Me in ME: Day 9 and 10

It's hard coming up with stuff to write when I'm doing little more than going to work for most of the day. Yesterday, I worked from 6:00am to 6:00pm. I was hoping that we would finish up earlier so that I could make it down to Portland for the men's movie night at The Rock Church. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 6:30, and the movie night started at 6:30. I went through a momentary battle in my mind: do I go to Portland and show up 30 minutes late and leave by 9:00 or hang out in my hotel room for the evening. One thing that I had going against me was that there was a severe winter storm predicted to hit our part of Maine last night, but the exact hour was unknown. Since the weather was still clear, I decided to go for it. I pulled up to the church at 7:10, just in time to catch the beginning of the movie: The Bourne Ultimatum. The movie was very entertaining, and the food was really good, too. One of the guys had made some buffalo wings and someone else brought some homemade whoopie pies. After the movie, I hung out for a little while and chatted with the guys. Pastor Eric was there (who I didn't meet on Sunday) as well as Pastor Aric (who I met on Sunday). As with most introductions, the conversations I had were centered mostly around the "where are you from and what do you do" topics.

This kind of reminded me of an episode of Yes Dear that had seen a week or two ago where the main character Greg and his brother-in-law Jimmy had been going to a "daddy's group" at a local church which ended up just being some hanging out time with other dads. Greg's wife Kim (played by the same actress that played the eldest daughter in Uncle Buck) asks him if they're having some good, in-depth conversations, and he lies and says that they're really opening up and sharing their feelings. The next scene shows the guys settling down to watch a boxing match, and then the match ends in the first round. Surprised and a bit dumb-founded, the guys discuss what to do next. None of them want to go home, so Greg suggests that they share their feelings. He talks about how sometimes he lays awake at night afraid of what would happen to his family if something happened to him. This opened the floodgates and the other guys started to share and really open up to each other about their thoughts and fears. Then Jimmy, who had been getting some more snacks during this, walks in and exclaims "what's going on here?!?". Embarassed, the guys say they need to get home, and agree that they shouldn't have another "daddy's group" for a while. Unfortunately, that's how a lot of male bonding occurs. First, we're so hesitant to open up to each other for fear of appearing weak and vulnerable. And then when the defenses are finally breached, we almost become embarassed and want to distance ourselves again. It will be interesting to see if my conversations and relationships with these guys gets any deeper over the next couple weeks that I see them, as well as if this revelation will change my relationships with other guys back home.

And now to go shallow again: the work day today got off to a slow start because the base didn't open until 9:00 due to the bad weather last night. We got about 8-9 inches of snow dumped on us before the sun rose today, and then the snow turned to sleet by day break, and then to a steady drizzle of rain by mid morning that last all day. It created a really nasty cold slush everywhere that is then supposed to freeze tonight. This slush and impending freeze let our supervising officer at the base to send us home at 5:00, after only 8 hours at work (yes, "only"). I'm half anticipating another late start tomorrow.

After a full evening yesterday, I spent tonight not doing much. I played some video games, ordered a pizza, and watched some TV. And now I need to get to bed so that I can get up at 5:00 in the morning so that I'll be ready to be at work at 6:00 if the weather allows. Good night all!