Rachel’s Reflections

It’s been six months since I posted.  The last time I posted, in April, I was “swimming to Saudi.”  Well, I didn’t make it.  I only made 3000 meters.  I’ve been trying to improve my swimming since, and this last month I broke 3000 meters.  So while I’d like to complete and win a swim challenge, my goals are much smaller now–just to beat whatever I did the last month.  Maybe someday I’ll be a good enough swimmer to win a challenge.

The reason I left my blog was because I just had too many other things to do.  Something had to slide.  I realized I couldn’t do everything.  Plus I was bored with it.  So I took the summer off and worked on other projects I had to do, like earning my EXW (expeditionary warfare) qualification and studying for my Navy advancement test.  The results: I did earn my EXW qualification!  So now I have a shiny pin to wear on my uniform.  And as for the advancement test, I don’t find that out until the end of November.

I’m thinking of changing the look of this blog.  I like this theme, but the header picture thing isn’t working for some reason.  Also I probably won’t blog very often.  My goal is twice a week, but it may only be once a week.  That might change in December, depending on my schedule.  Last year I posted every day in December.  I did an Advent Calendar of Christmas hymns and carols with special note of the Advent Sundays.  It was a lot of fun, and time permitting, I’d like to do it again.  After our trip to Rome last December (making sure posts got up on time when on vacation with limited internet access was challenging) I thought I might do an Advent theme of Renaissance paintings.  They’re beautiful, there’s a lot of them, and they’re in the public domain.  I’ll have to wait and see.

Current projects include a few things for work and participating in Nanowrimo this November.  So during November I might not post at all.  If that’s the case, just check back in December.  If you want to look me up on the Nanowrimo website, my username is rbicha.

Today is the Twelfth Day of Christmas.  It is also Twelfth Night, the night before Epiphany.  According to Wikipedia:

Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve is a festival in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany, concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas, and is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as “the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking”.^[1]

The celebration of Epiphany, the adoration of the Magi, is marked in some cultures by the exchange of gifts, and Twelfth Night, as the eve or vigil of Epiphany, takes on a similar significance to Christmas Eve.

Some people still celebrate these holidays.  There’s a person in my husband’s command whose family always exchanged gifts on January 6.

Wikipedia also says that “Twelfth Night marked the end of a winter festival that started on All Hallows Eve — now more commonly known as Halloween.”  I think things have pretty much come full circle.  It seems that more and more the Christmas season is earlier and earlier, at least judged by when Christmas decorations appear in the stores.  Doesn’t it sometimes seem to you like we’re expected to celebrate Christmas immediately after Halloween these days?

What about celebrating a day when everything is turned upside down, with everyone’s roles reversed?  Medieval people and ancient Europeans did just that.  I’ve already mentioned The Feast of Innocents on December 28–which commemorated when Herod killed the children of Bethlehem–where children’s and adults’ roles were reversed.

It seems they celebrated a similar holiday on January 5 called the Feast of Fools.  (Although Wikipedia says that “in the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the Feast of Fools was staged on or about the Feast of the Circumcision, January 1.)  The person “ruling” the feast and the festivities was called the Lord of Misrule.  Wikipedia has this to say:

The Lord of Misrule symbolizes the world turning upside down. On this day the King and all those who were high would become the peasants and vice versa. At the beginning of the twelfth night festival a cake which contained a bean was eaten. The person who found the bean would run the feast. Midnight signaled the end of his rule and the world would return to normal. The common theme was that the normal order of things was reversed. This Lord of Misrule tradition can be traced back^{[citation needed]} to pre-Christian European festivals such as the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia.^{[neutrality disputed]}

Apparently this celebration could get quite wild and profane,leading to the Church banning it in 1431.  Considering this quote from Wikipedia: “The ceremonies often mocked the performance of the highest offices of the church, while other persons, dressed in different kinds of masks and disguises, engaged in songs and dances and practiced all manner of revelry within the church building” and how Carnival is celebrated today, I can just imagine.

Anybody want to revive the tradition?  Your boss could work for you for a change.

Please do click on the links above, at the very least the Twelfth Night, Feast of Fools, and Lord of Misrule links.  There’s a lot of interesting information there–more than I can put in one blog post.

And last but not least, here is the final installment of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song I’ve been doing each day.  This song itself is a Twelfth Night tradition: it originated as a song sung as a game played at Twelfth night parties.  The leader would sing a verse and everyone else would copy.  He’d add a line each line, and everyone else had to remember what he’d sung or have to pay a penalty, such as “offering up a kiss or a sweet.^[1]“ That, at least, is the most common and accepted explanation of its origins.  Click on the song title above to go to the Wikipedia article and learn more.

So here it is, the last and final verse of this most famous Twelfth Night song on Twelfth Night:

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve lords a-leaping
(Eleven ladies dancing
Ten pipers piping
Nine drummers drumming
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)
* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

Have a very merry Twelfth Night, Everyone.

Today is the Eleventh Day of Christmas.  It is also my cousin Katie’s birthday.  Happy birthday, Katie!

This is also my 100th blog post. Congratulations to me! Jeremy says, “But there are only 77 comments.  Y’all need to work harder!”  I did 100 posts in 58 weeks.  Hmm…maybe I need to work harder too.  I would like to post at least twice if not at least three times each week this year.  I did reach a huge milestone: I posted to my blog every day in December.  I’d never actually done a whole month before.  .So that’s awesome.  How long until post 200?

