On November 8, we managed to get another natural disaster under our belts. A 6.8 magnitude earthquake was felt on Okinawa. There was virtually no damage to speak of as the homes here are pretty earthquake resistant-- and luckily, the epicenter of the quake was about 130mi Northwest in the East China Sea.
I was standing in the kitchen getting ready to take a cake out of the oven, when all of a sudden I felt and heard a little rumble--probably lasted about 2 seconds. Mary ran in and said, "What was that?" and I gave her a little hug and said, "I think that was an earthquake!" So, we hugged a little longer, then I continued with taking the cake out of the oven. After I'd opened the oven door, we started feeling a bigger rumble--much bigger. I grabbed Mary and we stood under the kitchen door frame (like everyone says we should do.) Then I started thinking, "You know, this entire house is made out of concrete. I don't think this door frame is going to save us." Since the kitchen door to the outside is 10 feet away, I took Mary's hand and we ran out to the driveway. Luckily, once we got outside the shaking ended, and we went back inside. I closed the oven door, and Mary grabbed her little collection of furry friends and sat on the couch. She told me they were scared and they wanted her to take care of them. I asked if she was doing ok and she told me, "Well, I might need a little earthquake medicine because my tummy is still a little shaky." I'm sure she'll overcome this traumatic event, but she was a little shaken up by the whole thing (no pun intended.)
I mentioned before I was making a cake when the earthquake occurred. The cake was in commemoration of the Marine Corps birthday on November 10. Bill was taking the cake into work as part of a unit celebration.
I was a little nervous decorating this cake because Marines are a bit....how shall I say it...obsessed particular about their uniform. They have been known to spend hours painstakingly making sure every centimeter of their uniform is in pristine condition. I was worried these guys would tear up my cake because I didn't draw the insignia exactly right on the collar. It does help that Bill is in charge of these guys and they are less likely to criticize the boss' wife (at least in front of him.) But still, I was concerned.
I had originally planned on decorating my Marine cake with his sleeves rolled up (in protest) but his little arms were too small and it would have looked silly. For those of you not in the loop of Marine Corps drama, there was quite an uproar a few weeks ago because an order came down that Marines will no longer be allowed to fold up their uniform sleeves. Most of you are probably thinking, "Who cares?" but the Marines are not happy about this change, nor are their wives/girlfriends/partners/significant others (it is the NEW Marine Corps, after all...I'm trying to be PC.) The Marines are trying to come up with all kinds of reasons why this sleeves down policy is a terrible idea--it's too hot, it goes against tradition, it's an exercise in discipline to make sure those darn sleeves are rolled exactly right, etc.... But what it really comes down to is that the sleeves up just looks really cool...and they don't want to lose any of their coolness or possibly be confused for the Army! (gasp!) Don't believe me, see for yourself....
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| Cool.... |
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| ....not as cool. |
Another big thing about November 10 is that every unit celebrates the Big Day with a very formal Ball, which doesn't always occur on the actual birthday. We had ours last Thursday. Usually the celebrations follow the same "schedule of events" each year. There's the reading of General LeJeune's order establishing November 10 as an official Marine Corps holiday. They take a moment to honor the Fallen Marines. The cake gets paraded in. (Yes, it does.) There is a (hopefully) short speech by a guest of honor. There is a lot of standing and sitting (but we're Catholic so we're used to that.) It's always a highly anticipated event, although some years it can be quite insomnia-curing boring. But not this year. This was the rowdiest ball we had ever been too...bordering on disrespectful. Bill and I decided that things must have changed while we were at Parris Island, or that maybe all those drill instructors were so uptight at work that they had a hard time relaxing and letting loose at the ball. I don't know--but this Ball was wild. It didn't help that the Guest of Honor sounded like a Southern Baptist preacher at a Revival. He'd say something profound, and there were a lot of "You tell 'em"s and "You got that right"s and "Go ahead"s coming from the audience. Naturally, there was a lot of "barking" whenever he said something that the Marines thought was motivational. I can't even begin to explain the barking sound that overly excited Marines emit at these events, but if you've ever been to one you know what I'm talking about. Even my husband, a normally calm, subdued fellow, takes on a completely different persona when surrounded by all this revelry. He's even been known to let out a few "barks" himself.
Finally, our last big event this month--the school Hoedown. Someone at the school thought a good fundraising idea would be to make the kids squaredance and
to charge parents and siblings $2 a ticket
That's pretty much all that's been going on around here the last few weeks. We did go explore some Okinawan caves this past weekend, but that interesting experience deserves a whole post of its own. We're gearing up for Thanksgiving this week, and then we start the crazy Christmas shopping season (which, lucky for us, may not be too crazy this year because there aren't many options around here.)
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
