Adjusted Reality

This post is derived from my notes, pictures, and scans of the Carnival Capers papers (the “cruise newspaper” you get in your room each morning) – which apparently will be edited in because they’re still on my lappy which is not with me currently. ‘Scuse the grammar and not-quite-so-sharp-as-normal wit – I was on vacation (and I’m too busy to edit much, dangit).  Enjoy, and don’t be too jealous!

Saturday: Get us to Galveston!!!

Planned to get up around 6am to leave by 7am.  Got up around 7:50 and was on the road by 8:30.  Misjudged the distance to Galveston, thought it was 2-3 hours, ended up being 4.  The good thing was we planned on getting there SUPER EARLY so we just got there within the window we could get on board (it was 12:30-2:30, we got there around 1:30).

The drive was actually nice (well, I wasn’t driving, but Zliten was actually commenting it was a nice drive).  There were lots of cows and I called out to them all, “Hey BARBECUE!!!”  We decided brown cows made the best bbq because you could say “how now” to them.  Dunno how that is relevant but hey, it made sense then.  And cows should be fed BBQ sauce and marinated with it while alive constantly to get the best flavor.  You’d think we were hungry!

Parking was a breeze and I prepaid for a discount, the embarkation took about 30 minutes (where some cruises have taken 4 hours), and then we headed for first the dining room to change our late dinner to early (who starts dinner at 8:15? srsly) and then for fud.  Despite the idea of having a healthy lunch the first line I found was burgers.  As my only rule was, I stopped when I was full.

Apparently this is not how to wear the life jacket.

Thank goodness Zliten shows me how…

See, there I got it!

We did the lifeboat drill and got our traditional silly pictures in them (above), and then headed to the bar to see the ship sail away.  Wanted to do it outside, but DEAR FLUFFY LORD it was cold.  I was even wearing a leather jacket.  After two rumses and diets cokeses, got back to the room and YAY LUGGAGE.  OMG frantic unpacking, changed for dinner (I have cute clothes that are too nice to wear to work, I want to WEAR THEM DAMMIT) and sat down to a table with 2 grey haired couples.  At first I thought it was going to suck, but they ended up to be pretty cool and I’m looking forward to dinner to hear more stories about their lives.  They said Joel looked like John Lennon – not sure I agree, but a nice compliment nonetheless.  Dinner was shrimp cocktail, salad with breaded zuchinni and tomato, and tilapia with carrots and mac n cheese. Ellie and Tony, Olea and ….crap, forgot the guys name.  Writing it down so I remember (BTW, it was Gary).

After dinner we stopped by the gallery and found out about how the art bids work and got a free print.  It’s actually pretty awesome, can’t wait to frame it and put it up!  Went to grab some wine, then to the show.  The dancers are HORRIBLE.  They look like they recruited a second rate cheer team and just gave them the choreography yesterday.  I like to give entertainers the benefit of the doubt, but srsly.  And the lady singer had a costume about 2 sizes too tight.  I was thinking “honey, get it in your size and you’ll look HOT, but now you are sporting Costco size muffin top”.  However, the comedian was actually HILARIOUS.  Sort of like a somewhat sane Larry the Cable Guy.

Then we headed to the piano bar for the name that tune trivia contest, got 10 out of 20, winner got 17, bah – we totally wanted the “piece o ship” trophy.  Then we did some sing along fun at the piano bar, and he actually encourages you to get up and sing with the piano, so Imma have to do that one of these days.  Just not ready for it today.

We escaped in time to get bathing suit clad (bikini even, it didn’t feel right but it was the first time in public) and in the hot tub.  Met some chick named Christine who was here with her mom and grandma, and we left shortly after the drunk dudes she invited to join her.  Headed to the room, ordered room service, and now watching Handcock.

For anyone keeping tabs, that’s an apple and oatmeal for breakfast, jerky for a snack, burger, salad, a few fries and rings for lunch, shrimp cocktail, salad, tilapia, and some bites of chocolate cake and port something cheese for dinner, and a salad for a night snack.  Nitey nite.  Hoping to run 5 ish miles tomorrow morning before more fun and games.

