Hello, Roatan. I missed your SalvaVida. Such a lovely beer you are.
We really slacked hardcore in Roatan. We didn’t leave the port although we did get off the ship, because, how else am I gonna get a SalvaVida?!? Yeah, I feel a little bad about making it all the way back to Honduras and not really going out and seeing anything, but man was it nice with practically no one on the ship.
There’s no segue here. In the land of perfume, I had phases that I went through. Avon perfume, cheap stuff, and I got into a Donna Karan Cashmere phase as well. The latest perfume I’ve fallen in love with is Gucci Guilty. Not all perfumes work well with my personal chemistry, but this one, yum. For that, I got off the ship. I was quite happy to find it for quite a bit less than I’ve seen it anywhere else and I shall now live in it and it shall be my signature smell. Huzzah. And that was our trip to Honduras.
I mentioned yesterday, on our actual anniversary, that it was our anniversary. During sail-away, we crushed the bottle of champagne we won on the first day. Happy anniversary to us!
Since I’ve talked about it every other day, yesterday was another day of lots of walking. I finished the day at right around nine miles. It’s madness the amount we’re walking!
Ok, that’s it for yesterday. Tomorrow I’ll tell you of today’s adventures. J
Another sea day, folks. First things first, it’s our anniversary. Four years. J Secondly, lemon cookies. They’re awesome. Onward.
Yesterday we got a good bit of rain but it was still warm. I am still trying to stay away from wet decks so I don’t take another spill. The amount of walking we’ve been doing is slowly declining. I think we only did 5 miles yesterday as opposed to the nearly 10 the first day. I think that we’ll get those numbers back up in Belize though.
On that exercise type note, I got a body composition analysis done. It was kinda neat – the printout they give you, that is, the actual procedure is just like standing on a scale and holding handlebars. The bottom line of it is that I’m not retaining too much water, I need 1358 calories a day, and my body will give up 6 pounds of fat which should come from my legs and I need to go back to doing legs or running or something. No wonder I can’t hold my legs up in iron X……6 extra pounds.
And speaking of feats of wonder, we went to the ice show. The actual space for skating isn’t overly large so double axels were the biggest tricks that were thrown. But hey, it’s not like I can do one. It was still fun to see and then all of a sudden, it got awesome. There was a couple that came out and did German Wheel. Did you hear me? They did German Wheel. On. The. Ice. Yup, super impressive.
We signed up for lessons on the FlowRider. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear about that disaster. I’m just hoping to not injure myself. You’ll probably hear me screaming from where you are. Sometimes I wonder why I torture myself with these water activities. My rational, conscious mind keeps me out of the water for the most part because my irrational subconscious is ALWAYS trying to get me to jump in like I wouldn’t sink and die. Stupid brain.
Lastly, and most importantly, we went to Sabor last night. Yes, as a matter of fact, it was slap yo mamma delicious. Guacamole was made tableside for us. The queso fundido was sloppily delicious, and the tuna crudo, OMG so good.
Welcome back aboard the Navigator of the Seas. I’m your cruise director and here’s a wrapup of yesterday’s activities.
Fresh squeezed orange juice. Do you know how much I absolutely HATED it when someone ordered this when I was bartending in Sandpiper? With every fiber of my being is the answer and yet, I’m an asshole and I order it every morning because it’s included in my drink package and I have to have at least $20 a day in OJ and bubble water and bottles of water and Starbucks to make this worth it. I’m doing ok so far, I believe. I’m going to have to try waiting in line for them to make my eggs as I wasn’t in love with the scrambled. But who am I kidding, I’m an egg snob and I like them to taste the way they do when I make them, lol. This is why I want to have a breakfast restaurant. All breakfast, all the time. Eggs, and bacon and hash browns and waffles and p-cakes (Ant shoutout) and French toast and grits and oatmeal. Man, I love breakfast. Anywho…
I had been reading up on people’s reviews of the ship and any little secrets I could find out before we came on board. Through this reading up I found a Facebook group and another group and found out that there would be a get-together here on the ship with RAFFLE PRIZES. Yeah, I’m all about getting something for free, even if it’s just the chance for free stuff. Off we went at party time to check out a part of the ship that we hadn’t yet seen. Cute little nightclub area. We dropped in out raffle tickets and had some punch. Some neat little stuff that was given away – mostly all RC branded stuff, but that’s to be expected. Hats, visors, shoulder bags, beach bags, a diamond pendant(!), and the thing I wanted the most, a bottle of champagne. Won it!
