Why I love cruising

1. The Ships---Big beautiful floating cities. And they are gorgeous!! Especially those newer ones.
2. Food---I love to eat! Love to try new foods and my family doesn't...a perfect chance for me to try stuff and not lose any money if I don't like it. Man, if I don't like it, they will bring me a replacement for free.
3. Formal or not so formal---I love to dress up for a 5-course meal! I love portraits. Well, there are also times when I want to slum it and a cruise will allow me to do that too.
4. Location---you go to bed in one country and wake up in another and no extra travel or hotel fees.
5. Ocean (At sea days)---Look out around you and all you see are waves, dolphins and if you are lucky whales. (and you might see Cuban guard boats if you sail in the right area of the world)
6. Broadway (or better) styled shows---We have seen people use the silks, ice skate and blow us away with their vocal talent. Once we even saw "The Beatles".
7. Floating shopping malls---I love the shops!! Sales on watches, scarves, trinkets, ammolite, tanzanite, rhodolite, and sterling silver. Discounts on designer bags and most ships seem to have a $10 store.
8. Empty bars/lounges---places that are secluded and quiet during the day, a great place to read or sketch. I love this part of my day!
9. Classes---Craft classes, scrapbook sessions, napkin folding, name that tune, TRIVIA (I shall win here)....yep, I am there!!!
10. Chocolates on my pillow---that part needs no more added to the description, but I get equally excited by tomorrows capers newspaper.
11. Naturalist---I have only had these on my Alaskan cruises but they are so wonderful, so informative, and willing to answer my questions.
12. Included---I love that after I pay the ticket price and other than the shopping, really I am out no more money except tips. Especially when I got to Alaska and book my excursions from home through the same company the cruise ships use. Saved a ton of money.
13. Midnight buffets---yeah, if I can stay up, I love them. However, they don't come every night like they used to :(
14. Artwork---I love looking at the various artworks on the ships. some have millions of dollars worth of art on board.
15. Photographic moments---there are usually so many that I can fill up an entire 8gb card
16. Omelet stations---one of my favorite parts of getting out of bed early. A fresh cooked, made to order an omelet. I like the one with tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and bacon. YUMMY!!!
17. Vanilla---gotta go to Mexico to get the vanilla for my famous cookies.
18. 12 hours in a fjord---yep, I will sit there the entire 12 hours just to see those great glaciers.
19. Cruise Directors/Shopping Experts---they make me laugh, they are crazy, and often highly entertaining.
20. Hot tubs---oh yeah, love me some hot tub, especially when the air is 39 degrees outside. AHHHHHHH!!!

Superstar

My parents wanted to go on dates so they decided to hire a sitter. They used a girl named Kim. She was from the trailer park and she rode my school bus. She was a senior in high school and I loved her. She was nice to me when other high schoolers thought to scare me with talking about sex. Anyway, she was great.

We had a great time, but I guess my parents felt guilty about going out because they brought me home my first barbie....superstar barbie! I loved her so much.

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Tommy Rall

So I wrote a fan letter to Tommy Rall of seven brothers for seven brothers fame. The dude is one amazing dancer, let me just say. If you ever get the chance to see kiss me kate you can his extraordinary work. Anyway, he is 80 so my expectations were not that high. John called me yesterday and told me that I had a case. I said open it. It was autographed photos of Tommy Rall. How cool is that? Very! Thanks, Tommy!

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up up and AWAY

Today we completed another season of Upward ball with Lone Oak First Baptist Church. I must say those guys/gals do a great job over there. I know it cannot be easy working with all those kids, it is time-consuming and kids are messy. But they get it done, they are friendly and they are patient.

I like the Upward program because it teaches kids the basics of the game, how to be fair, to be nice to people, and gives them memory verses too! The best part to me though is that the coaches find something positive to say about each and every child (at the end of the game while passing out the reward stars). Those coaches seek out something good in every player, every play, and every "mistake".

Well done LOFBC!!!!!

That darn 7 am alarm

I do LOVE to go to bed early and rise early, everyone that knows me knows this. I do however like to get up late on the weekends. I just can't get my alarm to STOP going off on Saturday and Sundays. Now, I would probably not sleep past 7 or 8 (cause I don't do that unless I am sick), but I DON'T want to get up at 6 on a Saturday!! What can I do about this alarm? Why does the alarm feel the need to wake me from my slumber? To wake me from my sweet dreams? To wake me when I probably stayed up late last night and need that extra beauty sleep?

