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.  :-)  

Two Quick Funny Conversations

Here's a  quick funny one for you.  I recently engaged in these conversations with some 6 and 7-year-olds.

A child is telling me what he knows about police officers when another student interrupts and says
"Police officers get to wear tight pants and boots.  I want to be a police offier so I can wear tight pants and boots."
Well, everyone has their own reasons for chooing their career paths lol

And upon coming out of the bathroom a child said to me, "____ didn't flush."
Me:  You should always flush.
Another Child:  My dad said that men don't have to flush.

Well, low and behold, 4 hours later, I went into the unisex bathroom at work after a young man and guess what, he hadn't flushed.  Maybe that kid was on to something...

It's the Little Things--like heat and hot water

A while back, I scheduled an appointment to get my living room heat fixed.  It seemed to be on a part time plan as in part of the time it worked and part of the time it did not.  It turned out it was the thermostat.  The thermostat would think it was 70 degrees when it was really 55 so the electrician replaced it and life was good--for four hours when I went into the bathroom to do a load of laundry and saw a puddle on the floor in front of my hot water heater.  SERIOUSLY?!  A friend who has HVAC experience/background installed my hot water heater for me so I had no idea who I was even supposed to call to have it repaired.  HVAC guy?  Plumber?  Someone else?  So I called my parents and asked them.  BTW this was also the day after I had to somewhat unexpectedly get a new car because mine was going to cost more than it was worth to pass inspection.  Anyway, they gave me someone to call so I called said someone, but she didn't have anyone available that day and wasn't sure she was really the right person for me to call.  So I called my parents again--who were trying to get their raking and cleaning done before they had company the next day and my constant calls were not helping.  I made a bunch of calls-it was only 3:00 so I figured someone might still be open.  No luck.  I finally got ahold of someone who said he could call me back on Monday.  Did I mention this was all taking place on a Wednesday--as in the Wednesday before Thanksgiving--yeah, I know, I'm way behind on blogging.  I found some old paperwork and found out part of the hot water heater was under warranty, made a phone call and they said they'd ship me what they thought was the broken part, but they would not pay for someone to install it--did I mention I'm NOT handy.  So even with the part, I was still going to need a plumber.  That night I boiled water to do my dishes.  Well, you know it was almost Thanksgiving so might as well do like the Pilgrims did.  The next day I figured there'd be some hot water left when I went to take a shower--GE had told me to turn the hot water off so it wouldn't leak any more.  Boy was I wrong!  That may have been the coldest shower I've ever taken.  Friday I took a shower at my parents' house since I was Black Friday shopping with my mom.  The husband finally got ahold of a plumber who could come out on Saturday for an extra fee or on Monday.  Well, I don't know about your job, but in my job you are NOT allowed to take the day off after a holiday weekend and hubs can't really do it either.  My parents were going out of town that day and I'm not really one to ask a friend to come sit and wait--plus most of my friends work.  I figured we'd suffer a few more days, but my husband just wanted hot water back so he agreed to pay the extra fee. To make a long story not quite as long, for what we paid we could have gotten a new hot water heater.  The part that I knew was broken was broken and so was the expansion tank--I think it was full, but the parts were NOT expensive.  It's the darn labor.  I'm in the wrong profession!  I have to work a whole week to make what we paid that plumber for two-three hours and that included him driving to Home Depot to buy a part.  I will say one good thing, while my husband was waiting for the plumber, I was getting my car inspected and getting an oil change and because it took so long (in their opinion not mine, I thought it was a normal amount of time), they gave me a HUGE discount.  By the time the weekend was over, I was certainly happy to have hot water, heat, and a car that passed inspection.  Speaking of cars, I never told you about the car that hit my house and drove off, did I?  I'll spare you that story for now except to say a few weeks before all this went down some random person (I wasn't home, a neighbor saw it), hit my house and didn't report it. Thankfully, the damage wasn't huge, more of an annoyance because I had to spend money to have it fixed. I'd so much rather have put that money to traveling--or apparently, saving for a hot water heater part.
   Have a good night blogland!

Don't Give Me a Candle on Christmas

Hello blog readers!  So per usual, after the holidays work got busy and I slacked on blogging.  I should have time for a few more posts before things get busy again in April.  So over the past few days, I was trying to think what to blog about.  I have a few ideas that were like 2-3 sentences long so I was like, hmm, is that really enough?  Then I was thinking back to the last time I blogged and it was around Christmas so it reminded me of a funny if slightly inappropriate story from Christmas Eve.  We used to go to my in-laws house for Christmas Eve dinner. We'd go to church with them and then have dinner or have dinner then go to church.  The past couple of years my husband's sister has hosted because she recently bought a house and wanted to take over a holiday.  Since this year, Christmas Eve was on a Saturday, no one had to work so she said dinner would be at 3.  There was also a football game on and while football does not really intersted me, I knew the guys would have to plan around that.  So our plan was to get there between 1 and 2.  Now I will admit that my church attendance could be better.  I don't consider myself the most religious person, but I do go from time to time and I always go on Christmas Eve.  I kind of enjoy going on Christmas Eve.  With dinner at 3, we knew we wouldn't make the 4:00 mass and likely not the 6:00 one either.  We have done midnight mass before, but we're old and we didn't really want to be going out at midnight.  It turns out a church nearby offers a 10:00 mass instead of a midnight mass so we decided to do that.  Now I have been to this church quite a few times, but never on Christmas Eve.  So we go and they give us a candle, someone lights it and mass begins.  All I can think is how long to I have to hold this candle?  I am a klutz.  I will burn something or drop it or something.  I have NEVER had to hold a candle at Christmas Eve mass before.  They finally tell us we can extinguish them.  Thank goodness.  Now I can actually pay attention without worrying about burning something.  Church goes on and towards the end they come around and light the candles again.  WHAT?!  So as I'm holding my candle, wax drips onto my finger, burns me, and I mutter a four letter word that rhymes with "hit."  Now I'm pretty sure no one heard me--not even my husband and he was within ear shot, but I said it really softly, but still who swears IN CHURCH ON CHRISTMAS EVE?  I don't even swear that much in non-church life.  I did ask forgiveness for my sins, but I'm pretty sure I didn't score any brownie points with God.  If we go to this church next year, I am not getting a candle.  It's not worth the risk.  :-)