I'm Home

I thought I would spend time yesterday catching up on my Reader, but it just didn't happen. I will start up again slowly.

I had a great time. It was pretty much everything I wanted in a vacation. The only bummer was that, even though it was 80 degrees two days before, and will be 80 degrees again tomorrow, the weather wasn't so hot during the actual trip. But there was still plenty to keep me busy and plenty of time to just veg, too. My friends, J and L, and I had a really nice time. There was lots of drinking (of course), not quite as much sleeping as we anticipated, but a whole lot of laughter.

We loved meeting different people. We hung out with everyone from the Red Hat Ladies to the guys there for a bachelor party - people from Long Beach to Ohio. Well, we hung out with everyone that didn't bring their kids on board. J, a fellow single mom, and I resented those people.

For the most part, however, very few people knew I was a single mom or how old we were or what we do off the ship. We were just 3 females, having a good time. I loved that part of it.

I spent time at a piano bar, singing along and shouting out requests (and I even sang a solo at one point). I made daily trips to the jacuzzi. I drank a lot of alcohol, but never felt I had lost all control. We laughed when the ship got rocky on our last night and walking became an adventure regardless of our level of sobriety. We laughed with people, and yes, we laughed at people. We flirted with staff members, we found times to be quiet and solitary (I read for a couple of hours straight, which I never get to do), we ate - but not too much. We didn't make it off the ship on our day at port, but we needed that time to decompress. We had fun annoying our dining neighbors (who didn't like they were having nearly as much fun as we were). We danced, did shots, and read trashy mags.

I have a lot of great memories, and I didn't go broke making them, which was a relief. We hope to plan another one for Spring of next year, we had so much fun.

I took most of yesterday to catch up on my West Wing re-runs (I started having withdrawals towards the end), and doing housework. The girls were SO happy to see me when I picked them up on Monday, and we spent some quality time cuddling that evening.

And now, it's definitely back to reality, but that's okay, too.

And even though I haven't read any of you in a while, you've all been in my thoughts, and I look forward to finding out what you've been doing, thinking, feeling.