Friday 6/21/13
Today was all about running around: taking the bird to boarding, dropping off the dogs at the boarding facility, finishing up last minute client requests, going to the bank, pharmacy, post office, etc. Then setting rat traps (thought I would do it one more time while we were gone), filling the pond, turning down the hot tub, charging the iPod, iPad, computer, phone, camera (crazy isn't it!), putting audio books on the iPod, and movies on the iPads. The packing it all up. I was still going at it at 12:30 am. Ugh.
Saturday 6/22/13
Woke up late because I didn't hear the alarm go off at 2:45 am. I think I dreamed that it was going off and didn't wake up! Finally at 3:05 am I woke up and got going. We made it on time to the airport but there was tension in the house from a lack of sleep. Lots to do in the morning. Turning everything off, finish up the last minute packing. We got to the airport and for the first time my bag was over weight. I had to pull out clothes on the sidewalk and shove them in Brenda's bag to make weight so they didn't charge me $100 for being a few pounds over. The plane was so full. There was this one girl who had this enormous suitcase and she was bound and determined to shove it in the overhead compartment. It was not going to fit and there was a line of people waiting to sit down. She ended up taking clothes out and I have no idea what she did with them. It was so obnoxious. She had no business bringing that huge suitcase on the plane. We slept almost the whole way across country from exhaustion.
We landed at Newark and took the shuttle to our hotel. We are staying here for the night and hook up with the cruise tomorrow. Brenda's sister and family came to visit since they live close by. My brother B and his partner B are also going on the cruise and they are also staying at the same hotel. We all met up and went to dinner. We had heard mixed reviews about this restaurant but it turned out very nice. The service could use some assistance but the food was quite good. It was fun to see them and catch up. Brenda's grandnephew is getting so big! I can't believe he is 10 years old. Now I am going to sleep so I am bright eyed and bushy tailed for the cruise tomorrow. I have my Dramamine patch on so I will not get seasick!
Sunday, 6/23/13
Day we go on the cruise. But first I
have to tell you about the continental breakfast at the hotel. I am not a buffet eating girl. I tend to avoid them and now my doctor has
forbidden me from eating at them. The
only option I had to get any food at the hotel was the continental buffet
breakfast. The hotel was fairly full and
the line for the buffet was long. First
the guy in front of me starts coughing.
Then a lady takes her used water bottle and fills it up from the water
spicket. It would have been fine but she
shoved her used bottle with all her germs on it right up on to the spicket. Yuck!
Then I see two people take food with their hands and then put it back on
the food platter. Disgusting! I opted to eat cereal from this container
that you could not get into that had a turn knob to get the cereal into your
bowl and a cup of tea. Then I went back
to my room and ate a protein bar.
Then we went to the airport to return the car and get subway
sandwiches. That was quite an
experience. They made my sandwich fine.
Then they made Brenda's sandwich but the woman accidentally gave to the guy in
front of me in line. He opened it and
gave it back. Well, Brenda was not going
to eat it once some guy opened it. So I
had to go back a third time to get a new sandwich made.
Finally we got on the boat. It is
nice. Not as big as I thought. Our room is nice.
Here is the problem area. I have
been worried about a couple of things for this trip and one of them is
food. I am practically vegan and I find
it really hard to get food when I anywhere outside the West Coast. This is no exception. First most of the people don't know what
vegan is. Second, despite me calling to
make sure there would be food, there isn't.
It is nice that the menu tells me if it is glutten free or lactose free
but that is not helpful in some cases.
They also do not list all of the ingredients. The waiter felt sorry for me the first night
and brought me extra food he knew I could eat.
But even extra's of a beet salad is not enough to sustain me.
Monday, 6/24/13
Today was spent exploring the ship.
It has some nice features: pool, hot tubs, mineral bath pool, spa,
etc. The pool is filled with salt water.
Too cold for my blood. I am thinking of
a mineral bath. One thing though: that stupid staph thing or whatever on my
chest has come back a bit.
I had a veggie burger for lunch. I spoke to the maitre de and he said
making food for me should be no problem.
I just needed to look at the menu the night before and tell them what I
want. Then we relaxed in the shade for a
little bit. Then we got dressed for
dinner for Formal Night. There were
women here in sequin dresses.
Crazy! I saw one woman here in a
fancy dress with a price tag still attached.
I know what she is doing! I was
not in a sequin dress. At the end of the
dinner, I asked to see the menus for tomorrow.
