Comforts of Cruising

As I mentioned in the previous post, my family went cruising.  For months we had planned our 7- day Caribbean cruise on Holland America.  There was talk of inviting other friends or family members to join us, but we decided against it.  The 6dooleys have not been on vacation alone since 2006 when we spent two nights on Tupper Lake.  Therefore, this was our trip.  When we were first making arrangements, rooming options were discussed.  My dad had an idea to get only two rooms: a boys and a girls room.  I vetoed that immediately.  Then, my dad asked me if the four kids could share a room.  We could potentially get a big discount by adding two extra people to the room.  I thought about it, thought about discount equalling tiny, thought about Erin's outrageous bikini collection exploding in the room and thought about the boys who don't particularly put showers first on their list of priorities, and I vetoed that idea as well.  And it was agreed, three rooms, one for the parents, one for the girls, and one for the boys.

The night before we left for our trip, Holland America called my dad.  The cruise line had overbooked the ship, and wanted us to consolidate rooms.  They offered to upgrade my parents to a suite, but they would have to have one of the other rooms share with them.  My dad decided that the four kids would take the upgrade.  And so it was decided, four kids in one room.  Ruh roh.

Quickly getting last minute technological things figured out.

But in reading the fine print, looking more carefully at what our upgrade entailed, and watching the online tour of the suite, it didn't seem so terrible.

My dad has a lot of baggage.

When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale to board the ship Erin read a sign stating to identify yourself if you were in a Deluxe Verandah Suite.  When she did, we were pulled out of line, brought to the front, and to a separate line to check in.  Don't worry, we brought my mom along with us.  When we got our key cards Chip, Erin, Garvey and I had gold cards.  My mom and dad's cards were blue.

The line we skipped

On the ship nice and early, before the rooms were ready.

In our very spacious room, with a very large balcony, we found a laundry bag for complimentary dry cleaning.  The four of us put dresses, pants, shirts and skirts into the bag to be pressed.  Yes, we had our clothes pressed.  And during the week we had clothes dry cleaned, washed and pressed many more times.

The balcony was so spacious, Garvey slept on it.

Our laundry delivery

We also each had our own stationary.  Poor Mom and Dad had to share a few pieces of stationary, while we each got our own!

The four of us also had access to The Neptune Lounge.  Apparently this is a big deal.  Basically, it is a lounge, with a private "front desk" for only those in suites.  The room has delicious food out all day long, an espresso maker and juices and coffee.  And, as Garvey really liked, the room doesn't have sugar for coffee.  Instead, they have rock candy.  If that isn't high class, I don't know what is.

The first afternoon on the ship we decided to go check out The Neptune Lounge.  We found board games and agreed to play a family favorite, Rummikub.  And, no, The Neptune Lounge didn't have just any old Rummikub, they had the deluxe large numbers version.  The game came in a case with a handle!  High class.

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Hours later, after playing three rounds, and my siblings losing terribly to me, we wandered back downstairs towards my parents' room, but not without taking a little detour to explore.  Before we had rounded the corner we could hear my dad sniffing.  The four of us came around the corner and he said, "where have you been?!  I have been looking everywhere for you!"

"We were playing Rummikub in The Neptune Lounge.  Ooooh, right.  You can't go there."

I have a type

We cruised on Holland America.  Now, while it was absolutely fabulous, you need to know a few things about Holland America.  For one, the most common form of identification to get back on the ship is an AARP card.  Two, there are more than a handful of motorized wheelchairs on board.  Well, with those two facts alone you can easily see how many oldies are on board.  But, there is one fact that says it all: of the 2,100 passengers on board, there are only 78 between the ages of 18 and 34.  Hmmm...

Now, we all know that I am on a family vacation.  But, if my family of 6 makes up 3 of that statistic, and the fourth is underage in regards to, well, everything, then what does that leave?  I’ll tell you.  It leaves a handful of very awkward cousins who smuggled a small bottle of rum on the ship from Puerto Rico.  It also leaves a pair of brothers that like to dance.  Very nice boys, but nothing to write home about.  It also leaves a few 15 year old girls that have realized the dance club doesn’t enforce the 18 + rule, and they come out at night to booty pop.  

But don’t worry, readers, I found some cute boys.  I just also happened to find something out about myself: I have a type.  

The perfect example is a man I found to be quite attractive on our first day on the ship.  Yes, he was with his pregnant and waddling wife, but that didn’t stop me from noticing how cute he was and pointing it out to my mom and sister.  When my mom finally saw him, and after she had said that he looked old, she said, “he looks like everyone else you like.”  I didn’t know exactly what she meant, but I knew Cute Boy has a pregnant wife, so I kept looking.

I found DJ George.  DJ George is adorable.  He is unbelievably nice and engaging.  And while I know that is his job to chat with the passengers, he and I really enjoyed taking to each other.  He is the DJ at the dance club in the evenings and runs various musical activities on board throughout the day.  For example, Erin and I did cute DJ George’s line dancing activity by the pool.  We also played his game of Name That Tune.  

So prego’s husband and DJ George are the cute boys on board, and I started to understand what my mom meant.  I like tall boys.  I like brunette boys.  I like boys who always look put together, preferably those that consider polo shirts to be casual.  I like boat shoes.  I like khaki.  I like good haircuts.  I don’t like facial hair.  And by God, I love good teeth.  So there it is, Meaghan has a type.  Meaghan likes preppy brunettes.

