Awful Monkey

Imagine waking up one morning and going to work for up to three months at a time. No time away, no departure and relaxation from the stresses of your job, no friends or family within reach.

Imagine having to lock your doors, turn off your lights, unplug all your appliances, and leave most of your worldly possessions for several months. You hope that everything will be safe while you're gone, but never really know for certain until you return.

Imagine making preparations every few months for the distinct possibility that you will be incommunicado for an extended period of time. Your bills, your rent, your car, your phone, your mail, your social life.

Imagine that when you arrive at work, you know you must stay for a very long time. You can't go out for a bite to eat, you can't jog on your lunch break, you can't watch your favorite shows, you can't catch a movie.

Imagine that where you work is disconnected from the rest of the world and in such a massive void that there is nothing for as far as the eye can see. You can't call home, you can't walk down to Starbucks, your only means of communication are e-mail which only works some of the time.

Imagine that you're on a reality show thought up by some sadistic maniac. Throwing you into a group of over a hundred people that you've never met before, from all over the nation, with every background you can think of, and you're placed out in the middle of nowhere for months at a time. Reality shows last a season and have prizes, this lasts for several years.

Imagine waking up at the exact same time six days a week to do the exact same thing every day, at the exact same time, in the exact same clothes, in the exact same place, with the exact same people. Even in this imaginary world, you're at least given the seventh day as rest, but even that has almost the exact same routine.

Imagine that the people you work with never go away. You work with them, you eat with them, you socialize with them, you spend every waking hour around them, and then when you sleep, you sleep in the same room as them. This isn't your family, this isn't your significant other, these were just recently strangers.

Imagine that the only escape you have from your work, your surroundings, your co-workers, is to climb into a small coffin sized box with a curtain to block out the lights but not the sounds. You have books, music, and if you're lucky you have some movies. These are the outlets that keep the entrapment at bay.

Imagine being on call to perform any task required at any hour of the day. Even when you sleep you're not released from your work, be it helping out a co-worker with a problem or knowing that you have to put yourself in or are already in harms way.

Imagine waiting for release from this extended stay, only to see it torn away from you at the last minute, and you're made to endure it even longer. Your arrangements must be changed, your plans upon release must be cancelled, your friends and family will not hear from you for even longer, you must endure.

Imagine that you voluntarily choose to do this every day. Not a complaint, not a tear, not a falter, not a moment of regret.

Posted by xKinetiCx at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, I took some time off from writing because I've been very busy lately. So far it's been a very interesting patrol. Ups and downs and many obstacles to overcome, but I'm having a lot of fun along the way. The port calls aren't as exciting as the last trip, but now that I know my job a lot better, it's made the actual transit much easier. I will brag a little bit and say that my shop has been doing an excellent job and there have been no bumps along the road for us. I guess that's why I'm happy with the patrol so far.

This was definitely a unique Christmas for me, as this is the first time I've spent it out in the middle of the ocean. The crew put in a lot of effort to make it a good time for everyone. We had a huge Christmas dinner served to us by the officers on Christmas Eve night, and then a gift exchange in "Yankee Swap" style. The next morning everyone took it kind of easy and slept in, and almost no one showed up to the opening of presents around the tree because it was scheduled so early. Of course, since I can never wait until actual Christmas morning, I opened almost all my gifts my parents sent me while I was in the berthing area on Christmas Eve night. I usually work on Christmas anyway, but this one will definitely be one to remember.

New Years was a completely different story. My duty day just happened to fall on New Years Eve in Manzanillo, Mexico, so I missed out on most of the festivities. But that was one of the busiest duty days I've ever had. From 8 in the morning New Years Eve, to 1 in the morning New Years Day, I was standing on the Quarterdeck or running about the ship taking care of problems. And there were certainly an abundance of problems that day. But, I got to talk on the radio a bit again. Granted it was a little hand held radio, but I got to goof around and keep the folks on duty laughing while we worked through that long night. It's funny how much I missed just talking on the radio. I had done it for so long at COMMSTA that it became something enjoyable for me. But when I transferred here, I found out that people that work in Radio don't actually talk on the radios! Needless to say I was a bit surprised. Being a radio watchstander was long hours, bad diet, horrible sleep patterns, and the Search and Rescue cases were stressful. But, the Search and Rescue cases were also the best part of the job. You get a huge adrenaline rush. They can go on for hours, or even days at a time. But when you successfully helped save people, it's probably one of the most rewarding things I've experienced in my life.

Aside from standing duty, I also got to witness one of the best fireworks displays I've ever seen. The sky over the bay was lit up with every color of the rainbow, and there were thousands of people all over the streets. Our boat actually drew huge crowds the next couple of days. Hundreds of people lined up to take pictures, and waited in that blistering heat so they could get a chance to take a tour of the ship. I guess it was a pretty big deal for there, and we even made front page news.

On New Years I actually got to get out onto the town and see the sites. But everything was closed! We had our cab driver take us to the end of the line basically, where there was a tiny flea market, and we walked maybe a good 10 miles just looking for stuff that was open! So I didn't get to the my customary amount of the shopping while I was there. We basically just spent the next few days hopping between different bars and restaurants and walking about the city trying to see everything we could. Manzanillo may be a big vacation spot, but I can think of many better places to spend my vacation time and money. But I will say it was refreshing to visit a spot where I could speak quite a bit of the language instead of being completely muted by the language barrier.

Here are some pictures from the trip. I only took a few because I didn't see a whole lot of stuff worth photographing. Some of these I took from other people (i.e. Chief Smith):

Nice sunset on the Pacfic	Opening my Yankee Swap gift	Fireworks in Manzanillo Bay
A little shop for Tom	Spotted him in a tree along the road	Flag flying over Manzanillo
Downtown Manzanillo	Marina de Manzanillo	Lovely scenery
Surface street with closed shops	Catholic Harley Shrine	My shop trying to look like badasses(we are)

Posted by xKinetiCx at 04:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)