All Things EARTH... part 2

[Sailor_Sally]

Margaret , I hope you get to visit your parents .

 

Melody . I am so sorry for all your problems . I hope they get resolved .

[awhfy]

Sally, I'll be fine, just so frustrating--we just got the $97000 bill for the titanium implants last month. Thank goodness for good insurance!

 

 

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[mousey]

Melody...my prayers are with you! You've really been through a lot! Hang in there girl!

[aoknkentucky]

Wowsers, Melody! Praying for better days ahead!

[awhfy]

Thanks everyone for the support. Like the doc said today, a good attitude is 90% of recovery. Then he said he'd have gone screaming into the wilderness by now...[emoji849]. Eye seems to be calming down (which was more troubling than the foot). I'll know on the teeth by Thursday 🤞🏻

 

 

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[Joby]

Thanks everyone for the support. Like the doc said today, a good attitude is 90% of recovery. Then he said he'd have gone screaming into the wilderness by now...[emoji849]. Eye seems to be calming down (which was more troubling than the foot). I'll know on the teeth by Thursday 🤞🏻

 

 

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Glad you have a good attitude. I would be camping with your Dr.:eek: Prayers for a speedy and complete recovery.

[laurspag]

At the Tampa airport! Boy, that went fast. Too fast! I'll likely fill everyone on and start posting pictures tomorrow.

 

We only had three storm advisories at home while I was gone. 😲 We may be delayed a bit getting home since it's supposed to be snowing now too.

 

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[laurspag]

I'm back in Syracuse, on time, to 22 degrees. But life is good!!

 

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[awhfy]

Laurie, that was a quick vacation! How long was the cruise? We don't cruise under 10 days cause it costs more to fly than to cruise for us. We're 74 degrees here this week in CO, insane weather!

 

 

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[laurspag]

Melody, I really can't take more than a 7 day cruise due to my job. This was a 5 day cruise. I don't mind- I have compared a lot snd I usually don't find a deal as good as cruising.

 

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[laurspag]

Also, most of my flights are through Jet Blue, and I have gotten some great rates.

 

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[awhfy]

Also, most of my flights are through Jet Blue, and I have gotten some great rates.

 

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Jet Blue times don't work for us. If we drive an hour (& spend $250 to park) we can get Southwest

 

 

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[awhfy]

For those following my medical saga [emoji849]. The oral surgeon & endodontist saw me yesterday they believe I'll keep the implants (gum has improved slightly with the lasering wowsa! That was not fun!) The implant is going into a bone graft, not into my jaw bone so the titanium allergy (their words) should not affect it. Just have to hope that the inflammation calms down with the titanium removal on March 3. Melody

 

 

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[Sailor_Sally]

Melody , Once they remove your implants what will they do ? What a saga you are going through ! I hope it gets better each day .

[MJC]

Melody, so nice to hear a bit of good news about your teeth among all your troubles. But, oh, your poor feet. :o Your upbeat personality comes through here so strongly that nobody would guess that you are having such terrible difficulties. Hang in there!

 

 

Laurie, welcome home! That seemed to go by very quickly. So looking forward to seeing your photos.

 

 

My flight to MI got cancelled again on Friday, so I ended up getting there Sat. afternoon and leaving Monday night (though most of Monday I was at the airport since my 1:00pm flight was cancelled just as I got there and I had to wait six hours for the next one).

 

 

Here is the latest wrinkle. Apparently my dad no longer does my mom's laundry, so when her clothes get dirty he's just been throwing them away. My mom only had two pairs of pants left and no underwear. So I've been online shopping for her since I got back. I also wanted to replace her ratty sneakers, so I looked to see what size her shoes are, and all her other shoes are gone. OMG.

 

 

I was hoping to have a short getaway during spring break in March, but now I think I'm going to have to spend about a week out there taking care of some things and having more talks with the facility. How disappointing.

 

 

I'm looking forward to some vicarious EARTH thrills through Laurie's pictures!

 

 

19 degrees this morning and going up to 60 on Sunday. Crazy.

[laurspag]

Melody, I too am happy to see that you have such a good attitude about all that you have been going through. Sometimes, it can be very hard to keep your chin up when things keep happening.

 

Jet Blue almost always has the very cheapest flights. When I went on Allure last year, our flights were free because I used points. Typically, I book a cruise very, very far ahead. If the price drops at all, I rebook. This way, I get the best possible rate. When Jet Blue posts their fares, I will usually get some very good pricing for Florida. As a matter of fact, I can fly to Florida and cruise for less than I can drive to Bayonne or Boston and cruise from there. I am not even counting the cost to park at the port.

 

Margaret, all that is going on with your parents...wow. It sounds very, very difficult to deal with. I mean, how can you get your dad not to throw things out when you aren't there? They are in assisted living, correct?

