Just a cruisin'.....

And ...... we're back!
From a fabulously awesome.. sunshiny.. blue water.. Caribbean.. relaxing.. carefree.. week away!!!
The best part and another reason why  I 
L. O. V.  E.  my job.... I love the people I work with and what I do - but I could actually walk away from work on Friday and not think a thing about work until I got back this morning!!!  (at 7 am... blahhhhhh)  THAT my friends .... is a VACATION!!!!!
AND a much needed resting of the mind body and soul..... I've had a rough year!!  :-/
couldn't have picked a better person to spend it with.

We laughed... we tanned.... we played in the casino.... we snorkeled....  we made fun of people (WHAT?!!)... we made memories.... we bought souvenirs for all those we love....  we slept in.... we ate.. and ATE.... and ATE.... we watched shows.... we played Bingo (LOL).... we fell in love with our cruise director and assistant cruise director - for they were quite possibly BIGGER smart butts than we!...

I don't know how many of you have or haven't cruised before  - but I highly recommend it!
We plan to take Z man for graduation next year and I'm HOPING (fingers crossed) it can be a family affair - I mean the WHOLE big family!  I'm planning in my head already!!  :-)

Anywho.... please allow me to share some of our funnies and highlights!  :-)    There are soooo MANY!!

As you may or may not know - on a (Carnival) cruise, you sign up for dinner in the dining room each night.  At dinner, you are randomly placed with others to enjoy your dinner!  WE were luckily placed with "mouse" and "music man" as we so lovingly referred to them  :)  **yes - that is the kind way we referred to them...I won't tell you the ugly names!  I don't wanna ruin my sweet reputation**
So anyway - first night at dinner, we are seated with this lovely young newlywed couple.  They were very friendly... and chatty.... and inquisitive... and chatty.....asked a lot of questions etc.   But within 5 minutes of being at the table and the first real interaction, I was spent.
On a cruise, you are presented with an every day menu and a special dinner menu that changes every night.  On that special menu are exotic things that you might not venture to try any other time.  Each night there was an appetizer.... Above it was the word "DIDJA" in bold capital letters.  Below it - were the words "didja ever wanna try???"  and below that, a few line spaces below that was an appetizer that would be considered edgy.  Something you wouldn't pay just to try under normal circumstances.   Well... On this particular night, the appetizer listed under the above mentioned lines was "Escargot" with a description of course of SNAILS!!!   When we were seated, mouse was eating an appetizer (as we were a bit late for dinner) - I said "OH - are you trying the escargot?"  Mouses reply.... "NO - it's the DIDJA.   I'm not sure what it is, but I think it's some kind of mushroom"
*sigh.........* 
And THIS is who we are to enjoy dinner with each night.
A lovely lady at the table to my right leaned over and said to me... "it's the escargot"
At that point - I raised my hand and asked to be moved to HER table!!!!!
KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!
being the sweet lovely patient person I am - we endured the next night of dinner with mouse and music man.  It was after all "FORMAL" night and I didn't want to miss out on wearing my new dress!  So we joined them again....  I can't even begin to share the conversations.... I erased them immediately from taking up space in my head as we walked out the door.
That was the last night we ate in the dining room.

FORMAL NIGHT -   also known as the ONLY night I fixed my hair on the cruise!  HA!

But we did dress up nice!  :)

Moving on........

One of my favorite and most anticipated events of the cruise was ....... snorkeling.  It was AWESOME!!!  Don't get me wrong - it took a bit of getting used to - I mean you are forcing yourself to essentially breathe while your face is submerged in water.  And when you breathe through that snorkel, you DEFINITELY sound like Darth Vader...  so in the beginning when I tried to breathe, I laughed.  That doesn't fair well with a mask on your face.   Needless to say - I swallowed a bit of the ocean there in Grand Turk!   And SPOILER ALERT...... although snorkeling was awesome and we saw some pretty cool fish... and coral... and anemone... Under water does NOT look like this......   

CURSE you NEMO!!!!!

I look more like THIS - big ol' dork!  Stylin!!

And the sea.... a bit more like THIS

And THIS!!!!

Don't get me wrong - it's GORGEOUS - just don't head in expecting NEMO....  LOL

So not to get into too much more detail about the rest......  we had emergency training at "Muster Station C" (we were supposed to be in B!) with Rob Schneider (well..... I think it was Rob's Latino twin!!  We later saw him rockin the bass in an old school rock band in the casino - GO Rob!!!)  LOL

We saw a 12 year old "sassy pants" WHITE girl - ROCKING some Christina Aguilara like it was her JOB!!  I mean - NObody can karaoke Christina - but this little 12 year old brought down the house!!!

We witnessed a "Hairy chest contest" that was not fit for public TV....  3 girls judged.... the men had to dance with the first girl, let the 2nd girl feel the "hairy", and the 3rd (the grandma from the crowd) sniffed their armpits.... oh YES she did!!!!!!!

I could go on and on....
but you get the idea.
FUN was to be had by all!
And there is NO such thing as embarrassment.... our cruise director and assistant held nothing back!!!  

All in all....... our ship was AWESOME!  Our cabin steward was fantastic.  (his name was Alexis, but he said we could call him "Allstate" - cause we're "in good hands"   I called him ALLSTAR!  lol).   Food was good.  Beaches were gorgeous.  Weather was perfect.

a MUCH MUCH needed fantastic vacation.

Here's one of our pet towel animals "Allstar" left each night  :)

Have a great week!

Bon Voyage Caribbean
Hello real life!