T.G.I.Fridays

The flight nurse is proving to be a fantastic addition to our room.  I left work yesterday unknowingly returning to the room in time to bid the flight nurse a good workout as she left for the gym.  I was excited because this meant the room would be quiet for a while and I could nap.  My plans were to enjoy a run after work, but I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity of having a nap in a quiet room.  It was a fantastic nap and it lasted two dreamy hours ending when the flight nurse returned from her workout.  It was time for mine.  I left for a run, swallowing my dislike of people watching me, my disgust for breathing dust, and my distain for running.  I actually had a really good run.  I ran into a couple of Air Force guys who were also running and amused myself by out running them.  I could tell they took a hit to their egos just by the way they were acting on their run.  They would pass me, keep steady for a while, then stop to take a sip of water or catch their breath.  I was keeping pace with them when they were in front of me, but I think they became tired of me passing them because at one point they crossed the street to hide from the embarrassment of being passed by a girl.  My amusement ended when I decided I had arrived at my turn around point and they decided to continue down the road.

When I returned to the room, the flight nurse immediately asks if I want to go to dinner.  I look down at my sweaty, stinky self, chuckle and say, “I kinda need a shower first.”  She started talking to me about her workout, the book she was reading, and how she doesn’t think she is going to make it out tonight.  My roommate returns and asks if I was going to T.G.I.Fridays with them.  “Oh, you aren’t going to a dining facility tonight?  Let me hurry up and shower then.  Do ya’ll mind waiting?”  I asked.  I was suddenly motivated to shower, change, and go to dinner with them.  I will do anything to break away from the monotony these days. 

As I was showering, I was hit with a sudden urge to sing so I began to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from the movie “The Wizard of Oz” as I lathered up.  The bathroom suddenly became awkward as I realized I was singing a duet with an unknown female that obviously knew the words better than I.  I quickly squashed my urge to sing and focused on the task at hand, preparing for T.G.I.Fridays.

As we sat down in the restaurant, all eyes were on us.  Imagine four females walking into a restaurant giggling, smiling, and happy to be alive in a combat zone.  We were definitely the group that was not like the others.  We were seated in a booth and the flight nurse immediately started talking about appetizers, burgers, and her healthy eating habits.  We ordered the fajita chicken nachos to share as an appetizer and I fearlessly tore into some jalapeños.  I have always been too scared to eat jalapeños because I have never enjoyed extra spicy food, but last night I took a bite out of fear and it was good!  Being the females we are, we all had salads for our main meal.  Mine was a chicken Caesar that tasted ok.  My roommate decided to order a brownie sundae for dessert to share amongst the four of us.  Upon the arrival of dessert, the flight nurse quickly shouted out that it was missing the caramel sauce.  When the waiter returned with additional spoons as requested, the flight nurse asked him about the caramel sauce, to which he replied they were out of caramel sauce, but would she like something else in its place? 

“Like what,” asked the flight nurse. 
“Extra ice cream? What do you want” was the waiters reply. 
“Whatever looks good back there.”
“I will make you a small sundae.”

When the waiter left, we all began laughing hysterically.  The flight nurse just received a free sundae because my roommate’s sundae didn’t have caramel sauce on it.  The ironic thing was that the flight nurse was just explaining to us about how good she had become at bargaining with the local shop vendors. 

The waiter returned with a small sundae for the flight nurse.  It had two cherries on it and he made the ice cream with the chocolate syrup look like a face.  We took pictures of the ice cream face which will soon be posted on FaceBook, I am sure.  As we were finishing, the waiter again returned.  The flight nurse thanked him profusely for the sundae and he was impressed she finished it.  The flight nurse explained to him that she was a good eater.  The waiter pointed to my roommate and said, “She looks like she is the good eater.”  We were in shock, but we understood there were cultural differences at work here.  We started laughing hysterically and somehow the waiter turned the conversation to say that my roommate had a good digestive system.  When he left, the flight nurse turned to my roommate and asked her what just happened because she was lost in that conversation.  We were laughing so hard we were crying as we recreated the conversation. 

We discovered the waiter is from Nepal, India.  In his culture, large women are beautiful and their size depicts wealth.  In American society, thin is in.  The whole time he thought he was giving her compliments while we thought he was calling her fat.  At least we all had a good laugh about it and no one was truly offended. 

The flight nurse had given up hope of finding a flight out of here to the point where she started planning our next going away dinner.  Sadly, our flight nurse boarded a flight last night and left us for her final destination.  She definitely added some spice to our life here and she will be missed.