Rained quite a bit yesterday and I managed to not fall down any stairs so I call that a win. The show was one of the best I’ve seen on an RCCL ship. Really funny guy who did an Elton John show complete with flamboyant outfits. On that entertainment point, I was certainly spoiled by Club Med. My expectations are high which leaves me disappointed almost every time. Not by this guy though, and not by the comedian during his adult late night show. Funny guy also.
Still rocking out my vegetable love. Probably a little heavy on the potatoes, but they make them so many ways and they’ve all been good. And I just love potatoes. I cannot help myself.
I think that the best part of the night was checking out the outfits on the dance floor in the nightclub. It was formal night and, while some folks get dressed for their pictures and then go change (like us), some folks just stay dressed all night. This was the case with Captain Fly Katt Williams Wannabe Without The Hair. Brother man was rocking out his cobalt blue pants with his matching blue and white striped shirt AND his matching blue fedora. He’s gotta be 60, easy. And let me tell you, when Flo Rida says low, low, low, low, low, low, low, that is where Captain went. I should’ve videotaped it. It was awesome.
We’re still out on the water for another day. There are certainly some fun things coming up in the next few days. You’re gonna want to stay tuned. Until tomorrow.
Whew! Yesterday was quite lengthy. Up at 4 to catch the 4:30 shuttle for our 6:20 flight. Best. Flight. Ever. Only half full with the flight crew encouraging us to spread out. Gotta love that sort of flight. Plus it was nice and short so I barely had time to be distraught about flying. Win!
More shuttles from the airport to the port and finally we got to board the ship. The Navigator of the Seas is an older ship that just got a facelift a couple of months ago. It’s pretty decent. Our room is spacious and that’s all that really matters. Also, the balcony dividers are more top to bottom so it allows for more privacy. Nothing will ever beat the aft balconies on Carnival, but this balcony is better than the one we had on the Allure, oddly enough. I spend a lot of time on the balcony, usually, listening to the siren song of the sea.
We walked around the ship. A LOT. My step tracker on my phone says that I walked 18,911 steps which it equates to 9.3 miles. Granted, that’s the whole day of airport and such, but I’d venture to say that most of it was on the ship.
Food! All of it! You’d think that I’d be getting nutty, but no, only in my own special way. I eat vegetables like they’re going out of style because I don’t have to cook them. And I get to have all kinds of fish. So, yeah, I eat like a pig – a really healthy one, lol. It makes for eating more than 3 times a day though. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m still gonna have some sweets, like the Starbucks I have included on this package, but I’m in veggie land. Ohhhh, and guacamole! We were walking around and one of the folks from the Mexican restaurant, Sabor, was out taking reservations and giving out guacamole samples. Delicious would have been an understatement. I really wanted to just eat it directly out of the huge bowl it was in. Perhaps with my hands. I’m so stoked that we’re going there for dinner. We may have to go twice.
I guess the biggest difference on this ship is the lack of “big show” entertainment. Granted, the last RC ship’s entertainment was awful, so maybe we’re better off without it on this ship. I’ve heard that the ice show is really good though, so we’re gonna check that out.
After a long day of traveling and walking, we called it early (after the Pirates game that we so awesomely could watch in our room). More fun and adventures tomorrow!
Here’s some water behind the ship (since you’ve never seen water, obviously) and the Promenade on the ship.
How well do you really know the woman who stands before you (or sits behind this keyboard as the case may be)? Some of you haven’t known me for all that long, so it’s natural, but there are a select few of you who have known me for more than a decade, some for more than two decades, and some for practically all of our lives. And in that time, what have you learned? Not a lot, probably, because, believe it or not, I’m private about stuff. Today, for your Friday present, you get a peek inside my head. Yes, it’s a present, like from Jason Voorhees. Leggo.
