Day Two-NInety - Cruise Prep - On Track!

This is the last time you'll hear from me before the cruise.  I must say that yesterday was much better than I anticipated.  Yesterday when I posted I was in a little bit of a panic at all the things I needed to get done.  But it all went smoothly and everything that I planned to get done except for packing got accomplished.  It's crazy, the thing that I expected to be the most difficult turned out to be the easiest.  There was no line at the license plate registration office.  I walked in and the lady was just waiting for me.  I decided it was a good omen for my day and I think I was right.

After that, I went to the Kia place and had them put more liquid nitrogen in my tires.  I like that Kia fills my tires with liquid nitrogen whenever necessary for free.  I don't like driving over to Kia when the tire pressure light comes on.  I also checked with them about the passenger door which got damaged when it got away from my Dad during a storm in Lubbock last month.  But they informed me it would have to go to the body shop for that.  So, it will have to wait until I get back from the cruise.  But here is the really great news about those two details, they weren't even on my list because I forgot to add them and still, I got them done!  Whoo!!!!!  I ROCK!

I got my Mom's new sunglass readers and I got myself a stronger pair.  Before long, I'm going to just super glue magnifying glasses to the outside of the lenses on sunglasses.  (It's just getting embarrassing!)  I got my car washed and went home and dropped my purchases off before going to pick Jenny up at her auto shop.  (She doesn't own an auto shop, she was just dropping her car off at one for a repair.)

We stopped on the way to the nail salon to buy a bottle of wine for our lunch since the website had advertised that the restaurant was BYOB.  After a terrific pedicure, we dropped our shoes off at the car and picked up our bottle of wine and walked next door to the restaurant and immediately discovered that the website had been incorrect.  They sold wine.  So I told the man I would go put the wine back in the car and he said, he'd hold it for us.  He looked at the wine and said he had something good that was comparable and pulled a bottle out and started opening it while we looked at the menu.  I thought to myself that he seemed pretty sure that we were going to buy an entire bottle of wine from him just because we couldn't bring ours in and then when we got ready to pay (this was one of those places where you order at a counter, pay and then they bring your food to you) he informed us that the wine was on him because of the misunderstanding with the website.  Yeah, that's EXACTLY how my day went.  We had a pizza and a bottle of wine for $6.50 each.  So, here's a plug for that place... It's called Palio's and the pizza was pretty darn good.  We shared a medium and since I like freaky things on my pizza, they did it half and half.  I got the Artichoke Deluxe on my half and Jenny got the Meat and Cheese Deluxe.  I loved it!

After that, we got props at the party store for our preboarding photo tomorrow.  We are going to pirate things up a bit, matey!  Argh!!!  Then finally, we ran to the pet store and got a few last minute things for our beloved animals that we have to leave behind for the next week.  I had Jenny back at the auto shop an hour before they closed and was home right around 6 last night as I had wanted to be.  But that's when the productivity came to a screeching halt.

After I got home, I carried a few things into the guest room where I will be packing but the suitcase is still closed and standing at the end of the bed with nothing inside of it.  Here is the problem that I am facing.  The cats totally freak out when a suitcase gets opened in this house.  They know what it means and they climb inside and won't get out.  Then they get all whiny and meow constantly, then I start feeling guilty and before long everybody is miserable.  So, I think I have a plan.  They both usually start napping around 1 p.m. each day.  I could shoot a howitzer through this house at 1:30 each afternoon without waking them up.  So, today when they go to sleep, I'm going to go up to the guest room, close the door and start packing.  Then for the rest of the day, I'll just keep that door closed and they will be curious about it but they will not be any the wiser.  If all goes well, I might be able to get totally packed without any whining at all (well, except for the whining I will do when I have to carry that suitcase downstairs).

So, hopefully, today will go as well as yesterday did.  Don't expect to hear from me again for another week or so.  Have a terrific week and Happy MLK Day on Monday!

