You're leavin' on the Fun Ship! We hope that you'll be back again...

Hi everyone!
 
Sorry for the delay in posting – I’ve been exhausted since getting back into Pittsburgh!
 
So time for a quick cruise recap: We set sail aboard the Carnival Freedom on Sunday the 8th from Ft Lauderdale. We had to be at PIT before 6 am for our flight at 7, so we left Butler (my parents’ house) around 4:45. Yes, AM. Ouch. It was ok, though, because we were excited. Once we got our bags checked and we found our gate, we ate breakfast at the airport McDonald’s (hey, it’s vacation!). I had a sausage McGriddle breakfast meal with a LARGE coffee. It was awesome. I love me some McGriddles. Our layover was in Charlotte and we had a couple hours to wait, so I tried my first-ever Jamba Juice for lunch. I got a pomegranate one – Pomegranate Passion? Whatever it was, it was fantabulous and I feel like maybe it helped offset the McGriddle a bit. J
 
We landed in Ft Lauderdale right on time and joined in the chaos of other cruise participants struggling to find their luggage and their cruise representatives. We were on board our ship with plenty of time to spare. We hit up the first buffet we could find (it was like 2:30 or 3 by this time) and settled in for Sail Away.
 
We took a gazillion pictures, but unless I can figure out how to easily post all of them on here, Facebook will have to do. Some culinary highlights include duck (not a big fan), chateaubriand (it was good, but oh my goodness, they practically gave me an entire cow!), and the ever-popular WARM CHOCOLATE MELTING CAKE!!! This might be my most favorite dessert in the entire world – it even surpasses Parisian desserts. It’s served in a ramekin and it’s like delicious chocolate cake on the outside, dusted with powdered sugar, and warm, decadent, rich chocolate pudding on the inside. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
 
Adventure highlights include getting trashed off just a few sips of a Cuban mojito in Key West, forcing my mom to kayak in Key West, mistaking a flipflop for a wishbone (don’t ask – it goes along with the Cuban mojito), holding a 2-year-old turtle in Grand Cayman, seeing 500-lb turtles, going to Hell (a real town in Grand Cayman. I sent a postcard to work: “Wish you were here!”), swimming with, kissing, and holding stingrays in the Caymans, spotting dolphins racing our cruise ship, climbing Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios Jamaica, and doing a 1-mile non-competitive walk for breast cancer awareness on-board.
 
So I’m back and I still feel like I’m on the boat. Seriously, I’m sea-sick on land. It’s not as much fun as it sounds. I felt so awful I almost left work early yesterday and I totally skipped the gym in favor of going to bed early. And today I barely got out of bed at all. I don’t know what’s up with me – my stomach has been hurting me a lot, like it’s sore. It was even happening on the ship, but it didn’t start until after I was dunked in the falls in Jamaica. That night, I was almost doubled over in pain. And I’m completely wiped-out, exhausted. I know that it’s normal to be tired after a vacation, but if this doesn’t stop by the weekend, I might MedExpress myself again.
 
While I was on the ship, I had a lot of time to think and I had come up with all these great ideas for myself. It’s funny how those ideas just disappeared as soon as I hit work yesterday. I have no idea what I was planning for myself, but I remember that it seemed adventurous, exciting, and fun. Figures that I’d forget whatever it was.
 
Plans for tonight include hopefully going to the gym unless I feel like I’ll puke everywhere and returning my redbox movie. I watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist last night. It was cute and I like anything with Michael Cera. Thank goodness for redbox free movie Mondays!
 
As our captain, Carlo, said when signing off everyday, “Arrivederci and ciao!”  

vacation all i ever wanted... vacation had to get away

hooray for us, we won 2 of our 3 volleyball games last night! the first game was really really close, but we ended up losing it. however, i'm pretty sure the team we played was the team who finally beat us in the finals last season, so beating them for the match was nice! also, i got to play a match before my team's match because another team was short players. it was awesome. i played with the team that was literally the worst team we'd ever played, but they were fun to play with and they have a great attitude about their skill level. i considered their match a good warm-up for my match. :) and surprisingly, whether it was due to the meds or due to my resting the past few days, i played pretty well for being injured and i had a lot of energy!

today was like the longest day ever at work. i made little vacation signs and colored them in. my boss drew a picture of my cruise ship sinking... but she had me and my mom and an unnamed really hot cabana boy in a lifeboat... but the lifeboat was very flimsy and see-through and there was a shark in the water. i get the strange feeling that they don't want me back... haha. :)

i left work a little early since i had saved up some time through the week, and i headed over to the library. i had some materials that just happened to be put on hold for me 3 days before my cruise, even though i had requested them months ago - and of course, they're all due back in one week (while i'm somewhere in the caribbean)... whatever. i got my stuff then went to my last tanning session. again, i was gonna go to the gym, but the reality of things i need to do hit me at work today - i have a gazillion things to find/pack/do before i leave for my parents' house tomorrow. it's about 11 pm now and i still haven't packed - i'm entering panic mode.

i probably won't be posting again until i come back from the cruise. i'll be hangin in ft. lauderdale, key west, ocho rios jamaica, and grand cayman. w00t!

peace in the middle east.

i won at wii tennis... wait, where are my pants?!

