Monday, October 11, 2010
Wave Trepidation
According to popular belief, you shouldn't make rash decisions when you're upset. It has proved to be true, yet again. I was incredibly upset on Sunday, due largely to my inebriation the previous night. It had been a bit since the last time I drank too much, but I definitely crossed the line on Friday night. I lost more than people's respect, and I wish I could apologize a thousand times over. I said some things, did some things, and threw a shoe. It was ugly. So on Sunday, I checked Craigslist, found nothing; then bought myself a semi-new surfboard at Innerlight. The Kane Garden eight footer I purchased is a neon yellow and red acid-washed-top board of fibreglass. It's sick. It's sickkkkkkkk. Heh, I couldn't leave without it, like when you see the puppy that does the best eyes: it totally reeled me in. It has four glassed-on fins that I hope never break, and a nice big'n right in the center. On a clean day, I should be the fastest rider sliding through oil and jellyfish. Ugh, and jellyfish? Or cnidarians should I say? I've been studying the strangest animals in Zoology for this exam tomorrow. I have to know everything about acoelomates, cnidarians, lesser lochotrophozoans, and poriferans. Basically that means sponges, jellyfish and flatworm/tapeworms. They're lame animals that hardly have real organs, something their creator or evolution decided was only semi-important. I mean, epitheliomuscular tissue? Is it skin? Is it muscle? IT'S both. It's combined because someone got lazy. I can't wait to get into chordata. I also hope that the next essay question permits me to make another nerdy movie reference, that way I can get extra credit again. Last test: Blade reference. There are some things that require a touch of geek, and I've got a vast store of that particular talent.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Robot Dance
This semester has been eye-opening. I have a light load of classes at a junior college, and have been working 40 hours a week at the ol' Starbucks. I've been offered another job at Badass Coffee Co., but really don't feel like leaving my coworkers. That, and I don't intend on having that business name on my resume. I've felt like an automated coffee bot lately too, like in Austin Powers but less hot chicks and more Dr. Evil's. Writing has gone missing in my past couple months of life, but I'm beginning to feel like picking up the pen again would do me vast amounts of good. Well, typing's close enough to scratching down thoughts on paper. I normally reserve pen-writing for silly amateur poetry and crappy sketches, yet of late I'm trying to incorporate it into my outlines for book ideas too. Speaking of books, I've been enjoying Kurt Vonnegut lately, as I delved into his short stories and Galapagos. Galapagos was trash, but maybe 80 percent of his short stories are genius. The other 20 is decent. Slaughterhouse Five has been sitting in my books-to-read pile for a couple weeks, and I feel that it's about time to give it some attention. Another reason I love my coworkers: they recommend amazing books all the time. Rebekah is a creative writing/literature major that has her master's and Matthew Mayhem knows his way around books better than most professors of the subject. Apart from work and school, I feel like I continually fall into the same drab pattern of bourgeois homelife. The joie de vive has just been sucked out of me. At work I feel like a coffeebot, and at home I feel like the Jetsons' robomaid. I have been getting decent grades and money, but perhaps at the cost of my creativity. I do believe the feeling has something to do with a lack of exercise and good new music. Music makes the day for me sometimes; although Usher, Ludacris and Linkin Park released some decent stuff, I just haven't been feeling the love from radio or torrents lately. I got so bored with autotuned junk that I jumped back into the flow of some old favorites. You'd think that ol' roboRob would love autotune due to the monotonous existence that is my life, but I don't. I miss the days of good Weezer, Make Yourself/ Morning View Incubus, Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication type stuff, and (yes, better believe) Smash Mouth. DeLuna Fest is coming up, thank goodness for cheap tickets. Stone Temple Pilots and Bush will probably rock my face off. I know my nana's reading this so I'll stop with the music references, but in closing: I am tired of the last couple years' worth of radio hip-hop. It's a bit ironic that I'm continually checking the time as I write this, because in ten minutes I'm taking back off to work again. Eight hour shift today, yesterday, the day before, and the day before. I have Sunday off, but I've already scheduled myself full of stuff to do. Church, picnic, dinner with the parents, returning the jet-ski (that never worked) and studying every chance between things; it should be a nice day, but free time? Not so free.
