Under Pressure

Now there are officially nine days and a wake-up until we pull into Yokosuka for a total of six wonderful months on nice dry land!
The pressure is defiantly on. I have never been such a paranoid person in my life. Randy and I are not allowed to talk outside of the female berthing anymore, even though we have been doing that for the last two years and no one has had a problem with it. But this new senior chief hates Randy and there by association hates me! I think he is looking for anything to pull my barracks room away from me! He told Bremerman (my roommate and best friend on this ship) that he would understand if she didn’t want to room with me because I might "bring her down or cause the two of us to loose the room."

I REALLY hate that guy! He has too many deep seeded issues that I don’t think anyone could fix! I could go on forever but I am too excited to care about an old black man with “little man syndrome.”

In nine days I will be free again. The navy won’t feel like a prison sentence and I won’t have to spend nearly as much time in this metal box biting my tongue at all the stupid ways the poorly trained people try to run this organization!

I will come to work at six or seven leave at three or four and go about my life!!
I get to wear dresses, boots with heels, pumps and my hair and make up any way I want it. I will go for a run every morning and take a shower in a real shower where I will be able to leave my shampoo/conditioner, body wash and other shower items in the shower. I will have internet connection to the world. I will know what new songs/movies/any other drama in Hollywood is going on. I won’t feel isolated from the world. Best of all I won’t have to hang out with a bunch of dirty smelly guys who have no regard for when a girl is in the room and farting and burping are a common thing. Not to mention the “Its okay when we are out at sea…gay underway” concept.

I don’t think I have ever written about this before…because it’s often overlooked due to how common it is to me now. But the boys in my division act totally gay underway! They grab each other’s buts and say the nastiest things. They sit on one another’s laps and tell gross jokes! It creeps me out. I am not a homophobic. I’m from California, anything goes…as long as you’re a cool person I’ll be your friend. But it’s just weird because I know they’re all straight! I’m always like “What if you’re best fried from high school was here right now sitting across from you, or your mom. What would you tell her?” there is just a line of comfort that you don’t ever cross, and they cross it…daily! It’s anything but entertaining to me, but they love it. Proof that people really do loose their minds, inhibitions and themselves when they go underway!

I really don’t think people realize how it feels to put your hair put 24/7 for a long time straight! It’s horrible. Especially for a person like me; who likes to feel like her gender should feel. And hands down the most outspoken unique hardheaded person I know.