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Eleven ladies dancing
(Ten pipers piping
Nine drummers drumming
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)

* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

Today is the Sixth Day of Christmas.  And it is also the day before the end of the year.  Although for some it is the second day of the year.  My husband, Jeremy, informed me that yesterday was the start of the Muslim New Year.  It is year 1430 AH (anno Hegirae:  “in the year of the Hijra—Islamic prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Mecca to Medina”).¹  This month in the Islamic calendar is called Muharram.  Interestingly the Wikipedia article says that this is the second holiest month in the year (Ramadan being the holiest), and that this is one of the four months of the year when fighting is prohibited.  And in fact, that is the source of the month’s name: “the word is derived from the word ‘haram’ meaning forbidden.” ²  Do please click on the associated links, both here and in the footnotes, to learn more.  There’s more interesting information in those articles than I can put here.

Happy New Year’s, Muslims!

And for the rest of us, since it’s the Sixth Day of Christmas, I have another installment for you in the song we all know:

On the Sixth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Six geese a-laying
(Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)

* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

¹ Source is “Islamic Calendar” from Wikipedia.  Please follow the link to learn more.

² from the Wikipedia article “Muharram“

The Sunday before last, November 23, I was able to attend Jeremy’s frocking ceremony at his command.  He got promoted today from Petty Officer Second Class to Petty Officer First Class.  That means he went up one pay grade, from E-5 to E-6.

In the Navy every March and September sailors take advancement exams.  Out of those who pass, the Navy picks those who it will advance.  The number varies for each rate (job).  Jeremy’s rate needs a lot of First Classes, so the advancement was nearly 100%.  My rate doesn’t need so many–the Navy thinks it has nearly enough First Classes for my rate–so the advancement was only around 5%.

I didn’t take the advancement exam because I don’t have enough time in rate.  I won’t be eligible until next September.  Seaman (E-3) can take the Third Class exam after six months.  Third Classes (E-4) wait a year before taking the Second Class Exam.  Second Classes (E-5) have to have three years time in rate before being eligible for the First Class exam.  Jeremy made Second a year ahead of me, so he took the exam this September.

And he made it!  And he did quite well, too!  He scored in the 99th percentile.  That means he did better than 99% of the others who took the same exam.

And so I got to go see him get frocked.  “Frocked” is a Navy term for wearing the insignia of a rank without getting paid for it.  The Navy is different from the other services when it comes to advancement.  In the other services a person gets selected for advancement but has to wait until he or she actually gets paid for the new rank before wearing that uniform.  In the Navy a person gets selected for advancement and gets to wear the new uniform immediately (gets frocked) and has all responsibilities and privileges that goes with the new rank but is still paid at the former rank level until later, when he or she is “actually” advanced and gets paid for the new rank.

Usually at a frocking ceremony, the frockee shows up wearing the new uniform and is read and presented with the frocking letter.  At Jeremy’s the reading and presentation was done while he and the others still wore their second class uniforms, and then after, the first classes presented all the frockees with their new uniforms–the same one, but with a first class crow sewn on.

So now he’s an official first class.  And it will be even more official when he gets paid for it.  Since he scored in the 99th percentile, I’m hoping he’ll get paid in the first increment, which will be in January.  It could be any month between January until June.  Who made which increment hasn’t been announced yet.  (It won’t be “announced” as such–it will show up on the advancement website on his profile sheet–the result page of his exam.)

Congratulations, Jeremy!

Today I was presented with my first ever Letter of Commendation (LOC)!

It was to commemmorate that I was selected as the third quarter’s Junior Sailor of the Quarter.  I received the LOC and a nice plaque.  My OIC (Officer in Charge) told me it was to go on my “I Love Me Wall” and asked if Jeremy had anything like it.  She said if he did, mine was to go higher!  I also have my picture on the awards wall in the foyer of my building.

It’s really nice I got something.  I work really hard and put in long hours and try to do extra stuff for the command and the sailors there; not just do the minimum like a lot of people do.  And I’ve never gotten anything like this before.  At DLI I was just trying to make it–to pass, which I didn’t end up doing.  I couldn’t shine there.  I spent all my effort trying to accomplish the minimum.  And at the John F. Kennedy I couldn’t shine either.  There wasn’t anything to shine at.  We cleaned all day and rarely went out, and when we did I was in training and trying to learn my job.  In a way I was at the bottom there too–among many others at the bottom.  So it wasn’t until I came here that I felt I could contribute something to the command.  Here I’ve been treated as an important and, increasingly, valuable member of the team.  And I feel good about being able to contribute.

I just wanted to share the good news.

Happy Veteran’s Day, everyone!

I didn’t have to work today, so I’m taking it easy at home.  It sure is tempting to take a lot of naps.  But I did manage to straighten up around the apartment; I cleaned off a counter that’s become the junk pile counter; and I’m doing laundry.  Other than that I plan to play on the computer and crochet on my afghan I’m making.  Like I said, easy day.

How about you?  How are you spending your Veteran’s Day (Remembrance Day for my Canadian family)?

In veteran’s news, Congress recently passed a law that now allows both former and active duty military to salute the flag when it passes or during the national anthem even while wearing civilian clothes.  Before you had to be in uniform, or in the case of former military, wearing their service’s or organization’s headgear.  But now you can render a traditional military salute even when out of uniform.  Before when wearing civilian clothes you had to stand at attention or put your hand over your heart like civilians do.  I should mention that military members can still do that; the salute thing is an authorization, not mandated.

This new law is going to take some getting used to for me.  In the Navy we don’t salute when uncovered, ever.  And we also don’t salute indoors.  So the idea of saluting in civilian clothes (when I would certainly be uncovered) is something I’m not sure would be “right.”  Interestingly it was someone from the Army (don’t remember if former or active duty) who proposed the bill.  The Army (and the Air Force) do salute uncovered.

So whether you salute the flag today or stand at attention or put your hand on your heart, or whether you don’t even see a flag today, have a happy Veteran’s Day!  And think of those “Down Range.”  May they come home soon.  Until then, I will continue to support them, to help make it possible for them to do their job.