Jed patiently awaiting his freshly spun cotton candy.

Jed's "call sign" is Cricket. I thought we should get a pic of him with his namesake.

Last weekend we took a bus trip to the Okinawa Botanical Gardens that hosts a Christmas lights show. It was pretty entertaining. The evening started with a Japanese buffet dinner, laser light show, then time to wander the park.

Another pair of nurses, Paolo and Rachel. They met and married while here in Okinawa. (Rachel was deployed to Iraq most of the time they were dating). Since Rachel's been back Paolo spends most of his time "deployed" on the Essex with Jed! Apparently Paolo comes around frequently looking for a poker game. (Whatever makes him think to come find Jed???)

Aron and Maria are both nurses that I work with - they hosted one of a handful of Christmas parties over the past couple weeks.

I don't remember what we asked for from Santa but I was pretty sure Santa was asking for us to get off his lap!!

"Mrs. Claus" is amused

Shortly after the guys came home his squadron threw a large Christmas party. Santa waved as he flew in on a helicopter! (I love this picture of our friends, Kara, Matt, and Alani)

Jed and I often go running in the Okinawa Comprehensive Athletic Park near our home (below). There's a stream that runs through it with these HUGE fish. This is after the feeding frenzy of huge gaping mouths and splashing water ended. I wasn't so sure it was the bread crumbs they were after or the small Japanese children that were throwing the bread crumbs. (I guess they figured the crumbs were appetizers.)

Jed came home December 8th!

This was after our winter dress blues uniform inspection.

We pedaled further - certain that there were a few karaoke establishments nearby. We stopped at one that seemed to have a lot of people coming in and out - we were turned away "Members only". We weren't really sure what the story was. A few wanted to see us stay but the bartender was pretty clear.

We were about to throw in the towel when we heard music coming from further down the road. Sure enough we hear "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da". Through a window we could see a live band led by a Japanese man with the highest pompadour I'd ever seen! It was pretty crowded but we found a table near the back. The whole place was decked out in 50's / 60's decor and the TV's were running video of old performances by Nancy Sinatra, Elvis and Motown groups (vintage music videos). This band was SO GOOD!! I was losing my mind I was having so much fun (I LOVE oldies) There wasn't anything they couldn't sing. (Although he gave himself away when he was singing Elvis, "I can't help falling in rove with you".)

Onward we pushed... we found a small Hizakiya with only 3 small tables and 4 bar stools - run by a soft-spoken older Japanese woman. She seemed to be surprised to find 4 loud American women coming through her quiet, tidy establishment. "Konban-wa!" (Good evening) We had a drink each and "talked" a little with our host. She was very curious (and I think entertained) Her English wasn't very good and neither was our Japanese but I think she understood more. "Watashi-wa Kongoshi des" "Ahhh... so desu ka. Chatan-cho?" "Hai" (We are nurses - Oh, I see. In Chatan town? - yes)
She fed us tiny little dishes with a green vegetable wrapped with something cold and squishy - covered in a viniagrette. We all did our best to politely swallow as much as we could tolerate. We made our exit as we bowed, "Arigato Gozaimasu!"

Jed and I don't have many American neighbors. We live farther away from the bases than most. There's an areas of town farther past our house that we've explored a little; a few restaurants, a shoe store - we just didn't really know what was out there. SO Katie and I decided to invite some friends for a Saturday night "Hizakiya" tour by bike. What better way to explore?? Our first stop was this "Italian" restaurant along one of the sea walls. I don't think the Olive Garden would be borrowing any ideas. It was good but was basically Japanese foods with added noodles and tomato sauce.

I've been having some difficulty uploading photos as of late... stay tuned!

I had a small photo shoot with Jed (as much as he would tolerate) a bit before I had to pack him up and drop him back at "the boat". This is at the sea wall just a block from our house.

We had a well-attended BBQ on Jed's last evening. This was the late-night remnants of theBBQ. Dean and Matt have had a standing arm-wrestling challenge. Jed is acting as judge and can hardly contain his excitement! Marines.

Matt has since challenged Jed at hockey / skate-sprint. It will take place when they come home in December. This I am looking forward to! (by the way, Dean won)

Last Wednesday Jed flew his helicopter out to sea to land it on the Essex. Later that afternoon the boat pulled in to port and I was able to pick him up for another 30 hours at home. (You can see the CH-46's on the deck)

My DOT!! (below) Above, Maggie, Becky, and Kate. I got to see a lot of wedding pictures this day. Dot, Maggie, and Kate are all newlyweds!

The Gr8 8 still remain!

Kelly's beautiful wedding!!

I had a whirlwind week at home. I finally got to meet Jenny's beautiful baby boy!

The Eisa dancers (traditional Okinawan dance / drum) that were performing amongst the tables were wonderful to watch.

It was time for the annual Officers' Wardroom Dining Out again last month. Although I was dateless for the night it still turned out to be pretty fun. Below are a couple co-workers and I and on the right are the hospital's two LTJG Howards. :-) We haven't been mixed up too badly yet. Fortunately we work in different departments.

