Navy Ball 2012

Each year, (most) bases around the country (maybe even bases in other countries??) celebrate the Navy's Birthday with a Navy Ball.

This year, the Navy celebrated it's 237th Birthday and we celebrated at NAS Whiting Field in the Atrium.
We did not go to the Navy Ball last year.  Actually, we didn't even know about it!  We had been living here about a year and didn't even hear about it.  But this year, we decided to go.  It's not very often that we get to dress up all fancy and attend an event like this.  (And good thing we wanted to go because Nick's squadron ended up making this a mandatory event.)

Getting ready was...stressful.  I consider myself a pretty girly girl.  I love wearing makeup, dressing up, and I love love love heels....tall heels.  But hair...that's my downfall.  I cannot do hair for the life of me. I can do two things to my hair: flat iron it and put it in a ponytail.  Pathetic?  Yes.
I've tried it all.  I bought a curling iron a few years ago and just couldn't do it.  No matter how I curled my hair (direction, size of hair, etc) it looked awful.  Plus I always got that kink from the clamp and could never figure out to not get it.  I have tried the flat iron method.  Still a fail.  It works on about 50% of my strands so it's better than nothing.  But half-curled hair isn't pretty.  And then I tried the curling wand.  It does curl, but not cute curls.  They're smaller than I'd like (even if I use the fatter portion of the wand) and they are just....I don't know.
I've watched hours of videos on many, many curling techniques.  I know what I'm supposed to do.  And I *think* I'm doing it.  But for some reason, I just can't do it!!!
My other big issue is that I am 110% incapable of curling where I cannot see.  I seriously can not do a thing to the back of my head.
This is all very frustrating.  My hair is capable of curling and curling well.  It is 100% operator error.

I decided against getting my hair done to save money.  I figured I could practice every day the week or so before the Ball.  Never again.  No matter how much I practiced, always a failed.  I will always have a professional do my hair.
(Another lesson learned....get your hair cut before you curl.  The ends of my hair are soooo dead (haven't had a trim since last November when a Pensacola stylist cut way too much and butchered it so I just refuse to have anyone here touch it).  Apparently super dead ends don't want to curl.  Which was awesome considering the bottom inch to two inches of my head are beyond dead.  I'm a mess, I know.

So the day of the Ball it took me quite a while to get ready.  I managed to borrow an idiot-proof curling iron from a friend (that I still managed to complicate and screw up 50% of the time) and curl my front and sides.  And because my husband didn't want to see me in tears, he agreed to watch and learn how to use this curling iron and curl the back of my hair.  Twice.  Husband of the Year Award right here!  (Twice because I attempted an updo that this girl made look soooo easy.  I screwed that up and also pulled all the curls out....so he had to redo my back curls.)

(no, I'm not naked)

Well, I was finally ready and my hair was....well, it was done.  Not cute but done.  And we were dressed and ready to head to Heidi and Rick's house to ride to base together for some photos beforehand.

We got to base and took some photos in front of the T-6, which is the plane both Nick and Rick are flying now and in front of their squadron buildings.

the wind was out of control

This is Nick's on-wing's car (his "on-wing" is the instructor he has flown the majority of his flights with in his training). He made me pose with it.  He then text it to him (he's Air Force so he was not at the Navy Ball).  Nick made some comment about checking out that sexy lady in black.  His on-wing then responded with "Wow!  I've been wanting to get a picture of my car with a model...sweet!!!"
[I love how ridiculously laid back and fun and close the aviation community is.  I'm sure others are just as close but I can't speak on behalf of them.  I'm happy we're in the aviation community where regardless of rank, they can all talk and joke around about things.]

Then we headed to the cocktail hour which was outside the Atrium with cocktail tables with cute little white table clothes complete with free champagne and beer.

After the cocktail hour we went inside and claimed a table.  The night consisted of a Guest Speaker, Captain Haines, who had some amazing stories of his time as an aviator and a POW.  Remarkable speaker!  Loved hearing his many, many stories.  (He retired from the Navy just shortly after I was born!)  Then there were other speeches, and dinner.  It was a very nice, very formal event.  It was my first event like like this and I really enjoyed it.

On each table, we each had a wine glass we could take home (it said 2012 Navy Ball NAS Whiting Field) but were asked to reserve it for the toasts.  Shortly before these toasts, each table was given a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine.  Now, this is my first "real" Navy event ("real" meaning non-USNA).  Someone should warn you that you will toast about 20 times, one after another.  I did not know this.  The first four toasts I took a considerably large sip of my wine.  Then I realized they weren't stopping!!!  We just kept toasting to everything and everyone.  It was seriously like power hour with our wine.  Lesson learned!  So fair warning to anyone else who hasn't attended an event like this yet, take very, very small sips. And thank you to my dear husband for not warning me that there are about 20 toasts...because with a light weight like myself, this toasting escapade can get my tipsy fast!!  (and did!)

The rest of the night was spent dancing, eating birthday cake, hanging out with friends, and winning door prizes!!!  Yep, this girl won a door prize!  It was a really lame gift....a decent bag with a box of Calvin Klein champagne flutes and a Marc Jacobs makeup bag with tons of designer perfume samples.  It wasn't a BAD door prize but not exciting.  Obviously free cheap give aways from designers. Not to mention the flutes are boring and we have like 10 flutes already.  I was really hoping to win one of the 42" or 43" Samsung tvs, one of the two Kindle Fires (so Nick can have it and stop stealing my Kindle Touch), the iPod Touch, the Bose products, or one of the luxury trips (not that Nick would have been granted leave for it that anyway though.)  But no such luck.  But something is better than nothing, right?

Britni sat with us!  Love this girl!

The Navy Ball was a blast!!!  I was excited to go and expected to have a good time since I was going with good friends, but I had a WAY better time than I thought.  I didn't think such a formal military event would be super fun but it definitely exceeded what my expectations, which were already high.  I'm glad we went.  I'm sure we'll go to more in the future but who knows if we'll get to go with such great friends again.  And like I mentioned, it's fun to get dressed up and see your handsome husband in his nicest uniform =)
Annnnnd by the time the cocktail hour rolled around, I couldn't give a rat's ass about my hair!)

Thanks for letting us celebrate your birthday, Navy!  And thank you NAS Whiting Field for providing some free drinks, a delicious dinner, door prizes, and a gift to take home!