Hello World!!!

Aww, yes, I have finally gotten back to my regular schedule post cruise and now that I’ve had time to reflect, I think I can write a somewhat interesting piece on my 35th b-day vacation. (I’m sure you will tell me if it’s the most boring thing you’ve ever read.)

If you’ve read my previous post on my 35th b-day, you know how I feel about it, but what I neglected to tell you was how I had planned to celebrate it. Drum roll pleaazzz….Me and my girl, V, embarked on a seven-day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. We started in Puerto Rico and visited Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.

I wish I could sum up the experience in a word, but I cannot – so I will tell you about my thoughts here and there along the way. (This blog thing can be sooo self indulgent, but oh well…)

Day 1

In the airport still in the A, as I slipped back on my sandals after the security check, a guy commented on my hair and shoes and muttered something that sounded like, “Really pretty.” I smiled, replied “Thank you,” and wondered if his comment was indicative of the events to come. Some days, no matter how cute you think you look before you leave the house, you ain gettin’ no play for whatever reason. I took his comment as an affirmation that the “Cute gods” had sprinkled pixie dust on me, and I was well on my way to some much need flirting…okay, pause…For those who have read my previous post on my man fast, you may be wondering why I even care…Well, y’all know this blog is supposed to be “fresh, real and relevant.” Well let me be REAL, I have successfully completed about three man fasts. (U, my girl, is my witness!) But this time around, I have fallen off the wagon…not sure what’s up with me…praying about it…get back to y’all at some point, I think, about it…

Anyway, this blog is dragging a bit so let me speed it up. So I’m looking forward to some light flirting on the cruise. Fast forward to our arrival in PR. From the moment we got off of the plane, it seemed like we were bathing in heat, and I loved it…I ADORE hot weather…And then I started looking at everyone in the airport. When I visited in PR years ago, I was struck at how beautiful everyone was…I love my white friends, but I have never been envious of their skin color. (Okay, I did hang a towel from my head when I was little girl to pretend like I had long, flowing hair like the white girls at my elementary school, but that is where the envy stopped.) Everywhere you looked, everyone was bronzed and beautiful…

Day 2

Me and V were excited because we boarded the “Adventure of the Seas.” As we are waited in line to board the ship, we were told that we could buy liquor duty free at the store in the loading area. Me and V walked in the store and took a look around. (Okay, I know some Christians don’t approve of drinking liquor. I’m not one of them. I don’t think it’s appropriate to get sloshy drunk, but I do enjoy some “spirits” every now and then, ha, ha!) I bought a bottle for a co-worker back home.  Flirting on day 1, buying liquor on day 2…hmm, I bet you’re wondering what’s coming next.

Day 3

At sea. Although it was my first full day on the cruise, it didn’t take me long to realize that eating is one of the main activities aboard a cruise ship…but I wondered how you gon look fine in your bathing suit if you’ve been eating too much…clearly, not all of the cruisers pondered this dilemma as I saw a feast of flesh daily…Remember, keeping it real, keeping it real…

Day 4

Barbados. I’ve started to adapt to the fact that I wasn’t at work and any amount of exertion i.e. leaving my bed, made me want to go back to sleep. It’s really weird, actually, how you quickly you get into vacation mode. Me, V and some of the women that we cruised with took a quick tour of the beautiful isle of Barbados. My parents will probably hate me for saying this, but I almost feel like if you’ve seen one beautiful, tropical island, you’ve seen them all, but I had high hopes for discovering its uniqueness in under four hours – the length of the excursion. We visited a rum distillery and a plantation house among other sites. Those plantation houses show up all over the world, don’t they? Y’all know what I’m talking ’bout.

Day 5

St. Lucia. Again, beautiful, tropical isle. We visited a botanical garden where we were introduced to cocoa trees through which we get chocolate…my traveling companions didn’t quite understand my fascination…let’s just say I have a love/hate relationship with this substance…anyway, I thought about smuggling a few seeds in my bra to grow some trees in my backyard, but the thought of being embarrassed at the airport allowed to gracefully back away from the trees…

Day 6

Antigua. Someway or another, me and V were sooo tired from exerting ourselves dancing at Club Jester, the ship club, and other activities that we managed to sleep in til just about noon. After eating brunch, we decided to venture off of the ship. In no less than half an hour, the heat drained us and we decided that we wanted to abruptly stop our perusal of the shops nearby the port. But then we happened upon a spa where we were able to get somewhat reasonably priced massages…I discovered a red swelling on my leg later that night and wondered if one of those island masseuses had put a hex on me…my father once told me that in Jamaica a man put a hex on him and he coughed up blood…we island people believe in voodoo…

Day 7

St. Maarten.  Can y’all believe that me and V had still not been on the beach yet. So we put on our bathing suits, took a water taxi from the port and deposited ourselves in the middle of the white sand…V waded in the water, and I guarded our belongings under a beach umbrella. A woman bearing several trinkets that she claimed she made herself tried to entice me to buy one of of them. I said, “No.” Another woman bearing several trinkets that looked suspiciously familiar to the first woman’s trinkets tried to entice me to buy her trinkets. I said, “No.” When a third person approached me and went into a similar spiel, I almost screamed, “No and spread the news to all of your beach peddling friends.” But I didn’t. That would have been rude and likely insensitive…besides in Bush’s economy, I may be reduced to selling “handmade” trinkets…

Day 8

St. Thomas. When I spotted an Obama headquarters in a shopping center, I screamed! Wow, it’s really great, isn’t it?! The most blue water I’ve ever seen. We traveled past Sapphire Bay which was, in in a word, breathtaking… I started to feel sad though because it was the last stop before we sailed back to PR.

Day 9

Back in the A – tired, serene and broke…

Any thoughts?