I’ve always wanted a horse named Voltaire. That’s the pen name of a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, freedom of expression, free trade and separation of church and state. I’ve always loved his name, and how hard he worked to change his little part of the world. Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltair

The other name I’ve wanted for a horse is Rousseau, after Jean-Jacques Rousseau, another philiphospher who wrote about mankind and who we are, and how to better ourselves, here’s his Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau

I’ve wanted these names since I learned about the men in high school (or was it middle school? I don’t remember). They would be male horses of course, geldings probably because I don’t want to deal with a stallion, lol.

For a mare (girl horse), I have the idea of a pretty palomino, Arabian/Throughbred mix to be named Belinda, after an Anne Rice book of the same name and main character. Be warned though, even though I loved the book, it might not be aproperiate for some younger readers. It was beautiful though. Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belinda_(Anne_Rice_novel)

I just had my riding lesson today, so I was really thinking of horses again, and how much I want one. I can’t wait till I can have my own!

My face hurts. So much.

I got all 4 of my wisdom teeth taken out of my face last week, just over a week ago, and had a follow up appointment a few days ago too, where I had some meds packed into a bit of cotton jammed into my empty socket (it hurt). The other side of my face started swelling up yesterday, and bleeding a bit today, lol. It’s a fun coupla weeks. . . But the actual surgery wasn’t bad at all, I was nervous, but i had a cute little Asian nurse, she was bubble and new, and she made me smile. They had me do a bunch more paperwork as soon as I was in the dentist chair (after having to do paperwork with Patrick, since he was my escort/witness/medicen fetcher), and then they hooked me up to an IV of saline, then came the drugs. Ugh. The doc, an AF Captan, a really nice guy, answered my questions about the drugs they were putting in me, even though he said I wouldn’t remember it later ( I did… I don’t know how, but I remeber lots, I guess the drug wasn’t a strong enough dose?), and he was right in saying that I wouldn’t remember the name of the drug, but I couldn’t do that even if I wasn’t getting knocked out. Then came something I would never forget! The second drug they injected into me, the older nurse said, “This will make your crotch area itch, but only for 30 seconds or so.” Holy crap what a lie! Ha! I was fine for a few seconds, then all of a sudden, my crotch was on fire! My legs literally jerked and crossed, and I managed to not yank the blood pressure band off my left arm to. . . I don’t know, something!

Wow, ugh, some of you might think this is a little TMI, but I think I really should help get this out there:

This woman found a moldy tampon when she accidently popped a brand-new one out of it’s plastic applicator.

I was looking for information about reusable menstrual cups, to use while on my period instead of tampons or pads. Pads are nice, though just a little messy and feel like a diaper, but tampons… they scare me for many reasons. Maybe in part to my scary appendix ‘adventure’ of last summer and fall. I know I hardly wrote about it, mostly because it is something I’d rather forget, and also because I was in so much pain and drugged up in the months before and after it that I just couldn’t focus on writing about it, or really writing at all. In fact, when I exercise now, sometimes I’ll still get a stabbing pain in the area where my appendix is no longer located. It was one of the most painful and terrifying experiences of my life, and it has, sadly, dampened my adventurous nature. I’m over reacting to the smallest of pains now, and I hold myself back when I exercise, for fear of hurting myself again. Also not helping, our military uniforms are very thick, and when you live in tropical, humid areas, this tends to help create yeast infections, of which I’ve had 5 or so already. Some of which were caused by medication and my appendix going crazy, but mostly because of the dark, hot, damp area my uniform creates. The guys get this too, and refer to it as ’swamp crotch’.

