Carinval Glory - NYC to New England... A Memoir

[rnvattes]

LOVE the story about your little ballerina, performing her recital just for you. Sniff, sniff <3

[usafchick1980]

I don't think you'll be seeing Inspiration on your cruise - I think she'll be cruising the Caribbean, out of Tampa 'round that time.

 

(Sorry, I know that was dumb. I just couldn't stop myself. I'm going to go try to do something useful with my day, now.)

 

 

I think comments like that are very excusable coming from you. we have all been reading this memoir..we all can kind of figure out what kind of person you live with and deal with everyday. However don't be alarmed..but..I think he may be wearing off on you!

[ShakyBeef]

I think comments like that are very excusable coming from you. we have all been reading this memoir..we all can kind of figure out what kind of person you live with and deal with everyday. However don't be alarmed..but..I think he may be wearing off on you!

 

 

:eek::eek::eek: Oh dear, merciful Lord, NOOOOOO!!!!!! Say it isn't so! :eek::eek::eek:

[ShakyBeef]

LOVE the story about your little ballerina, performing her recital just for you. Sniff, sniff <3

 

 

It had the same effect on me. Since I wasn't there at the time, I missed it. And the shorter version of the story he told me when I rejoined them didn't paint the whole sweet-sad picture.:(:)

[usafchick1980]

We make our way back to Mom and Dad’s cabin to retrieve our children. Nothing notable happens. We get to the cabin, we knock on the door, Mom opens the door and we come inside. Dad is sleeping the bed. Their cabin has the bathroom on the left side as you enter, and the bed is against the left side of the room. Dad is sleeping on his left side, knees bent, and facing the balcony. All we can see is the back of his head, the back of his shirt which is almost popping out of his pants, and the back of his legs. Daughter #1 is sitting on the other half of the bed closest to the balcony, and staring blankly at the television… and I can tell by the dialogue that it’s Tangled… uh-gain. Daughter #2 is sitting on the couch-thing with her coloring books and papers quietly drawing pictures and writing letters.

 

When I said that it was “nearing dinner time”, I really meant that we were a couple hours away from dinner time. However, depending on how long it takes to get ready, and to get two small girls ready for dinner, two hours may be cutting it close. We get back to our cabin, and we all immediately go into our getting-ready-for-dinner routines. The girls change into their dresses and then play quietly for an hour and a half. I fold back the corner of the blanket and sheet, sit on the bed, kick off my shoes and neatly place them exactly where my feet will land when I get out of bed, tuck my socks under the corner of the blanket, throw the extra pillow onto Wifey’s side of the bed, and pass out for an hour and a half. Wifey… well, no one really knows what she does for this hour and a half because I can’t see or hear anything for this period of time, and the girls aren’t really good at paying attention to what adults are doing around them.

 

I open my eyes, and Wifey is showered and almost dressed for dinner. She asks me to do something with the girls’ hair and tosses their “hair bag” onto the foot of the bed beside me. Their “hair bag” is just a medium sized Zip-loc bag with little rubber bands of varying colors, colorful hair-ties, bows, barrettes, several brush types, and general little-girl hair paraphernalia. I reach into the bag and pull out my hairbrush of choice, two pink bows to match Daughter #2’s dress, and two small clear rubber bands. Then I call over the little one and she stands between my knees next to the bed. She leans her butt up against the bed and tries her best to hold her head still.

 

I part her hair down the middle first, then use a rubber band to hold one pig-tail out of the way while I work on the other one. After about 30 seconds of careful brushing and pulling, I get the first pig-tail in place on the left side of her head then I scoot over to right side and attempt to re-create a mirror image. The first pig-tail is always easy… it’s getting the second one to match the first one that’s hard. I normally undo the second one at least twice before telling myself, “It’s good enough… no one will even notice.”

 

“OK, you’re done. Go play and don’t touch your hair.” I say as I pat her on the back. It’s really the pat on the back that tells her that she can go now, not the words. I just say the words for my sake. I call Daughter #1 over and ask her, “What do you want tonight? Pony tail? Side pony tail? Pig tails like your sister?”

“Daddy, will you please do a French braid tonight? Please?”

“Fine. I’ll do it, but no whining or complaining, got it?”

“OK.”

