A Cool Day 2

Day 2 of the cruise was another day at sea. Since in typical me fashion it's taken me a while to write about what's happened I may be a little off on the details so suffice it to say day two consisted of eating, drinking, relaxing, a comedy show (er, that might have been on day 1), karaoke watching, and some trivia where I learned that the Jeopardy theme song was originally written as a lullaby and Christmas Island is part of Australia.  Despite my strong dislike of being cold, I braved the cold to go to an ice bar for a half hour--technically I only lasted 25 minutes.  I layered up as much as possible and the bar people gave everyone a coat and gloves, but I was still cold.  It was a "cool" thing to experience though.  At least now I can say I've been to an ice bar, and the drinks there were good there.  On an unrelated note, I would just like to add that the cruise had delicious macaroons and mini cupcakes (and you know since they're mini it's okay to get one three days in a row, right?).

Cruise Day 1

After less than ideal sleep from a bit of snoring and some hotel and street noise, I wasn't entirely motivated to get out of bed on the Sunday our cruise began.  Then I remembered I was going on a cruise and adrenaline kicked in.  Soon we were all ready and headed downstairs to breakfast. The restaurant was fairly empty, but the food was good.  French toast was delish.  Did I really just say delish?  Then back to the hotel to hang out for a few, pack up, and then off to the cruise ship terminal.  It was within walking distance from our hotel.  Mind you, it was a windy, cold walk, but it was totally doable.  As we were waiting in line I heard someone call my name--yep, turns out I knew someone on the cruise, actually I knew the whole family--small world.  Anyway, it only took about 45 minutes of waiting in line inside and outside (I was so happy when we got inside) to get on the ship.  Considering there were abouat 4000 people on the ship, I'd say 45 minutes to get on is pretty impressive.  Anyway, we had a good first day. Did some exploring, some eating (hibachi), and drinking (fruity goodness), and even watched some karaoke.  I do not sing, but my friend's husband did and as a result became famous on the ship.  Earlier in the day, they had a departure party on one of the decks--it was cold, but it provided some nice views of NYC and the drinks were good.  So yeah, that's day 1 in a nutshell.

Pre-Cruise

So a couple of weeks ago, I went on a cruise with my husband, one of my bffs, and her husband. Since I often blog about my vacations, why stop now.  :-) Here's a short one.  The cruise departed from NYC.  I've never been on a cruise in February before.  It was strange to pack for winter and summer.  I needed winter clothes for the beginning and end of the cruise, but summer clothes for the middle of the cruise. And what about shoes? (I ended up not bringing too many shoes.)  Anyway, the bus we were supposed to take got canceled, which was annoying, but worked out because the bus we were on was nowhere near full.  We had plenty of room to spread out.  My one complaint (actually I have another one) was the reading lights didn't work.  I brought several books thinking I'd read at least one on the way down, but after 5:30, I couldn't read a thing so I put my new Kindle to good use and watched some show called "Catastrophe," which was entertaining.  My husband told me I did not need to bring 4 books on a week long cruise and I was like, but I'll read at least two on the bus.  Yeah, he was right--again.  I did not read 4 books.  (My other complaint was the bathroom--yeah, let's just say not pretty.  I travel a lot and I have to go the bathroom a lot because I drink a lot of water so I've dealt with nasty bathrooms, but this was a whole new adventure.  As in I didn't want to sit on the seat.  Have you ever tried to squat on a moving bus?  TMI?  Sorry  No wonder they have so many handles in there.  Let's just say the bus ride home was a good exercise in bladder control and dehydration because I had no desire to use the bus bathroom again after that.)  Anyway, we got to NYC, checked into our hotel, had dinner, drinks, and then it was bed time because tomorrow was cruise time, woohoo!

TV Time

I feel like many of blogs are either complaints or vacation posts.  So today let's switch gears.  Let's talk TV.  What are your favorite shows?  I have a few long time ones and some new enjoyable ones this year.  

Madam Secretary--got hooked on this a couple of years ago, just becaue the previews looked good.  My husband says it's an old person's show. My Dad said it's a woman's show.  Either way, I still like it. Even if it makes me an old woman.

This is Us--again the previews last summer intrigued me so I decided to check it out and got hooked.  I laugh, I cry, etc.  I love it.  I'm a few weeks behind and I hear I may need more tissues, so hopefully, it's not too many tears.

Law and Order SVU--so as much as this show disturbs me at times, I've been watching it for ages.  A few of us used to even watch it together in college.  I still miss Stabler and I miss Munch's one liners, but Benson is great and the new characters have grown on me.  Plus I've been watching it forever so why stop now.