Moving on to what I wanted to talk about, the woman who found the moldy tampon. If you read the link to her blog post, you’ll see that she accidently popped the tampon out of the plastic applicator when she was opening the plastic bag thing encasing it. The reason I found this site was because I was trying to educate myself on methods other then tampons and pads. Every female knows that tampons carry a risk of Toxic Shock Syndrom, and like I said before, I’m just a little over scared for my health. Cups, however, little rubber or silicone cups made to fit ‘up yonder’ and hold your blood, instead of absorbing it, which has a whole host of other possible health problems. I did my research, and ended up ordering this: A LadyCup from Amazon.com

I got this, the clear one (because, of course, it was cheaper by $5, lol)

LadyCup Clear from Amazon

Well, that’s about all I have to tell you all. You can find lots of different types, sizes, and shapes of cups, or things instead of tampons (youtube is especially helpful!), and if this doesn’t deter you from using what you do use already, maybe it will encourage you to look at the products you put inside your body, before you do. No one should have to go through a terrifying experience if you can prevent it.

I’ll leave with a picture of my biggest scar from my appendix operation, back in November. I had a surprise operation and week’s stay in the hospital only a week or so after my 19th birthday.

Is very difficult sometimes when there is literally no one else who refrains from eating meat. Now, I do eat fish sometimes, when I really need it, but I wish I didn’t have to. Still, eating fish doesn’t exactly make going out with friends any easier. There is this chain resturant here, Coco’s Curry House.

And I’ve had it once, before I realized that when they advertised “Veggie or seafood curry!”, they only meant the topping. The actual curry it’self is made either of beef (moo) or pork (oink) or a mix (hgguhh?) So the last time everyone wanted to go there, I just had a side salad and like 4 breaded mini shrimp. I do like curry, however, and I recently added a Vegan and Vegetarians page on Facebook that someone on my island made. The creator, a vegan I think, and really buff too, made a post about Laxmi Curry House, an Indian family run little restaurant, and they make their curry out of tomatoes and onions!

I managed to get Patrick and Chillypeppers to go with me, yesterday. Although, the whole time driving there, Patrick and I were arguing about the directions and what not, but we got there in time to have a great dinner. The guys were pretty skeptical at first, seeing as it was a super tiny little place, it was probably a house in the past, and had only 4 parking spots in front. This is, however, typical of Okinawa. We stepped in, and the only other people in there were customers who were just paying and leaving. After we sat down, a young Indian woman came over and said ” My, ah, English is not good, soo” and laughed a bit, and brought us some English menus. I ended up getting (and I was so happy they had it!) peach lassi to drink, it’s a sweet yogurt type drink, with peaches! But for food, we got a dinner set, was white curry (made from yogurt) with spinich and cheese. I picked rice to mix with it, and a Japanese salad:

You can see that I had eaten most of it before I took a pic, lol. I really loved it, and, it was so filling! I couldn’t even finish it all! We got dessert too, Chilly and I got chocolate cake, and of course, Patrick got cheesecake. He LOVES cheesecake. Afterwards, since we were all still feeling a little heavy and spice-y from the curry, we stopped at Starbucks. Mmmm, so good. Since Chillypeppers was feeling tired, and still recovering from a little bout of pneumonia(!), he went home right afterwards, and Patrick and I spent some time talking to our dorm friends, who had spent the day painting the day room/movie room a bloody red, and also spraying everything around the room a bloody red. He and I spent a bit more time together, watching LOST, and trying not to fall asleep.
I eventually went to bed early, since I had scheduled a haircut early the next morning. Yes! I cut my hair again! It scared me, just a little, since it was the 5th time I’ve ever cut my hair in my 19 years! My hair had grown out since the big cut a few months ago, and I was kind of ‘out of uniform’ when my ponytail touched my collor of my shirt. I decided to get a razor layered cut, with a base of three or so inches cut off. I was so scared! Haha, I had gotten layers, a little bit, when I got the big cut, but it was mostly an A-line style. Here’s a kind of bad pic from this morning, right before I went back to sleep:

Ah, and I have a dentist apt tomorrow morning! Ugh. I’m also going to schedule getting my wisdom teeth to be taken out too, even though I really don’t want to. Patrick wants to be my person for that, the one to take me to and from the clinic, and check up on me throughout the… three days, I think it is. Mostly because he wants to see me all doped up and goofy. Ah, what a good friend he is, lol