Sunday: Super Fun Day at Sea, or Where is my Lipstick?

Well, I’m now writing this Tuesday afternoon so that might tell ya how busy-fun it’s been.  Sunday we woke up around 9ish, Joel sprang out of bed and headed to the gym, I sorta relaxed my way up (I envy people that can pop out of bed and right onto the treadmill, that’s so not me…and why I workout after work).  The sway of the boat was pretty severe, and it was straight FREEEEZING outside (yay cold front :P) so I hit the gym instead for a 3.5 mile run and some arm fun.  The gym was pretty crowded since it was a sea day,  but I got by.  Sometime in your life, you gotta try the treadmill on a rocky boat.  Seriously weird and sorta fun in that “fear for your life falling off the treadmill” sorta way.

I was a dumbass and blindly beelined to the gym without thinking – I forgot to eat anything, drink anything, or even grab a towel so I was a mess when I left.  I beelined to the lunch line and snagged 2 pears and a glass of water and got some of that in there fast so I could get over that dizzy feeling from both the low blood sugar and the boat rock.  Note to self – don’t do that again.  Then lunch – a gigantic salad and half of a huge turkey sammich.  Salad was great, turkey was meh, but it did the trick.

Then we went to this art collecting for dummies and learned about how different reproductions are made.  The lithographic proccess is actually pretty impressive, I did not know they cut pieces for each different color – I thought it was just, like, xeroxed or something.  And it was interesting to find out how different factors affected the collectablity.  We plan to hit the art auction the last day to check stuff out (but probably not bid on anything, considering we need to eat and stuff once we get home), and of course get the free schwag (print) and the free champagne.

We wanted to do the cheesy Austin Powers dance class but the stage was pretty full when we got there and the boat was super rocky, so we refrained and had a drink at the bar instead.  Then, being a girl, I had to retire back to the room to get all spiffified for formal night.  My hair was not cooperating but I think we managed to reach a compromise after lengthy negotations.  The captain’s cocktail party was fun –free wine, wine, and more wine.  Wine with dinner, which was *some sort of appetizer I don’t remember*, salad, and lobster and shrimp.  Joel had the prime rib, and wanted some of my dinner, which had long since disappeared, so we got another order to split.  This totally broke my “stop eating when you’re full, stupid, rule, but it was absolutely delish and I did just get fruit for desert.

Then back to the piano bar for more wine, wine, and some more wine and met up with our hot tub friends.  Hit the hot tub again before it closed at midnight, and then changed and hit the piano bar for one more (you guessed it) wine, and then headed to the midnight comedy show.  It was actually pretty hilarious, and of course very offensive and dirty, as any good might show should be.  We were sorta drifting off cuddling on the couches there so we headed back to bed, and sometime later, drifted off again.  Yes, there may have been a period of time I ommitted back there ::grin::.

This post will be ended with a public service announcement.  Please don’t be these people.

They are crowded around a little flat screen TV, in the middle of a beautiful ocean, on formal night, watching football.  Come on people.  For 51 weeks of your life, you do this.  This week, get your suit or fancy dress on, comb your hair, ditch your jersey, and enjoy a night of looking and feeling swanky and check the score later.

Ok, will be back tomorrow with Part 2 – Cozumel and Progresso, here we come!

So I’ve left everything everywhere but where it is supposed to be today, so there will be no travelog just yet, sorry campers.  I do have some pictures, so I will make you just a *little* jealous today.  Since it’s a short week, I expect that I will not be tackling heavy topics until December rears it’s ugly, cold, wintery, frost-encrusted head.  Ok, so I live in Austin, but it was in the FOURTIES the other night!  That’s practically like the North Pole, right?

Anywhoo – I guess I can spoil the summary on the responsiblish stuff I was trying to do over vacation.

Goal: Not get myself sick on or before vacation.

Outcome: Success!  I did have one day I felt a little icky, but that was lady parts related and nothing that could have been prevented.  So score 1 for me!

