I was on a boat -- one of my happy places. Next to my hubby. Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Technically not even in the United States, I believe. I probably would have slept right through the official changing of the new year, except we heard the cheers of several thousand people a few decks below us, and we were both half-awake enough to mumble, "Happy New Year" to each other before we rolled over and went back to sleep.
Okay, so it was more than "a boat". It was a 17-deck cruise ship that was once the world's largest passenger ship, the Allure of the Seas. And we were likely sailing somewhere in the Bahamas at that time. Our first cruise, our first time out of the country, what a way to ring in the new year, I tell ya!
This was kind of a test. See, all of my life I have been one of those "prone to motion sickness" people. I can't do amusement park rides. I always had to call "shotgun" because I couldn't ride in the backseats of cars. Sometimes even standing on docks would make me nauseated. We went to a waterpark once, and I got sick after going down a freaking slide. I had pretty much figured I would never ever get to go on a cruise ever in my life because there would just be no way.
Then we got our little fishing boat. And I love fishing. I love going out in boats. I really do. And I used to get nauseated at first, but I just kept taking the medication and using the Sea Bands and everything until I started not needing them anymore. And we started flying more places, and that started being alright, too. I mean not completely alright -- but manageable. Instead of needing to take three meds just to handle a short flight across the country, I can do it with just one now. And it's more prophylactic than anything. I haven't actually thrown up on an airplane in over 27 years. Go, me!
Fast forward to last year, we started talking about what to do for our 50th birthdays and also our 30th anniversary (50th birthdays were last year, 30th anniversary will be next year). The hubby suggested a European cruise for our anniversary, and then he suggested that we take a "test cruise" this year to see if I could handle it. Sure, I said. Let's try it. Yeah, I was less than enthused at the time; to be honest, I was less than enthused about anything in 2024. I wasn't sure if I'd actually be able to handle a cruise, and I have never actually thought about going on a Caribbean vacation, so when he booked us a cruise to the Bahamas, I was feeling way more out of my element than anything else.
But oh my gosh. It happened, and I was armed with scopolamine patches and ondansetron tablets and sea bands and diphenhydramine and it could not have gone better! The only time I felt nauseated was the night before we set sail when I ate too big of a deli sandwich for supper and then layed down to sleep almost immediately afterward. Not once on the ship did I feel an iota of motion sickness. I didn't even wear the sea bands most of the time, and I only took the Zofran when we were actually moving.
I feel like I'm over-reacting but this is also huge for me. I'm not going to go out and start hitting up amusement parks or anything, but...it's pretty freaking awesome not to be motion sickness' bitch anymore.
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Oh yeah, and now we've traveled to another country, blah blah blah. But it didn't really feel like it. The Bahamas is very touristy and we didn't go very far away from the ship or the pier. We didn't sign up for any shore excursions, just in case I wasn't feeling well. And honestly, we both needed to just chill and rest and do nothing anyway. I got a nice tan, that I now have to hide under layers of clothing because it's freaking cold here in the tundra, but that's okay. It was so nice to have nothing to do but just lay in the sun and warm up like a cold-blooded reptile. There were way too many other people but at the same time, it was nice to be anonymous among them. Except for the fact that we were all packed together in the same relatively small area and now I've got this nasty cough that I can't seem to shake, and an odd rash on my arm that reminds me that the loungers I loved so much were definitely not disinfected between users. YAY!
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In other news, not much. I'm back to work full-time now, no more day-off-during-the-week-to-spend-with-Mom. Feeling bittersweet about that. It will be an adjustment for all of us, but, it wasn't meant to be a permanent arrangement anyway. I'll still go over and help her out, and spend the night at her place, but after I'm done with work or on my WFH days.
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Don't think I missed the fact that the 5-month milestone passed while I was gone. It's weird. Almost 6 months. Almost half a year. That seems like so long and yet, not. I've never gone this long without seeing my Dad before. Most of the time I feel numb when people ask "How are you doing?" and things like that, but if someone were to ask me a specific question about my Dad, I would absolutely lose it. I saw a meme on FB that said something like, Don't ask me how I'm doing, ask me to share one of my favorite memories with you -- or something along those lines. And that made me think -- No, don't do that! I will definitely break down in front of you if you do that.
I unjoined all the "grief" groups I had joined on FB because it was just too much, seeing all that on social media all the time. I don't know if that's avoidance or protection or healing or none of the above, but it just gets so depressing seeing those kinds of posts all the time. Dad wouldn't want me to sit around and be depressed because of him.
Dad's birthday is at the end of this month. I'm not looking forward to that.
Gotta get back to work! TTYL
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