Freedom Of The Seas
Grar, so I decided to finally post this, along with a follow up blog. The sole reason I didn't was length, and it being more like a history of what I did on the cruise rather than an actual story-set. But it's getting posted. Then I'm updating.
Well, the boarding has finished, and Sean and I made rounds around the ship already. There's a huge rock wall, bigger than UWF, and an ice skating rink to boot. We immediately hit up the galley, and there was a basketball court that caught our attention. A basketball court wouldn't have been very impressive in itself, but in this particular one were a bunch of soccer players with indoor goals and a ball. We indulged and made friends, all before the ship left. We went to the emergency drill and heard the captain and crew drone on in three languages about jumping overboard and being drunk. Don't do it. Also, know where your raft is in case we go down. Sean and I ran straight up to the Flow Rider and did the boogie board, as everyone was still filing into elevators as we ran up the stairs and were first for the fun. I signed my climbing waiver too, despite not being in the right clothes at the time. The parents keep changing eating times, but we're sticking to the second one they gave us: six at night. Sean and I watched the movie Splice in our room, then went off for dinner. It was casual night, and boy did people push the limits of dining room trashiness. I had a double order of pan-seared seabass, and Ali had difficulty ordering anything at all. We watched a silly parade afterwards, it was more geared for little kids. The parents gave us some rules about alcohol, then we went out did our own thing. Ali and I went to the Crypt, a nightclub on the ship full of creepy guys and bitchy girls. There were exceptions, but for the most part it was a crappy nightclub with a cool set up. I'm hoping it turns out differently some other nights. I met some guys that I had played soccer with: Matt, Alex, and Greg; and met one girl named Lou. It was actually a really long, sophisticated name she had, but shortened it to Lou because I still can't remember the long version. I'm sure she gets that all the time, that and she thinks my name-ignorance is charming for some reason. Ali and I left and passed out in our rooms.
I woke up at almost noon today, unfortunately missing some stand-surfing and a three-on-three basketball tourney. It's probably better that way though, as I'd like to have loads of energy for freeplay soccer and the adult dodgeball tournament. We're on the sea all day today, and I want to get to bed early when it comes time; that way I can do/see/play everything when we port in Haiti. Lunch was wonderful, and I had forgotten that there were more than two bars for the buffet. I ended up eating just a sample of about twenty different things: beef stroganoff, Indian food, fries, scalloped potatoes, ribs, tilapia, salad, pie and some mousse for dessert. I took a quick nap and headed to the courts. There were a couple people shooting around on the basketball court, so I got a game going. I played basketball until enough people showed up for soccer, then we played futsal for a solid three hours. The game got a bit out of control, and we eventually had just four on four teams, with my team reigning for the majority of the day. The Indian guys were pretty good, and so were the Aussies. The gorgeous girl from the club with the mom that danced with me showed up, and her and these two alpha male gorillas played basketball in the middle of our soccer game. I ended up challenging the gorillas to a quick two on two, so they'd get out of the way; and ended up winning. It was glorious. First to five, five to three. They really shouldn't have even made the last basket, but at this point I'd been constantly playing sports for about three hours. It's also notable that I picked this tiny kid as my partner, that was playing with me earlier. He was amazing, but they didn't think to guard him until he made two baskets. They showed their true spirits and acted like deustchbags, which totally tickled me because the hot girl and her mom just left, leaving them to be the jerks they were. They invited me to get some ice cream, but I'm not searching for any female companionship for a long time. It's a shame, due to the fact that this girl was somewhere between a nine and a ten. The only qualm I have with her, is that she definitely was in kindred spirit with the gorillas, and could easily blend in to a classier version of Jersey Shore. Open play soccer never happened, and adult dodgeball got rained out. I'm just glad my love for sports keeps me versatile in play. I guess I should thank my father for pushing basketball on me. I threw on this turquoise pair of board shorts and sprawled out on the sunny deck, letting the sun have it's way with me. There aren't many times I let myself just relax, but this was definitely one of them. The sun was high, but clouds were abundant in the Caribbean sky. It was beautiful, and with the polarized sunglasses it was like the clouds did a ballet. I caught up on some new music I had downloaded for the purpose of just relaxing, and let my mind take my imagination to strange places. It's kind of weird thinking about how much I miss certain people, and how selfish I once was. I've been getting online and biting the expense bullet, but it's been worth it almost every time I log in for five minutes or less. We watched Katt Williams Pimp Chronicles last night, and it was probably the best thing I could do for my worrying and self-doubt. That is one funny individual.