Goal: Keep to my normal workout schedule over break.

Outcome: Almost success!  The only unscheduled day I took off was related to such as detailed above, and so not my fault.  Also, took the stairs the entire time (I think over the 5 days I took the elevator 2 times) and we walked all over creation, so that makes up for some of it, right?  Five days the week before and four days the week of vacation isn’t bad, right?

Goal: Eat like a sane human being.

Outcome: Semi-fail.  The first two days I did, the last three I ate whatever the hell I wanted whenever I felt like it.  I figure that if there is any time to let loose and do this, it’s the last 3 days of a vacation with abundant and yummy food.  My body actually somewhat liked it though – feels like there is fuel to burn when I workout instead of just running on fumes.  I cannot wait to be in maintenence mode, where my goal is to stay one weight, and eat as much as possible while doing so.  Good things though.  Unlike the burgers and pizza and fried everything and chocolate melting cake.

Goal: Weigh less than 170 at the end of the vacation.

Outcome: Success!  I won’t tell ya what the scale said the day after, because I had promised myself vacation ended today.  Today I got on the scale and I was 167.6, fully and comfortably in the okie dokie range.  I hope to be back at 165 by next Monday and all signs point to it will be so!

Goal: Not worry about work or life.

Outcome: Total success.  I can barely bring myself to worry about work today, and I’m here, tee hee.  Seriously, I’ve got some stuff to mull over and think about, but there is no use rushing it.  Right now, I think the order is to keep plugging away and keep my eyes and ears open for inspiration and opportunity.

All in all, it was a fantastic vacation.  I needed it badly.  I need to remember that while some people can go years without a real vacation, one that is not going to visit family or to a convention or whatnot, I just don’t work that way.  If I can’t lay out in the sun, read a book, splash in a pool, and just not be required to *think* about anything for at least a few days, it doesn’t count.  And I need one of those a year or I start getting all cranky-like.  Call me spoiled, but it’s required for my sanity.

Hope to be back tomorrow with at least the start of the vacation log and later in the week, pictures of my thanksgiving feast to make everyone scream with jealousy again (it’s not often you get a four star chef to cook the meal at your house for you), and a wrap up on how November’s plan to have no plan went.  Ciao, bellas!

Ok, so I just haven’t had time to really even THINK about topics, let alone actually write about them.  Between work (which has been BUSY), workouts, and getting stuff ready, I’m pretty much going to float away now early into pre-cruisedom.  I’ll be sure to post a thoroughly detailed travel log when I get back with tons of pictures.  Comments are acting weird, some go through right away and some don’t – so if you comment and it doesn’t appear, I don’t hate you, I promise.  Ok, I don’t promise, but it’s much more likely that your comment just got caught in the evil clutches of wordpress.

Anywhoo, I’ll be thinking of you lovely people when I’m eating this:

And drinking and singing here:

On this lovely boat:

Love,

Quix de Vamoooose!

I usually go on and on forever about whatever I’m talking about – but this week is going to be both busy and torturous (because on Friday, I leave for vacation so time will be passing way too quickly to get stuff done but way too slow for my liking, like this weird vortex of ironicalness).  So, for the week, I’m going to pick a topic, and spout off on it just as long or as short as I like.  Today, I’m going to marvel at all the gadgets, gizmos, and conveniences that are part of my daily life.

I always ask where my hover car is, but it’s pretty amazing that the Prius I drive makes use of both gas and a battery to get it where it needs to go.  The rear view mirror tints if the sun glares at it too hard.  The camera in the back shows me if I’m about to run over the neighbor’s dog backing out of my driveway.  Navi can show me directions anywhere I want to go, and where all the restaurants are in that area.  It’s temperature controlled (as in, I set it to 78, and it tries to keep it at 78), and doesn’t have 2 settings of AC on (Siberia) and AC off (Death Valley) like my last car.