 

I reach in the bag and pull out a small clear rubber band. I dig around in the bag for a red bow, but didn’t find one, so I settled for a white bow. I set the bow and rubber band next to me on the bed and begin to brush her hair out. I normally prefer to use a rat-tail comb for a French braid, but I didn’t see one in the bag, and didn’t feel like asking for one. I also didn’t have the time be that precise, so I just used my fingers and eyeballed it. A few minutes later, I reach the end of her hair. I hold the end of the braid with my one hand and pick up the rubber band with the other. I attach the rubber band about 3 inches from the end of her hair and then stick on the white bow. There, all done with little-girl hair. Time to get dressed for dinner.

 

 

I love how you keep saying about Tangled..at least you have 2 girls..my fiance has a girl and a boy. And the girl likes to watch all of the girly movies..and the boy not so much. So it is always a fight..and each one always feel slighted when we watch the one that the other one wanted to watch. So it is usually are we going to watch this boy movie for the 100th time..or TANGLED for the 100th time. Personally..I like when the girl wins..I LOVE that movie..LOL.

 

You saying about it taking 2 hours to get ready for dinner with 2 small girls also made me laugh. My fiance always says to me..don't forget it takes double the amount of time that it would normally take the 2 of us when we have the kids to get ready too. I have always been around kids..but never the one to get them ready..man is he right..LOL.

 

I am also very impressed my your hair skills. I do not live with my fiance..so when I am not there in the mornings..so when he has his kids..if I didn't take her braid or ponytail out of her hair the night before..it is probably still up when I get there after work. She will definately be ready before I leave for work after we get married in October. I wish I knew how to french braid though. That is one thing that I can't do.

[adamsfly]

I just found your thread 2 1/2 days ago and finally finished. Thanks for a great read!!

 

Loved how your daughter danced her "recital" dance for you. My DD just completed her 13th year of dance (she's 14) and we'll be leaving for our next cruise (her first) the day after her recital. Her last four weeks prior to the recital is usually very hectic and we'll truly appreciate starting our cruise the next day.

[Crusin Karen]

Take it from one who has been there, done that...years from now you will look back at the pictures and recall the memories of your DD dancing for you and it will be even MORE SPECIAL than it is now!

The only thing that bothers me is those neighbors. DH and 2 DS'es are policemen and believe me, I have heard HORROR stories...I can't even imagine people acting this way on a cruise vacation. :mad: Wonder what happens when they are home. :eek: It is just kind of heartbreaking reading about what you heard thru your cabin walls. :(

[Sea&SkiCruiser]

Please, anxiously awaiting "the rest of the story." Thanks.

[Delta Hotel]

Day 5 – Fun Day at Sea!

 

 

Well, it’s the last full day of our cruise. It seemed like it’d never get here, right? You know, you could’ve dropped out of this little mental escapade at any time… but noooooo… you thought that there’d be something interesting in it for you. Perhaps some really exciting, extraordinary, or a life-changing experience in writing. It’s the last full day, and still nothing. Aren’t you terribly disappointed? You’re probably an optimist, and you’re still holding out for something amazing to happen today. Good. You keep thinking that.

 

Oh my gosh, I’m going to smash that little plastic phone with my shoe if it doesn’t stop ringing before 9AM. This time, Wifey gets up to answer the phone. Guess who’s calling us at 8:30AM? Just guess? I’ll bet you five dollars that you can’t guess who’s calling our cabin at 8:30AM. It’s Dad. See?! You were wrong! Man, that was the quickest $5.00 I’ve ever made. That was even faster than the time someone said to me, “I’ll give you ten dollars if you eat that.” [GULP] BAM! Cash money! Oh, so I’d prefer my five dollars in small, un-marked, Canadian bills.

 

I don’t know what Wifey and Dad say to each other, but I roll over on my side to face the window and try to convince myself that I didn’t hear the phone ring, that Wifey didn’t get up to answer it, and that they’re not making plans to ruin my perfectly good morning by making plans for a day that I think should have no plans. Today should be an agenda-less, plan-less, completely impulsive day of doing nothing at all. I don’t necessarily believe that the last day should be like this, but rather I would like every vacation day to be like this. Sound boring? I never said that I didn’t want to do anything at all, I just don’t like having an agenda and schedule for my vacation.