We woke up in Haiti this morning, and got dressed to the chill mix on my laptop as we awaited the breakfast we ordered last night. We ordered it for the 8:30-9 time block and it arrived at 9:10. Then there were about half the things we ordered on the tray, so we just went to the breakfast buffet too. After gorging ourselves on asian donuts, omelets and bacon masterpieces, we met the family downstairs for unloading into Haiti. Labadee was the port we pulled in on, and I hadn't realized it was going to be one of those Disney-esque wonderlands with no poverty and little to be unhappy about. It's not that I like unhappy things, it just turns to be a culture-less paradise that lets us learn very little. I took one walk around the island and headed back to dock, where we were to meet our RIB boat crew. I thought it would be bigger, but it was two 250 engines on a small rubber raft that hauled butt like no other. Just our family and a couple with two tour guides motored around the island, pointing out luxury houses, fruit tree groves, reefs, shipwrecks, and the Citadel in the distance. As we made it to a gorgeous barren island, we waved at the oncoming fishermen who had sails made of patchwork cloth. The tour guide sort of tooted his own horn as he gave us the rundown on snorkeling. (Having been a SCUBA diver since sixth grade I knew the process, but listened for the hell of it.) I'm used to crystal clear waters and pretty reefs, but hard reef, not soft. The entire floor bottom was covered in fan coral and soft sponges that I'd never seen before. I don't often get to dive the Atlantic, and it was a phenomenal change from the brain, staghorn, and fire coral of the Pacific. Our Haitian guide had a good eye for cuttlefish, and continuously pointed things out I wouldn't have seen without him. An octopus, some old cannon shafts, and fish traps were all regular customers, and we got a nice backstory on Columbus' first voyage when he stayed in Labadee and the Tortugas to shelter his crew from a nasty hurricane. The Santa Maria apparently was destroyed in the same bay we snorkeled, and the locals perpetually find ancient ship masts and treasure. I felt bad for the man of the couple, as he freaked out when he got in the water, and couldn't swim. My mom tried helping, but he opted to stay on the boat. I can't imagine not being able to swim and taking a cruise, that would scare me silly. After a huge session at the buffet, chomping on everything from sushi to fudge, Sean and I took a nap. Mark and mom stopped by to let us know they were going to the 70's dance, which really didn't interest me to much. We opted to hit the gym. It was the first time I'd been in there, and the view is probably spectacular, but we went after dark, and couldn't see anything. We worked the elliptical for cardio then did shoulders and arms. A quick shower and the movie, Everything's Fine was our entertainment for the night. That movie is incredibly sad, and made me want to be with my Nana and Papa as soon as I get back. Robert DeNiro's four kids all lied to him and had different issues, one of which actually died. Oh, spoiler alert. Sorry. It did, however, make me thankful for my extensive family; it also made me feel really good about quitting smoking.
