it's an open smile on a friendly shore - part 1

Paul has been wanting to go on a cruise forever. Our friends Kelly and Nate helped us get the ball rolling and we actually went. A real vacation! That doesn't happen too often these days.

Our flight to LA could not have gone better. Our friend Sherri got us buddy passes for our flight and saved us a ton of money. Thanks Sherri! I was a little worried about the uncertainty of getting on the plane, but things went just as planned. It was on the plane that Paul formulated the idea to be as excited as possible in every picture. Thus:


Kelly and Nate drove to LA, so they picked us up at the airport and we drove around trying to decide on a restaurant. Luckily we passed up several options, because we finally discovered the Cheesecake Factory! Yum. We sat outside overlooking the marina and it was lovely and delicious. It seemed to be a good omen for the rest of our trip. Another good omen:

A sign on our shuttle that said, "Thanks for yours tips. Have a nices days." Sweeeeet.

Now here's where it begins to take a turn. Paul thinks it's because I'm a negative person. That may be, but I'm just keepin' it real, people. I will say that the night before I had gotten very little sleep. Packing for four kids and myself and getting everything ready to go for four days is exhausting. I had also taken a Dramamine right before getting on the ship, since my parents and sister had been violently nauseated on their cruises. Which made me even more tired. Anway, my first impression of the ship was that it was basically a cheesy Las Vegas hotel/casino on water. Our room was even tinier and more claustrophobic than expected, and the strong smell of cat pee was finally pinpointed as coming from the shower curtain, which stuck to you as you took a shower, since the shower was a little smaller than the size of your body. I opened up my bag full of toiletries, and discovered that the cap of my most expensive hair product was completely broken off, and the entire contents of the bottle were spilled all over everything in the bag. I really needed a nap at this point to improve my failing mood, but wait just a minute. It was time for a mandatory lifejacket drill.

There was one bright spot during the drill. His name was Julio. Here he is:

All 95 pounds of him. He was in charge of counting our section and at the end he said, "My name is Julio. I am a dancer. In case of an emergency you will report to me." We were all very amused that he had introduced himself as a dancer. The guy next to me said, "Julio. The dancer. If anything happens, we are F-ed." Funny.

Dinner was surprisingly icky, but I will say that our company was lovely. Kelly and Nate are funny and sweet and dear and it was fun being with them. I was still in a downward mood spiral, though. If you know Paul, you know that he is a naturally very energetic person. I am much more sedate and we seem to balance each other out in that way. Well, when Paul is on a cruise, you can times that energy by about 10. And this, in turn, causes me to decrease my enjoyment of him by about 10, as well. He was somewhat hard to take. He kept taking his open-mouth pictures and wanting to see every nook and cranny of the ship and was oohing and aahing over everything and I just wanted to take a nap. (And possibly strangle him.) I was asleep for a couple of hours when he woke me up at 10pm to see that night's show featuring a comedian. After watching the short introduction of this "comic's" stylings, we both turned to each other and said, "Well, back to the room, then?" He was so incredibly lame. We could not believe that people were seriously laughing at him. So I went back to bed, annoyed that I had gotten up for that, and prayed that the next day would be better.

(to be continued)