The Long Story

I had this great idea to sit here at my sister’s this morning and post some tales about Mexico. OOPS, forgot to get logged onto their internet. So, I guess I will just write it up and copy/paste it later at my Dads.

I took the kids west for Halloween. We’ve done it for the past two years (this makes three) and it’s a lot of fun, plus it’s a great chance to see the grandparents before the weather gets too bad.

The trip over was pretty uneventful until about 5 miles before our turn off where we got caught behind a tree that was blocking all lanes of travel. Bummer. But the kids did pretty good through the 30 minute wait and then we were on our way. I decided to go all the way to Bremerton to stay overnight with my sister and then head back to Issaquah today. It’s a long drive to Bremerton. 5 hours. It will be about an hour and a half back to Issaquah. Hopefully we can catch a ferry, I told the kids we would ride on the boat, but we weren’t in time yesterday so we went around. I’m not sure what time we will leave so it might not work out today either. (Update: We did catch the boat, the kids LOVED it!)

They play pretty well together too. Yesterday there was a friend of my nephew’s over so the 4 kids played and played for several hours. Today its just my two and my nephew. Unfortunately that leaves Miss I out of lots of stuff, but she handles it pretty well. Plus, its warm here, compared to the east side of the mountains anyway. We left 35* weather and its probably high 40’s here. (Update: it was actually in the 60's!!)

Onto Mexico. Our cruise left out of San Diego. We woke up Sunday morning to see one huge-ass boat outside our hotel room window. WOW! The cruise line people are very organized. It was amazing how many people they got through in a short amount of time.

Our room was … a room. It had a king size bed (nice!) and a balcony (really nice, go for the balcony!) The ship was very gaudy. Lots of gold, and marble, and painted ceilings, and busy carpet. Not a quiet place anywhere – well, except our room. The pools were interesting lots of colorful tile, the water was sucked in from the ocean so it was very salty, and the water sloshed out a lot! The casino was pretty nice, a little bit of everything. The restaurant we frequented was also nice, the service outstanding and the supper club was fabulous! We found a nice little bar we liked where they remembered us after only two visits (they are amazing!).

There was also a disco, yes, we went once to say we had gone, but all they were playing was Michael Jackson. There was a theater where they did shows every night, bingo several times a day and other large group presentations. Our first night we had a comedian I had seen on Comedy Central, one night was a guy singing big-band-type songs and another night was a juggler/comedian, he was funny too. I missed the magic show due to SEA SICKNESS. Yeah. I was totally in denial. I probably could have prevented it, but I refused to believe that I was actually sea sick so I didn’t take any medicine. OOPS. I paid later. For the rest of the trip I took a little pink pill every day! I still can’t believe I get sea sick. I love the water, I love boating. Stupid.

The ports of call were Acapulco, Ixtapa and Manzanillo. They were all very different from each other. Acapulco was very colorful, lots of people accosting us on the street selling everything. At Ixtapa they had to boat us into the city on tenders to do any sight seeing. It was a much nicer city, cleaner, less people harassing us. And Manzanillo was also kind of dirty, but the ocean was full of huge waves. 6-8 footers. (LSL, you would have LOVED IT.) It felt pretty safe, the water was warm (probably 80* or warmer) and that was the place I relaxed the best I think. The day was not too warm, but overcast and it was just very nice. Again no one harassing us unless we wanted to be harassed and there were bits of black sand too. Apparently there are two volcanoes nearby. They also do a sea turtle rescue in Manzanillo.

That was one of the cool things they did on the excursions. They would hire these guys to tell you about the city as you were going to your destination. I am pretty sure they took us the long way around to get everywhere, somehow it took at least an hour and a half to get there, but only 20 minutes to get back. That part of the excursions felt like a rip-off, but the tour guides were usually very funny and knew a lot about their town. But I was more in a “get me to the beach” mode than “take me on a two hour tour of your town and tell me stuff I could care less about” mode. But it all worked out. Like My Honey said, they knew us gringos shouldn’t be on the beach for more than a coupe hours anyway so they stalled getting us there.

