Day 1: Friday 4/29

Well the trip is finally here. Today started at a refreshing 5am. I don’t exactly know what my mom was thinking when she booked this flight. We were waking up before God just to fly to Miami and hang out at the hotel for the day. There was no rush. But yet here I was at 5am starting my long day. I woke up pretty easily which was a welcomed change and things were going pretty smooth. I was feeling good until about 5:30am and then things got a little crazy.

I’m a contact wearer. Not only am I a contact wearer but I am one of the worst contact wearers you’ll meet. I wear 2 week disposable contacts for months. I don’t ever take them out. Like never. I sleep in them, I swim with them on, they’re a part of me. Well, apparently blindness due to unhealthy contact use is a real turn off to men. Who knew?? I was shocked to hear this as well. So one of the “positive” changes (depending on who you ask) in me since meeting Matt is that he holds me accountable to be a healthy contact wearer. Yay! So I’ve been taking my contacts out each evening like a good little girl. No blindness for me. I’ve gotten used to the whole routine again. Well, this morning you’d think I was a first timer or something. I couldn’t for the life of me get one of my contacts in my eye. You want to talk about a great way to start your morning. Repeatedly shove your finger in your eye for 10 minutes & see how you feel in the morning. So there I am getting more & more annoyed with this stupid contact. Then I notice that Rocky still has not gotten out of the bed & that means her bladder is still full from all night. So as I’m trying, in vain, to get this stupid contact in my eye, I’m now also calling Rocky to get out of bed & go potty. Rocky was not happy with me. The dog is like a teenage girl. She needs her sleep & she’s got attitude. So Rocky is not happy to be waking up at 5am, then add that she sees my suitcase. It was not a good morning for Rocky... or my eye. So now I’m doing the finger in the eye while yelling at the dog move for about another 3 minutes & now my phone rings. At this point my patience is pretty much gone. Good luck to whoever is on the end of the phone line. I answer the phone & hear nothing for about 2 seconds too long. At this point I had glanced at the best invention EVER, caller id. It’s my mother. She takes a while to start talking, which has me even more annoyed. “Hello??!!” Then she starts & in the most bubbly tone like if it was four in the afternoon, which just adds to it. If I’m in a bad mood & then I encounter someone that’s just way too happy, it makes it even worse...”Hi. Just wanted to see if you were up.”   “Yeah, I’m up.”   “Did you watch the wedding?”   Whaaaat??? What is she talking about??!! I’m standing here at 5:30 in the morning, running late to get to the airport, repeatedly shoving my finger in my eye, only in the name of love cause I wouldn’t have this issue if I had slept in my contacts, with a dog on potty protest, that’s now sitting on top of my suitcase and will most likely pee all over the place as soon as I force her off my suitcase, which I will then need to clean up & am now already 15 minutes late to head to the airport for a week long vacation... and you’re calling me at 5:30am to ask me if I’m watching the wedding?? I was so out of it I didn’t even know what she was talking about. Did I watch the wedding?? What wedding?? So apparently my mom was up at 4am watching the royal wedding. Knowing that I am about to loose it and I don’t want to take her down with me, I quickly tell her that I have no clue what she’s talking about & that I had to go. So I hang up the phone with Ms. Sunshine and continue on with my torturous morning. I went at double speed the rest of the morning and ended up only 10 minutes late. I was pretty proud of that fact. Then I get into the van & hear that my mom had told me the wrong time & that I was really not late at all. God help me. I only asked the woman at least 10 times what time we had to leave. Really I love my mother, but there are times when I’m tempted start to look into nursing homes... this was one of those times. 

So we get to the airport and thank God it’s pretty empty. The TSA line has no one in it and my dad doesn’t have to carry his sleep apnea breathing machine since he packed it. You’d think with these two facts we should have a relaxed TSA experience. Not so much. I think it’s virtually impossible for my dad to go through security without being in a panic. Seriously. He gets himself so worked up, that I fear one of these days he’ll end up in some back room with a guy named Chuck in rubber gloves getting to know him a little too well, if you know what I mean. He’s gotta relax. So we get through security and find a seat. We ran into one of the woman from our church that works for Jetblue & she tried to hook us up with better seats, but the plane was full. So we sat & talked with her for a while... there is no “getting away” for a pastor, even at the airport! But it was nice to talk with her. Made the time go by since we were SO EARLY! I love my mom. I love my mom. I love my mom. 

