The sailors are now taking over my fair city of Portland. Seeing as this is the major weekend of the Rose Festival, many Navy ships come to our harbor, so civilians can check out the boats, and so the sailors have a cool place to take their shore leave. I’ve heard a rumor that there is always a higher rate of childbirths nine months after the Rose Festival, but I’m not sure if that can be attributed to the thousands of sailors who stop off here. I ran into one sailor yesterday while I was waiting for Ryan to come pick me up. He wanted to know where the nearest bar was so he could get really really drunk. (His own words) After asking him what kind of bar he was looking for, he just said “One that serves hard liquor.” I asked him if ambience mattered, and he said it didn’t. I pointed him in the direction of a couple of places nearby and he was off again. What is it about the Navy that makes guys want to drink and raise hell so much when they are on shore leave?
Also heard another interesting story about the sailors. Apparently one of the ships in harbor now has the highest number of female sailors of any Navy ship. To avoid interference with their ability to serve out their term of duty, the Navy puts all women on the Pill. This means that over time, the menstrual cycles of all the women on the ship are in sync, so they all PMS at the same time! I *almost* feel sorry for the men on that ship… but not quite.