Today Sean and I had our things ready to go very early on in the morning. We ended up hitting breakfast buffet and waiting thirty minutes for the rest of the family to get coordinated. Once we had everyone off the ship, we did the regular aimless walk-around for a bit then headed over to the excursion buses. It's not a third world country without people trying to get you to buy cheap crap for stupid prices. The difference in Jamaica was that everyone thought I was looking for marijuana, or maybe just that I'm the right age to be stupid. I had to say no to about seven different scam artists before we boarded our bus. From the bus, we got a brief tour of a couple rivers and the local beachsides, then unloaded at the stables. We were about to embark on a waterside horse ride, and ended up playing with the local Jamaican dogs for about a half hour. Once we finally had all the riders present, he gave us the low down on how to ride and steer and such. Strangely, out of around fifty people, he picked me first. I wasn't very happy about that, but he later told me that he thought I wouldn't mess up, which cooled me down a little bit. He also told me that Tigre, my ride, was kind of a pain in the ass. Lucky for me, I didn't see that, and Tigre and I held up the front of the line pretty well. Near the beginning of the trek I didn't know what I was doing whatsoever, but as we rode on I figured it out quickly. We took a break when we got to the beach, and they took the saddles off all the horses. When I was ready to mount ol' Tigre again, they said he was being difficult, and gave me an even larger horse named Greg. Not the most regal name, and I'm pretty sure I liked Tigre better than this polo horse, even if Greg was bigger. Ali had been scared the entire time, and once we did the bareback water riding, she just jumped off. I'm sure it was a funny sight, but I was too busy pretending I was in Oregon Trail to pay attention to anything but my stallion. Every chance I had dry land and some room we'd come to a canter, and I'd get yelled at. It was well worthwhile. We did the same trek back to the stables and filed into the little pen. By this time, about three hours had passed; it was time to re-board the ship. I couldn't complain, I had a lot of fun. It's a shame I didn't get to see much of Jamaica, but I think it was for the better. The family had storytime over a buffet dinner, then us boys dressed for the climbing wall. They had a couple of routes, one of which I couldn't do. The staff were cheering me on though, and apparently the only one that had done it previously was this staff member dubbed "M&M". (Mountain Man) I only made it about halfway up, but given that there were on average one crappy hold per two squares I think it was amendable. Afterwards, I heard somebody over the loudspeaker talking about volleyball, so I just wandered over to the court and played with a bunch of guys my age for a couple hours. I thought it would have made me tired, but then somebody mentioned freeplay soccer. I couldn't believe my luck. It took us around twenty minutes to make four futsal teams, each made of six people. I'd like to say my team dominated, but this time there was one super team that just held it down for the most part. Two hours into it people started leaving, and kids (under 14) started showing up. I realized I was surrounded by kids, so I ended up separating them better. Me and this one father ended up coaching around seven little dudes. I think I might try and get into this when I get back to Pensacola, as it was entirely more satisfying than actually playing. I did bust open my big toe tonight, but it was so much fun overall I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Early morning wake up calls are just terrible. Last night Sean snored like four lumberjacks chainsawing trees down, and I have had way too much time to think of a certain ex-girlfriend to be in any sleepy condition. We're docking in Grand Cayman right now, and I intend on getting my inner-shopper on. My feet are a bit sore from yesterday, but you better believe I can walk through that. We took a small ferry over, then broke loose and scattered in five directions. I bumbled from shop to shop until I found an elephant made of shells for a friend back home, and bought a straw hat for me. I got some local coffee at Cayman Coffee Company, and enjoyed the amazing espresso machine that juiced the beans. We eventually found each other under the excursion tent, and proceeded into another of those dreaded buses. This time there was no tour, mostly due to the Cayman's being so incredibly Americanized. We got to the dolphin tanks, and lined up for another one of the big animal briefings we got in Jamaica's stables. After a stale wait, we hopped in the dolphin tank and got to do a bunch of neat little tricks with the majestic animals. My favorite was actually just talking to the guy about how he got the job working with them. After a brief dolphin experience, the family set out to the turtle farm. Once upon a time, the locals ate lots of turtle meat then found out it was an immoral thing to do. The farm raises them to release them, but still sells a small portion to locals just so they don't go out hunting the endangered reptiles. We got to hold babies, and watch adult turtles fight each other for food. Ali and my mom went off to the ship afterwards, but Sean, Kayla, Mark and I went to the B.W.I. Margaritaville. Two Banana Winds were delicious, and Mark ended up paying way more than I had expected for the collective drinks and munchies. We ran out of time at this point on island, and retreated back to the line to get to the boat to get to the ship. Dinner was lobster, but I ended up having that and an Indian dish. After dinner Mark, Sean and I smoked our Romeo y Julietas that he bought for the wedding. It was kind of funny to watch both of them, as neither had smoked a cigar before. I don't think Sean's ever smoked anything ever. It was also a bit awkward, as it was the first time I had smoked anything in over three weeks. None of us finished the beastly cigars, and each walked out of the Pharoah lounge with a gigantic nicotine buzz. Sean and I fell asleep watching Surrogates.
