escort badge for Naval Support Activity Bahrain

I might’ve gone to sleep late last night, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from the new schedule I’m trying to keep. I didn’t have to worry about sleeping through my alarm. I woke up three minutes before it. And I was excited. I realised the ‘it takes two weeks to make a habit’ thing is true. Even though we went through jet lag I set my alarm for the same time every morning and am now waking up on my own.

I will have some Cheerios to keep my stomach from yelling at me while I publish another post and finish labelling the pictures from earlier in the trip. Done with that I can shower, talk with Linda (woman living in villa we are looking at), go to breakfast, and write about Ramadan and culture while waiting on Kim to show up.

She introduces me to her friend in the front seat and I sit in the back with Bailey (her grandson from her first marriage). He loves the heat and swimming versus back home in Missouri. We drive to base. I go to housing and they go to the NEX. I turn in my unwanted pre-contract and am told to come back tomorrow; they need 24 hours for processing. I meet them at a table drinking coffees. I’m bought a water for 25 cents and a bean burrito from Taco Bell and have two chocolate chip cookies while we chat.

cool effect on the sunset ride home

Kim and I check our mail around the corner. I have three slips in my box and she has none. One of the boxes isn’t mine and it makes carrying the other two easier. They are light which helps too. I take a picture of one of the escort badges as we walk back to the car. At the house, at 1:30, I open the boxes to find a steering wheel cover (don’t know what happened to my rainbow one) for our car that isn’t here yet, a shaving brush holder that Caleb has needed since Christmas, and a Kindle – so that Caleb can read Dr. Seuss and Sherlock Holmes.

Caleb texts me at 3:50 that he’s getting off work, but I don’t see him until 4:30 – after waiting in the car in the shade near base and then waiting in the roundabout. We were going to buy dog food, but got invited for surprise pizza with Kim. I thought it was the name of the place, but it’s a menu item at Al Mudeef, a little corner restaurant, near Lulu’s in Hidd. There’s a place that sells juice and sandwiches next door, a grocery store, and men selling fish across the street.

I thought we were going to eat there, but the one table was taken. They sell pizza, salad, desserts – like a Middle Eastern Papa John’s. Our order didn’t take long and I thought we were on our way to Kim’s, but she wanted some grandma/grandson time before the kid left back to the States. I don’t blame her and thank her for inviting us to try something new.

Al Mudeef surprise pizza

She drops us off at the hotel and I go to the front desk to ask for a DVD player so we can watch Slumdog Millionaire when Kim brings the movie by. I wonder if this is the service people pay for in other fancy hotels (the ones we usually can’t afford). Twenty minutes later a DVD player is brought to our room and the man hooks it up for us and doesn’t leave until he’s sure it and the remote work.

Kim has two copies and it’s what her and Bailey, who’s never seen it, will also be watching during dinner. The lesson I gained from the movie is that we are all born immature, and regardless of where we were raised or the traumas we experienced, it is still up to us to do the right thing when given the chance – which in this film is love, learn, and share.

The pizza is more of a pastry, like two calzones together, with sesame seeds on top. It’s pre-cut and I can see cheese, green vegetables, and brown chunks. I figure it’s meat – the surprise is to guess what kind, but my first bite makes me think of mushrooms, so I keep eating. Then I start to taste the meat, and amongst all that dead flesh, I find a delicious tomato piece and all hope is not lost. I will eat more slices chasing the taste of that red vegetable that I don’t find.

Afterward dinner and the movie I was going to order food for dogs, but got sidetracked downloading books to Caleb’s Kindle so he can have some reading material. I stopped after I realised I was adding things I would like to read, though the Kindle doesn’t have to be just for underways and duty days; it can be for travel days too.

Some lyrics I found online:

I like big books and I cannot lie. You other readers can’t deny; when a book walks in with a good plot base and a big spine in your face you get sprung! Wanna get out your notepads ’cause you noticed that book was dense.

Deep in the book I’m reading, I’m hooked and I can’t stop speeding, through Baby I wanna get that literature, and Instagram that picture. My teachers try to train me but that book you’ve got makes me so brainy!