Since its October, they also had a dress up night. No, we didn’t dress up, but you should have seen some of the costumes! Strawberry Shortcake and Blueberry Muffin, a Greek god and goddess, the crew of Gilligan’s Island, the Adams Family, the Mad Hatter and his Pixie – strangely, Pixie had a male voice …. And the winner was a gal in a white robe with one of the towel animals on her head. She was great. It was a lot of fun.

We didn’t really “meet” anyone, we sat with a few different people and chatted a few times, but really we were just there to hang with each other. It would be fun to do a cruise with a group though, but maybe not for 8 days!

And that was the cruise. Very relaxing, very colorful, very fun! There are a lot more stories, how I wheeled & dealed with the "businessmen" on the beach, stories about the shows, stories about my many trips to the spa and our bar bill, but I will save that for face-to-face visits.

Luckily, I came back with a LOT of days off until I have to go back to work so I can get acclimated to my real life :)

Teaser

I will get around to telling stories about the trip. But just let that take you there, Manzanillo Mexico, for awhile.

It was beautiful. The ship rocked - literally. We just missed hurricane Rick. I might have puked. I did not smoke. I danced, I drank and I dressed up. And I dressed down. It was a good time. VERY relaxing.

When is the last time you had you bed made TWICE A DAY for you? When was the last time your bed was messy enough to be made twice a day?

When was the last time you had breakfast delivered to your bedroom door every day for a week?

When was the last time you could choose what time to go to the dining room for dinner, be seated by the nicest, most polite woman named Svetlana, who remembered your favorite table (and the quirky way you arranged your chair,) the drink guy (solmnier?) that remembered you liked mojitos, the waiter, Romeldo, and his trusty team of Romelio and Chris who looked after your every need - forks, bread, butter - and could really cut a rug? PLUS, you didn't have to prepare, clean up or even do much more than point at "prime rib" on the menu?

Really spoiled, that is what I have been for the past 8 days. My real life sucks! Kidding, it's not that bad, but the fantasy life of "cruising" could be addictive!

Day 1

San Diego was beautiful yesterday!

I'm not much for flying, and our last 10 minutes into Seattle SUCKED. But otherwise a very easy travel day.

It was in the high 70's in San Diego, we wandered around in shorts all afternoon, had a nice lunch at the place in the picture, and crashed pretty early - we'd been up since 3am.

Now, we're just passing time until we can get on the boat. IT'S HUGE and sitting right outside our window!! The Holland America boat was out there yesterday, and I must say that our Carnival boat is much larger and I'm getting pretty excited!

EEEEK!!!!

We fly out tomorrow morning!
I'm not sure I'm ready, but I sure am ready,
Adios Amigos! Hasta in a week-a...

5-4-3-2-1

We are getting there. Guess what happened? The weather changed. We were at the park just last week playing in the water and now it is supposed to snow. WTF! Snow in mid-October? Maybe once in my lifetime we've had snow in late October, and many times by my birthday next month, but on the 13ht or 14th of October. Not that I know of.

It makes leaving town a little more appealing. Although, leaving town has appeal all its own anyway! In fact, the week we get back there isn't any school on Wednesday, Thursday OR Friday right before Halloween so there might be a trip to Issaquah in my future! The kids love going there for Halloween, so I think we'll do it.

I had my first "real" day shift today where the Admin was actually at work. Boy, I miss night shift. It didn't take me long to forget the crap-calls, paperwork and other minor annoyances of day shift.
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Here Kitty, Kitty.
Bubba wants a kitten. I don't know where it comes from, but he wants a kitten. Heaven help me! I've only ever had one cat. Her name was October, Toby for short. She was an excellent cat and I don't know if another one could live up to my expectations. I think I will use "maybe when the dog is gone" as a way to put it off.

Which reminds me of a Bubba story.
About two weeks into school he had a girl, D, that he talked about a lot. I remembered, and liked (read: approved of) D from 1st grade.

One day after school Bubba asked if D could come over. So she did and they played for awhile and it was all good. I'm trying not to concern myself with boy-girl play dates because whats the use? They're just seven-going-on-eight year olds.