Do you think I’m pretty? That’s not a question that I can realistically recall asking anyone. Ever. Because up until I was a good 30 years of age, *I* never thought I was pretty so I had no reason to think that anyone else did either. I grew up under the influence of my peers as did so many others, but my peers weren’t like me. I mean, we all had our flaws, but I always had the on the outside looking in feeling. I was trying to live up to a standard of beauty that I could never achieve with my kinky hair and brown skin. As I look back on things now, there are so many avenues I could have seen myself taking if only I had had some self-fucking-confidence back then. I could be a (much more attractive – sorry J) Josina Anderson. I love sports. I’m smart. Dudes LOVE to talk to me. But that was encouragement I never received. I never thought that I could be good enough/pretty enough to be on television. I never thought that I could be pretty enough. Never. Thought. I. Was. Pretty.
Smart? Hell yes. I didn’t have to wonder if I was smart. It can be measured. It was measured. IQ tests and gifted classes and scholarships. But who cared about that, right? Guys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses and all of that bullshit. Oh yes, there were times when I wanted to trade my brain power for some pretty girl power. I will admit it. Just a little bit, right? I don’t need to be a genius, so how about I get some cute? This is the society that we live in people. It’s damaging. It’s damaging to hear that you’re “pretty for a black girl”. And we don’t all make it out ok on the other side.
For the longest time, I avoided photos. I never wanted my picture taken. I didn’t want forever proof of my unattractiveness. I would do whatever I needed to do – duck out of the picture, give the person taking the picture the finger in the hopes that they just wouldn’t take it. Whatever it took to not have to see myself at some point down the road in a photo that I had deemed terrible before it even hit the film. My psyche was beat down and my environment kept beating it down. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, small town rural America is just not the place for a young black girl to blossom.
Not to say that I didn’t have friends because I did, and the majority of them were guys. But I was always the friend/little sister. Never was I girlfriend material. Deep down I probably had an inkling that it was just my surroundings, but on the surface, I allowed myself to believe that it was simply because I wasn’t attractive like the other girls. So I’m not pretty. I’ll overcompensate. I’ll be helpful. I’ll be funny. I’ll be smart. I’ll be the shoulder you cry on when YOUR FUCKING GIRLFRIEND TREATS YOU LIKE SHIT. Yep, I’ll be that girl who never shows how she wanted to be your girlfriend and never would’ve treated you that way but will listen to you whine like a bitch about that bitch. I will bend over backwards to make you like me in some way, even if it isn’t in the way that I want.
I lived like this for 30 years, maybe a little more. And then I changed my surroundings.
There were no instant overnight changes, don’t get me wrong. I think part of what changed was that I learned that I have the power of the pussy. That was misguided because getting laid doesn’t mean he thinks you’re hot, just that you’ll do it. But more than that, I figured out that self-confidence was a big part of what might make me attractive to other people (men, ya dicks). I stopped caring so much about what other people thought about my looks. Fuck them, they don’t have to look at me if they don’t want to. I don’t have to/want to/need to wear makeup. I used to say that I’d let the ugly shine right through. I got over that statement as well.
I was still trying to reach that pinnacle of “beauty”. Whatever skin cream would clear up my face and get rid of the dark circles under my eyes – I was buying it. I was attempting to do whatever was in my power to heighten my outward appearance. Boob job? Yup. (you didn’t really think these monstrosities were actually mine, did you?) I was still not fully realizing that what I was looking for had to come from within myself.
I think that eventually I may have come to knowledge fruition eventually on my own, but I have to say that it’s my husband who really helped. He thought I was beautiful from day one. He helped me to believe that not only am I beautiful, but that I am so many other positive things. Strong. Smart. A heck of a shot. A great cook. And these, these are the things, among others, that I now see in the mirror. They still don’t all show up in photos, but I see them and that’s what matters. I hold my head high knowing and believing that I am a beautiful woman and never discounting the things that have happened in the past that led me here. Every wrinkle, every stretchmark, every stupid period zit, they’re all mine. They’re all me. They’re all beautiful. I can tell you with 100% honesty, that never in my life have I felt the words of this poem ring so true. I am a phenomenal woman.