On a side note, for my birthday, I’ll be 20 and legal to drink here, Patrick wants my first drink to be a shot with a little flame lit on it. Like a birthday candle you see. Hehe… ugh, I am not looking forward to the morning after that, lol. I won’t be stupid and drink too much, but since I haven’t been able to build up any tolerance for alcohol, I’m not going to have an awesome next day. But I will have friends who will take care of me. No drinking and driving, they’ve even found a bar “within stumbling distance” of the gate, so we can easily make it back to base before curfew.

Ah, brighter days ahead, lol
Good night Sanrio Town

So I think I’m pretty much over him now, sped along by a revelation from one of my best friends back home. You all remember Joy? Weellll I’ve been watching her life play out over facebook, since she, well, hardly ever talks to me anymore. Understandable, living in different time zones, but still, Pengy and I still talk for hours on the weekends, but that’s only a few days a week. Ok, first off, I guess I should say that I suppose I am upset with Joy for many reasons, first off is that she makes time to meet and fall for guys she meets online, but I haven’t had an actual conversation with her in at least two weeks. Second, she drops out of college, which was being paid for her, and trys to look for a job, when everyone knows it’s less then impossible to find a job in our town right about now.

But, let me get to the heart of the matter. So, like I said, she seems to meet these guys online all the time, and always adds them to her facebook, she’s the type of person who has over three hundred friends on fb, most of them she met online. Most of them guys. And like I said again, she falls for these guys (she’s been doing this since middle school), they both decide they’re in love, and start planing their life together. Then of course they gradualy stop talking, and the cycle repeates. Expept this time…she’s decided to move to to the middle of the country to be with him at the end of the month. Remember, she’s only internetted with this guy for a few months. How can this not be a bad idea??? They’re all over facebook, one of those annoying couples, and his family is all happy about it, so I don’t think he’s a bad guy, just a total idiot. She said she needs to do this to be ‘an adult’, but she has no idea what that means.
She doesn’t have any money, and I don’t think he has a job, he just got out of the Army. You might think that being in the AF myself, I’d hold him in a higher regard, but really, the military employs terrible people sometimes, and other times absolutely stupid people. Just because they served in the military doesn’t automatically mean they’re a good person.

I’m watching her make bad decisions in real time. I can only hope they’re not life long bad decisions.

On the first note, even though Pat isn’t a bad guy, I knew when we started going out that he had his flaws, but back then, and still now, he’s one of the few people that I really trust. Our relationships is a little rocky as we transition to friendship, but it will settle soon enough. Thinking back to Joy’s…attitude, one of the reasons I really liked him is because he didn’t immediately fall head over heels for me, like most of the other guys over here (I’m not stuck up! I swear! Lol, they’re just very few women here), although I had a very hard time keeping myself from falling for him, and even though I did, I kept reminding myself that life isn’t a fairy tale and to remember reality. It is something more people need to do.

I have work in two hours, an I’m getting dressed, but I wanted to write a little bit first. So Patrick broke up with me yesterday. . . but it looks like things won’t change much? I’m still upset though, although, lol, he said he was surprised that I wasn’t bawling in tears, although I was crying a bit. Why did he want to break up? It’s almost the same reason I have been thinking of ending it too, we’re just not compatible. He said I’m just too young, and as a guy turning 28 next month, I can see where he’s coming from.My reasons, is that he’s, well, bossy and always has to be right. He’s extremely frustrating to be around sometimes. But the times when we do enjoy eachother’s company, it’s wonderful.

