yesterday, after buying Space Invaders for my DS, I discovered upon arriving home that I did not get my game. So I had to return to the store to get it which they were able to find. After that, I drove across the city to get acquainted with my FS1's dogs since I'll be house sitting for her while she's on leave. She's got a really nice house and two sweet pups. I have no idea what they are; they're both medium size with white hair, the girl has light brown spots and the boy had black. I'm looking forward to being off the ship for a bit, though I'm not looking forward to getting up early or having to drive in to work. I've become very spoiled.

Also, I may have a date tomorrow? Not sure if it counts as a date as we're going to the movies with some other people but who knows. Maybe I should ask him if it's a date...

I started a new exercise plan found in Women's Health Magazine. It's only been a week and a half into it, but I already feel a lot better; stronger, fitter, maybe not thinner yet but getting there. I'm not worrying so much about how much I eat right now or what I eat though I do still stay away from processed food and most sugars. Our galley has opened back up so eating regular meals is going to be a lot easier now. Well, regular and balanced meals.

Even though I'm working out regularly and still being fairly active, I'm excessively tired lately. This morning, I woke up to do the breakfast mess cooking and once I was done, came back to the room and zonked out till it was time for lunch. Granted, it was only an hour nap but I still felt tired during lunch and was incredibly tempted to sleep after.

This may also be a result from going rock climbing for the first time in two years yesterday. Wow but was it a lot more difficult than I remembered it being. Maybe the trails are just that different or something but jeez! I thought I had done well when I was in VA and doing it here, I felt like I sucked horribly.

Other than that, life has been as plain as usual. I tried to make it up to Leaventown for a day vacation but ended up spinning out on the road due to unseen ice. There wasn't any damage to the vehicle other than a bent bumper so I'm really lucky. And I learned a good lesson about driving in snowy areas.

Now I think I'm going to play Chrono Trigger for a bit. I really need to finish FFIII and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, but I've nearly lost interest in Zelda and with FFIII, I really want to start again and level up my jobs correctly.

I'm shopping for anime. How great and dorky is that?

They had a buy one boxset, get the second free sale at FYE a week or so back and I ended up with Angelic Layer and Get Backers which I have burned my way through so I now need more entertainment! I figure by the time I get this stuff from online, it'll be about time to head north so I'll have something to keep me happy for the first three months of the trip. I'll order more at port calls so I have something during the second half of the trip!

Also, Amazon is having a sale on DVDs and I am so, so tempted to get Seasons 1 and 2 of Weeds because I've heard it's awesomely hilarious.

Stocking up for trips is so fun!

I need to start making a list...

Happy Christmas everyone!

I hope the day is beautiful for everyone. Currently, we in Seattle are experiencing slush and mush of massive proportions with a lot of snow left over and more to come! Yep, we've been socked in for about a week now and the roads are just now getting clear enough to travel far distances on. I managed to grab a few DVDs at the mall before the worst hit so I have some stuff to watch while I'm stuck on the ship.

But the holidays haven't been all bad. Last night, we went over to a friend's house for dinner with a bunch of people from the ship. It was nice and fun and loud and boisterous. Yes, boisterous. There was a lot of beer pong being played but seeing as how I didn't want to drink the kind of beer they had, I stuck with my wine and stayed fairly sober.

The dinner was the second best since I've been here, Thanksgiving probably beating it. We had a turkey, ham, green bean casserole, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and cranberry sauce which I don't think was eaten. For today, I don't know what's going on but I'm sure I'll end up going to a friend's house again at least at some point in the day. I may be a bit of a bum and sit around a little longer before getting motivated to leave.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday!

For the first time in possibly five years or more, Seattle got a major snowstorm and ISC Seattle closed for the day. On Thursday. Guess who happened to be scheduled for duty that day? And had to stay on the ship the entire day off? During a VADM (Vice Admiral) visit? And a boiler testing that caused a backflow of water in the AMRs?

This girl!

Luckily, after my watch, the day went fairly smoothly. The roads cleared up enough Friday for a two hour delay into the base and a fully operational ship. Our department was nice and let us off early, though. Which worked out great for me because I got a nice nap in (I've been extremely tired lately and don't know why; I actually wake up exhausted from my naps instead of refreshed), a quick work out, and had enough time to buy a cake from Costco for our party that night and watch Brian Regan and Jeff Dunham on Comedy Central.

I meant to get in finishing my Christmas cards but yeah...didn't. I'm so behind on those that I'll probably get them out after Christmas this year :/ I fail but it's just difficult to work on them when you don't have a good area to sit down and write.