It was a different waiter and she was not as helpful. I didn't see anything I could eat or
transform. It all had dairy in it. I don't know what to do. My meal was a Portobello mushroom and
spinach. Sad thing is I can't eat garlic
and they cooked it in garlic. Now I have
an upset stomach! Anyway, I got
frustrated when there was nothing I could eat.
I kinda stormed out and got upset.
I returned and apologized. Brenda
calmed the woman down. We decided that
it would be better tomorrow.
At least I have something to eat for the morning. I just get so frustrated and hungry that I can't
always think straight.
Tuesday, 6/25/13
I had oatmeal and fruit for breakfast.
I found out they had soy milk so that made me happy. My step sister and her boyfriend spoke to
someone who told them that there was a separate menu for vegans! What?!
So after lunch we went in search of this person. We didn’t find him but we found Sriz and
Mickey instead. My saviors. They sorted
the whole situation out. Mickey is a
vegetarian so he totally understood. I
actually cried from happiness. I was
going to eat on this trip! They called
the Executive Chef and he said it was no problem, I just had to tell him the
night before what I wanted and he would cook it. It was a bit too late for that night but we
were set up for the next night. Each
night Sriz would come and ask me what to cook and my meals were specially made
and delivered.
We just hung out on the boat and read books and walked around. Getting a bit boring... We had family photo night. We all wore khakis
and white shirts.
Wednesday, 6/26/13
We docked in Bermuda and got off the boat today! View from our window.
Brenda and I
took a ferry to Hamilton and then a bus to Horseshoe Bay to snorkel. The snorkeling was okay. Not too many fish. I was covered with sunscreen, hat, and rash
guard. It was interesting to take a local bus and travel with the locals. I didn’t eat much lunch and didn’t feel well
for dinner. They sent dinner to the
room. It was a meal of tofu, veggies and couscous. Best meal yet! I felt well enough later to attend the glass
bottom boat trip. It was okay. We really didn’t see many fish. I spent a lot of time with my head out the
window. They showed us a site where a
ship ran aground.
Thursday, 6/27/13
Another day in Bermuda. Our only
full day on the island. We decided to go
to St. George’s. I heard there was good snorkeling there. We missed the first ferry so we had to wait
around for the 11 am ferry. It takes 45
minutes to get to St. George’s. On the
way over we heard that they changed the return ferry from 3 pm to 3:30 pm. I needed to return around 4 pm to do some
work. Since that was not going to work,
we got some take-out food and ran back to the ferry and came back to the dock. We decided to try Snorkel Beach close to the
dock. It turned out to be the best
snorkel place. We saw many different
color fish: white, black, blue, purple, yellow striped and really big
fish. Brenda saw a cannon. It was a lot of fun. I am so glad we bought snorkel equipment to
take with us. After snorkeling, we went
back to the boat where I did my little bit of work and then went to the adult
thermal pool. It was quite
soothing. I had masala potatoes and
veggies. Each night I had a super
sorbet! We attended the only show of our
cruise. It was an illusionist. He was funny.
We stayed for a few tricks.
Friday, 6/28/13
We were docked until 4:15pm. We got
up early and got going. We went to the
little market to get T-shirts and return Brenda’s waterproof money holder. It was leaking. Then we went right to Snorkel Beach.
On the way back to our room after dinner, I tripped over the cleaning
bucket in the hallway. I was following
Brenda and I didn’t see it. I fell flat
on my knee and on my face. I was crying
on the floor. My knee was already
swelling. I got back to my room and the
assistant room attendant apologized. He
got me some ice. My knee was already
turning black and blue.
Saturday, 6/29/13
I woke up and my knee was stiff. I
had taken a pain killer so I slept soundly.
I decided I should go see the doctor after breakfast. I limped around and went to see the
doctor. The receptionist basically said
that it would cost to see the doc but he probably would not be able to do
anything. Here are plastic bags for
ice. So I limped around all day. Meanwhile the ocean was tumultuous. People were getting seasick left and
right. For some reason it didn’t bother
me. Yes, I had the patch but so did some
of the folks getting sea sick. The
rolling just didn’t end.
Sunday, 6/30/13
At 5 am a knock at the door. My ice
pack has arrived. At 6 am I get up to
get going. Shower, pack and get down to
breakfast. We have to vacate the room by
8 am but our disembark time is 9:50 am.
