Day Seventy-Eight

31 October 2006
It is Halloween! I never was really a big fan of this holiday, but I enjoyed a few of the festivities this day offers to a ship in need of a change of pace. Really, it was a day to let some of those with creativity out of their box. About ten departments took part in “door decorating,” and some went all out! I thought the medical department was the best (though I am sure that I am biased)! My corpsman were so creative (and the “door” ended up being an entire exam room). They used my light-up jack-o-lantern that Mom sent me, made blood out of red dye and filled IV’s and beakers. They used our exam ultraviolet light and a strobe light from a life vest to give the room and eerie glow. They used a CPR dummy to simulate a surgeon with mechanic’s tools working on a flat-lined patient covered with a sheet who had intestines hanging out (made from one of our plastic props we use when teaching first aid to sailors). Apparently our patient reached out and grabbed our surprised XO (executive officer)—one of our corpsman was brave enough to scare our XO! Good times. They did not come in first in the competition but was an honorable mention. The officers and chiefs also participated in reverse trick-or-treating. We got a ton of candy from MWR (moral, welfare, and recreation) and cruised around to different spaces on the ship handing out candy. Val and I dressed up as each other. We looked silly because she is about 3-4 inches taller than me so her coveralls did not even reach her ankles and the crotch in my flight suit was down to about my knees. It was funny! We had a good time roaming around the spaces saying hello to the sailors.