Day Two-Eighty-Nine - "D-Day"

"D-day" sounds very ominous, right?  But that is what I have to call it because I will be leaving for my cruise in about 48 hours, this is the last weekday before the cruise and I have plans for most of the day.  I do this to myself every time but I thought this time it would be different, because my circumstances are different.  But alas, I was obviously mistaken.

So, today I have to get a pedicure.  My travel buddy, Jenny is having some work done to her car, so I am picking her up at the car place right after lunch time and we are going to get pedis.  I know to some of you pedicures don't seem that earth shattering.  But if I don't get a pedicure before the cruise not only will a major tradition be broken, but I will also have very sad feet on the cruise and we all know that happy feet are good feet.

Obviously, a pedicure leads to a late lunch afterwards.  So, then we will go eat.  There is a new firewood grill pizza place right next to the good nail salon that I always go to just before a vacation. I am hoping we can go there.  The really cool thing is that you can bring your own bottle of wine, so that reduces the price of the late, almost-cruise-time-lunch.

So, if I get all of that done in a timely manner, I could get home by around 4 or 5 and start packing.  Yes, you read that right, START packing.  Here's the deal, I posted on one of the blogs last weekend, probably the travel blog, that I was going to have to shut down the travel stuff by 6 each night this week so that I could get cruise ready.  I did manage to shut down the travel stuff by 6 three nights this week.  However, there's this little thing called TV and I haven't been watching much of it and it needed my attention.  So, I have carried a lot of stuff to the guest room and the suitcase is up there.....  But nothing is packed, practically nothing has been checked off of my "To Do" list and I feel like a total slug.  By the way, just to make me feel like more of a slug, I spoke to my Mom on Sunday and she was already packed.

To make matters worse, yesterday I was carrying the trash out and walked past my car in the garage and glanced up at my cars windshield and noticed that the registration expired at the end of December.  Now, I'm sure that the great state of Texas sent me a renewal in the mail a month or two ago, but I don't recall seeing it.  So, I am going to have to dig that up this morning and drive my happy butt over to the license plate registration place and get that taken care of because I'm driving that car to Galveston on Sunday!  So, that is project #1 today.  After that, I need to stop off and get Mom some sunglass readers since she can't find any in Nacogdoches.  Then I have to stop by the pet store since I forgot to get a 7-day feeder for the fish tank.  All of that needs to be done by about 12:30 so that I can pick Jenny up at 12:45 and the fun can begin.

Then, post fun, this evening....  I will be forced to start packing.  I would like to work on that from 6 until 10 ideally.  I should be able to get most of my packing done in that time.  This is always a pretty tricky situation for me.  I tend to be somewhat of an overpacker so, I pack and then take things back out and then pack some more.  This process takes a while.  I mean to perfect it, you really need about a 12 hour period of time in which you can pack, take out, pack more, take more out until you finally hit the sweet spot.  That's why I want to work on it for 4 hours today.  That way I still have most of the day tomorrow, to repeat the process if I feel like it is necessary.  Additionally, my "To Do" list that I put together last weekend says that I needed to purchase two more tee shirts.  I didn't.  So, I'm hoping that packing tonight will answer the question of whether or not I really need the two tee shirts.  If I do, then when I go to the bank tomorrow I have to stop off somewhere and buy a couple of tees!!!!

Tomorrow will be another busy day.  Catfood has not been frozen yet, I need to clean house and I have to go to the bank and get cash to take with me.  Now of those three things, cleaning house might sound the most difficult and time consuming but you would be incorrect.  Freezing catfood is the worst job on the planet.  It wouldn't be so difficult without one Mr. Shiner B. Meyers.  The problem is that Shiner can hear a can of catfood being taken out of the cabinet from 1/2 a mile away and he makes a bee-line straight for the kitchen when he hears it.  I used to naively believe that I could just go ahead and feed him and then open the other cans of food for freezing while he ate.  But for some reason, the food I feed to him doesn't quite taste as good as normal when there are countless other cans being opened, cut in half and stored in individual ziplock bags.