It was our second anniversary on the 23rd. I knew we would be apart for it... and I also knew that he like Papa John's Pizza. When I was on the phone with him the other week I was trying to get his address to the BOQ (Bachelor Officer's Quarters) that he was staying at at Naval Air Station Pensacola. He became suspicious and wanted to know why I needed his "Q" address, "Are you coming out to see me??!"
I replied that no, I was not planning a surprise visit but would need his address for another purpose. I completely thought he was on to me when in our last conversation I tried to nail down exactly when he gets home from class. (He was in Biloxi until late on Sunday our actual anniversary)
So this morning (0520 on Tuesday 9/25 in Okinawa; Monday 9/24 at 3:20 PM in Pensacola) I called Papa John's in Pensacola and placed an order to be delivered to Jed's "Q" at 5:30 PM. I ask, "Can you write 'Happy Anniversary' on the box?"
The guy who took my order said that he wouldn't be the one filling the order ya-da, ya-da, etc. but I suggested they call before they deliver.
When I hung up I had a thought to email him to tell him he would be receiving a surprise today but I was becoming quite late for work.
Fast forward several hours and things are slow at work and I was sharing with a co-worker what I had been up to. I decide to get my phone card out and give Jed a quick call to see if he got his pizza. Turns out Jed turned the pizza guy away, goes online and checks our last credit card charges... and cancels both our credit cards. I only got to talk to him for a few minutes and now that I'm home it's too late to call yet again. It was unfortunate that this all didn't take place on our actual anniversary when I was off of work because when I got home it turns out Jed left several messages on our answering machine that I would have intercepted that detailed his concerns. I'm actually kinda proud of him for his fast action!! Oh well. It's the thought that counts anyway, right??? :-)

It's difficult to read but the green shirt says "Hervest". Of course... what else did you think it might say??

If you can't read the "Engrish" below, the blue shirt says, "The free conversation of a friend is what I prefer to any entertainment". I've seen Engrish undies before too but this one was a change from the light, cutesie phrases usually seen. It says, "Entrance of Hell". I may have to submit the undies pic to Engrish.com

While browsing a Japanese dept. store I remembered my in-laws' request for some Engrish T-shirts. I just had to share what I found.

The best part is that one doesn't even need to search for this stuff. It's everywhere! The only difficult part is finding T-shirt brands whose sizes are similar to American sizing.

Today is day 23 (of 35) of Jed's latest absence. I talked to him just a bit ago and he is doing well in Pensacola and finds it to be a nice break from his normal work routine. Aside from missing his wife and not being able to fly, he enjoys being able to focus on one thing (studying) instead of the myriad of extra duties he's tasked with on a regular work day here in Okinawa. He also reports having done well this weekend at the Biloxi casinos. :) After his first trip to Biloxi he claimed that he'd had his "fix" and probably wouldn't go back again while he was out there. I laughed and told him that if he wanted to go back it would be fine since he likes live games so well and we don't really have that here in Okinawa. When I hadn't heard from him all weekend I figured that's where he was at. When I talked to him today I teased him about "not going back" but then he pointed out that I "encouraged" him to do so. The things one chooses to remember. :) He was right though. I'm glad he had a good time.
As I'm writing this the winds are howling through my window. We had another typhoon last weekend. It came with only a day's warning and initially looked like it was headed straight for us. It turned West and we missed the worst part of it but still had a good storm on Friday. I happened to get lucky this time and was not one of those who had to spend the night at the hospital but these typhoons seem to come when we are at our busiest! There is another that will be passing near us but is headed for China (if it stays on the projected path). It must be the tailwinds from that typhoon that we're catching because the weather has been absolutely nasty. I'm about to head out on today's errands and I hope I don't blow away! And that's not the only obstacle to successful errand-running today... Ever wake up and not be able to move your head in a certain direction? I had a little kink the other morning and it went away. I woke up this morning and yelped out loud and could hardly get out of bed! I'm not sure what I did... I've been doing more pushups lately and lifting a bit (we have a fitness test coming up in a few weeks) but I really haven't been that aggressive. When I logged on to Yahoo! today one of the headliners read "Many physical ailments can be related to emotional stress and anxiety" Hmmmm.... I did tell my friend the other day that I was going through some acute Jed withdrawal. Now that I've talked to him I do seem to have a little bit better range of motion... or maybe it was the 800mg of Motrin.

Jed has been gone again for nearly two weeks of the 5 total that he'll be gone. This time he's at "school" in Pensacola (he'll be back by October). I thought I'd share a snippet of his last e-mail:

"I had a great time this weekend. I am so glad you did too. I went ot Biloxi and played in a tournament with 780 players or something close to that. The entry fee was...gulp...$***, but I figured what the heck, you only live once. It started at noon and I played until 0155 before I got knocked out in 28th place for a nice payout of almost $****. The tourney was suspended at 0200 for the night and resumed the next day, so it is too bad I didn't make it 5 more minutes, but it was a lot of fun. I would like to do it again, but I don't think I'm going back up there. The reason they had such a big tourney was that for about a month they were holding some poker championship tourney and all these rich dudes and poker pros were everywhere. One guy asked me about being a pro and when I told him my story he didn't believe me lol. "So you are from Minnesota, but you live in Okinawa, and you are just in Pensacola for a school huh? Yeah right!" I didn't feel the need to press the issue. If he wanted to believe I was a poker pro that was fine with me."

I just have to shake my head. A couple weekends ago after getting home from Thailand he didn't get to bed until 0300. When questioned he said yeah, he enrolled in a big online tournament... and won. The very next weekend before he left for "school" he placed 4th at a tourney on one of the bases. I'm never surprised. Other people can read the same books and use the same strategies but I always say it's Jed's patience that gives him his advantage.