 

Every other day of the year, my life is scripted out in colorful 15-30 minute increments on my Microsoft Outlook calendar. From the minute I wake up until the time I go to bed (which is usually around 1-2AM), my life is a crazy collage of electronic memories. Between my calendar, photos, text messages, emails, voicemails, and digital dash-cam mounted in my car, 95% (or more) of my life is recorded in digital format for me to review later… if I ever have the time, or had a reason to. It wouldn’t be much of a vacation if I didn’t at least have the feeling of abandoning the calendar aspect of my life, right?

 

No matter how much I bury my face in my pillow, and no matter how still I lie on the bed, I’m not going back to sleep. It’s no longer an option. The only way that I can go back to sleep is to put my foot down, and insist that I’m staying in the cabin and sleeping – which might not go over well with Wifey, but if I really stick to my guns, I’m sure that she’d take the kids with her and I’ll get to stay in the cabin alone, and sleep. The catch-22 here is that if I do this… I won’t get any sleep because I’ll be too busy thinking about how the rest of my day will be made miserable, and if it was really worth it. This doesn’t necessarily mean that she will try to make my day miserable, but I like to plan for the worst, and hope for the best. So, if I get up and go – I don’t get to sleep. If I insist on staying in the cabin and sleeping – I don’t get to sleep.

 

I lie in bed, conditioning my eyes to “awake mode” by opening them, holding them open, and blinking less and less frequently. It’s like doing inverse eyelid push-ups. When doing push-ups, you start out doing them faster with less effort, and as your arms and shoulders get tired, you slow down, and eventually your arms just can’t manage to lift your body anymore. The eyelid thing is exactly like this – except in complete reverse. I start by facing the ceiling and opening my eyes, just to have them assaulted by the light of morning and the gentle sting of air on my eyeballs. Once the eyeballs have had enough light and stinging, I close my eyes. I give them a rest for just a few seconds, and then open them again. This time, it stings a little less, and the light hurts a little less. I repeat this process until I can keep my eyes open for 15-30 seconds, or whatever feels comfortable. Then I start the process of dragging the rest of my body out of bed.

 

This is a common process for me, but only when I know that I’m getting out of bed for something that benefits me very little. If I were going fishing, working on my car, working in the shop, or about to embark on some fun trip – my eyes have no problem adjusting to light and air… funny thing. I’m still not entirely sure how that works, but it does. But, no fishing for me this morning. Just Mom and Dad, and his “Morning Trivia at 10AM”.

 

I wait for the ship to hit a larger-than-average wave to help me roll out of bed. I don’t get one, so now I have to roll myself out of bed ALL BY MYSELF. Hello? Any sympathy here? I’m on vacation. It’s the last day of our cruise. It’s a sea day, so it’s not like I have a limited time window to get off the boat. Is there any good reason to get out of bed before 10AM? Anyone? [crickets chirping] I didn’t think so. OK, I’m done talking about this.

 

Furthermore, the only reason I’d get out of bed at 10AM is that I have a strange aversion to arguing with my bladder about whether going to the bathroom or staying in bed is more important. I’ve tried to argue this point many times, and have always lost. Oh, right… losing this argument with my bladder does NOT mean what you think it means. It just means that I give in and get out of bed.

 

Fast forward a little bit – through getting dressed and getting out of the room. Nothing to see here… just dressing two little girls, one Wifey, and one don’t-really-want-to-get-up husband.

 

We leave the cabin and head up to breakfast. We need to get to breakfast, pick out our breakfast, argue with kids about eating the breakfast that they picked, eat our breakfast, find parents, and get to the Amber Palace before 10AM for morning trivia. It took us about half an hour to get out of the cabin, so it’s about 9AM. That leaves only one hour for breakfast.

 

For those of you who don’t have small children, or haven’t spent much time around small children – one hour is not a lot of time to feed two picky-eater kids breakfast on a cruise ship. At home, with the right food items picked out ahead of time, one hour is usually enough time for a meal. On a ship, everything becomes more difficult. However, today, we manage to get through breakfast in record time.

 

Mom and Dad find us on Lido Deck again, and we head over to trivia. On the way to trivia, as we’re waiting for an elevator to take us from Lido Deck to Deck 3 or 4 (Amber Palace is on both), I snap one of my “mirrored ceiling family portraits”. The ceilings in the elevator lobbies of the Glory are mirrored… or maybe they’re just really shiny and polished metal – either way, their finish is mirror-like. The ceiling is also kind of zig-zagged so that it isn’t one flat surface. The rectangular panels are angled slightly, so it’s easier to see yourself, or down someone’s shirt or dress, if that’s your thing.

