I'm Back!!

It's true. I've been gone for a while but I promise I have a good reason. And I have sooooo much to tell you all. I don't even know where to begin.

The day of my last post was the last day of a brutal period at work. I'd been in the office until after 10 PM like 4 nights in a row and it was late nights the whole 3 or 4 weeks prior. Finally, it all ended. I don't know if anyone remembers, but I spoke to my sister Bonnie about a vacation I was planning on taking with a few of my girls. The plans had been made and given the time that I'd been having at work, I never thought that it would ever come. Finally, on Saturday July 19th, we all hopped on a plane and headed down to Miami. I predictably overslept, despite staying at a friend's apartment to ensure that I wouldn't. I'm one of these people who thinks she's dreaming the music. Meanwhile, the alarm is going off and my roommate is in my room shaking me because she heard it across the apartment.

Anyway, we arrived in Miami and there waiting for us at the gate was the Carnival Cruise representative assigned to bring the people on our flight to the port, so that we could leave our bags on the ship and wait to board. We were early, of course. Why were we early? I said to everyone, "Hey, guys, let's get a flight around 11 AM. It'll get us into Miami around 1 PM and they say it's like a 30 minute ride to the port. The ship boards at 2 PM and doesn't leave until 4 or so." Everyone said, "Great idea, Lisa." Everyone, that is, except Donna. Donna said we should get an earlier flight to give ourselves some time, in case something happens. I found out later that Donna's father is like a flight Nazi and only travels in the dark of night or early morning. Anyway, we all listened to Donna and we were actually the first people to get our bags to the ship. I am not exaggerating. Witha guest capacity of 2,758 people, the four of us were passengers one through four. The porter who took our bags actually said, "No one's ever this early."

Minor inconvenience. We got some lunch and waited it out. The ship was gorgeous. The decks were like multi-tieredand the ship looked like it had been carved by an artist. The tiers were so intricate. And the ship was enormous. We didn't really get a sense of how big it was until we got off of it for a shore excursion for the first time. When it's in the dock, you can't see the whole ship. And when you're on the ship, you can't see it. Like the forest for the trees or something proverbial like that. Anyway, our rooms were nice. I roomed with Jessica and Julie roomed with Donna. There wasn't a whole lot to do on the first day until dinner. We waited it out in the rooms and talked for a bit. Figuring that the younger people would request the late dinner, we did the same. Dinner was at 8 PM. They theme these meals also. It's unreal. They are huge 4 course meals. I think the first night was an Italian theme, so they had osso buco and a fra diavolo dish. It was all delicious. There were 12 people at our table. Two young couples traveling together and four other guys. Jessica made friends right away. She made plans to have us all get together later in the night at one of the clubs that they have on board.

The next day was a day at sea and we didn't have to be up early. We ordered a few bottles of wine and drank them all, then ordered another and drank that too. We were supposed to meet our new boyfriends at the bar around 12. They were going to gamble a little bit. Jessica already had her guy picked out. In fact, he was, in her words, "going to have a really good night tonight." Jessica, when she gets drunk, gets like me. Flirtatious but like a thousand times more so. I was passed the flirtatious stage and into the "trying to keep it all down stage." At midnight, we got to the bar and the boys were there waiting. We all sat down and started talking. things sorted themselves out. I ended up with a decent looking boy named Neil. We started talking. They were from Tuscon, AZ. We talked for a bit but I was starting to get dizzy. The alcohol plus the boat rocking back and forth was about to provide for a charming new Lisa story for the repertoire. I excused myself from the table for a moment and all I wanted to do was find the nearest bathroom. I made it out the door of the club and right over to the potted plant, which got an unscheduled introduction to my dinner. I heard laughing behind me and there was Jessica, who'd followed me out to see if I needed help. Her words: "Come on, no one saw. Now get up, I can see right up your skirt." We went back in and finished the night with them. I went back to get some sleep and Jessica made it back around 6 AM. He probably had a pretty good night.

The excursions were really the best part of the whole thing. The first stop was Cozumel, which is on the very tip of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. We signed up for a snorkeling thing there. The ocean down there is just like it is in Long Island. Oh, except clean and there's ocean life. There was a beautiful reef there called the Palancar reef. It was gorgeous. There were thousands of fish swimming all around you. At Grand Cayman, we spent a beach day at the Seven Mile Beach. I sent my parents a postcard from "Hell," which is one of the town on Grand Cayman. I knew my dad would get a kick out of it, which he did. In Ocho Rios, Jamiaca, we took a tour of the waterfalls. Ocho Rios, for those of you unfamiliar with extremely remedial Spanish, means eight rivers. As you can imagine with that much water, there are many waterfalls. They were spectacular. You can swim beneath some of the tamer ones. The weather was gorgeous. It rained once, for five minutes and this was cool too. You can actually see the rain move. It started next to the boat, moved across the boat and then was on the other side of the boat. It was really wild.

The food is as advertised. They never stop serving food. Ever. It starts with breakfast, which is a huge meal. Fruit, eggs, breads, waffles, anything. There's a mid-morning snack, a buffet of some kind. More bread, cheese, fruit. There's lunch, which is lighter fare. A mid-afternoon snack with some sweets and some breads and furit and all that stuff. Dinner is an enormous meal and there's a midnight snack. Any time you want food, you can get food. We all ate our faces off, drank like we hadn't seen alcohol in months. Julie even won money in the casino. We were sad to go. We met some great people, including the boys from the first night who turned out to be really good guys. They were our unofficial companions for the trip. We met a couple of great girls from Boston who are going to come down and visit us in the next few months. The cruise ship and staff were wonderful. All the amenities were great. The staff was helpful. And of course, my traveling compainons were the best.

I got home on Sunday night. I had a message from Greg. And I had a message from Matt (my college "friend") which reminds me that I owe you those stories. And you'll get them, so tune in tomorrow.

P.S. I've added some comments to the bottom here, if anyone's reading and has anything to say.