Mark called us this morning, and reminded us that today was the zipline/rock climb/snorkel. We woke up and did the usual breakfast buffet, this time I got smart and combined strawberry banana yogurt with bran cereal. We docked in Cozumel and took the taxi to the excursion like usual, this time ending up at what looked like an adult playground. The climbing towers numbered about four or five, and ziplines and monkey bridges connected them. The whole morning excursion was a practice in patience for me, as I had climbed much bigger with less than half the introduction. These prompts were beginning to annoy me around the start of the snorkel, for we had to wear these crappy life vests and use cheap snorkels. I know how spoiled I sound, but it's just something I'm not used to. We were cut loose from the tour after the lunch of fajitas and cerveza, then found a Senor Frog's and more cerveza. I'm intoxicated now writing this, but know that sometimes when you go to Cozumel that's just what happens. The family just shopped for the entirety of the time spent in Mexico, and Sean and I got smart and found a Mega's. Mega's is a Mexican version of Walmart, but everything's cheaper and worse quality, because it's Mexico. Somehow we ran into the parents on the walk back, then got a taxi and rode to the cruise ship.
The cruise was amazing, but I do miss my land-lubber legs, and Chik-Fil-A. Maybe a run around my old haunts'll put me back in the sway.
Well, the boarding has finished, and Sean and I made rounds around the ship already. There's a huge rock wall, bigger than UWF, and an ice skating rink to boot. We immediately hit up the galley, and there was a basketball court that caught our attention. A basketball court wouldn't have been very impressive in itself, but in this particular one were a bunch of soccer players with indoor goals and a ball. We indulged and made friends, all before the ship left. We went to the emergency drill and heard the captain and crew drone on in three languages about jumping overboard and being drunk. Don't do it. Also, know where your raft is in case we go down. Sean and I ran straight up to the Flow Rider and did the boogie board, as everyone was still filing into elevators as we ran up the stairs and were first for the fun. I signed my climbing waiver too, despite not being in the right clothes at the time. The parents keep changing eating times, but we're sticking to the second one they gave us: six at night. Sean and I watched the movie Splice in our room, then went off for dinner. It was casual night, and boy did people push the limits of dining room trashiness. I had a double order of pan-seared seabass, and Ali had difficulty ordering anything at all. We watched a silly parade afterwards, it was more geared for little kids. The parents gave us some rules about alcohol, then we went out did our own thing. Ali and I went to the Crypt, a nightclub on the ship full of creepy guys and bitchy girls. There were exceptions, but for the most part it was a crappy nightclub with a cool set up. I'm hoping it turns out differently some other nights. I met some guys that I had played soccer with: Matt, Alex, and Greg; and met one girl named Lou. It was actually a really long, sophisticated name she had, but shortened it to Lou because I still can't remember the long version. I'm sure she gets that all the time, that and she thinks my name-ignorance is charming for some reason. Ali and I left and passed out in our rooms.