Remember how I said I don’t think things will change much? Well, after he broke up with me, I stayed for a while, and he let me cry and all. I kept myself from being that stupid, whiny exgirlfriend, who begs and all to not break up. But, of course I was thinking it, and of course he doesn’t like when I’m quiet, and he kept bugging me, and so I told him all that. Then, when I thought I had stopped crying enough to go to my room, I put my shoes on, and looked at him, and I guess my expression was horrible, and he said something, and I kind of chocked-cried (ugh!) and he told me to come sit on the couch again. So I kind of did a little bit of bawling… but I managed to make it to my room after a little bit, washed my face with cold water, and put on makeup to cover my red nose and eyes, and we went to the pet shop to look at fish, and then to McDonald’s for food (Japanese McD’s is SO MUCH better, cleaner, and fancier then in the US). We ate in his room, while watching a NOVA episode of Monarch Butterflys’ journey. And I teased him when I told him I cried while watching this episode. He made one of his faces, then saw a butterfly get caught in a spider’s nest…

A little while after we ate, we went out to the smoke pit (bbq area, smoking area, party area, ect) and helped set up for a party and beer pong. Well, it turns out I’m pretty decent at beer pong, although I might just have better hand-eye coordination then drunk people, as I’m still underage and can’t drink, but myself and my team mate won most of the rounds. I got upset again, while watching Patrick get happy drunk and be his silly ditzy self, and just kept making me sad, I ended up going to my room after losing the last beer pong match, started laundry and took a shower, but I wsa asked to go pick someone up from another dorm, since I was the only sober one, and, lol, had to put on a dress since it was the only clean thing I had, and ended up going back out to play a bit more. I also had to help make sure some really drunk girls made it to their rooms and locked their doors. I helped carry the cooler up to Patrick’s room, and he did his usual rambling drunk thing, where he explained different drinks to me, and what it could do, and what I could handle. He can hold his drink, so he was really more tipsy then drunk. I asked him to make sure that I never get drunk enough to need help getting to my room, or drunk enough where I’ll be singing way too loudly in the halls. He said it’s not a problem if you have people you can trust around you, and even though I know I’ll be able to trust him (in 4 months!), I’d still rather not have to trust someone. But, I ended up spending the night (day, actually, bad for him since he’s a day-shifter) and we fell asleep on the couch.

So, like I said, things arn’t really going to change I guess? We’re still kind of the only people who can actually stand to be around eachother for long periods of time, and we’re still the only ones who will go out with eachother for random trips (like the pet shop, where he stares at the discus fish, and debates on whether he should get another one. Hint, answer is always no.)

So, I don’t know. I guess I’ll just quote him. “We’ll see. The answer is always ‘maybe’.”

Haha! I did it! I finally took that stupid CDC end of course test! I was like 4 months overdue on it! I got an 86%!! I was really so worried that I wasn’t going to pass, but I totally did! Of course I did! It was SO easy! Even that math part, finding the center of balance on a vehicle and a bunch of boxes wasn’t too hard, once I figured out the math equation! Although, I had to wake up at 1121 today, to exchange an old microwave, and run to work to print out some papers that I was supposed to take with me to the testing area (that turns out I didn’t actually need…), took the test within an hour, and got home and ate, it’s not 1500, and I have to go to work roughly two hours, and I’m so tired. Night shift is awesome, but not when you’ve been up days and nights for most of the week. You see, everyone in the dorms got to change out their twin sized beds for FULL BEDS!!!! I love it sooo much! But, volunteers to break down the full beds from the other dorms and bring them back to our dorm….well, I was the only volunteer who wasn’t on the dorm council. We managed to round up enough people though, and helped out a little bit, then I went to my horse riding lesson, fought with the horse, Sly (he’s an angsty, lazy pony)