 

All through the cruise, I’ve been snapping pictures of us in these mirrored ceiling tiles. It’s often a picture of the tops of people’s heads, but sometimes we all look up at the camera, and I snap a family photo.

 

 

Our family resemblance is really noticeable in this particular shot.

 

Morning trivia isn’t terribly memorable… with the exception of a few little moments. The trivia host announces in the beginning that this game will be an individual effort, and teams will not be allowed. Dad is instantly upset at this because it greatly affects his chances of winning a ship on a stick. He knows a lot of useless trivia on his own, but he likes that Wifey and I are there to help him, and for Mom to sit next to him for moral support. I’m not sure why he insists on including me in this “team” of his – I have proven many times that when it comes to trivial knowledge, I’m like the USS Cole in dry-dock – completely useless.

 

At one point, one of the questions includes the name “Robert Wagner”. The young Austrian game show host stops in the middle of asking the trivia question and says, [Austrian accent] “You all probably pronounce this name as [turns on his fake American accent] WAAAAG NERRR… [turns off American accent] right?” The crowd is a little lost at first because he didn’t read the rest of the question – but we all guess that he’s talking about Robert Wagner. He laughs a little and says, “Because it is really pronounced VOG-NER.” He chuckles a little and continues with the trivia question.

 

Another question during the trivia was, “Name the body part which separates the external ear and the middle ear.” I get this one wrong… technically, I don’t “get it” anything, because I don’t have an answer… which defaults to “wrong”. If you don’t know the answer, I’m not telling you right now. I’ll tell you later at some random moment that makes no sense. See if you can spot it.

 

So other than these little memory nuggets, I don’t really remember anything about morning trivia other than I didn’t get any of them right… maybe one or two, but I know that I was left with an overwhelming feeling of, “Man, I have an incredibly small working-database of completely useless crap in my head”. This thought for me is usually followed up with a quick, “Well, that just means that I’ve got more room for useful information that could actually be useful, practical, useable, or redundant” thought.

 

Kind of odd that I don’t remember much of our morning trivia session. It’s probably because I haven’t jump-started my brain with a slight allergic reaction to alcohol combined with the fact that I’m still mentally protesting the fact that I’m awake when I don’t want to be. I do know that Dad doesn’t get his ship-on-a-stick trophy. He’s already made plans to attend the afternoon trivia show anyway, so he’s really holding out hope for a trophy from that one.

 

As we’re getting up to leave the morning trivia show in the Amber Palace, we see some tables near the Deck 3 entrance/exit with a small menagerie of towel animals. Wifey and the girls want to stay for the towel-folding demonstration at 11, but Mom and Dad don’t want to miss the Military Veteran’s Meet & Greet at 11:30 in the Cinn-a-Bar, so they leave and we hang around the towel-table. We find out that the towel folding demonstration doesn’t start for another 15 minutes or so, and we don’t want to just sit in the empty theater and wait, so we walk out toward the atrium lobby, planning to come back in a little while.

 

I snap a few quick pictures of the towel animals as we walk out of the Amber Palace. The young woman making these towel animals has decided to make their eyes out of the red paper from the Fun Times. It’s minor, but towel animals with red paper eyes look evil. I prefer the blue paper eyes; they look nice and friendly with blue eyes.

 

 

The girls and I wander around the ship a little, wasting time before going back to the Amber Palace for the towel folding show. As we wander through the halls, we come across a staircase that takes you up one deck from where we are. Underneath the staircase, there’s an empty triangular space. I look at the right-angle corner of the triangle (lower right) and stop walking.

 

Talking to the girls, “Look, there’s a perfectly good corner. It’s really too bad that one of you girls isn’t being bad right now, because that’d be a good corner to sit in.”

 

At home, the girls have their “time out” in a corner. We don’t have a “naughty chair” or a “time-out mat” or any designated space for punishments – it’s just the corner. Any nearby corner will do. This is also a hand-me-down from my childhood.

 

When I was little…

 

Yes, yes, I know… again with the Grandmother stories. I promise that this will be the last grandmother story for at least a few pages.

