when we're cruisin' together

yeah, i guess it does seem like a random thing to do. some of my friends are trekking through europe or spending a week on a mexican beach. but when we were discussing our options, it was clear to me that one option offered what i really wanted in my vacation.

here's what i knew for sure:
i want to travel with my best friend. when we travel together, whether it's a road trip to tennessee or ten days in london, we have the best time. like... the best. ever. and timing worked out with her graduation, so it was obvious that we'd travel together.

beyond that, it got complicated.
see, despite my limited travels, i feel like i've had experience "traveling." from airport to airport, from city to city, from ferry to island. speaking other languages. learning new cultures. and while all that is truly wonderful, it's not exactly relaxing. not for me, at least. probably because of my monochronistic, must-be-at-point-A-at-this-specific-time, uptight nature. it can be difficult for me to relax when i have the next step in mind.

i said to D, "really all i want to do is lie around, take naps, eat a lot, and drink. and drink. and maybe dance, while drinking."
to which she replied, "why don't we take a cruise? i've always wanted to!"
"me, too! wait... you've never taken a cruise? everyone has taken a cruise."
"YOU haven't, hole!"
chances are it went exactly like that.

of course we discussed the fact that we'd be surrounded by fat, sun burnt middle-americans who binge at the all-you-can-eat buffet. and when i talked to friends and co-workers who had taken a cruise, they all told me i'd spend a week eating and becoming obese. this entices me.

people also told me to steer clear of carnival. it's all drunk kids in their mid-20's. "go on norwegian," they said. "or royal caribbean. just not carnival. carnival's just crazy and full of drunks."
we chose carnival.
for that reason.

let me just say, i am excited. 7 days in a suite balcony sweet (wait -- switch those) with my bff. cruising a couple days, stopping in honduras, belize, mexico and grand cayman. danielle insists on swimming with sting rays and dolphins. that's just asking for an injury, and i'm having nothing to do with those hateful creatures. dolphins, i mean. i don't trust them because they know something we don't. and they're so smug about it, with their dirty effing smiles.

anyway, that stuff isn't even what i'm most excited about. i mean, yes, honduras will be great. but honestly, i've seen third-world countries and starving children with flies on their eyes before. and that's all fun and exotic and beautiful, but what i'm really excited about is getting exactly what i wanted when we first discussed this trip to celebrate no longer being prostrate to the higher mind! (wooo graduation! final-effing-ly.) i'm excited about lying around. reading books. applying spf 45 every 10 minutes. and most of all, i'm excited about spending time with D. even watching her flat-iron her hair for 3 hours a day, not including post-swimming straightening. i may as well be traveling with pete wentz. and it's all going to be delightful. i can't wait.

so for that i'll put up with queeny chambermaids folding my towels into circus animals and origami. i'll put up with ice sculptures of mermaids and colossal fruit and cheese displays that look like the american flag. i'll even put up with chubby retirees from poughkeepsie new yawk asking us to take their photos.

gladly.

the american dream vacation. sailing the seas on a funshipTM.

i wish it were august. now.