I woke up at almost noon today, unfortunately missing some stand-surfing and a three-on-three basketball tourney. It's probably better that way though, as I'd like to have loads of energy for freeplay soccer and the adult dodgeball tournament. We're on the sea all day today, and I want to get to bed early when it comes time; that way I can do/see/play everything when we port in Haiti. Lunch was wonderful, and I had forgotten that there were more than two bars for the buffet. I ended up eating just a sample of about twenty different things: beef stroganoff, Indian food, fries, scalloped potatoes, ribs, tilapia, salad, pie and some mousse for dessert. I took a quick nap and headed to the courts. There were a couple people shooting around on the basketball court, so I got a game going. I played basketball until enough people showed up for soccer, then we played futsal for a solid three hours. The game got a bit out of control, and we eventually had just four on four teams, with my team reigning for the majority of the day. The Indian guys were pretty good, and so were the Aussies. The gorgeous girl from the club with the mom that danced with me showed up, and her and these two alpha male gorillas played basketball in the middle of our soccer game. I ended up challenging the gorillas to a quick two on two, so they'd get out of the way; and ended up winning. It was glorious. First to five, five to three. They really shouldn't have even made the last basket, but at this point I'd been constantly playing sports for about three hours. It's also notable that I picked this tiny kid as my partner, that was playing with me earlier. He was amazing, but they didn't think to guard him until he made two baskets. They showed their true spirits and acted like deustchbags, which totally tickled me because the hot girl and her mom just left, leaving them to be the jerks they were. They invited me to get some ice cream, but I'm not searching for any female companionship for a long time. It's a shame, due to the fact that this girl was somewhere between a nine and a ten. The only qualm I have with her, is that she definitely was in kindred spirit with the gorillas, and could easily blend in to a classier version of Jersey Shore. Open play soccer never happened, and adult dodgeball got rained out. I'm just glad my love for sports keeps me versatile in play. I guess I should thank my father for pushing basketball on me. I threw on this turquoise pair of board shorts and sprawled out on the sunny deck, letting the sun have it's way with me. There aren't many times I let myself just relax, but this was definitely one of them. The sun was high, but clouds were abundant in the Caribbean sky. It was beautiful, and with the polarized sunglasses it was like the clouds did a ballet. I caught up on some new music I had downloaded for the purpose of just relaxing, and let my mind take my imagination to strange places. It's kind of weird thinking about how much I miss certain people, and how selfish I once was. I've been getting online and biting the expense bullet, but it's been worth it almost every time I log in for five minutes or less. We watched Katt Williams Pimp Chronicles last night, and it was probably the best thing I could do for my worrying and self-doubt. That is one funny individual.
We woke up in Haiti this morning, and got dressed to the chill mix on my laptop as we awaited the breakfast we ordered last night. We ordered it for the 8:30-9 time block and it arrived at 9:10. Then there were about half the things we ordered on the tray, so we just went to the breakfast buffet too. After gorging ourselves on asian donuts, omelets and bacon masterpieces, we met the family downstairs for unloading into Haiti. Labadee was the port we pulled in on, and I hadn't realized it was going to be one of those Disney-esque wonderlands with no poverty and little to be unhappy about. It's not that I like unhappy things, it just turns to be a culture-less paradise that lets us learn very little. I took one walk around the island and headed back to dock, where we were to meet our RIB boat crew. I thought it would be bigger, but it was two 250 engines on a small rubber raft that hauled butt like no other. Just our family and a couple with two tour guides motored around the island, pointing out luxury houses, fruit tree groves, reefs, shipwrecks, and the Citadel in the distance. As we made it to a gorgeous barren island, we waved at the oncoming fishermen who had sails made of patchwork cloth. The tour guide sort of tooted his own horn as he gave us the rundown on snorkeling. (Having been a SCUBA diver since sixth grade I knew the process, but listened for the hell of it.) I'm used to