 

OK, where was I… right. When I was little, my siblings and I would be punished (for very minor offenses) by kneeling in the corner. We weren’t allowed to sit, we had to kneel, and our butts couldn’t touch our heels, either. There was one acceptable position for being in the corner. Here’s how it works:

 

- You must keep both knees on the ground at all times

- You may not sit on your heels or calves

- You must keep your arms overlapped the entire time in the corner. Overlapped is not the same as crossed. You must hold your forearms parallel, not tucking your hands into your elbows

- You may not lean on or touch the walls in front of you

- You may not turn your head away from the corner to look around the room

- You may not speak unless spoken to first, with the exception of a bodily emergency

- Crying is allowed but you must do it quietly

 

This was the system that I grew up with. The duration of this punishment depended on your offense, and whether or not my Grandmother forgot that you were in the corner or not. An average punishment of this type would last anywhere between 10 minutes to several hours. I know “several hours” seems extreme, but I’ll address that shortly.

 

The specific design of this punishment is (as I’m told by my mother) to keep a child uncomfortable, without mental stimulation, and to drive them insane – all at the same time. An added bonus of the child facing the corner at all times is that they never know when you’re looking at them, so you can sneak up behind them and see if they’re breaking any of the rules. This punishment was especially difficult for my brother since he was an “on the go” kind of kid. He had a hard time sitting still, or not getting into some kind of trouble. My sister (the middle child) never really got in trouble, and when she did, she looked forward to this particular punishment.

 

The rules of this punishment are clear, but there are loopholes that can be exploited simply because… well, you’re dealing with children. My sister would take this opportunity to fall asleep as quickly as possible as to avoid the unpleasantness of actually being punished. If my grandmother came around the corner to check on you and found that you had fallen asleep (which we all did from time to time), she would leave you there, slumped over (but still in the kneeling position) in the corner, with your face dragging down the wall, mouth open, arms hanging limp straight down, and chest pressed into the corner.

 

This was the only time where our punishment would last for hours. It didn’t seem so bad, because we usually didn’t notice the last hour or two. It wasn’t a spoken rule, but we noticed that if you were put into the corner and it was daylight out… and then you wake up in the corner with half of your face numb and imprinted with the texture of the lumpy plaster wall, it was safe to assume that your punishment was over, and you could get up and leave the corner.

 

My favorite corner growing up was at the bottom of the stairs in front of the closet where the winter coats were kept. That was the softest carpet in the house. I also knew not to get in trouble in the kitchen. If you did, you’d be kneeling on the ceramic tile, and that’s no party.

 

So, as parents now, Wifey and I have adopted this punishment as our standard discipline for the girls. We’ve modified it a bit to suit our needs, and to avoid some of the horrible trauma that I suffered as a child. For example, I don’t require that the girls hold their arms in parallel. Instead, they’re allowed to cross their arms while in the corner. We also set the in-corner time to the modern/commonly accepted standard of one minute per year of age. We also don’t require that they be completely silent in the corner, but we don’t tolerate all-out screaming.

 

Wifey and I have both snuck up on the girls at different times and found them singing impromptu songs to themselves while kneeling in the corner. The older girl used to kneel in the corner and make up characters and carry on conversations between them, changing voices and all. It was a really odd mix of a really adorable “Awwww, that’s so cute that she’s singing to herself in the corner”, and, “Hey, you’re being punished! You should be upset or something, not having fun?!?”

 

So back to the cruise…

 

“Look, there’s a perfectly good corner. It’s really too bad that one of you girls isn’t being bad right now, because that’d be a good corner to sit in.”

 

Daughter #2 smiles and laughs at me, and runs over to the corner that I had just gestured to and drops into her kneeling position, giggling the entire time.

 

 

Daughter #1 thinks that this is so funny, that she looks around for a corner to kneel in, too. She can’t find a corner! The closest thing to a corner is the underside of the staircase, so she runs into the narrow corner and kneels for me to take a picture.

 

 

“Grammy will love these pictures, girls! Good idea!”

 

There’s a little story that goes with this last quote. Alright, so I promised that there wouldn’t be another grandmother story for a few pages – but this is about their grandmother, not mine… so that makes it OK.

