I can't ever say that I thought, as an Air Force girl, that I would be assigned to and working aboard a US Navy ship....cause it's all about the air power right?!? WRONG! Well sort of....

It's been a week since my cohorts and I began our lives aboard the USNS Comfort....it was rather nice of us to be able to ease into living/working/eating Navy style. When I found out that we were going to out to Norfolk 10 days before our departure, I was a little bit confused because my thought was 'well let's just get there a few days before we sail, get on the ship and roll (sail) out'! Well....I rarely say this but I am so happy that I didn't get my way this time. Easing onto the ship was perfect for not shocking us into a culture that we knew nothing about. The Navy functions a bit differently than the Air Force does, not better, not worse, just different. Our first night on the ship was preceded by our very first and very awesome gig. We played a pre-deployment party at the officer's club on NAS Norfolk. Most everything went perfectly and we were very well received! It was quite the party. We got to see the faces of our ship co-workers and the faces of the partiers of the ship! We had a lot of dancers that night. YEAH! So now I know who to go to if I need to liven up the party with some dancing machines!

The first night sleeping (or in my case not) on the ship was not fun at all. Our bays (E-6 and below) are 96 bed bays. The beds are stacked 3 high and are connected to several other beds. As of right now, we don't have any people sleeping on the top racks in the female berthing (living area), but I think the men have some top-of-the-rack snoozers, poor guys. The best way for me to decsribe my bed is: compact and tight. There's just enough room for you to fit and that's it; it's sort of like a sardine can....just not as stinky:) And just as there is a little metal sardine lid to conceal the well rested little sardines, we have two curtains just wating to be peeled back in the mornings as we wake to the pleasant sound of the overhead announcer shouting "Reveille" at 0600. The nights following the first night have gotten better; the sleep that is...the space, not so much....but I'm adjusting.

Traversing this large ship is very interesting, and also VERY sweaty! There are elevators here but they are solely for equipment and cargo transition. So if/when you need to get somewhere, you're not taking the elevator, escalator, tram or one of those roll-ey things Kevin James used in Mall Cop either...you guessed it, you are walking EVERYWHERE (whish is great exercise)! There are four decks below the main deck and our workspace/band hall is on the bottom deck. Just to give you an idea of the travel involved....there are 63 steps from the main deck to the band hall. I take this trip 10 or 12 times a day. Two decks above the main deck is where we go to eat (which has been very good!), the galley....and from the main deck to the galley, there are 34 steps. I eat 3 meals a day at the galley and usually travel to eat from work....so work to galley = 97 stairs total, one way. Additionally, we have lots of meetings there too, so more exercise! If I want to get to where I live, 'my house', I travel from work to the main deck....out of the stairwell and down the hall about 70 feet (I'm probably underestimating) then I take another stairwell down 3 floors which has about 30-40 steps. I then wash and repeat...I told everyone here that if my butt wasn't high and tight by the time we left here, there's something seriously wrong or they are adding some crazy butt-growers to the food. Haha!!!

I have gotten used to the sway of the ship and have found that at night it is quite relaxing. It sort of rocks me to sleep like a baby in a crib (but I'll bet the baby crib is bigger than my bed!). Thankfully I have not gotten any motion sickness. However, after being on the ship for a few days and adjusting to the constant movement, we went ashore onto a surface that doesn't move (the earth that is....well technically it is always moving, but you get the point) and I actually felt like I was still swaying with the ship. How crazy is that?? The second day was better though but that didn't help because here it is day three and I'm back on the ship...so swaying it is:)

Well this won't be my only post because I'm so happy to report that we have access to the internet on the ship and I can BLOG....at least for now. We are headed for our first location and some of the jobs have gotten canceled leaving me with no gigs. I've found myself talking to people and trying to figure out what community relations projects or ship things I can get myself involved in while the others are ashore doing their gigs. I am planning to go to shoot the band (with a camera not a pistol) on one of the performances, but everything else is up in the air. As soon as I learn what exciting things I can get myself involved in, I'll be sure to share! I spoke with a surgeon here onboard and he mentioned that I may even get to sit in with them while they do an operation or two. How awesome would that be?!?

Yes I'm weird!

p.s. because of the limited bandwidth here, I won't be able to upload any photos until I return from my trip. It would clog the system and shut everyone down. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to bombard you with oodles of photos when I get back home. Stay tuned because I'm sure many interesting things are waiting to be written about....

p.p.s. this post was much longer that I imagined it would be, and I still didn't get everything out....

Thanks for stopping by....
Keisha