A few days after that I am driving him to Karate and he tells me "something sad happened at the ball-wall." ("Ball-wall", you had one on the playground, the place where you met your friends. At my elementary school it was the trees or the big-tires... we all know what goes on at the "ball-wall" the worlds problems are solved and first kisses happen.) I brace myself and ask what happened.

"Just a minute, let me think" he says as he lowers his head down and takes a deep breath. So I give him a minute.

He raises his head and says "Me and D ... we ... we" and he puts his hands together in front of his face and makes a motion like he's breaking a stick in half.

"You what? You're going to have to use your words, I can't see you very well and I don't understand what that means." I tell him from the front seat.

"We broke. You know, broke up." AAAAHHHH, broke up. WHAT? You had a girlfriend?

"What does that mean, broke up?" I calmly ask him

"Well, you know, we aren't like that anymore, we're just friends. She said the love thing was too much for her." THE LOVE THING????? Oh my.

Needless to say, that has led to a lot of interesting conversations! What is love, what it means to break up, are they still friends? And a little teasing too.

Second grade. Yeah, I am sure I had a crush or two in 2nd grade. But I don't think we got into "going out" until later. Or maybe I didn't get into "going out" until later? Second grade. Imagine what life holds later.

Cound down

We leave for Mexico this week! Holy cow! Next Monday I will be sitting somewhere on a ship, hopefully in the sun, doing nothing. AAAAHHHHH!!!

I've been thinking about what to pack (shorts and tank tops) and what not to pack (too much) but what is too much? I really don't know. Will I need jeans? Maybe. Will I need something warm-ish? Likely. But how often? Socks? Closed-toed shoes? How many pair of shoes? Books! What about books? Music? What about new music on my iPod? So many dumb little things! It will all come together.

I have the child care arranged for the kids.
I have (lots of) time off work.
I have our passports, boarding information for our flights and the ship.
I think I will put My Honey in charge of getting money.
Our paperwork is in order if something happens. Just need to leave a note to let someone know where to find it if necessary.
Bills are paid.
What am I missing?

OH YEAH... I could clean the house. Total buzz-kill.

Last days

She was SOAKED! Both arms, both legs. We finally took off her shirt.

He was a little more cautious and had a meltdown when he misstepped and got his pants a little wet.


We went to the park yesterday afternoon, school got out early so we had a couple hours to kill. It was really nice, probably one of the last few nice days we will have.

Looks like they had fun, huh?

Bummer

It doesn't look like my week is going to go as planned. I was going to help Bubba's teacher tomorrow morning and then hang out in the kindergarten PE classes, but Bubba has a fever and unless he gets well, it's going to be wait on him the next few days and pray I don't get it! Thankfully he got it from Miss I so I already have one kid down! And the other grownup in the house has had his round too. Now if the Mom Super Powers kick in I will be good to go!

Have I mentioned its in the high 80's in Mexico?

One last night

*sigh* it's my last night shift.

Its been fun, very fun! Tiring, very tiring! I can't wait to do it again next summer. It confirmed that I don't suck as a dispatcher. Yeah, I was suffering a complex of sorts where I was feeling very inadequate. Turns out I'm not too bad.

It had its challenges: sleep, childcare, getting kids to their various activities, old and new personalities I had and hadn't worked with in awhile or ever. But it was all good. Now it's back to being an early riser. 2am, here I come. UGH!

Fortunately, its only a two week stint, getting up at 2, then I am on vacation for a couple weeks (Mexico here we come) then two more months and my schedule changes again. 4am will be my new wake time. That will actually be really nice working 5am to 3pm.

And yeah, Mexico. We're going on a cruise in a couple weeks. I am getting very excited for that! Very! Excited! I borrowed so me very cute, very sexy? Yeah, sexy dresses (I know, me in a sexy dress?!!!) I'm already thinking about spending the days by the pool, maybe getting a massage, a facial, my nails done. Gambling a bit, oh yeah and getting my eat and drink on. Can you imagine someone doing, bring and pampering me for a week? Me either. I. Can't. Wait.