I’ll admit it. I was pretty cranky at this point. I mean I looked like I had pink eye! So I decide I’m gonna go get something to eat. $9.45 later I had a bottle of water and a bacon egg & cheese sandwich. Now I know you’re thinking at that price I must of lost it even more, but something absolutely incredible happened. It was love at first sight & the savior of the day. How quickly something so little could make up for such an insane morning. Hope you’re sitting down for this. I notice over on the shelf a twix bar, a $3.50 twix bar that I HAD to have. You may be asking yourself why in the world I would pay $3.50 for a candy bar. Well, this wasn’t just any twix bar, this was a special edition COCONUT twix bar! It was like the heavens opened & rained down mana upon the Westchester County airport. You take something so amazing such as a twix bar and then add coconut. Seriously. I can’t be sure but I think there were beams of light radiating out of the display. That was the best $3.50 I’ve ever spent. That candy bar was so amazing I’d take out a mortgage for it. 

So I happily head onto the plane. I was planning to sleep on the flight since I knew at that hour there’d be nothing on. My only hope was that I wasn’t seated next to a big fat guy that would take up all of his seat and then some of mine. Come to find out I had the middle seat which is the worst AND I was next to my dad. Great. So much for that. At least this big guy I knew. I slept on & off in between watching the same clips over & over again on every channel of the royal wedding. It was a good flight though. I figured out the best sleeping position for when you’re in the middle seat and then passed out. 

We got to Fort Lauderdale & headed for our bags. Then we got a car to take us the 25 minute drive into Miami where our hotel was. Our room wasn’t ready so we headed across the street to have lunch at this boardwalk type of place. Any guesses what I had... a cheeseburger. So we sat and had a nice lunch overlooking the marina where we saw a dolphin swimming. We had a really funny waiter which added to it. It was hot though. At 12pm it was already 93! So we had to keep moving... my mom doesn’t do well in the heat. We headed back to our hotel since our room was now ready & rested. I probably slept for maybe 20 minutes. While we were back in our room it rained...hard! So we waited it out and then headed down the street to the CVS to get my dad some sunglasses. He forgot them at home. We also bought some bottled water to bring on the ship. Next we headed back to the boarwalk to have an Italian dinner at Lombardi’s. Great name! I had the pizza which was really good! While we were eating the weather was starting to get a little rough again & so were the people there. Apparently we’re in a rough neighborhood. It’s a very touristy area, but apparently there’s a lot of crime. The hotel had an entire pamphlet in our room warning us about the area. So we headed back to the room and rented The Tourist. Now, I love me some Johnny Depp, but this movie was so bad that if I was at home I would of just turned it off. I wouldn’t of even enjoyed “the view” for the rest of the movie, it was so cheesy & such poor acting. Angelina Jolie or as my dad calls her, “Angelina Dundee” should stick to modeling. She’s stunning but she can’t act! Gosh. So after that train wreck of a movie, I went and called Matt & then called it a night a little early.

I thought I was struggling with allergies but on the plane while we were landing my eardrums felt like they were slowly about to explode. For pretty much the rest of the day my ears were clogged & my throat was getting a little soar. It got worse as the day went on & I realized quickly that it’s not allergies. I have some cold medicine but RN mom thinks it’s possibly strep after a quick check, followed by a freak out, at the sight of my throat. If it gets worse I guess I’ll go to the ship’s doctor, but being that I don’t want to be quarantined to my stateroom, that’ll be a last resort. I got these cough drop things that numb your throat. They help, except I sound like I’ve had one too many drinks when I use them. They numb my entire mouth, including my tongue. Try and go on about your day with complete strangers with a totally numb tongue. Now that’s a fun time. 

Well, that’s it for day 1. If this is your first trip report of mine you’re reading... where have you been?! I’ll explain for you how I usually go about this. I usually post in the mornings. Sometimes I’m a day or two late, especially while on a cruise & the internet is tricky. On the right is a link to a website where I upload each day’s pictures. On cruises it’s a lot harder to do because of the internet speed, but I usually try to upload some. I see all of the comments left. I may not answer them but I enjoy reading them... so if you’re enjoying it, let me know. If not, disregard the comment part. :)