i am still in mourning over not having a wii. but i'm trying to accept it. i want the wii to come to ME. not literally, since it doesn't have legs or wheels and it can't really transport itself in any way, but i want to just walk into target or walmart or wherever and just see a wii in a case, waiting to go home with me. i don't want to deal with the hassle of calling every place within a 30 mile radius just to have disgruntled salespeople tell me "NO!" and hang up on me. i'm sick of that already and i've wasted too much time on it. so now, i will play it by ear. i may show up at toys r us at 10 am sunday morning, but if they don't have them, i refuse to get upset. instead, i will merely continue on my way to the gym. deal? deal.

the past few days have been largely uneventful, yet they've passed in a blur. the good news is that i've started sleeping again. i've slept 2 nights in a row. like a frickin baby. in fact, there was pee in my toilet this morning, but i have no recollection of getting up in the middle of the night to go. THAT'S how good i've slept the past 2 nights. hopefully tonight's a repeat.

for more good news, i'm on my way to accomplishing my january fitness goal - i went to the gym both yesterday and today (that makes 3 visits so far for january) AND i took the latin impact class tonight. the class was fun, but since i have zero coordination my face was redder from laughing than from actually working out. it was a workout, though... not quite as tough as my running and weights, but i was a little sweaty and we were definitely moving the entire hour. the instructor, paul, was really flamboyant, so that made it more fun. i don't think group fitness classes are my thing, though. this is the 3rd one i've tried, and although all 3 have been fun, i think i just prefer my own solo workouts. nevertheless, i'm going to continue on my journey to try all the classes at least once. who knows, maybe i'll find something that i love?

since my mom and i are going on another cruise in february, i've decided that maybe i should get a little bit of a base tan since my skin isn't such a huge fan of direct sunlight... so i tweedled over to hollywood tans tonight before latin impact and signed up for a one-month package. honestly, it felt good to be in the booth again, but i'm determined to not do it past the cruise. i made my mom stop going a year or two ago, so i have no right to be going... especially with my health issues. so anyone who reads this has to hold me to it - i have to stop tanning after the cruise. punch me, kick me, slash my tires, whatever (ok, no, don't slash my tires... i just got new tires), but don't let me go after the cruise.

now for the itsy bit of bad news: you know how in my previous post i said i wanted to go into the military, maybe the navy or coast guard? yeah, well, that's not gonna happen. seems that, like everything else i've wanted to do with my life, my health will be holding me back from yet another job. you see, the military (all branches) have requirements. if you don't meet certain requirements, you are disqualified from active military service. guess who's disqualified? so even though i feel totally fine, i'm DQ... bite. me. can someone PLEASE find me a job where i feel like i'd be doing something worthwhile? if it's not too much to ask for, can it involve french? if not, that's cool... but really, i'm tired of doing meaningless stuff all day and basically doing nothing with my life. so if anyone has any ideas, i'd greatly appreciate them. :)

in other news, there's nothing quite like facebook to make you feel like a loser. it sucks when a person everyone thought was kind of dim and probably gay (no, i'm not insinuating that the 2 things have anything to do with one another) now has a spouse (hetero) and kids and a WAY better job than you (ahem, government). just goes to show that who we were in high school is rarely who we are today. it's scary and disorienting. and it makes me want to just give up.

but i can't give up because... the winter volleyball season starts tomorrow!!! (unless it's cancelled due to snow) we play our first game at 6.45 tomorrow night and i'm psyched!! my teammates are all about winning, and to an extent i am too, but for the first game, i'm just excited to play again and i don't care if we win or lose. i'm stoked. :)

off to bed i go! peace out jeezies.

float on

every new year makes me want to change everything for the better. i know i'm not alone in that, but it seems so corny when i say it. it seems like the world is filled with so much hope on the first day of the year, like changing calendars will make all the worlds' problems go away. personally, i find that this hope lasts until i leave my house, and then it quickly dissipates. but for a few brief hours, all is right with the world.

last night i made the executive decision to stay home. i'm a loser and a life-ruiner, but i'm used to it now and if you've known me for a while, you should be used to it too. instead of going to mark & kim's, i went for a snow run around the neighborhood (running is WAY harder in snow than on a treadmill!) and debated making bagels for the first breakfast of the year. the bagels didn't happen, but i enjoyed my evening anyways. i had a surprisingly prosperous evening at home - while searching for my passport for our february cruise, i found a $10 target gift card from the pharmacy and a sock that had been missing for a few weeks. that's a darn good night for me.

as for some resolutions, i haven't really thought too much about them but i've come up with a couple:
1. rock out at la fitness at least 10 days a month (excludes volleyball nights and february since i'll be in the caribbean for a full week... suckas)
2. try all of the group fitness classes at least once - i've already tried cardio kickboxing and aquafit, so there's only 10 more classes to try...
3. be in the best shape possible before the cruise (and maintain throughout the year)
4. be more open to making new friends (and potential boyfriends)
5. attempt to figure out what i want to do "when i grow up"
6. plan a trip back to paris (to go next year)
7. take at least one random road trip (bring someone?)

resolutions for the day include making my bagels (they're almost ready to boil!) and heading to the gym. pretty low-key for just another day.