Chicago PD--I kind of started accidentally watching this because it had some crossover episodes with SVU.  It's not my fave, but my husband really likes it so I usually watch it with him.


Grey's Anatomy--I never watched this show when it first came out, but then it seemed like everyone was watching it.  So thanks to Netflix, friends, etc, I started watching it and this past summer I caught up to the current season and for the first time I'm watching it almost on time.  I'm a couple of weeks behind right now.

Hawaii Five 0--We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon so we decided about a year before the honeymoon to check this show out.  I didn't love it right away, but I soon got hooked.  I may or may not have a crush on Alex O'Loughlin.  So now we watch it nearly every week because we are old and tired on Friday nights.  Occassionally, we'll have a life and watch it on Saturday afternoon instead.  :-)  

So those are my shows.  I want to give "Chicago Justice" a try because it's by the same guy who did "Law and Order" and I really liked that show.  And we'll probably watch "Designted Survivor." I also enjoyed "Two Broke Girls," but life got in the way so I've missed that this year.  I'll have to Netflix it this summer.  Same with "Jane the Virgin."   I watched that regularly until this year and then life happened again so that may be a Netflixer too.  I've also been checking out shows from time to time on Netflix. (Like Gilmore Girls, I want another 4 episodes, I loved that show, but the extra 4 episodes weren't enough.)  Gosh reading all that makes me sound like I'm addicted to tv, but I guess in actuality it only amounts to one show a night so it's not so terrible.  

Do they offer tutorials in car identificaton?

To say I don't know much about cars is a huge understatement.  I don't mean just fixing cars, but as you all know I haven't a clue in that department. If the car people tell me  X is wrong with my car, I usually google it or ask my friend Tony if X is real and if the price they're quoting me is legit.  But I also don't know much about types of cars.  If I ever witnessed a crime and Briscoe and Green (come on any other "Law and Order" fans out there?), asked me to describe the getaway car, I'd say, it was blue, Det Briscoe, "Yes, but what kind?"  Me:  "A big blue car."  Maybe I'd get lucky and remember a plate number.  I have friends who I have been friends with for years and love dearly.  I could tell you all kinds of things including in some cases their phone number when they were in elementary school--I could even tell you their birthday without going on Facebook, but what kind of car they have?  Nope!  Not a clue.  I could point to one and say, that is ___'s car because I recognize a sticker or vanity plate, but unless I went up and read the brand, I couldn't tell you what it was.  One of my friends has a red car.  Another has one that looks like a van.  And a few of the guys have pick up trucks.  Actually, one of my friends has the same kind of car as I do, so I could tell you what she has.
Several of my co-workers asked if I got a new car--after my temp plates were gone--and I kept thinking how do they know that?  Maybe the recognize the license plate?   I'm not even one of those people who parks in the same spot every day.  I could point out two of my co-workers' cars simply because they have vanity plates and maybe another one or two simply because they always park in the same spot.  Seriously if there were a special education coding for cars, I'd probably qualify.  So you should be very impressed when on my own I noticed I was sitting behind a Corvette at what is one of the longest light's in my home town last week.  So as I'm waiting for the light I start looking around and on the other side of me I see an unknown car that clearly looks like someone is living out of it. So then I start thinking (because I'm not kidding when I say this is one of the longest lights in my hometown) about cars.  Now granted I know nothing about about the Corvette driver or the person potentially living out of their car, but talk about two worlds colliding next to me.  So it got me thinking about cars and costs.   To me a car is a car, I will admit some do look nicer than others and I mean no disprect to Corvettes, but when I was pondering costs, etc, this is how my mind works (scary, right?):  Why is that car so expensive?  I bet it doesn't run that well in the snow.  It only sits two people.  Where do you put your luggage if you have to travel?  Don't you ge nervous driving that in the city?  How much is your insurance?  I have a friend who works for Ferrari and he told me how much a Ferrari repair was costing a customer one time and I nearly fell over.  At the time, that one repair was about the same as my ANNUAL salary.  Now my guess is if you can afford a Corvette or Ferari, you can also afford another car with storage, more seats, runs well in the snow, etc.  So not only is there no way I'll ever be able to afford a fancy car--unless I win the lottery, which is highly unlikely since I don't play and honestly, if I ever did win, I'd probably buy a bigger house, pay off my loans, and travel A LOT--I think I'd be too nervous to drive one.  So as long as it's gets me where I need to go, doesn't need a lot of repairs, runs well in the snow, is affordable and can hold two suitcases, and possibly some day a child, I'm content.  In the mean time, if I don't notice your new car or can't identify your car, please don't be offended.  But I'll be sure to wish you a happy birthday when it's time and remember random trivia from our childhood.  :-)