Happy New Years

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and will have a Happy New Years celebration too! The weather here has been absolutely amazingly warm! Its awesome...in the high 70's during day and still warm evenings. My 3rd Christmas in a row in the sun! And no snow! The way it should be :)

As of tomorrow; 01 Jan, I am an LT in the Navy. Its an automatic promotion which falls just a few weeks after my 4 year anniversary of active duty. Had a nice little ceremony this morning with my boss; Kaz and my favorite corpsman, Maddy. Rose, another nurse who promoted 01 Dec and I had a party slash wetdown slash going away party with a group of friends. Some of us maybe didn't feel so great the next day :p

Buon Anno!

always sayin goodbye

My farewells and farewell celebrations have started already. My unit, the ER had a very fun barbeque/paintball evening last night which was a new experience. If anyone says it doesn't hurt, they are lying! I am pretty sure myself and the other girls were screaming like wild banches when we got hit and have bruises and welts to match. It was fun though, I laughed my ass off more than a few times. And drinking some good beer helped too :) Getting shot in the face was the only place it didn't hurt.

Its almost Christmas, hard to believe it though. All I did this year was put up my little nativity scene...my tree would be just another thing to take care of before leaving. The packing has already began as well...my 'gift' suitcase as well as sea bag and clothing bag are growing by the day :p I have to remind myself the more I bring, the more I ship...but its hard to narrow down clothing :)

Happy Holidays to All, Caio from Sicily and see some of you very soon!

The Countdown Begins!

Hard to believe in a little over 3 weeks I will be back in the States visiting with family and friends before the new adventure starts. I am eager and excited to get the show started; probably won't believe it all or have it all sink in till I get there, but I will enjoy the ride and love the time in Michigan and California :)

Its a good thing the shopping won't do me much good as I can't bring much to Afganistan, its tempting to splurge before I hit the sandbox. And for those that don't know much on Afganistan; Wikipedia has some basic, informative information. Without going into specifics some people have not a clue. I am guilty at times as well, but this is the hot spot of War this past year; you can't hear enough about our involvement there.

Speaking of; dropping some helpful hints of "care package" ideas; I will be purchasing a Kindle (electronic book via Amazon) and would love gift cards to load up the Kindle with books before I leave. Just an idea :) Below are the nurses from the hospital (well most of em). I am the Co-Chair on one of the committee's and we had our holiday Christmas party this past weekend.

The trash strike thankfully only lasted 3 days, but that was plenty by me. The weather has been cooperating for the most part; warm and sunny in the days and very cool at night. Using the space heater for now till I get my landlord over to help turn the heat on. Or I will just grin and bear it for 25 more days. We'll see. Below is Etna; its gorgeous right now with all the snow. I hope to go up there this weekend.

Trash

Not sure if its largely known or not, but Naples is notorious for the trash problems they have. Its either the trash men strike often or just don't work at all. Not sure...BUT its spread to Sicily now : ( Its terrible and its just been a few days!

The city usually picks up trash daily; people place trash in bins that are located randomly on streets. Well since this strike its started to spread and almost block roadways. Luckily it hasn't been too warm where its smelling yet...but there are bins within 150 feet of my place, so I am hoping they get their shit straightened out and get back to work.

Heres to hoping :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, so a day late and a dollar short, BUT I wanted to wish everyone back in the States a very Happy Thanksgiving. I know many will never, but please remember to pray for and thank the sailors, soldiers and marines in Iraq, Kuwait and Afganistan that are protecting us.

Was able to get together with some fellow nurses on Tuesday to have my 1st thanksgiving of the week (thanks to Rose and Sam for hosting) and then Thursday with my E.R. co-workers (thanks to Naomi and Nick). It was fun to relax and enjoy some delicious meals :) And I made my first ever Pecan pie (ewe...I despise pecans, but non the less). And it was entertaining to explain to some Italian's that joined the 2nd thanksgiving why we do thanksgiving and why its the 4th thursday of the month. I still don't understand reposto (the 3 hour break from 1p-4p in which NOTHING is open; everyday), so whatever :)

Am getting a lot accomplished for my pre-deployment training, shots, appointments, legalities, etc...so much is to be done; am very thankful to have supportive chain of command, friends and family. I can't imagine deploying a few months back; its easier to lean on others when you know them better and can trust them with your finances :) Everyone has really been awesome. Thats a perk here; in SD my command would have said 'oh, good luck'. Molly and Mercedes will go with some friends I knew from San Diego (Missy and Warren), so that is a huge help. I will miss them a lot though; they are my little buddies :)

Afgan

Today I found out for certain that I will be headed to Afganistan for several months in 2010. I will be leaving Jan for training in the US and then fly to Afganistan. Out course there is a lot to be done and many details unknown, but I look forward to this opportunity and lucky enough to be able to serve and support our sailors, soldiers and marines.

I will keep everyone posted on address info, etc...but for now its on to the next adventure :) I am excited and a little nervous, but will be fine; it really is a great opportunity!

Hope everyone is well!

Back to Life

Well its been a bit, but I suppose I will just get used to getting on here once or twice a month. Life is going well; still the slow island life that I am slowly getting better at adjusting to. Things this past week were extremely busy in the emergency room, so that helped me bring back some of my intensive care skills :) They were getting rusty for while! Lots of people have asked; and yes the swine flu is here too. There are at least 15 confirmed cases of our active duty members and 1 death on the island (not an american). Its everywhere; sounds like the States have it the worst? Being a health care provider I will get the vaccine; but I have already been exposed I am sure in the ER. Eh...what do you do?

No travels off the island recently, hit up a few wineries and finally got off night shift and back to life to see my friends. I never did adjust very well to nights; this past rotation was no exception :) The next guaranteed travel is Paris in Jan; but trust me I have several ideas in mind before then.

There is more and more snow on mt. etna; so it will be fun to go skiing soon. I can't wait to see what the italians wear on the slopes! They are pretty much ridiculous on the streets and stores :) hehehehe....

Caio Caio!