Callie, I understand you are bored and lonely. I understand that you are "starving to death". I understand that you miss your best friend (John)....but Callie KNOCK IT OFF!!

Callie, do you realize that if you did not consistently bite your humans they MIGHT let you sleep in the rooms with you? Do you realize that if you would quit sleeping all day and roaming all night, again your humans might let you sleep in the rooms with them?

Cat at the rate you are going, you are going to be locked up in your room on the weekends and I know you hate that. Just wait until 8am and then meow all you want. 8 am, why is that too much to ask?

To the Clouds..

For some reason Paducah, KY has great sunsets, great glimpses of the moon, and strange looking clouds. Here are some of the ones that I have observed from my neck of the woods. They really don't need words. I will just tell you that all photos were shot with a Kodak z981 (26 optical zoom). That's as good as my camera gets.

Old yeah, but maybe wiser too!

This year marked another milestone in my life (gosh I keep having so many of these)...this one was the anniversary of 20 years since the day that I walked across a stage at Graves County High School and they pronounced me a graduate. Yes, that means that I graduated in 1990, and that makes me almost 40. I understand that, I am not trying to talk to you about that...I am trying to talk to you about my school.I thought we were the coolest school cause we had stairs....yeah that feeling went away FAST!!!Our commons did not look like this...we had these coffin shaped boxes to sit on...tables would have been great!

We used to be told don't walk on the gym floor with "outside" shoes...I had to do it this day because NO ONE was there to stop me.

Graves County High School was a new school when I entered its hallways. I was the second class to start from its freshman year and graduate, but that is not what I liked/hated about it. Here is the deal, I am from Lowes Elementary School. It was very tiny, over the crowded school. That, in my opinion, was full of very bad teachers (there were good ones too, but the bad ones tend to stand out in my memory....I have to search to remember all the good ones). Teachers that did not like the children and I had two personally that were CRUEL to me, and I was a good kid!!! So GCHS sounded like the sweetest music to me. I was going to have choices in classes and being a new school it was going to have the cream of the crop in both things offered and teachers. Yes, it was an escape. An escape from the backwoods of Lowes and branch out.

me and my locker

I am what most people at Lowes called a "weirdo". I liked to paint, draw, dress in black, listen to the Beatles, quote old movies, and my family was pretty poor. I was an outcast with the exception of a couple of others, who might have felt like me. I felt that I did not belong because I was not like others. Yeah, that's me! STRANGE!!!

GCHS was going to offer to me ART!!! Do you know how good something like that sounds to someone like me? Someone like ME...that has bad luck, was a freak! I was going to have ART CLASSES!!! Lowes had an art teacher, but every student in the class did the same thing, it was nothing challenging and honestly, it was NOT art. It was a craft. Everyone did the same thing and you could NOT use any creative license. I hated it!!!

Four years of ART later I had a firm grasp on what I like to make. Mr. Goodwin, my wonderful art teacher, encouraged me, taught me how to look inside for what I wanted to create and he gave all the students chances to experiment with all types of art. some of Mr Goodwins students works of art
Our table in the lunchroom

Please don't think it all was grand it had some downsides too. I did like being able to get lost in the crowds if I wanted or being in the front too. Trust me if you know me, you know I am capable of being both. I ate lunch with the Principal almost every day (He did not eat, he would just sit at our table...I sure he sat at others too, but I was honored he would sit at ours).

I hated the math classes but fell in love with reading here (only I would have been too "cool" to admit it). My love of history was born in the classrooms of this school as was a desire to know about politics.

I made some great friends, had wonderful conversations (mostly religious or about boys), started a lot of gossips, and crushed on a lot of boys...After 20 years, my good experiences totally outweigh any bad that I had here...I still cannot say that about Lowes.

Thanks to all the girls that worked so hard on planning this reunion (outside of the football game....thank goodness I had a great friend to be with me during this game) I had a PERFECT time!!! Marla and I picked up like we had just talked yesterday and I am going to make it a goal to keep up with her (here comes the FB stalking Marla). Janice, Heather and Brian and I did the same...but we do talk often, thanks to Facebook. If I have not mentioned to you here it is not because I was not glad to see you, but do you realize how many people were in our class? Man, it would take all day to name you all.

There were missing faces, Kelly I wish you could have been there (she was at home in California). You have always had a special place in my heart. Becky was in Canada, I really wanted to reconnect with her, she and I were so close when we were younger.

And one I wanted to see Shane Ashbaugh, may he rest in peace.

Thanks again for a great time, the great memories and the friendship