After the lesson, I came back and helped break, unscrew, and carry out bed frames, headboards, box springs, and mattresses. All the while, beating off cockroaches that had accumulated in the rooms, it was disgusting! Because so few of us had come to volunteer, we got to pick what bed sets we wanted, from the nice-ist rooms. I did that most of the week, and remember, as I’m on night shift, even though it ws my weekend, I was still sleeping very very badly, and very little. I also volunteered for the Okinawa Hippotherapy as well, this week I got to help train the pretty little grey and brown pony, Valentina. She’s a sweetie, but not trained yet. She spooks easily, especially if you try to touch her feet and legs. She loves people to touch her face, she gets petted alot since she’s too young to be ridden yet. The woman who was training her had me run a lead rope all over Valentina’s back and legs, she didn’t like it at all! When the trainer sneezed, poor Valentina reared up, dropped back down, and glared at the trainer, who, of course, realized that we had to break the pony of freaking out at a sneeze, so she kept pretending to sneeze, and after a little while Valentina was able to tolerate it, even though you could still tell that she didn’t like it at all.

After that, a few of us tried to go to an ice skating rink, but we got lost, eventually found it, found out it closes at 2000, played a bit at the batting cages, and went home. After getting home, I had to dress quickly and run off to PT, where I worked out with my supervisor who just got back from deployment. Rowing machine, sprints, weights, ab workouts! Ugh, my tummy hurts now!

But, aah, I with I could sleep a bit, but at least I’m already dressed and ready for work.
Good bye SanrioTown-ians!

I started this weekend as a day shifter, and I’m ending it as a night shifter, and this is the night I’m transitioning. It’s 02:25 (AM), and since I slept on and off all yesterday, it’s not too hard to stay awake right now. I’m even doing laundry!

 Well, mostly awake:

Since my shift will end at 5 am, I’m going to just go ahead and go to bed at that time, after taking a shower and eating something. (Oh, and I’m wearing my new VS nightgown! With my Spongebob fuzzy pj pants too, cuz I’m from Cali and 75*F is cold.)

Until then, I’m going to continue watching Buffy and wait for the timer to check the laundry.

My wonderful boyfriend was so (aggressively) sweet, trying to help me switch, by smacking my butt or poking me or shaking me every time I fell asleep during the night, even though he was supposed to be making the switch to days. He has work tomorrow, I still have one more day, but he even drooped by after his pt session, all sweaty and gross, and chilled with me for a bit before he decided to try and go to sleep.

I might post again before I sleep, but till then, wish me good day.

I LOVE Victoria’s Secret, they ship so fast! My stuff came in less then a week, and when you’re 12 hours away from the states, fast, inexpensive shipping is a blessing! I ordered this super cute and very simple bikini from VS, along with two summer pajamas (thin and cotton, perfect for a tropical summer night! Or day, since I’ll be switching to night shift in a few weeks). I still don’t look as good in the bikini as I’d like, my tummy is still. . . oddly shaped from the surgery, and the scar is super visible with the slightly lower waist line, so I’ll have to put a band-aid on it or lots of sun screen for the rest of summer, or else the scar will get dark brown and become permanent.

Here’s the link to the bikini: http://www.victoriassecret.com/swimwear/hipkini/ruffle-trim-cheeky-hipkini-bottom-beach-sexy?ProductID=5059&CatalogueType=OLS&search=true

I’ll put up some pics when we go to the beach again next week. It’s going to be a weekly thing now! How awesome!!!

Two days ago, a group of us went to this beach called… uh, something like Tonna, Tonama? Something like that, it was really really nice. Lots of actual sand and lots of sun… maybe too much sun… I put on sunscreen, I swear! Just, not enough and I didn’t re-apply, at all. And we were at the beach for roughly 4 hours.

Here we were driving to the beach, you can see Ikae (sp) Island, and the bridge. You can also see how low tide it is! You could almost walk out to the island!

It wasn’t too long of a drive, maybe 40 mins. It was such a beautiful day on that side of the island though! Over by base it was raining. We’re planning on going to a beach every weekend from now on. This is the pic of the beach, with two locals who were also enjoying the beach that day:

Beautiful, right? You know what isn’t beautiful? My sunburn…. ugh. I hope my VS swimsuit comes in soon, it has string ties instead of the halter top one I’ve been using, I need to even out my tan!