Lots of time to kill. We start
watching a movie but then the whole family shows up. We all start reminiscing about the
cruise. One by one we all
disembark. Finally it is me and
Brenda. Yeah! Back on land.
In a car and South to Brenda’s mom’s house.
We are at her house for about an hour when we decide that my knee looks
worse and is very hot. I need a
hospital. We all get in the car and go
to the emergency room. I get called in
right away and get x-rays immediately.
They come back clean. Nothing
broken. Then blood work. All clear.
The consensus is that I have another staff infection along the lines of
mersa. Cellulitis is what it is
called. A skin infection caused by
bacteria. The theory being that I fell
down and got an abrasion on my knee and the bacteria got on my knee either from
the carpet (can’t imagine what is on that carpet!) or I had it on my skin
previously or soon after the fall.
Anyway, I got it and it got bad real fast. In the hospital they outlined the red and hot
spot with a pen so they could see if it got bigger or smaller. I got some drip antibiotics and a lovely knee
stabilizer. I also have to take antibiotics
every 6 hours for 10 days. I was told to
come back the next day. Every person at
the hospital asked me if I filled out an incident report on the ship. A what?
No one told me about an incident report.
We went out to dinner.
Monday, 7/1/13
Got up and went over to the hospital and had them recheck me for infection. Seems the infection has subsided a bit. The redness has decreased but the hotness has
not. The doc said to stay the course and
to come back if I develop a fever or the redness returned. I am to follow up with my own doc when I
return home. We went food shopping and I
did a little work. Brenda and I went to
Applebee’s for some food.
Tuesday, 7/2/13
We went to see a family friend of mine.
She is much older and we took her out to lunch. It was good to see her and catch up. Lots of running around and in a hot, humid and
rainy New Jersey.
Wednesday, 7/3/13
Last day in on the East Coast. We
went to Brenda’s dads grave site. Then
out to dinner at Applebee’s again. We
had a worst waiter. It was beyond
funny. He told me they were unable to
swap out items in a salad. Huh? Turns out yes they can. Then when everyone’s order arrived but mine,
he asked where my salad was? I said I
don’t know you tell me! My lettuce was
full of sand. I informed him and the
manager came over and told me we would not be charged for it. When we got the check, he gave us a credit
for the salad but never initially charged us for it. He was such a ditz. We packed for our early morning flight.
Thursday, 7/4/13
Got up at 5:30 am so we would be ready to leave at 6:30 am. Well we didn’t leave until about 7 am but we
got to the flight in plenty of time. We
were worried about it being July 4th, it had been raining and we had
to return the rental car prior to our flight.
I had a wheelchair ready to take me through to the gate. It was really great to have so I didn’t have
to walk that whole way.
The flight was going along fine until about 2 hours until landing when all
of a sudden I felt very hot. I am not
sure if I had a fever or what. I
suddenly felt this overwhelming amount of heat and got up and went to the back
of the airplane. I had a very nice
attendant who helped me with ice. I didn’t
get ill but I needed to cool down. It
took me a while to cool down and they allowed me to sit down and gather
myself. I think these antibiotics are
wreaking havoc in my body. We landed
early and a wheelchair took me right to baggage claim. We took a taxi home and I collapsed. I sat in front of the TV until I fell asleep.
Friday, 7/5/13
I gathered up the rat bait I set and washed down the backyard. I found a corpse of an eaten rat. I guess a rat died and something in the area
ate it. Another rat down. Then I went and got the pups. They were so happy to come home. Unfortunately they brought home fleas. I am not happy about that! Happi seemed to be breathing funny. Gonna monitor that! Went to get Sunny the bird. Then I rested for the remainder of the day.
Saturday, 7/6/13
I ran some errands and then rested most of the day. Had to clean the pups bedding. Got Chinese Food.
What a day! The airplane crash at
SFO was so scary! The number of times I
have flown into SFO. It is a tricky airport
to land at since it is a short air strip and it is surrounded by water. I always hold my breath and my partner when
we take off and land. A miracle that so
many people got out of that plane alive.
Sunday, 7/7/13
Went food shopping finally! We had
NO food in the house. Today is a day of
catching up on work and blog and stuff.
I have not even unpacked! I have
a doctor’s appointment at 8:15 am tomorrow about my knee.
Just heard that the plane that crashed at SFO had two casualties; two 16
year old girls from China. So sad.
Until tomorrow...
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