Perhaps you are saying to yourself, Seriously????  She freezes canned catfood????  Yes, I do.  The vet put my cats on a canned food diet in April.  He felt they were getting too many carbs in their dry catfood that they munched on all day.  I told him that I like traveling and feeding canned food twice a day could be a problem because of that.  His suggestion was to feed them normally once each day and then to have portions of canned food frozen in individual ziplock bags to put on a separate dish for their second meal of the day while I am away.  That way, they can get both meals at the same time, but they won't eat the frozen food until it has thawed later in the day.  It is genius and works perfectly, except that now before I leave town each time, I spend time freezing catfood and fighting Shiner off the entire time.  Ahhh... the trials of preparing for vacation.

Anyway, I guess all of this is of minor concern when the end result will be 7 nights on Mariner of the Seas.  I can hardly wait to leave.  I'll check back in tomorrow to let you know how the packing is going.... or if I have started....  Have a happy Friday!

Day Two-Eighty-Four - Is 50 the New 30?

It's the year of the 50th birthday.  Maybe it's not the year of YOUR 50th birthday, but this year a significant percentage of my friends are turning 50.  Obviously that is because I am turning 50 this year and have a lot of friends my own age.  It seems like everyday on Facebook, I see a notice for another friends 50th birthday.  The thing I have a problem with is that I want to make some smart aleck comment about getting old, but then, for the most part these people aren't friends that I am in touch with on a day to day basis,so it is hard to know who will get their feelings hurt and who will just get a chuckle out of it.  So, I just say Happy Birthday.

When I was a kid I never understood why adults didn't want to tell you how old they were or why they told you they were younger when you knew they really weren't.  On my 29th birthday for some reason, it all began to make sense.  I don't know why 29 was so difficult for me.  None of my birthdays have really bothered me since.  But that one got to me.  How can 29 be that difficult for crying out loud?  You are still in your 20's.  Your metabolism is still doing it's thing so weight control is easier.  You don't need reading glasses.  You don't have to take two days off from work each year for all the extra medical tests that are suddenly just part of the routine.  When people ask for your ID when you purchase a bottle of wine, they don't make a joke about it, they are actually serious.  Or worse yet, they don't just look up at you and then enter a random date in their register because you are OBVIOUSLY old enough.  You don't have a huge group of friends who all talk about their grandchildren when you get together.  When you attend weddings, you aren't the old, out of touch aunt, you're the life of the party!  At work, if you do your job well, at 29 you can still be considered a "fast tracker".  I mean, let's face it....  the beauties of being 29 are endless!

On my 29th birthday, I was working for the former employer who shall not be named.  At the time, I worked in a district office here in Dallas, but lived in Conroe, so I traveled 5 days a week and kept in touch with all of my friends through email and the telephone.  That was long before social networking and such.  So, my friends began sending me emails early in the day saying happy birthday and so on.  As the day progressed, they began to send me joke emails about senior citizen discounts that I was now eligible for and things like that.  I knew that it was all meant as a joke, and normally I would have laughed my butt off.  But that day it got to me and I spent the day in my office with the door closed crying.  I don't think I ever told my friends how upset I had been that day.  When I made it home for the weekend, they gave me a great surprise for my birthday and I was so happy, that none of the jokes mattered anymore.  

It's weird how your perspective changes.  I think I will actually be proud when I turn 50 this year.  After all, to make it to half a century is a pretty big deal.  I had thought that I would give myself a huge trip for my 50th birthday.  But now that I am trying to get a new business off the ground and not making too much money so far, that will have to wait.  Maybe my 51st birthday will be spent in a foreign land.  After all, 51's pretty big too....  It's the kick off for your 2nd half century, right?  My birthday is not for several months, so I still have a lot of time to think about this.  But in the last few days several friends birthdays have come up and it has gotten me to thinking about mine as well.  

If you are celebrating a birthday this week, I hope it is a great one.  If it is your 50th, I'd appreciate a heads up prior to the date on whether or not your feelings would be hurt by jokes because I've got some real "zingers" just waiting to be unloaded.  Have a great week.

Day Two-Eighty-Three - Planning is Overrated!

