The Buddy System doesn't work (for me)
1450 – Hating life right now because I got up for this smash and crash drill and it turns out I am not even needed. They are not doing causalities. How can you have a helo accident and no casualties? Oh well, I am sure this 5 hours of sleep will do me just fine tonight. If not maybe I can grab a few hours behind the SHF rack. I tried that little cubby out last night and it was nice and toasty. It probably radiated all over me and gave me cancer but at least it kept me warm.
2155 – It’s evening prayer and Scarface is playing on the TV. That’s quite a dichotomy. So we are a couple days out of Guam and I will have off both days (day and a half) that we will be there. It’s cool, but a trade off because my section will have to work 2 out of 4 days in Thailand while everybody else works only one day. I would rather have more time in Thailand then Guam but regardless I may not even get off the damn boat because I don’t have a liberty buddy yet.
I think I have said before that it’s hard to meet people when you work in Radio cause you rarely leave the space and even harder on Mids because even when you do get out, there isn’t anybody else out there so because of these factors and the fact that I generally don’t like people, I haven’t met anybody. Because of this, I haven’t lined up a liberty buddy. For those not in the know, when in a foreign port you must leave and come back with a liberty buddy. You can meet up with other people once you get off but you must cross the quarterdeck in both directions with the same person. If you don’t it is bad news and you will certainly be liberty risked for a while which means no or limited liberty in the next number of ports. If you have a really good friend on board then the buddy system is no big deal but if you don’t know anybody it can prove to be problematic. Personally I am a grown ass man and have done things alone my whole life so this whole idea seems pretty juvenile to me, and judging from the stories I hear it doesn’t do much to keep people out of trouble. I have been told not to worry because I will find someone to go out with, but what I want to do may not (probably won’t) be the same thing as another random person I get paired up with wants to do. People say there is nothing to do on Guam except go to strip clubs (I know you can’t wait to come here Ben) and drink. While I am more then fine with drinking, I don’t want to spend 12 hours in a strip club. I hope I can find someone who wants to go to the Nex, Mall, Beach and Drink. Not necessarily in that order!
2228 – I just read it’s the first day of fall. I can see the leaves changing from here. Ha!