 

And all that stuff with your flights too. We had all sorts of weather going on here, but somehow, we managed to keep all our flights. We used ChoiceAir through the cruise line, and they gave us United on the way down, and American on the way back. They're okay. They aren't my favorite, but they got us to where we had to go.

 

Going down, we got to the airport later than planned due to the snowy roads. I thought for sure our flight was going to be way off or cancelled, but to my shock, it was on time. Until they had to de-ice the plane. Twice.

 

We got to Chicago, and as much as it was out of the way, it worked out because there was so much snow along the east coast. We barely made the second leg even though we were supposed to have an hour in between flights. We got to Tampa right when we were supposed to.

 

Because of the weather scenario leaving home, I decided on jeans with a quarter zip Syracuse pullover. I just didn't want to have to find room for my winter coat, and this was just as warm as a thin jacket was. Plus, my husband wears a lot of Syracuse stuff too, and we always generate a lot of conversation based on it.

 

At the hotel, I took off the pullover, but I was wearing a Syracuse shirt underneath. We were having so much fun with the where are you from dialogue that I decided to stick with it.

 

 

I think I look very tired, lol.

 

 

We took a cab over to the Westshore Grande Hotel, which is really nice. I liked the location. Sally, you mentioned there being a mall across the street, and that worked out great because there were all these restaurants around. Because I had been up since 3:45 AM, we didn't really want to run all over.

 

We got a nice lunch at Maggiano's, and then wandered around the mall a bit. We went back to the hotel for a little while to just rest, then headed over to the mall again because we noticed a gelato place earlier. Hey, gotta have a dessert!

 

Then we hung out downstairs in the hotel, chatting with everyone over a beer and watching some basketball.

 

Our room was really nice.

 

[laurspag]

The next day, we have transfers from the hotel to the pier. Brilliance is an older ship, and we've been on it before. It is ideal for a 5 day cruise, in my opinion. We love the staff - everyone is really great.

 

I'm big on pictures, as you know. Although the photographers on the ship were a lot of fun, I found the posing to be redundant and not very flattering Quite a few were having trouble with the flash photography as well, so I think the pictures are mostly okay, with the exception of the private black and white photo session, which I will talk about later. Anyway, my favorite shots are outside.

 

Here is our sail away picture. The first set were inside, and our clothing and skin colors just looked so off...I was glad there was another photographer outside.

 

 

Unfortunately, you can't see that I'm wearing my favorite St. Maarten bracelet in that photo!

 

We do what we usually do the first day, and we wander and head over to the Schooner Bar. That is always our favorite place to hang out.

 

I don't know about all of you, but I never feel ready to start my cruise until I am able to unpack my luggage. The it is like it is official - my cruise has begun! I think our luggage was delivered before we sailed, or immediately after.

 

I decided to wear that asymetrical print dress the first night. As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't thrilled about the photos. I think part of it is the process of losing weight, and not feeling like it always shows in pictures. I keep telling myself that I've lost a total of 50 pounds so far - it has to show, right? I think this is a good picture here, overall. This is a very comfy dress to wear, especially considering I'm not a huge fan of wearing so much print. I felt very relaxed in this.

 

 

The next day was Key West. I've never been there before, but I would go back in a flash. As a matter of fact, my husband asked me if Jet Blue flies to Key West, so I know he enjoyed it too.

 

I knew this was going to be a walking day, so it was important to wear my walking sandals. I didn't think to have my husband take a picture of my outfit this day, but I have a few photos to share with me in them so you can see it.

 

For those of you that aren't aware, that is the I love you symbol in sign language.

 

Did I tell you my husband is taking a sign language class? He says he wants to be able to communicate with me when I don't have my hearing aid in. He's so sweet.

 

 

We got lunch first.

[laurspag]

We started with the Naval Museum. This is a pretty neat place to visit

 

 

It was lunch time, so we ended up at Haggerty's Flying Monkey. I had crab cakes, which were fantastic.

 

 

And here is my husband, pointing out our beer choice!

 

 

He had ribs, which he said were great. Unfortunately, the picture is on his phone so I will have to post that later.

 

We then headed over to Truman's Little White House. We were not allowed to take photographs inside, but we have a few of the outside.

 

 

 

[laurspag]

Since we didn't have a lot of time left, and I get terrified of missing the ship as it sails away from port, we decided we had to get key lime pie. A friend of mine said that even though a lot of places have it, I should go to this one spot.

 

Unfortunately, I couldn't remember the name!

 

Fortunately, she answered my text event though she was working. (shhhhh)

 

 

Back on board, we had one of the photographers stop us for some casual pictures. It's so funny - after a while, they were flagging us down all the time, lol.

 

 

So let's see, this would be another casual night. I was surprised - formal night has always been the second night, but not this time. I think it had to do with our hours in Key West.

 

I decided to wear the green dress. This was a switch as I had planned to wear this to Giovanni's. When they moved formal night, I ended up needing to move my reservations as I wanted to be in the dining room on formal night.

