First day at Sea!

Well, here I go. Last Spring my mother and sisters asked me to go on a cruise with them. I have never been on a cruise and didn’t know what to expect so I was hesitant. I wasn’t thrilled and didn’t have any idea what you did on a boat for 2 weeks without a phone and internet. I told my oldest sister about my hesitation and she told me I should go, so I told my mom I would. That was 8 months ago and I have been thinking about this trip for that long. You know when you have that long to think about things you go up and down on whether you want to go or not. Work was a big concern of mine and I cleared that with my boss before I told my mom I would go. Even though I cleared it, I knew I had to do a lot of preparation before I left so I started 6 months ago with telling everyone, repeatedly, and tried not to make myself indispensible this year. Even with all that preparation I started getting phone calls about a project I told people about 3 weeks ago. I didn’t answer the phone. On the first day I had to be at the airport by 8:30 so Sarah was picking me up at 8am. The night before I was really anxious since I still didn’t want to go and I called a friend and we had dinner together. It was nice and we laughed a lot so it helped me relax. I had already packed and made a final check to make sure I had everything I wanted to bring with me with my suitcases and camera case sitting at the door I was going to be leaving from. Sarah was great and came exactly at 8am. I loaded the car and locked the door and got in the car. As we were driving away I realized I had forgotten my camera case so I scrambled back to get it. We got to the airport and I waited outside the door for my sister and mother. The called me and asked where I was since they had gone in another door and were waiting for me at the counter. The plane from San Jose to San Diego was only half full and that was nice. It was warm when we left San Jose and by the time we got to San Diego it was hot. We had some problems figuring out how to get six people and twelve pieces of luggage in the taxis, but we finally got on the road and to the ship. We were early so there weren’t many people processing through and it was pretty quick. We got to our rooms which were half way down the corridor so it was as far as we could get from either elevator or stairs. That is ok and I wasn’t going to stress at all. I went with Mike, my oldest sister’s husband, on a tour of the ship and then walked around the ship some more. It isn’t big and we saw most of it. There is a gym which I plan on going to once or twice a day and a deck that we can walk around and be outside. There is a shuffle board area and I always wanted to play shuffle board on a ship so I will get a chance. There is also a tennis court and that should be fun and a basketball court, but the basketball is warped. I spent a lot of time alone. I am here with my mother and two sisters (Sue and Betsy) and their husbands (Mike and David). I do a few things with Mike and some things with everyone, but I am not often with people at home so it feels comfortable doing things alone. Some people in a group I am in mentioned that they thought I was an introvert, but I like being with new people and I am comfortable talking and joking with people I don’t know. Last night we ate dinner together, which was nice, and talked about all sorts of stuff. After dinner we got separated again and I looked around the ship some more. I usually don’t drink, but this trip I want to drink a lot. I had 5 drinks last night and will do more drinking tonight. Mike and I met again at Bingo then watched a show. He went to bed and I went to watch a movie at the movie theater. I had seen the beginning of the movie before and was interested in how it ended. Before going back to my room I went outside and looked at the dark sky and watched the ship wake in the dark ocean. I planned to get up at 7 the next morning to jog on the treadmill.