"if you don't have bags under eyes, then you're not a true boxer sailor"

this month has been a very hard trying one. redundancy is written all over this month, for the exception of this week here in Kuwait. i can't see much of the place as there's fog on the horizon where land is. i've had 4 on 8 off watch rotation, which has been the midnight to 0400 and then the 12 to 1600 watches... everyday...  and then there was a 16 hour straight watch just this last tuesday (my time... i think san dog is about 12 or so hours behind us)... and then my division has found it smart to have me work with them in the evening and they tried to get me to work in the morning an hour after my mid-watch. so right now the bridge lookout watchteam has been complaining about having two watches a day... you know what i've been saying to them... 'tough, i've had this for the past month,. and lets not forget that 16 hour boring watch where i was pushing myself not to fall asleep so i was giving the surface warfare officer every new surface or air contact that came into my view.... everybody has their bad share.' am i bitter? only a little bit. my sleep has been very deranged lately: i've had naps, not sleep.

Currently Reading Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang By Joyce Carol Oates see related

vert-reping

singapore was awesome. my friends and i were lucky enough to have taxi drivers casey and roger to show us around singapore. i had live posh (shrimp) and a fish plate (various fish), a beef plate, and another big type of fish (cooked already) that was smilying at us... reminded me of a christmas story. while we were eating there was a lion (dragon) dance around the blocks at the indoor-outdoor resteruant we were at. then we went karaoking for a couple hours, and unfortunatly, back to the ship. so my 6 or so hours of singapore was pretty neat.

other than that, my days here on the ship are now redundant with the gun mount watches. i stand watches on the gun mounts of our ship to prevent attacks from small ships. my watches are unfortanitly the 1200 to 1600 and 0000 to 0400; 4 on and 8 off.. these watches are everyday. except when they stand down the watches for a few days or whatever. my sleeping schedule? they're naps, not sleep.

my time to take the asvab is coming up soon. and then the rumors are spreading around like crazy about where our next liberty ports are. dubai, india, japan, hawaii...??? where i'm not sure. we were supposed to be back in san dog by april 30th (a friday), now the co wants it to be may 1st (sat) so that way there isn't that many difficulties getting off the ship, liberty, and out of the base, etc... but this is all rumors. all's i want is to be home now. i miss everyone...