Momma's Coming

Yay! My mom and her friend Ellen are coming to visit me next week. They are making the long trip from Long Island here. I think it is about a 13 hr flight to Hawaii and then appx 7 hrs from Hawaii to Kwajalein. Unfortunatly, they are only going to be here for a week.... but luckily I won't have to work while they are on-island so it will be concentrated visit time.

Also, I scored a house-sitting job! My boss is going off-island and offered me her place. It is a great house, great location - right on the lagoon with a patio outside :) That means it is prime sunset veiwing - the lagoon-side of the island faces due West. It is also nice because then we can comfortably cook meals, have guests over and relax in a home instead of a room or a rental trailer. The rental trailers are OK and furnished with the bare necessities, but not as homey.

I have lots of things planned! Hopefully they won't be too jet-lagged. I want them to experience certain things just so they have an idea of what my life is like. I want to get my mom on a surfboard. I don't think I'll put her in the waves just yet... but just to get the feel of what it is like to paddle on her belly!! Also, she doesn't SCUBA dive, but I thought it would be fun to don my SCUBA gear while she is snorkeling and let her breathe from my octopus - just to get the feel of what it is like to breathe underwater.... who knows maybe she'll pick up a new hobby. Although I don't know if there is really all that much SCUBA diving off Long Island, and if there is, I think it would be TOO COLD!

Speaking of being too cold...this weeknd I went on 3 dives (all in one day). The first dive was to a wreck at about 85 ft. It wasn't super deep, so we were able to stay in the water for quite a while... too long for me (60 minutes) the water temp was 82 degrees and I was so cold that I was shivering!!! It makes diving unpleasant for me when I am that cold. I had a 2mm farmer-Jane shorty wetsuit on with a 1 mm long sleeved rashguard and another 1 mm short sleeved rash guard on top of that!!! I need to get a thicker full-length wetsuit. I have also learned to take a thermos of coffee with me to warm me up after chilly dives.

Check out some great underwater photos on the KSC website.

So, the first dive was a deeper wreck dive, the second dive was shallow reef dive in the same area and we were looking for Manta Rays.... (we didn't see any). Then the third dive was with another set of friends where we dove "the wall" that is the Atoll drop-off. You go from beautiful coral reef with surge channels to a sheer coral "cliff" that drops down to a few thousand feet (whatever the depth of the ocean floor is around here). We saw a school of Barracuda, and I dropped in on a couple of white tip sharks hanging out in a little cave. I decided to leave them alone as they don't really like it when you corner them. We have a little understanding in that way. After diving (and generally lazing around the boat for a while) we saw a big bird pile so decided to put the lines out and see if we could catch any fish (my friends brought their fishing poles "just in case"). We didn't catch anything, so headed back to the marina tired, hungry, a little sunburnt and happy.

Ah, I can't wait to share all this with my mom and Ellen!

All in a day's .... play

I work every other weekend, and am currently on night shift (one more shift until I'm back to days - yay!). Weekends and nights I don't get to leave the hospital as we are basically working with a skeleton crew of just 3 nurses. The hospital has to have at least 3 nurses there at all times. This means no lunch hour. This also means that I am indoors for 12 hours at a time.....Additionally, if I am working nights, I sleep most of the day and then go to work at 6pm. Ultimately, this means I can spend 3-4 days in a row where I am indoors the whole time.

Why am I telling you all this - well, when I am on nights and I have a few days off, I want to spend all of my time outside. The last few weekends I had off I was playing from the time I got up until the time I went to bed.....

Last weekend I got a call waking me "we got a boat up to Ninje can you grab your surfboard and make it here in 5 minutes?" . "Yep, uh, I'm still in bed... Give me 10, can you bring me a granola bar?". Up, brush teeth... Bathing suit, shorts, flip-flops, throw sunblock, chapstick and surfwax, rashguard and booties in bag... Pull down my surfboard and I am out the door. (no coffee... I hope they're not out of diet coke in the machine)

After a few hours of surfing, we got back to the marina at 12:30, settled out and I headed back to my room. A message on my machine from another friend said we were meeting at the marina 3:00pm to go scuba diving at Troy's Coral head. Great dive. This coral head is known for the number of sharks that hang out there. Mostly Grey Reef, White tip and Black tip sharks. Usually there are a few Dogtooth Tuna hanging out with all the pretty reef fish and ugly schools of fish (the ugly fish are the ones the sharks and dogtooth are interested in - they're usually not too interested in us bubblemakers.)

The dive is a quick one, about 30 minutes underwater. We're back at the Marina by 5pm. Just enough time and light to head down to Camp Hamilton Beach and do a couple of quick runs windsurfing. I am still learning, so an hour on the water windsurfing will exhaust my arms, shoulders and back. I am still not using the waist harness successfully enough to reduce the physical effort of keeping the sail up and in position against the wind.