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Now that we are back...

Now that we are back, I am allowed to tell you that we were away!

My dad has a fear of the internet and people breaking into our garage, so I wasn't allowed to share the fact that we went on vacation!  Yes, yes, we did.  My family spent the past 7 days cruising around the Caribbean and the two days before that celebrating the Garvey Family Christmas, my favorite holiday of the year!

But now, it is back to reality.

We arrived back in Saratoga well after midnight on Sunday (that in itself is a story) and promptly headed to bed.  Now I have spent the last two days frantically packing and not blogging.

After I left Tulsa in 2008 I moved all of my things into my parents' basement.  And yes, I have a lot of things.  I lived in an apartment for two years and ended up with plenty of kitchen utensils and appliances, photos, wall hangings, curtains, etc.  Let's just leave it at: I have a lot of things.

Then, less than a year after coming back from Tulsa I packed my winter clothes away, adding them to my pile in the basement, and moved to Thailand with two suitcases of summer duds.

Now, I am moving again.

Tomorrow I leave for the big, bad city, and I have lots of packing to do.

I spent the majority of Monday going through Tulsa things.  I am proud to say that I threw away 9 Price Chopper bags filled with trash.  Thank you very much.

Tuesday I spent the majority of the day going through clothing.

Clothing to be given away to Salvation Army.

Summer clothing to be put away.

Winter clothing to go to New York City.

Oh, and the pile of dirty cruise laundry.  Please excuse the mess.

Today, well, today I have been productive too.  I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with Koreana, and that was VERY productive.  I haven't spoken to Koreana in longer than I would like to admit, and it was just what I needed.  I also figured out the mystery behind the Christmas itunes gift cards.  Want to know?  It's really very simple...  Any guesses?  Okay, fine.   Ellie never paid for them!  She gave each of the four kids a gift card for Christmas, but managed to walk out of BJs without ever paying for them.  Silly, Ellie.

And now I am back to packing.  Because as much as I hate to admit it, those piles can't just stay in piles, they must fit into suitcases and into the car.

So there it is: my update of the moment.  I am now going to race off, finish packing, and hopefully enjoy my last night in Saratoga.  Tomorrow I will be on the road again.  But tomorrow night, I will be back to blogging!  I have so much to catch you up on: the cruise, the Christmas party, the flat tire and men, oh my!

Did I tell you that?

On New Year’s Eve Dexter and I had a breakfast date.  But considering we were both a few minutes late for our 11:00 breakfast date, it ended up morphing into more of a lunch date, but that is beside the point.  While standing in line for the most delicious bagels in the greater capital region, a tall man behind us said, “hey, Dexter!  How are ya?”  Dexter and I both turned to look at him.  I had no idea who he was, but he hadn’t said hi to me.  When he reintroduced himself to Dexter I knew exactly who he was.  My, how my little brother’s friends have grown!  He then said hello to me, asked me how things were going, and turned his attention back to Dexter.  He congratulated Dexter on his most recent, and very impressive, accomplishment, earning Coach of the Year in Colorado.  Dexter thanked him, we ordered our food and sat down to chat.

We sat for a while catching up.  He told me about his kids running.  I told him about my kids that I left in Thailand.  We both talked about teaching.  We both talked about how much we love working with kids.  And then, as the person who knew us said goodbye and left, we started talking about technology.  Dexter mildly mocked me for my obsessive blogging, but admitted his desire to read it.  But between my blog, our two smartphones, and looking around the coffee shop to see all the different types of technology, we agreed that it is just the way of the world these days.  But what Dexter said to me, made me think more about what we are all doing with this technology.  

Dexter has been living in Colorado since we graduated from high school in 2005.  He went to university there, worked for a few years, and is now back in school again and coaching high school.  Throughout the years he and I have kept in touch over the phone, through facebook, birthday cards and the occasional Saratoga reunion.  But, as I have spent quite a bit of time with him over the last week or so, I have watched as tons of people have congratulated him on his coaching.  So, over our lightly toasted bagels with a schmear, he said, and yes, I wrote this quote down in my telephone, “I have to not get offended when people don’t ask me stuff because it’s on facebook.”

Dexter then explained how strange it has been to come back to Saratoga to be congratulated for something he never told the person about.  Yes, it was put on facebook and reposted by friends and family members, but it is a bizarre concept.  The two of us questioned when it became socially acceptable to use a status update or tweet to start a conversation, without ever asking questions about it.  Instead of asking, “oh, Dexter, what have you been up to?” leading to the coach of the year conversation, people simply congratulate him.  

I could sympathize with the strangeness of it, being a big time blogger and all.  But how much do we assume we know about others based on profiles, updates and tweets?  And just because we know it, should we be commenting on it?

Dexter and I came to the conclusion that it is 2012.  We can’t do anything about the information floating around out there.  And, being bloggers, facebookers, tweeters, etc., we are only encouraging the global distribution of information.  We do, however, love real conversations.  It would have been wonderful for the younger unnamed man to say, “congrats about the Coach of the Year!  I read about it in the paper... Tell me about it!”  But, alas, he didn’t.  And Dexter “has to not get offended.”  

As we continue to put the information out there, we have to accept that people have received the information.  So even though I read the statuses, I will probably still ask you questions.  And even though you read my blog, I will still answer any question you ask me!  I think Dexter would say the same.