 

I kind of wish I did my own thing as far as posing goes - once again, I'm not thrilled with the pictures. But there were a few good ones.

 

 

 

I think I will make a small adjustment to the dress. It's lined inside, but not very far down. The lining was sewn to a dart so it tended to pull the dress out a bit near the rib cage. But boy, that is one nice dress and I really liked it a lot.

[laurspag]

The next day was a sea day, and also formal night.

 

I wanted to wear that print shirt that a lot of us have from DressBarn. I had taken it in in before we left so that I could bring it.

 

 

Our waiter had told us the night before about wine tasting for $10.00 a person. We thought this would be a fun experience so we signed up. i can't find my photo, but I think my husband took the photo on his phone. When he gets home, I will have him send it to me. They had a nice set up with 5 wines, and a plate of cheese and fruit. It was really interesting to learn about different wines, and to discuss how wine pairs with different foods.

 

We played a lot of pool. Unfortunately, the pool tables are no longer self leveling. I think they add a neat touch and sure wish they would fix them. Playing pool at sea is rough, lol.

 

Now, I want to say that I loved my dress. I wish I had gotten the red. Not only is it a favorite color, but I feel like it works somewhat. The styling of the purple dress was fantastic, but between the flash photography not working very well and the color not being a good one for me, I t took a lot to find decent pictures. I think this was one of the best:

 

 

 

Here are a few more:

 

 

[laurspag]

This brings me to the black and white photography. They had mentioned it to me on day one, but I politely declined. They were only making appointments for formal night, and I knew that this would be a very expensive thing.

 

However, they brought it up to us again, not because they were pushy, but because they knew we were at every single photo op, and I wanted something different than the standard pose. As a matter of fact, I would say things like "for the first pose, i put my hand straight down, fingers together, right?" We knew what every pose was going to be each and every time.

 

We discussed it, and decided that we would go ahead and get them done. I had the drink package, and a photo package that I paid for before cruising. I do not buying souvenirs.

 

Yes, they are expensive. But you know what? You just say, that you love them, but you aren't comfortable with the price. You'd be surprised how much you can bring the cost down that way. They were still a bit much, but it's a choice we made. I'm not sorry I bought a few of them. The hard thing was narrowing it down, and having both my husband and I liking different things.

 

Up close, black and white photography does not hide any flaws..I have always, always, always tried to hide my overbite. But you know, sometimes you just love something. These are in no particular order, just some of my favorites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[laurspag]

I know I seem to be flying through each day. But I never know when I will have enough time to post what I want, so I move along when I have a moment.

 

The next day was Cozumel. Since we were going to Nachi Cocom, I was going to wear my swimsuit with a cover up. I have this shirt that became too big, but I didn't want to adjust it because there is no top shoulder seam and I didn't want to ruin the shirt. I LOVE this shirt. I realized one day that it would make a nice cover up. I wasn't sure what to do with it because it wasn't super long, but it was long enough to look a bit odd with shorts so I kind of moved it around a bit. It worked.

 

 

Bathing suit photos are always hard, but I'm proud of where I am at these days. I am so happy I decided to buy this Athleta swimsuit. They are a great fit, and offer so much support. I ended up keeping both tops, and I ordered another bottom.

 

 

I finally got to try the grilled grouper. Now I see what the fuss is all about! I was pretty much done before I realized I needed a photo.

 

 

There were 6 ships in port that day That meant that Nachi Cocom was filled to capacity. That being said, because they limit the number of people, it wasn't crowded. It was very enjoyable.

 

 

[laurspag]

So our last day is a sea day! This is when we were going to Giovanni's. I ended up wearing my print maxi dress. You know what? I'd rather wear a solid color in most cases. I'm not sure why...

 

But here is how I started the day out:

 

 

I really love these sandals, and still wonder how I ended up with them. I think I like solid colors and then to accent with a print or jewelry.

 

 

And finally, dinner!

 

[Sailor_Sally]

Laurie , Great pictures especially the black & white . I am so glad you enjoyed Key West . You really lucked out the temps started dropping yesterday in Florida .

 

Margaret , You have enough on your plate for ten people . I do not know how you do it and stay sane .

[awhfy]

Laurie, you & your husband are just so darn cute! I don't normally like black&white photos but those are great

 

Margaret, are your parents in assisted living? If so you need to find out why they allowed the clothing to get thrown out, should not have happened in assisted living (they do the laundry).

 

My favorite saying is "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade, just don't forget the vodka!"

 

Our daughter finally moved into her new home today. I was the guard in the garage making sure no one made off with everything--I met 10 of her new neighbors. Dogs love me & I now know the name of all the neighborhood dogs [emoji23][emoji23]

 

She did let me make the beds, didn't really do anything but I'm exhausted!

 

 

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