Tidbits Concerning Our Eastern Caribbean Cruise: The Goods and the Bads

Good: vacations in general. It's healthy to step out of your routine and look at your life. It makes you appreciate things you didn't before, gives you new resolve to be better in different areas of your life, allows you to slow down and breathe, draws you closer to both who you're with enjoying and who you are away from missing.

Bad: Intoxication. Neither Go nor I drink. I haven't spent much time with drunk people, so when I am with the inebriated, I find myself annoyed, uncomfortable and wanting to punch them in the face. They talk loud, they touch you too much, they point out the obvious, they smell, their intelligence level, and therefore interest level, plummets. I don't find being around people who are intoxicated funny or a good time. It's like having someone sit there and lie to you. I like when people are straight-up real with me. I whole-heartily appreciate "you see what you get" type of people. People who have had too much to drink are unpredictable and altered, the opposite of the aforementioned qualities I admire. Cruise ships = alcohol and lots of it.

Good: Almost all of my books. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler: Just as good as I remembered. Captured: classic great Harlan Coben plot. The Hunger Games= Enders Game meets Survivor meets Twilight, so two out of three made a pretty good book. Looking forward to Catching Fire. I'm a sucker for a series. As long as it isn't lame. Like Twilight.

Bad: The History of Love. Well, maybe not bad. I'm only a quarter into it. So far, I'm not impressed but maybe I just had too high of hopes.

Good: 500 Days of Summer. The movie ran like 24/7 no matter where I was on the cruise ship. To Go this was a bad thing, since he hated the movie, but I loved that movie. I ran like 20 miles and didn't even realize while watching it on the tread mill. Ok, so maybe not 20 miles. Maybe like 3. But still. I could have kept running if there hadn't been a line of people waiting to get on.

Bad: At Sea an extra day: we didn't get to port in Grand Turk--it was too windy and the captain felt it was unsafe to try to dock. This was the island I was looking forward to most; it's less touristy and more rural.

Good: Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

Bad: My suspicions were correct: I am not a cruise-person. I loved our vacation and am glad I finally got to experience what a cruise is like but I think I'm too antsy or too ADHD for being stuck on a ship for that long. And I wanted to really explore the islands but there wasn't enough time. Cruises are also lazy and gluttonous which made me feel simultaneously giddy and icky, which was confusing.

Good: The sun and the sea. I belong in it.

Bad: Buffets. I gained several pounds.

Good: People watching. Oh my. The things I observed on this trip, little visual nuggets of gold.

Bad: This cruise has completely ruined Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffet for me indefinitely. By the end, if I heard one more rendition of "Buffalo Soldier" or "Margaritaville", I would have come home with a permanent twitch.

Good: My Mom. She did an awesome job while we were gone and she even had a sick kid on her hands for part of it, and a sick Diabetic to boot, which is a whole different ball game. A scary and difficult ball game. And now my kids are calling me Grandma.

Bad: Nothing.

Good: Lightened hair. Darkened skin. Getting dolled up every night. Sudoku. Dancing with my boy. Snorkeling. Turquoise water. White sand. Emerald green eyeliner. The fruit. Staying up late. Sleeping in. Napping. Room service. Room stewards. Calamari. Mango smoothies. Bruschetta. Escargot. King prawns. Lots of happy Filipinos for Go to speak Tagalog with. Jacuzzis. Being swayed to sleep every night by the ship. Palm trees. Warm air. And so, so much more.