Khaki Ball #2

Every year, around this time, the Navy gets a new crop of Chief Petty Officers. They conclude six weeks of induction with a pinning ceremony where they don their new khaki uniforms, get anchors pinned on their collars, and receive their new cover (i.e. hat). It's a moving ceremony full of honor and tradition. They worked hard to make Chief and it is a time for family and friends to celebrate them. I really enjoyed attending the one earlier this week. This time last year Zac was going through the process. At some point after the pinning ceremony, there is a Khaki Ball where all the Chiefs get together to celebrate the new Chiefs and relax after the grueling six weeks.

Last night was the Khaki Ball here in Pearl Harbor. Zac and I went. Luckily I had kept one little black dress, not my KALBD, and one pair of black dress shoes with me on my travels. I could have gone and bought a new dress I suppose, but I'm kind of anti-spending right now as I'm technically unemployed for the moment. I looked nice, Zac looked sharp. We went to the Ball and sat at a table with four guys (and their wives) who will be working with Zac. It was my first major Navy social engagement here. I guess I can sum it up in simple terms:

Welcome back to high school.

Imagine you transferred high schools in your junior year. That was Zac and I last night at the Ball. Whether it was overt or implied, almost everyone I met last night had an agenda. "Don't talk to that person," "That person is trouble", "You didn't invite her to come with, did you?" They had might as well told us to stay away from the stoners hanging out behind the football field, the chess club is social death, and if we want to be accepted we need to drive a sports car or large pickup truck. It was ridiculous really.

It's really an impossible situation to be in. You try to be courteous with everyone, but so far it seems that the Navy is a black hole of drama. You can't help but get sucked into it if you're anywhere near it. I'm sure as we spend more time here with more people we will be able to figure out for ourselves who's "good people" and who isn't. In the meantime I'll be honing my skill of diplomacy.

After the Ball last night we went out to a bar on Waikiki with three other Chiefs and their wives to sing some karaoke. Well, they sang. I don't sing. Not in public. Not even to drunk people I don't know. I'm exhausted today. We closed the bar. Thank heavens it was one of those places that is only open til 2. There are a couple of places around here open til 4. Who needs to be drinking at a club until 4am is beyond me. It was bad enough closing a bar at the usual time. I stopped drinking around 11, so the last 2.5 hours was nothing but water and general amusement at my surroundings. Zac had a blast. He loves karaoke. LOVES it. I have a feeling we will be going back to this bar many more times.

I met a few interesting people last night. And by "interesting" I mean people that I may have to tolerate because Zac works with them. Maybe I'm being overly harsh and don't have enough empirical data to make an accurate assessment of them, but they weren't the kind of people I wouldn't want to spend too much time with. One couple was either insulting each other or screaming at each other (or their kids). The kind of screaming that makes you really, really uncomfortable and makes you look for someway, anyway, to leave their presence. Doors, windows, fire escapes, air shafts, etc. On the plus side, Zac and I made a pact that we will never, ever, act that way in front of people.

Another couple had a wife who I swear was three sheets to the wind when we met her. Although after spending the evening with her watching her drink, I'm not too sure if that's just the way she is sober or otherwise. She shares. Too much. Waaaaay too much. It's not always the best way to introduce one's self to someone new with, "I got so wasted at the Ball last year. I got in to a lot of trouble." Um. Okay. Great. She also wanted to know about whether Zac and I are having kids and talked about first-year-of-marriage-sex within the first five minutes we met here. Zac and I just kept looking at each other like she was a lunatic. Her husband just seems to tune her behavior out.

The other couple that went with us to the bar seemed nice, mainly because they weren't drunk or angry or screaming. My bar has officially been lowered, apparently.

When we left the bar last night we were walking down Waikiki beach back to car, the eight of us, shoes in my hand, sand between my toes, warm breeze keeping me comfortable despite being 2 in the morning, and I thought, "What the f*ck am I doing here with these people?"

You know what role I hope to be cast in, in this high school drama? The cold, aloof bitch who doesn't have the time for anyone. I think it might be the only way of getting out of this one alive.