This is a big day people.  Are you excited?  You should be, I certainly am.  Today is my first day of pre-cruise preparation.  I have about a week to get ready.  I know that you are thinking that since I never leave my home these days I should have this in the bag, right?  But I have discovered in recent weeks that when you work at a desk in your living room, you can often times end up working a 15 hour day without even realizing it.  See the issue is that all I do many days once I have finished writing the travel blog is go through endless trip possibilities for other people.  Let me tell you, it is a blast to do research on places I've never been before and probably will never get the chance to go and to hopefully get paid when I am done for doing this.  The downside is that many days time gets away from me and I end up still sitting in front of my computer at 11 PM looking at just one more hotel in an exotic location.  Such was the case yesterday and the day before.

So this week, I am going to try to stay focused on getting finished with other people's trip planning by 6 PM each day so that I can work on my own vacation.  I always start out with an Excel spreadsheet that I created several trips ago and have worked at modifying on subsequent trips.  It includes a To Do List of things that have to be completed before I can leave like arranging for pet sitting and cleaning house.  Another section includes a list of everything I need to pack.  It would totally suck to get half way to Galveston and then realize I had left my snorkel on the top shelf in my closet!  Another section is a shopping list of things I must get before I can leave i.e. cat litter, travel size toothpaste, suntan lotion, etc.  Then Jenny had the suggestion a while back to add a calendar for each day I will be gone with a blank next to the day so that I could write in the outfits I would plan on wearing so that I wouldn't forget anything.  This works for her.  But I tried and it just doesn't work for me.  I am not capable of deciding today what I will wear a week from Tuesday.  My brain just doesn't work that way.  But it is a good idea if you are that organized.

I think I must be a spontaneous dresser.  I know that I am a spontaneous eater, so it makes sense that I would also be a spontaneous dresser.  Here's how I know that I am a spontaneous eater.  When I make plans to go to a restaurant with friends, sometimes they will email you the website so that you can look at the menu ahead of time.  I do look at the menu so that I can prepare my tastebuds for what is to come.  But I NEVER decide what I will order until after I have been seated at the table.  We'll be in the car on the way to the restaurant and my friend will say something like, "Did you look at the menu?"  I will respond positively and then the next question is always, "What are you going to order?"  Ummmmm....I don't know!  How can I possibly decide that until I am actually seated in my chair with all the smells of the restaurant surrounding me and a waiter handing me a hard copy of the menu????  Are my friends insane???  How can they already know what they will want to eat prior to arriving at the restaurant?

So I do the same thing with packing.  I think about what I will be doing each day that I am gone and I do get excited about it and then I pack accordingly but I never decide before I leave exactly what I will be wearing each day.  For instance, I am pretty sure that I will pack 3 swimsuits, 4 pairs of shorts, 4 pairs of capri's, 2 pairs of dress pants, 6 tees and 6 other tops and at least one thing for a formal night.  However, I'm just going to go right ahead and tell you that I might throw caution to the wind and wear a white pair of shorts with a pink top that I NEVER had intended to put with them.  It's how I roll....  Next thing you know, I'll be getting tattoos or piercings in strange places on my body, 'cause I'm wild like that.  :-)  I'm reminded of a quote from Big Bang Theory  in which Sheldon Cooper coined the phrase, "I'm a physicist, not a hippie."  Apparently in this regard, I AM a hippie.

When I expressed my concern a year or so ago to Jenny that I wasn't capable of planning exactly what I was going to wear on a given day prior to that day, she said that sometimes after she makes her list and puts it all in writing, she will change things up on the trip.  So, she might wear her Wednesday outfit on Monday, which means that she would then have to find something else to wear on Wednesday, so I guess she would take her Friday outfit out and put that on Wednesday, but then what do you wear on Friday????  Do you go back to your Monday outfit?!!?!??!  If it wasn't good enough to wear on Monday, what makes you think you will want to be seen in it on Friday?  Do you see how much pressure I would be putting myself under if I tried to plan today what I will wear a week from Tuesday?  They would have to come and get me out of the mental hospital to take me to the ship!!!!

NO THANKS!