After windsurfing, we're meeting at a friend's house for dinner. Dinners on Kwaj are often a potluck style and include a grill, and some tasty beverages. There's nothing like sitting outside having dinner with your friends after a long day of playing.

Not every weekend is like this. Sometimes, you will often find me zipping home, wet and salty from the ocean to rinse off throw on some dry clothes and a pair of cleats to JUST make it to my softball game. This is why I love Kwaj.

I found this "draft" that I never posted..... 1/27/06:
Last night was "guitar night" at my friend's JB and Kimm's house (the extra draw is little redheadded Quincy their 2 year old son). There were six of us and 4 guitars. All of us were verying levels of guitar playing and singing proficiency. Some of us struggle through songs, others pick it up easily after years of playing. I have been teaching myself for the last year or so ... sporatically at times, but lately I have the short nails and callouses to prove my renewed committment to the instrument.

I bought a 1980 Sigma guitar off someone who was moving from Hawaii to the Mainland. I think I paid $150 for it. Afterall, I didn't know if I would like it or more importantly stick with it. Last night's guitar brand seemed to be Takamine Guitars. They felt a lot nicer to play than my Sigma. I really want a new guitar. Do I need one? Nah.
Maybe someday.

She's Cookin'

I like to cook. I love to eat. Growing up we all helped prepare meals. My parents were not meatloaf and casserole cooks, we didn’t have a scheduled menu like most families. As a single person with no family to cook for I really don’t know how they had the creativity and organization to cook unique meals every day. Some days it was vegetarian, some days Asian inspired stir-fry, soups, curries, occasionally we had red meat, mostly poultry or fish. My mom is Italian – need I say more? Chicken Piccata was one of my dad’s specialties.

I rarely cook for myself. To me, cooking alone is no fun. I enjoy a kitchen full of people helping to cut, stir, add flavoring, changing recipes, tasting, talking and creating.

BQ living does not lend itself to gourmet cooking. Especially when all you have is a refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot and blender. Some people do quite well, cooking all their meals in crock pots, George Foreman grills, rice cookers etc. I rarely have the time or inclination to cook in my room. I miss having a kitchen, and miss having people over to cook dinner. Luckily many of my friends here have housing with kitchens. Christmas Eve was spent this year at a friend’s house making homemade tamales, and Christmas Morning we had brunch at another friend’s house. I decided to bring a fruit pizza. I had never made or had one before, but suddenly the idea popped into my head. It was a huge success, and it looked beautiful! That just might become a standard potluck item for me. Kwaj gatherings are often “bring a dish to share” parties. (One of my other favorites is Spicy Thai Noodles – Quick, easy and tasty.) So, here is a picture of my fruit pizza. I tried to find the recipe I used on-line….but it has disappeared. Google fruit pizza and you’ll find plenty of recipes. Basically a cookie dough crust, cook it, cool it. Mix together cream cheese, whip cream (I used ½ fat cream cheese and fat free whip cream) a little vanilla, some lime juice and spread it on top of the cooled cookie, then start creating your top!

"Blogging" is now a verb

This is one of my favorite Blogs and I want to share it. Also I am testing out how to link things within the body of my posts. St.Ned's is a pseudonym for a real parish in the Bay Area.

The author writes this about herself: Yeah, I'm a church secretary. Given that the average image of the church secretary is someone with gray hair and a dramatically pilled acrylic cardigan who can't find her glasses because they're sitting on top of her head, this may seem like an odd career choice for someone in her 30s. I understand your confusion.

It's fun, I reccomend it....

Work and Play

Well, I was encouraged to post more often.... so I will try to do so. I usually wait for some pictures because I think that is what people are really more interested in, but we'll see how "news only" posts go :)

New Years was fairly mellow for me. I had to work both New Years Eve and New Years day. Most of us work 12 hour shifts at the hospital (only three nurses have the coveted position of five 8hr days - no weekends, no holidays). In Hawaii 36 hours/wk was considered full time. Here we work 7 shifts in a 2 week period and every other weekend - 84 hours a pay period (a week of 3 & a week of 4). It still surprises me how that one extra day really eats up our "free time". What stinks is out here EVERYONE wants to do the same things at the same time. Next month I start on night shift.... not my favorite because I am really unable to do anything! I try not to complain too much (just a little.... I don't want anyone to be mislead into thinking that I don't mind working nights!) So, I kinda say goodbye to my social life and friends for a month. The "re-emergence" from night shift is always met with "were you off-island?" or "I havn't seen you for a while - did you go somewhere". Yep, nights.

Softball season is starting up next week and I am on a team called Gecko Girls. It is a team full of fairly new/non-competitve players so this will be a learning year for the team. It is fun being on a winning team, but I also enjoy seeing other people have fun and get better at a sport they enjoy. There are a few of us that are fairly strong players, so hopefully it won't be too painful!