Then, when I park it in the garage, I enter my kitchen, which contains both a robot to sweep (Roomba) and a robot to mop (Scooba).  It does not get old that all we have to is make sure they’re charged (and the mopping solution is in Scooba), set them in the middle of a room, block off anywhere we don’t want them to go, and wait an hour and *poof*, clean room.  We’re looking into adding the grass cutting robot to our little robot family someday as well.

Want to get online?  Well, your first instinct would probably be to head for my laptop sitting on the couch.  If not, Zliten’s got one that’s sitting on the coffee table.  If you venture into our office (read: pretty painted blue orange room that’s pretty much storage), there are two desktops as well (one isn’t hooked up, but could be up and running within 5 minutes).  Then, we’ve got our phones that can also instant message and surf the web.  Still need more connectivity?  The PS3, the PS2, the 2 PSPs, and the Wii can also connect to the internet (though the PS2’s connectivity is very limited).  I guess, technically, the two DVR boxes do as well.  Pretty soon, I imagine, my fridge will be talking with my scale and locking down access to food until I hit the gym.

It’s really easy to just take for granted all the technology and conviences you find standard in your daily life.  Just for a moment, revert back to your 5 year old self and think about what you had then (I know we didn’t even have cable TV, a microwave, a computer, or any sort of game system).  I’m pretty sure with a glimpse of their future, they’d have wide-eyed awe at our lives.

1.  I keep meaning to post some of the recipes for things we eat when we cook at home, but my mind totally goes out the window when there is food around.  Last night, for a snack I had snow peas and sesame ginger dressing, shrimp cocktail, and then the main course of chicken tacos.  Not really going for food pairing here – I needed a dose of veggies, was really craving shrimp but didn’t want to make anything out of it, and then tacos were super easy.  The night before, Zliten made his delicious and simple lemon pepper mahi mahi with rice and veggies.  These would have made fantastic blog posts.  However, the food gets wolfed down so fast, I don’t think about it until there are crumbs left.  Oh well, one of these days I’ll get it right.

2.  I was pretty down for about a week, mainly work crap but… just… nothing was right.  I skipped some gym sessions in favor of DDR and walking.  Out of my funk, I finally went back to the gym last night after a week and I felt like a freaking marshmallow.  I didn’t actually make it through my intervals, I got a wicked cramp and had to walk for a minute to get rid of it.  I had to actually reduce reps or weight on most of my exercises.  Hopefully I can make up for it today.  My goal is to set the treadmill for 60 minutes and see what I can do in that time.  I’m hoping for 5 miles.  Giving myself permission to walk if I need to though, so we will see.

3.  Only 4 more workdays after today until my vacation.  Is it super sad or what that I have had a list of clothes for each day and what shoes go with them done for 2 weeks and this weekend I am going to do a trial run to make sure everything I need fits in the smallest bag possible.  I love to pack for trips, and I love unpacking once I get to my destination.  Zliten HATES packing, so I usually pack for him.  I think it’s because it’s very symbolic – putting clothes in a suitcase, or even thinking about it, means vacation is near!

4.  This weekend is going to be a weekend of gaming.  On tap is Wizard101 and Little Big Planet.  We’ve also got 3 netflix movies, which are really random – American Graffiti, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Bridge to Terabithia.  Haven’t seen any of them, so it should be exciting.  Also, I might break out the beads to do necklaces, and maybe even take pics and post about it.

5.  It was a beautiful fall day yesterday.  I’m not that big of a fan of the season because it reminds me evil evil winter is coming.  Yes, I know that Austin winter is *NOT* cold, I lived in Reno and Chicago, places that actually snow, and I know we have it good.  Though I am a cold WUSS and start bringing out scarves and gloves at like 55 degrees.  I prefer 100 and humid to 40 and anything.  What was I saying? Anyways, work in such a beautiful area of town I almost drove off the road coming back from lunch yesterday trying to get pictures.  This was the best one – camera phone while driving for the lose.

This was supposed to post Friday but it got eaten by the internets, so happy early Monday post instead.  Posting might be a little sparse this week, time at work is being eaten by a big project, time after work is being eaten by preparing for vacation, but I’ll try to think of SOMETHING interesting and fun to ramble on about.