September 16, 2010
Woke up this morning, slightly more optimistic than I have been any other day that I've been here for the sole purpose that it's my 23rd Birthday. Confused because I woke up an hour early yesterday and Erin was up before me in the shower, I freaked out that I had way over slept. Getting up and opening my door, however, I realized that Erin had streamed Happy Birthday streamers in my door frame and, in the kitchen, had decorated a Birthday chair for me. On the kitchen table, she had a Nebraska postcard as my Birthday card with ribbon sitting on top of a Shakespeare pamphlet for the Globe Theater... The postcard said that she will buy me my ticket to Henry Iv on Sunday! Best gift ever!
Decided that because it's my Birthday and the commissary had Honey O's (my favorite cereal in the states), I helped myself to a bowl of cereal before heading off to work.
When I got to work, I psyched myself up and decided that I was really going to try and build rapport with my two co-workers to hopefully smooth out our differences, so I asked Yana about her night and she went into this long story about seeing Resident Evil and how her friend freaked her out. I think we're on the right track to being better co-workers if not maybe friends.
The morning itself was pretty good until, getting ready to leave on my lunch break, Jo came in and asked me if she could borrow me for a minute. Of course obliging, I followed her into her office with another co-worker, Crystal, when Jo started saying, "So, apparently there is concern that you guys are not paying attention to the kids There was a child who got a scratch and you guys couldn't tell the parents how it happened when they picked her up." I then asked the smartest question of all because no scratches happened on my watch... "What child?" Hesitating, deciding whether or not to tell me, she mentioned the name of an infant and I promptly told her that I don't work in the baby room and Crystal was like, "Yeah, that's Erin." So, Jo made me go get Erin to talk to, but it aggravated me because she just assumed it was me and doesn't even know what room I work in and, when she realized she made a mistake, didn't even apologize for yelling at me on my BIRTHDAY! Grr!
Went to the coffee shop at lunch (pretty typical) to get internet and e-mail Darrick like I do every other day. Discovered that Darrick actually got a facebook account just for me. Though he'll delete it when I get home, but at least now I can make and send him videos while I'm abroad! :)
Went back to work and had a relatively good afternoon. Yailyn kept talking to me about wanting kids, but how she likes her tits. She said that they are perfect and that she doesn't want to lose that. I couldn't get over the nature of the conversation given that I've known her a matter of days, but she cracks me up with her broken English and the topics she brings up. She also mentioned, in the same conversation on a tangent, that she wants to teach me how to body paint.
After work, I went to the library and talked to Darrick for FOUR lovely hours! Came home and Erin and I set about decorating my Birthday cake. Not sure how to do it, we had the bright idea that we would make a Croughton cake and, thus, needed three random balls on my cake like there are three random GIANT balls in a field of sheep on base. Using a coffee cup as our cookie cutter, we got three balls and started to attempt to frost it, but it kept crumbling, so we only frosted the front for pictures. ha ha Then, having no candles, we used popsicle sticks and stuck caramels on the top of them and then I lit a match, stuck it in the cake and blew it out for a picture.
Deciding Erin and I did not need all the cake to ourselves, we walked barefoot with a ball cake down the outdoor hallway to Miss Sallie's room, who is our MFLAC, but pretty much our pseudo-grandmother for the next two weeks. When we got there, I told her that I didn't know how to cut that balls and she's like, "You're 23 for heavens sake. You should be able to figure out how to cut a ball! Or at least bust one." After she dropped the f-bomb a few times, we were regaled with hilarious stories from her past and, to end the night, she told us this story about the guy behind the Chicken Soup books and how he was making 13,000 dollars and wanted to make 100,000 dollars in a year. He wrote "100,000" dollars on a dollar bill and put it so that it was the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he saw at night. He then came up with his idea and, in a year, made 93,000 dollars. Sallie gave each of us a dollar and then told us that we couldn't live in fear, had to dare and take chances and we, like her giving up a really good job at home to be an MFLAC, could make 100,000 dollars a year too. Really powerful story and was exactly what I needed to hear. :) Now I have my 100,000 dollar dollar bill in my room, so I can see it and remember to take chances and dare.
Things I learned today:
1. Always ask questions. It can save you from getting yelled at.
2. Three balls on a cake can be some of the funniest memories of a Birthday you could possibly have.
3. If you are a non-American who joins the military, you can become an American.
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