shopping with Caleb

Caleb has the day off and tries waking me at 8am – at least one of us is sleeping in. I don’t budge until he goes downstairs to do dishes and then lay in bed while I listen to him sew. He fixes my baggy pants, a pair of shorts from the souq, and starts on my shawl/hijab. Then he hems one of my skirts up by four inches so I don’t have to roll it up three times to keep from tripping on it.

Breakfast is an apple smothered in peanut butter – healthy, crunchy, and delicious. We head to base and get to the gate before Caleb realizes he forgot his ID. The guard would’ve let him on with his driver’s license, but the base has upped security, so we wait while they log the incident and then turn around. I drop him off to walk to Dome while I go back on base. I get in line at the Post Office after helping a woman in front of DHL shove some carpets in a box only to be told she has to repackage them because they’re over the 70 pound limit by eleven.

view from City Centre Mall parking lot

I mail the naval paddles to Coleman and Sperry in San Diego for $24, then go in the NEX to buy straight razors and senior dog food. I walk to the other end of the Freedom Souq to drop Caleb’s blues off at the dry cleaners and am told they won’t roll his neckerchief. I pick him up and he has an Espreski with Snickers on top in-hand. He already downed his. I drink mine on our way home to get his ID.

We let the dogs out and head to City Centre Mall to pick up the dress that I tried on twice the other day but didn’t buy because of the price tag. We end up buying three for half the price of some of the single dresses we’ve seen, but also triple the price of what we could find. We go to Seef Mall to look for Red Tag and Twenty4 with no luck, but almost get me a pair of gray ankle boots. I want to try them on with socks as that’s what I’d be wearing them with. My feet were slipping around in them due to sweating in my sandals.

fun in Priya’s office

We went over to the Zain building at 5pm to sit with Priya until she got off work at 5:22 instead of 5:30. We spent the time sipping on coffee and playing with stamps. We were able to get on base with only one group in front of us, use the toilet, sit in the second row back, then go to the food court for a cranberry-granola thing for me and a stale brownie with marshmallows on top for her before the comedy show started after 6pm.

The Band of Brothers Comedy Show is inspired by the work of Bob Hope, so the comedians wrote a ditty in the military’s honor. Praise be to all service members and their families and spouses, etc. Some of the guys know how to beatbox which was impressive and they all have embarrassing moves of their own. The first act is supposed to warm up the crowd, and that’s what it did, but with fewer laughs than I expected.

card signed by Band of Brothers comedians

The guys increased in hilarity and by the time the headliner was on stage I was being called out on my freakiness. Keith had tried getting the girl in uniform to interact with him, but she wouldn’t move and a guy in the crowd had responded to going on a blind date, but froze up and wouldn’t give details. I pointed to Priya to share the moment, but Keith said she was too quiet. Perhaps I learned my lesson for being one in three of the women in the room and sitting in the front – always do it because it’s more fun than sitting in the back.

After the show we got in line to get a card signed by the Band of Brothers and Brett wrote, ‘Wave his freak flag’ on mine. Priya wrote her name instead of spelling it to one of the guys and we were out of there by 8pm. We decided home was the best option so we could get back to doing laundry. I put the clothes in the dryer at 9pm, we split my leftover caprese sandwich, then Caleb got out some noodles and pushed play on episode four of Orange Is the New Black.

Caleb eats and then cuddled with Sparky on the couch for the duration of the show. I took the sheets out of the dryer and Caleb made the bed. I thought about the brownness of our mostly white sheets and the cleanliness of Caleb’s head. I add sheets and shampoo to my list of things to buy and he suggests color-safe bleach – if only I could pour that on the house and let the heat evaporate the dirt and smells of living in Bahrain with two dogs and an engineer in the navy.