crystal clear waters and pretty reefs, but hard reef, not soft. The entire floor bottom was covered in fan coral and soft sponges that I'd never seen before. I don't often get to dive the Atlantic, and it was a phenomenal change from the brain, staghorn, and fire coral of the Pacific. Our Haitian guide had a good eye for cuttlefish, and continuously pointed things out I wouldn't have seen without him. An octopus, some old cannon shafts, and fish traps were all regular customers, and we got a nice backstory on Columbus' first voyage when he stayed in Labadee and the Tortugas to shelter his crew from a nasty hurricane. The Santa Maria apparently was destroyed in the same bay we snorkeled, and the locals perpetually find ancient ship masts and treasure. I felt bad for the man of the couple, as he freaked out when he got in the water, and couldn't swim. My mom tried helping, but he opted to stay on the boat. I can't imagine not being able to swim and taking a cruise, that would scare me silly. After a huge session at the buffet, chomping on everything from sushi to fudge, Sean and I took a nap. Mark and mom stopped by to let us know they were going to the 70's dance, which really didn't interest me to much. We opted to hit the gym. It was the first time I'd been in there, and the view is probably spectacular, but we went after dark, and couldn't see anything. We worked the elliptical for cardio then did shoulders and arms. A quick shower and the movie, Everything's Fine was our entertainment for the night. That movie is incredibly sad, and made me want to be with my Nana and Papa as soon as I get back. Robert DeNiro's four kids all lied to him and had different issues, one of which actually died. Oh, spoiler alert. Sorry. It did, however, make me thankful for my extensive family; it also made me feel really good about quitting smoking.
Today Sean and I had our things ready to go very early on in the morning. We ended up hitting breakfast buffet and waiting thirty minutes for the rest of the family to get coordinated. Once we had everyone off the ship, we did the regular aimless walk-around for a bit then headed over to the excursion buses. It's not a third world country without people trying to get you to buy cheap crap for stupid prices. The difference in Jamaica was that everyone thought I was looking for marijuana, or maybe just that I'm the right age to be stupid. I had to say no to about seven different scam artists before we boarded our bus. From the bus, we got a brief tour of a couple rivers and the local beachsides, then unloaded at the stables. We were about to embark on a waterside horse ride, and ended up playing with the local Jamaican dogs for about a half hour. Once we finally had all the riders present, he gave us the low down on how to ride and steer and such. Strangely, out of around fifty people, he picked me first. I wasn't very happy about that, but he later told me that he thought I wouldn't mess up, which cooled me down a little bit. He also told me that Tigre, my ride, was kind of a pain in the ass. Lucky for me, I didn't see that, and Tigre and I held up the front of the line pretty well. Near the beginning of the trek I didn't know what I was doing whatsoever, but as we rode on I figured it out quickly. We took a break when we got to the beach, and they took the saddles off all the horses. When I was ready to mount ol' Tigre again, they said he was being difficult, and gave me an even larger horse named Greg. Not the most regal name, and I'm pretty sure I liked Tigre better than this polo horse, even if Greg was bigger. Ali had been scared the entire time, and once we did the bareback water riding, she just jumped off. I'm sure it was a funny sight, but I was too busy pretending I was in Oregon Trail to pay attention to anything but my stallion. Every chance I had dry land and some room we'd come to a canter, and I'd get yelled at. It was well worthwhile. We did the same trek back to the stables and filed into the little pen. By this time, about three hours had passed; it was time to re-board the ship. I couldn't complain, I had a lot of fun. It's a shame I didn't get to see much of Jamaica, but I think it was for the better. The family had storytime over a buffet dinner, then us boys dressed for the climbing wall. They had a couple of routes, one of which I couldn't do. The staff were cheering me on though, and apparently the only one that had done it previously was this staff member dubbed "M&M". (Mountain Man) I only made it about halfway up, but given that there were on average one crappy hold per two squares I think it was amendable. Afterwards, I heard somebody over the loudspeaker talking about volleyball, so I just