 

Wifey’s Mom has completely flipped in the last 30 years. You can take that last sentence any way you like. You might interpret the word “flipped” as going nuts, losing her mind, becoming completely irrational and unpredictable, or perhaps just becoming absolutely bat-sh*t crazy. Well, you’re obviously entitled to your interpretation… I’ll leave my opinion out of the way for now. What I meant by “flipped” is her view on disciplining children.

 

The same woman that would send her kids to the corner and spank them with hands, belts, wooden paddles, and occasionally the plastic paint stirrer, now cries at the idea of her grandchildren just kneeling in the corner. Wifey’s mother (by my definition) wasn’t abusive, but she did discipline her three children. Views on how to discipline children have changed over the last 30+ years, as they will again in the next 30 years… but Wifey’s mother did what she felt was appropriate at the time, and believe me – all three of her kids needed it! Her kids are all between 33 and 40 years old now, but they all could use a decent paint stirrer from time to time...

 

So Wifey’s Mom will literally cry at the idea of my sending one of my girls to the corner for a few minutes. It doesn’t matter what they’ve done to be sent to the corner – it’s always an injustice in her eyes. If we’re all together somewhere (her house, our house, anywhere) and one of the girls has done something that they know to be wrong, I’ll just look at them and say, “Corner”. They’ll usually turn on their sad face, cross their arms, turn around, and go look for the nearest suitable corner to kneel in. They don’t protest, they just go. If it’s particularly upsetting to them, you’ll sometimes hear them crying quietly in the corner, but it’s never a battle to get them in the corner.

 

If this scenario occurs in front of Mom, she’ll often stop talking, begin to tear up, and sometimes get up and leave the room to silently display her objection. She hasn’t done this in a long time, since the girls have started to pick up some of my sense of humor. After a few of Mom’s “walk out” protests, I would start sending the girls to the corner for smaller and smaller reasons when Mom was around. Eventually, I would start sending the girls to the corner for no reason at all – just because Mom was in the room.

 

“Girls, corner. Both of you.” I would start off.

[Girls stop playing, get up quietly and go to their respective corners without a word]

“Oh my goodness, what did they do now? They were being angels!” Mom would say angrily.

“You didn’t see that?”

“See what? They were just playing quietly!”

“Well, I thought I saw them being bad.”

[beginning to tear up, voice wavering] “What did you see? I was watching them and they didn’t do ANYTHING!”

“Fine. Maybe they weren’t being bad just now, but they have been in the past, and I’m sure they will be later when I’m not looking, so this is just punishment for later.”

[Girls start giggling in the corners]

“You’re unbelievable. Just UN-BE-LIEVABLE!” She’d say as she walked out of the room crying.

 

I’d then call the girls out of the corner and give both of them hugs and they’d laugh, but still confused about why they went to the corner. I realize that it’s unfair and perhaps slightly damaging to their fragile little minds, but everyone’s gotta have something to be traumatized by in their childhood, right? I’m just offering my children their trauma in a controlled and documentable fashion. Planning is everything. Plans usually don’t work out the way you want them to – but planning is everything.

 

So, after Mom realized that I would torment her with randomly disciplining my children, she didn’t react anymore – which was my original intent. See, when I’d punish the girls for a real offense, Mom would object, which the girls used to try and use to their advantage. It had gotten to the point (when they were much smaller) that I would send them to the corner, and they would start crying (fake crying, not real crying) and look at their Grammy over their shoulder as they walked to the corner as if to say, “Grammy, will you please save us from this horrible, mean father of ours?”

 

Well, it only took a few years of careful planning and unpredictability to break them all of this, but we’re finally on a level playing field now.

 

Anyhow, I still try to annoy my mother-in-law by doing things like showing her pictures of her granddaughters in the corner while on the cruise.

[rnvattes]

Wifey’s Mom has completely flipped in the last 30 years. You can take that last sentence any way you like. You might interpret the word “flipped” as going nuts, losing her mind, becoming completely irrational and unpredictable, or perhaps just becoming absolutely bat-sh*t crazy. Well, you’re obviously entitled to your interpretation… I’ll leave my opinion out of the way for now. What I meant by “flipped” is her view on disciplining children.

 

The same woman that would send her kids to the corner and spank them with hands, belts, wooden paddles, and occasionally the plastic paint stirrer, now cries at the idea of her grandchildren just kneeling in the corner.