The winds are back so I have started windsurfing again. (too windy for surfing most of the time) There's a "beginners area" at Camp Hamilton Beach, and when you "graduate" you start windsurfing at North Point (uh, the northern point of Kwajalein). On my previous tour I had "graduated" to The Point but never really progressed much so for now I am still down at Camp Hamilton ....

Last weekend I took a SCUBA "tune-up" class from my friend who is a dive master. It has been 5-6 years since my last dive, so I thought it would be a good way to get back into the swing of things. A day of pool work and then a morning walk-in dive off Emon Beach. It was nice to get back underwater!

Christmas on Kwaj

A Kwaj tradition is the "Parade of Lights" where sailboats string lights up the mast and around the boat and sail back and forth in the lagoon. This year I helped decorate Cherokee for the Parade. We had close to 40 people on the boat, lots of yummy food, drink and Christmas music. Here are some of the "Cherokee Girls... past and present" plus Quincy (Kimm and Johnny's little guy). It was a fun night!

A New Addition

I became an auntie again to this beautiful little girl, Noelle. She made her grand entrance on 11/19/05. Weighing in at 7lbs 9 1/2 oz!! Way to go Amy and Jerry!

I am blessed ... I now have 2 neices and 2 nephews.

Welcome to the world, Noelle!

More Island Pictures

Some more island shots.... Emon Beach is the "family" beach and is the larges beach on the island. Kwaj is kind of shaped like a boomarang and in this picture is looking across the lagoon to the southwestern tip. DCCB (the big square building) used to be "the end of the island" until they built the GBRP Radar beyond it. You also see a man made rock jetty that separate Emon beach from the "ski boat area" Good for waterskiing/wakeboarding because it is protected.

Kwaj has basically 4 types of housing: BQs (bachelor quarters) - Dormatories basically, but each room has a little kitchenette and bathroom, Trailers - (silver no less), Hard housing, New Housing and Domes. "Hard Housing" are cement brick type housing - square with a flat top and "NewHousing" are more conventional duplex & 4-plex homes - sheetrocked walls instead of cement brick.

They tore down all the silver trailers at the north end of the island and put up dome homes. There are 2 and 3 bedroom domes. I have not yet been inside of one, but everyone seems to like them and apparently they hold up well in the sunny, humid, salty environment. This group of homes pictured is just Ocean-side of new housing past the CRC. I am taking the picture on the perimeter road behind the CRC. (for those who are familiar with the island layout) This is basically opposite of Emon Beach!

Halloween 2005

Always a big event on Kwaj. I love trying to figure out a costume. This year I waited until the last minute.... I spent hours on-line looking at "last minute Halloween costumes" and after a long nightshift decided on a wind-up doll. Luckily our local thrift store (Bargain Bazzar) had a silly blue poodle skirt and poofy white shirt. The knee socks are from an old soccer uniform and the wig was a lucky find at the local "convienience store" Ten-Ten. I made the crank out of styrofoam and tinfoil. I didn't win the costume contest though...

Photos:
(Top) The pre-club crew - we broke Julie's bed taking this picture!! I really wanted to hear her explain that one to the furniture warehouse!
(Bottom) My friend TC (pimp daddy) and I

Where I work

I am a nurse on Kwajalein. I came from a large Cardiac Unit (CCCU) at The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu. Our unit was beautiful with state of the art equipment, a large staff, and all the tools needed to do anything that needed to be done.

Kwajalein Hospital has a 2 bed ER, 2 bed ICU, one L&D room, one Operating room and 3 patient rooms (2 double rooms and one triple occupancy room). Quite different than Stateside hospitals. Healthcare in this remote setting comes with its own set of unique challenges; the unavailablity of medications, supplies, equipment.... running out of medications, limited flights that arrive and depart the island, and long flight times to large medical facilities are just some of the challenges. I must say, the staff here are excellent and everyone here makes due with what is available. Creativity ensues!

Photos:
Patient Room (yep, that is 3 to a room!)
Nurses Station. The windows in the back lead into the 2 bed ICU
Kwaj Hospital ER
Kwaj Hospital ICU

My New Home

Well, I moved from Honolulu to Kwajalein back in September of 2005 and finally started a blog to keep all the wonderful people I met, friends and families updated on what I'm up to. As many know, I lived on Kwajalein "Kwaj" from 1996 - 2000. I left Kwaj or "PCSed" in 2000 to attend nursing school in Fort Collins, CO. After Colorado, I lived briefly in Plano, TX with my sister's family before moving to Honolulu, Hawaii. Itchy feet? Wanderlust? You name it. Here is a picture of the little Island (uh, Atoll actually) that I am now calling home. The island is about 3 miles long and appx. 1/2 mile wide!