Feliz Navidad

A very merry Christmas to all! This will be a short post since the Colts are on and I don't have much to report...considering everything has been closed the last few days...but I did want to share some of the photos from our orphanage trip on Christmas Eve. The day of the 23rd I cooked for 8 hours to prepare the two turkeys and two hams we took with us. We also dropped off 100 lbs of groceries to them so that they could prepare the traditional Honduran Christmas meal of tamales. I hadn't ever had a tamale and I thought it was delicious! The kids were happy to see us and even sang two Christmas songs for us after they ate. They really enjoyed the stockings and were very grateful. SO...without further ado...here are the photos from the trip. (You can't see my mullet...thank goodness!). Go COLTS!

...Jane...out...

Twinkle toes

So this last weekend was quite an adventure! We got our off-base privilages fully reinstated, so we were able to travel to Tegucigalpa, the country's capital. This is basically the only city in the whole country that has some of the more "American" conveniences of life...such as a mall and a 5-star hotel. This place was one of the most amazing hotels I've ever seen. The service was outstanding and I only had to ride 3 short, nail-biting hours on a bus around dangerous switchbacks, through the mountains, hoping that we wouldn't stall out or get hit by oncoming traffic (they like to travel in both lanes).

...but I got to eat amazing food (sushi for the first time in 4 months!) and go shopping! I also got to lay out by the pool and take a bubble bath and get a mani/pedi! When the lady painting my toes asked me what color of polish I wanted, I responded with, "Por favor, yo quiero dedos de pies de Navidad!" (I want Christmas toes!) So that's just what I got, red toes with white poinsettas and gold and green accents...amazing!

Well, they did such a good job on my toes, I decided to be brave...I saw a girl's hair that was working there and thought it was TOO cute! I asked the lady to cut my hair just like hers. Her hair was up in a pony tail, but it looked darling. What I didn't realize is what it must have looked like when she wore it down...

...so now I have a Hondurian mullet complete with 80's style poofy bangs...not sure what I was thinking...but I know now that I cannot successfully pull off this hairstyle...

...so up it goes for me for the next few months until it grows back. Until then I plan to start watching a lot of nascar so it looks like I meant to do this to my hair...or maybe I'll shave it off and start over...haven't decided. So far I've had one person tell me I look like a 12-yr-old little boy...to which his friend replied, "LITTLE?!" ...so now I'm a fat little boy...awesome...didn't know a mullet could do so much for me...

...I can't promise I'll share any pictures of this haircut with you all...since I still walk by the mirror and am legitimately shocked every time...and bed head....dear Lord....you have no idea what this mop does in the morning...

Tomorrow we are going to feed the children and give them their stockings. Thank you all so much for everything you sent for the kids...even the stuff that didn't make it. I'm still working on a way to get it down here. Standby to standby on that one.

Esther...thank you so much for the blanket! It has actually gotten down into the 50s during the night a few nights here (I can hear you all booing from here...;) but I get chilled.

...Jane's mullet and twinkle toes...out!

Capt Obvious

So...my boss, in all his infinite wisdom, decided to put lil' ol' me in charge of the entire Inspector General's inspection for the entire base here. This is a HUGE responsibility that usually falls to a field grade officer, but I guess I'm just that lucky...

...so last night I was out at the local watering hole when the deputy commander of the base began asking how my inspection preparation was coming along. "It's going really well, Sir!" I replied, and began to tell him about coordinating with this Capt up at SOUTHCOM to get up-to-date checklists and points of contact for all of the areas to be inspected, etc. As I was telling him all this, he started scrunching his eyebrows together in a look of surprise and disbelief. I went on to tell him about calling the Capt directly 4 times the day before to make sure I had the right information...when the deputy commander interrupted saying, "You know he's a Navy Capt, right?" ....at this point I felt my heart drop and my jaw fell open in disbelief. For those who don't understand the implication of what he said, a Capt in the Army or Air Force is an O-3...I am an O-2 so we are only separated by one degree of rank and are both considered Company Grade Officers. This relationship lends itself to certain privileges of informality. A NAVY CAPT on the other hand...is an O-6...the equivalent of a Colonel in the Army or Air Force.

...so wouldn't you know I've been chatting all buddy-buddy with a guy that outranks 95% of the entire Navy like he's my golfing buddy...huh...boy do I feel sheepish...and like a very silly Lt.

I wondered why a secretary asked my name and business and had me on hold for 5 minutes every time I called. No lightbulb came on when that happened 4 times in a row...haha..oh..

So the deputy commander got a good laugh at my expense. Can't wait to send that apology email Monday...

...Capt Jane Obvious...or Oblivious...out...