So I will remain a spontaneous dresser.  I need the lists, but I just can't allow myself to get as detailed as others.  But hey, if getting in the weeds works for you, then Yay you!  All I know is that if I am in possession of a bottle of sunscreen, my Nook, at least one swimsuit and a pair of flip flops a week from Monday you may be able to hear me singing along with Jimmy Buffett from wherever you are.

Have a great Saturday!  I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Day Two-Seventy-Seven - Is It Real? Who Cares?

Good morning friends!  It has been more than a week since I last wrote on this blog.  I was in Nacogdoches for the New Years holiday, then when I came back I was very busy with the travel blog and other travel related stuff.  Speaking of which, if you aren't getting my travel blog, please "Like" Places You'll Go Travel on Facebook or send me your preferred email address and I'll be sure that you get a notice when new postings are published.  Or you can follow me on Twitter and get it as well.

I am so excited that some quality programming will be starting back up this week.  You know what I'm talking about....  The Bachelor and The Biggest Loser will both be back on the air.  C'mon, admit it, there's nothing better than watching train wrecks on national TV.  I'm pretty sceptical about The Biggest Loser this time around.  On the bright side, Jillian is back.  But they are having kids on there this season, so everything will be sugar coated.  I don't mind telling you that I have always considered the best part of that show to be when Bob and Jillian go all "personal trainer Rambo" on one of the contestants.  There is nothing better than when they make grown people cry and throw up.  You add kids to the mix and it's just going to be a bunch of whining and psycho babble.

I hate when Jillian starts thinking that she is some kind of trained therapist and tries to get into their heads.  I am assuming that she went to school to be a personal trainer, if she has a college education at all... So what qualifies her to be a psychologist?  They had her mom on the show a few years ago and she apparently is a psychologist, but the fact that one of your parents has that education doesn't qualify you to use it.  Does she think there is a psychotherapy gene and she got it from her mom????  I don't understand.

The nice thing is that regardless of what Jillian does and whether or not the trainers go off on the little kids, we'll always have Dolvett's biceps to look at.  Maybe there will be some opportunities for him to go shirtless this season.  A girl can dream, right?  Speaking of shirtless.... Sean Lowe is this season's Bachelor and as anyone who watched Emily Maynard's season knows, he can find a reason to rip his shirt off at just about anytime.  I can see it now...  "Aw... poor little Jane Doe... was that other girl mean to you????  Well let me just take my shirt of and make it all better...."

Does that body look real to you?

Now, this is what I have a problem with, when people tell me that they don't watch reality TV because they say it's not .... REAL.  Who cares???!?!!?  His pecs are real.... His biceps and triceps are real....  Those abs are real...  Ummmmmm... yeah, I'm in!  Plus there is always at least one crazy person on the show and who doesn't want to see a crazy person meltdown, whether it's real or not?  My favorite thing is that you have to know that there are times when Chris Harrison is standing off camera laughing his ass off at what is going on.  How can he not?

In the first couple of seasons I got mad that a few weeks after the final episode aired, the couple would announce that they had split up.  I swore each time that I would never watch it again.  But now, I sort of look forward to that announcement.  I was actually a little disappointed when J.P. and Ashley got married recently.  I guess it just goes to show that there really is someone for everyone because that Ashley chick was nuts!

I also never understood the appeal to Emily.  I suppose if you are a plastic surgeon, you have to have a great deal of respect for her surgeon.  Don't get me wrong, Emily's season was one of my favorite seasons yet.  Emily was kind of funny.  Sean was one of the contestants and took his shirt off a number of times.  In addition to all of that, there were the nicknames my friend Katherine gave to Emily's daughter, Rikki.  There was "Rikki-Bobbie" and who could ever forget "Fozzy Bear"?  Katherine even gave me a Fozzy Bear Hallmark Christmas tree ornament for Christmas this year in remembrance of little Rikki.

Well, I could go on forever on this topic.  A person could spend a career writing about The Bachelor and it's spin offs alone.  Have a great Sunday and do yourself a favor and watch some reality TV this week and try not to take it so seriously.