But the party last night was a lot of fun. Two of the girls from my room got their orders for A school and left, or are leaving, this weekend. Emily, one of the girls leaving, won a party for 100 people and this great piano bar called 88 Keys. It's like a dueling pianos deal with two pianos set up back to back on stage. You can request songs for them to play (for a nominal fee, of course) and they'll play it in various styles but always fun. If they don't know the song, they'll either make up lyrics or play another song in place of that one.

Since we brought cake last night, we gave a piece to the entertainers and during one song, they started eating it and kept going back to the cake and wanting to eat it. It took them a few minutes to finish the song but it was amusing. So the night was a success.

Today, I meant to get some work done and see a movie at night with some shipmates but got pulled out to the movie in the afternoon. We saw Yes Man which was surprisingly good. I thought it was going to be one of those awkward funny movies with stupid situations and such but it was fairly realistic and had a good view about missing out on life.

It also began snowing again today. I'm beginning to think that I'll be stuck on the ship for the entire stand down. But what can you do? One thing I do need to find out is if I'm going to be working on my duty days or if I just have to stand my watch and do whatever I want in my free time. Cause it would kind of suck to have duty and work one day and then have to come in the next day to day work. I'd be doing two days of work every three days or so instead of one day every three days. But I guess I'll find out come Monday.

I love Christmas and the holiday season because of the feeling that's supposed to be invoked by it. I say supposed because it doesn't always happen. You're away from your family, busy with work, have a million other things going on and you find that Christmas has snuck up on you and left without so much as a good cheer.

What I miss most about this time of year is finding a good place to curl up and people watch or read while enjoying a cup of coffee or hot chocolate or listening to music and just tuning out. The JC at George Mason probably provided one of the best places to curl up and just forget for a little bit. Nice comfortable chairs, a wall of windows to look out of, a few levels so you're off the ground and not staring people in the face as they pass by. I miss that.

Also, very oddly, I miss the retail side. Putting out those decorations, being part of the holiday experience and being busy. As much as I try, I just can't get into the Christmas spirit this year. I'm stuck on a ship in the middle of a city; not exactly enjoyable for me. I don't get the Christmas decorations people put up around their house; there's rarely Christmas music unless I head to the mall or another store. I was thinking of decorating my rack but really, what would I do with everything once the holiday was over? I don't have much room and what little I do have needs to be prioritized.

But, there are the little things that make life better. My favorite holiday CD to listen to is Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas. One day, I'll actually buy it and have it for my very own. I love the music so much I listened to it when we were in the ice this past summer. It's very calming and being alone on the bridge, watching the Healy cut through the ice is surreal.

I've been tempted to buy some Christmas DVDs as well but, you know how money is. The Nightmare Before Christmas was re-released and costs $30! I don't need anything fancy; I just want to see my movie. I'll check Amazon or something before leaving for AWS 09. I'd like to have a few more movies on hand. I'd also like to have a TV in my rack so I also need to look into some sort of shelving unit. Maybe hit up Ikea though I doubt that'll help.

I don't mean to complain or be a downer; I just miss feeling good during the holidays.

I'm incredibly tired and fatigued right now. Maybe not so much one as the other but I can't figure out which is more right at the moment. I went out with my roommates last night and didn't get back to the room till almost 3:00AM. I slept till 10, which isn't as bad as it might seem since when I pull mids I don't go to bed till 3:30 and then get up around 10 or a little earlier. It was nice to go out, but now I feel a little rushed to complete some projects and things this afternoon.

With potable water being down till 7:00PM, I don't have to worry about working out till well after dinner. I was planning on doing it this morning, but thought I'd be going to the holiday party which started at 12:00. Instead, I went to the mall to get Christmas cards, a gift or two, and a CD organizer for myself. I was fine most of the day, but now I'm just exhausted and must have been really hungry because I had three (small) slices of pizza, a molasses cookie (because they are so good), and a can of tuna. Blah. Definitely a small dinner tonight.

I haven't knocked out most of what I want to do, yet, though. I need to organize my locker better so everything fits and has a space of its own. I figure getting through some of the cans of soup and tuna I have will help since it'll free up the bottom area. My checkbook is nearly up to date; I have to add in the latest purchases and my paycheck. I need to make a few calls which may or may not be done till Monday.

Overall, it's not so bad. I tend to feel rushed about things because of the way things are just laid out. If I need to head into downtown, I need to do that after lunch because everything will close if I wait much longer. This is because it takes me at least 30 mins to get anywhere in the city since I refuse to drive in the downtown area. So if I have errands in downtown and errands in some other part of town, I'm a bit screwed on time and get to feeling flustered about arranging my day.

I suppose I shouldn't be complaining too much, but I'd really just like to feel as if I have time to get everything done and not rushed to complete everything in 2-3 hours.

And now, I have to run to the BEQ because potable water is down. Guess what else is down other than drinking water? :D