 

How does this happen? The very same phenomenon has occurred with my own mother....

[Delta Hotel]

Well, isn't that something?! This memoir has been posted since July 13th (40 days ago) and we're at almost 44,000 views - that's an average of 1,100 views per day!

[usafchick1980]

How does this happen? The very same phenomenon has occurred with my own mother....

 

Oh good..nice to know that my mom is not the only one!

[pe4all]

Well, isn't that something?! This memoir has been posted since July 13th (40 days ago) and we're at almost 44,000 views - that's an average of 1,100 views per day!

I lay claim to a ungodly # of them each day! :p:D

[Delta Hotel]

My grandmother runs up the stairs with her cast iron skillet in hand, screaming obscenities in Vietnamese, trying to locate any one of her three bad grandchildren... at this point, any one of them will do.

 

HA! You thought this was the next installment, didn't you! Gotcha!

 

Sorry, no new post tonight... I'm exhausted from work, and don't have the mental energy to continue the memoir this evening. <sigh> Tomorrow's only supposed to be a 12-14 hour day, so I'll try again tomorrow night when I'm a little less tired.

[Daphne'sMom]

Have been enjoying your review so much. Especially like Shaky Beef providing "clarification" after some of your posts;) Would be great if you made this an annual event and perhaps got adjoining cabins with your in-laws next time.:) Thanks to both of you for sharing your vacation with us and for all the time this must be taking.

 

Do the in-laws read your review?

Edited August 24, 2011 by Daphne'sMom

[Sea&SkiCruiser]

Hey DH and SB did you feel the quake?

[Pee-ah]

My grandmother runs up the stairs with her cast iron skillet in hand, screaming obscenities in Vietnamese, trying to locate any one of her three bad grandchildren... at this point, any one of them will do.

 

HA! You thought this was the next installment, didn't you! Gotcha!

 

Sorry, no new post tonight... I'm exhausted from work, and don't have the mental energy to continue the memoir this evening. <sigh> Tomorrow's only supposed to be a 12-14 hour day, so I'll try again tomorrow night when I'm a little less tired.

 

I think that you are due for another cruise! You certainly have earned it!

 

Thank you for sharing!

[Delta Hotel]

Hey DH and SB did you feel the quake?

 

Yup! Sure did. I was sitting in my office at my desk talking on the phone. The buildig started to shake a little, and at first, I thought it was just me having some kind of "I haven't had anything to eat in a long time" tremor, then the person on the phone with me said, "Whoa, my building is shaking!"

 

I thought, "Wow, I must be really hungry..." then I realized it was an earthquake. It's funny, immediately after it ended - EVERYONE in my office except me went outside and stood in the parking lot... and so did everyone else in the area... weird.

[Delta Hotel]

Thanks to both of you for sharing your vacation with us and for all the time this must be taking.

 

Do the in-laws read your review?

 

No, the in-laws don't read this review. Wifey's Dad might read it if he knew it existed, but it's not on audio-book yet so he'll be too busy doing other things to sit down and read it. Wifey's Mom can barely turn on her computer, so even if she wanted to read it, she'd never be able to find it. It doesn't help that each time she starts to feel comfortable with her computer, I replace it with a new one.

[ShakyBeef]

Have been enjoying your review so much. Especially like Shaky Beef providing "clarification" after some of your posts;) Would be great if you made this an annual event and perhaps got adjoining cabins with your in-laws next time.:) Thanks to both of you for sharing your vacation with us and for all the time this must be taking.

 

Do the in-laws read your review?

 

OK' date=' you [i']say [/i]you're enjoying the review, so what is it you have against us that you'd wish an adjoining cabin with my parents upon us? What did we do to you to deserve that?

 

No, as DH said, my parents aren't reading this. We haven't told anyone that he's writing it.

 

There is the possibility of Dad stumbling upon it someday. He's been a CC member longer than I have, but doesn't come around much anymore (especially when they don't have a cruise booked).

 

 

 

Hey DH and SB did you feel the quake?

