Part-Timer

Wednesday the 24th was my scheduled day off before getting underway this weekend. I left Tuesday night and Got Out of Dodge. Turns out with the submarine that pulled in that day (and docked next to us!), the Best Western I stayed at was nearly full (but not full enough!). That meant I did see some uniforms the next day, but I didn't see them long. Picked up my car rental and spent a wonderfully lazy day of doing whatever popped into my head. Some eating, shopping, reading and also swimming a 500 at the glorious, 7-lane, Olympic-sized, outdoor pool that's only open til 1300. That's the problem with NS Mayport... everything closes way too early for working Sailors. When I took a friend out to dinner, she told me about the schedule change, and about how the barge was taken away that morning. I hadn't got my bike off yet, so I was a little worried until I got back that night and found it safely parked in the port helo hanger with everyone else's. Whew!

Thursday morning was a wild one. As soon as breakfast was over (I spent about 5 minutes eating mine after quarters), I went right to cleaning the forward Chief's berthings. The male berthing took a while... I cleaned and set up the hand soap dispenser that was lying on the counter and had to wipe down practically every inch of the sinks and mirrors, besides the usual sweeping. The female berthing took about one minute... had to empty the trash.

When I got back to the galley, the cooks were yelling for me to set up the Chief's mess. A busy one too... Taco Thursday. Besides the usual line items that sit in the heating sinks, there were the taco fixings and lots of fruit to set out. Besides all this (and making sure everything was kept full during the meal), I took care of all the galley trash, taking a load of six bags out to the dumpster. I had about 10 minutes to eat my taco (while watching the stupidest zombie movie on AMC... of course), and besides that, I was on my feet all day. So by the time lunch was all cleaned up, I put myself on break. Lay down in the rack below mine (which is empty) with my pillow and fell asleep for almost an hour. Got up refreshed and ready to take on dinner and with the firm belief that the Navy should adopt siestas into the working day.

Due to the schedule change, I was told I had the rest of the day off when I got back to the mess decks. And just 15 minutes later, over the 1MC (announcing circuit), the XO said they were holding a mock PRT (physical readiness test) for command PT that day. I was excited, as this was the first one I had been able to participate in (due to my FSA schedule... we have to be ready with dinner when everyone is done) and with the upcoming PRT, I could check myself. Passed everything, and blew the curl-ups out of the water like normal. 96! ...an Outstanding without practicing for them! My push-ups were dismal, as normal; only 26 (but a Satisfactory is a mere 13 for my age group). I walked with a small group to the other on-base gym to see what my bike score would be. With 103 calories burned... that was a Satisfactory... which is really not, in my opinion. I need to burn 138 for an Excellent, which would be just fine by me. But we only did 12 minutes, whereas in the actual thing, it can take up to 14. So I think I was on a good track.

Silly weather... Hurricane Sandy popped onto the weather map and delayed our getting underway. And because Chief didn't want the other section to have to work a 3rd weekend in a row, she changed up the schedule, and now I'm working Saturday and Sunday, even though I worked last weekend.

Because of this, I was given half of Thursday off, and all of today off, although I had to be there for our "Fast Cruise" drills. I was under the impression that we'd actually be getting underway for the day, but all it meant was that we would be pretending to in order for everyone to know what to do (especially our new people). The first was Sea & Anchor, where I read my book out on the flight deck (where I'm assigned as a line-handler). The second was a General Quarters drill, and I remembered where I was supposed to be. This was the general purpose, and I did learn that I needed to have my flash gear (knitted hood and arm-length gloves for fire-fighting) with me; so it was a success. But what I really loved about the day was being able to sleep in and eat my own cereal for breakfast (on my own time) and not worry about any work. I ate lunch on the ship (took a break from watching a movie in Sonar 1) and felt very odd, just eating and letting everyone else do the work. It was very Deja Vu from before I was cranking.