What a day! Today after breakfast, we had rehearsal with the horns (Jason and Dave). It was pretty fun...and nice to get through some of the music that we hadn't touched on in a while. Before I knew it, lunch time was here. Mmmm mmm mm...I had some BBQ beef that was awesome! It seems like we are always eating...because the time goes by so fast. Thankfully the food is pretty darn good.

Well this afternoon, Aaron and I set out on our musical journey throughout the ship. Guitar and music stand in tow, we headed up to the CASREC. This is the spot where all the patients come to while they wait to see the doc for a pre-surgery screen. There were a few patients waiting to be seen as well as some of the docs and admin folks. We started our 10 minute set with KT Tunstall's Black Horse and the Cherry Tree. Everyone seemed to really like it! So we continued on with some Prince, Martha and the Vandellas, Michael Jackson and closed with some Gloria Estefan. Let me just say that Aaron is such a versatile player...he makes that guitar come alive and he shapes his playing to cover a little bit of all the other instruments that are missing from the ensemble...he's just great and I'm so glad that he's here! So after the CASREC, we stopped by the Master At Arms' office, the hang out/smoke area outside and sang/played a few tunes for the folks that work here on the ship. After those few stops, we made our way back around to the CASREC again because they had a couple more patients. After making our rounds, Aaron and I went to dinner (there goes the food again!) and afterwards came back to our workspace. After about a half hour he and I headed out again to do our thing but this time we went to the HOTEL. The HOTEL is where the patients stay the night as they await surgery. We were greeted with a room full of people. It was great! They loved the music and I even saw some of them singing along! YEAH!! Mission success!!! Once again, I saw the sweet little girl from yesterday except this time...she was awake. What a little sweetie she is! She was full of grins and happiness. Her eyes were as dark as coal yet as bright as the sun. I snapped tons of pictures of her and her mom. She was up and about laughing and squealing, and each time I put the camera up...she was waiting for me to snap the photo with a huge toothy grin. She is receiving her surgery tomorrow and guess what??? I am going to be able to sit in on it!!! I am going to be standing in a corner of course watching and praying that I don't pass out! I am so excited and a bit nervous at the same time....pray for me y'all. And please pray for the little girl, that she comes out of this safely.

I found out some cool info about our (Air Force) presence here on the ship. Out of the 906 (approx) people here on the ship, the Air Force presence accounts for about 7% (or 61 people). Out of the 61 Air Force folks present here, we account for about 36% of the presence (there are 17 of us). Pretty cool:) I got the numbers from the Continuing Promise blog, which you guys should check out if you get the chance to...It is: http://www.comfort2009.blogspot.com
Also a good site for you to check out is the SOUTHCOM website at: http://www.southcom.mil/continuingpromise2009. This site has a ton of info about our mission here and the most fun feature on the website (at least for me, since I can't upload anything) are the pictures! If you scroll down about 1/2 way through the page and look on the left, click on 'More Continuing Promise Photos'. There are already a couple of band pics on there.

I need to jump off of here because I need to shower and get to sleep because I have to be prepped and ready for surgery at 0700 (I've always wanted to say that! Haha!).

Have a wonderful Easter everyone! Besides observing the surgery tomorrow, I plan to attend one of the Easter services here on the ship and Aaron and I plan to peruse the ship again looking for someone to share our love of music with!

Until next time friends...
Thanks for stopping by....
Keisha