 

 

I sure did! Very freaky-disconcerting. I was standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes, looking out the window across the sun-dappled yard on a perfectly sunny, beautiful day, when there was a low rumbling sound (kind of like thunder, but not quite), and the whole house (2-storey, 100-yr-old) started to creak and groan. There was a strong shaking, thumping that at first made me think, "The washer load is off balance". Then I remembered I wasn't running the washer. The whole time, the floor was shifting under my feet and my brain was having a very difficult time grasping what I knew must be happening - but we have never had an earthquake on the Eastern Shore. I've never felt one before. I was a little disoriented afterwards, and still felt a woozy, inner-ear kind of equilibrium dizziness for awhile.

 

My kids were upstairs, playing Playmobil and they said some of their toys fell over.

 

About 5 of my neighbours and I all ended up in our street immediately afterwards, comparing notes and trying to come to terms with the fact that we had all just experienced our first earthquake. I hear that this going out into the streets afterwards thing was common all over the Eastern seaboard, yesterday. Leave it to DH to be the weirdo that doesn't have that basic human urge and stays put while everyone else goes out.:rolleyes:

 

 

 

I think that you are due for another cruise! You certainly have earned it!

 

Thank you for sharing!

 

He sure is due for one, but he won't take one, or any vacation, until January (and it took a lot of work to convince him to take that one). As much as ne needs one, when he takes a vacation stuff stacks up at work and things tend to blow up while he's gone. So he just has more work and stress to come back to. It makes it hard for him to want to take one, or to fully relax while he is on one.:(

 

I'm lucky I've gotten him away on as many cruises as I have. Heck, I had to practically kidnap him to take him on our longest (9 day) one. It was his surprise birthday cruise. He was a good sport when he found out about that one (2 days before we sailed). After he got done being physically ill from the surprise (I like to think of it as he was sick with happiness :)), he eventually stopped hyperventilating and started to relax. About 5 days into the cruise.:cool:

 

So, our next cruise will be in January.

Edited August 24, 2011 by ShakyBeef

[njmomof2]

[quote name='ShakyBeef'] Leave it to DH to be the weirdo that doesn't have that basic human urge and stays put while everyone else goes out.:rolleyes:




[/quote]

Nope, he's not the only one. I was sitting here in NJ finishing up my lunch when my chair began to roll and the pictures on the walls started to move and I heard this weird metal creaking sound, like you might hear from metal shelving that's moving. By the time we all figured out it was an earthquake, we heard that people were outside in the building parking lot and were afraid to come back upstairs. I figured...well, nothing happened so far, so I might as well stay put. See, some of us think backwards!

Glad all in your house were safe.

On another note, I'm leaving on this same cruise on Saturday. I had really high hopes that DH would finish his novel before I left, but my chances of that are dimming rapidly. I'll keep checking but with his work schedule, it seems highly unlikely at this point.

Really enjoying his review (and your comments SB).

[capndinghy]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3]Thank you for sharing your cruise with us. Your review was great.

There are links to several that I have taken the time to write at the bottom of my signature. I look forward to reading about your next trip.

[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Delta Hotel]

[quote name='njmomof2']

On another note, I'm leaving on this same cruise on Saturday. I had really high hopes that DH would finish his novel before I left, but my chances of that are dimming rapidly. [/quote]

I'm really trying to squeeze in time here and there for this memoir, but between a crazy work schedule, an earthquake, and a hurricane - I'm not getting much done. I'm trying... really.

DH

[Sea&SkiCruiser]

DH and SB, I truly hope you faired well during Irene. I know the Eastern Shore was hit hard. Please post when you can.

[quote name='Delta Hotel']I'm really trying to squeeze in time here and there for this memoir, but between a crazy work schedule, an earthquake, and a hurricane - I'm not getting much done. I'm trying... really.

DH[/quote]

[ShakyBeef]

[quote name='Sea&SkiCruiser']DH and SB, I truly hope you faired well during Irene. I know the Eastern Shore was hit hard. Please post when you can.[/quote]


Thank you for your concern. But don't worry, we were among the lucky ones. The wind blew hard and it poured for about 24 hours (about 12 inches of rain, total). But we didn't get hit nearly as bad as what they were calling for. We only lost our power for a couple hours. We lost a few small tree limbs, and the yard is covered in leaves and twigs, but that is about it. As I said, we were lucky. Others got hit so much worse than we did.

We're sorry that no new installments on this thing have been made recently. We worked on it last night, but he needs to do a little bit more before the next post is ready. For all of you still interested and hanging in there, we thank you and apologize, once again for the delay.