wandered over to the court and played with a bunch of guys my age for a couple hours. I thought it would have made me tired, but then somebody mentioned freeplay soccer. I couldn't believe my luck. It took us around twenty minutes to make four futsal teams, each made of six people. I'd like to say my team dominated, but this time there was one super team that just held it down for the most part. Two hours into it people started leaving, and kids (under 14) started showing up. I realized I was surrounded by kids, so I ended up separating them better. Me and this one father ended up coaching around seven little dudes. I think I might try and get into this when I get back to Pensacola, as it was entirely more satisfying than actually playing. I did bust open my big toe tonight, but it was so much fun overall I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Early morning wake up calls are just terrible. Last night Sean snored like four lumberjacks chainsawing trees down, and I have had way too much time to think of a certain ex-girlfriend to be in any sleepy condition. We're docking in Grand Cayman right now, and I intend on getting my inner-shopper on. My feet are a bit sore from yesterday, but you better believe I can walk through that. We took a small ferry over, then broke loose and scattered in five directions. I bumbled from shop to shop until I found an elephant made of shells for a friend back home, and bought a straw hat for me. I got some local coffee at Cayman Coffee Company, and enjoyed the amazing espresso machine that juiced the beans. We eventually found each other under the excursion tent, and proceeded into another of those dreaded buses. This time there was no tour, mostly due to the Cayman's being so incredibly Americanized. We got to the dolphin tanks, and lined up for another one of the big animal briefings we got in Jamaica's stables. After a stale wait, we hopped in the dolphin tank and got to do a bunch of neat little tricks with the majestic animals. My favorite was actually just talking to the guy about how he got the job working with them. After a brief dolphin experience, the family set out to the turtle farm. Once upon a time, the locals ate lots of turtle meat then found out it was an immoral thing to do. The farm raises them to release them, but still sells a small portion to locals just so they don't go out hunting the endangered reptiles. We got to hold babies, and watch adult turtles fight each other for food. Ali and my mom went off to the ship afterwards, but Sean, Kayla, Mark and I went to the B.W.I. Margaritaville. Two Banana Winds were delicious, and Mark ended up paying way more than I had expected for the collective drinks and munchies. We ran out of time at this point on island, and retreated back to the line to get to the boat to get to the ship. Dinner was lobster, but I ended up having that and an Indian dish. After dinner Mark, Sean and I smoked our Romeo y Julietas that he bought for the wedding. It was kind of funny to watch both of them, as neither had smoked a cigar before. I don't think Sean's ever smoked anything ever. It was also a bit awkward, as it was the first time I had smoked anything in over three weeks. None of us finished the beastly cigars, and each walked out of the Pharoah lounge with a gigantic nicotine buzz. Sean and I fell asleep watching Surrogates.
Mark called us this morning, and reminded us that today was the zipline/rock climb/snorkel. We woke up and did the usual breakfast buffet, this time I got smart and combined strawberry banana yogurt with bran cereal. We docked in Cozumel and took the taxi to the excursion like usual, this time ending up at what looked like an adult playground. The climbing towers numbered about four or five, and ziplines and monkey bridges connected them. The whole morning excursion was a practice in patience for me, as I had climbed much bigger with less than half the introduction. These prompts were beginning to annoy me around the start of the snorkel, for we had to wear these crappy life vests and use cheap snorkels. I know how spoiled I sound, but it's just something I'm not used to. We were cut loose from the tour after the lunch of fajitas and cerveza, then found a Senor Frog's and more cerveza. I'm intoxicated now writing this, but know that sometimes when you go to Cozumel that's just what happens. The family just shopped for the entirety of the time spent in Mexico, and Sean and I got smart and found a Mega's. Mega's is a Mexican version of Walmart, but everything's cheaper and worse quality, because it's Mexico. Somehow we ran into the parents on the walk back, then got a taxi and rode to the cruise ship.
The cruise was amazing, but I do miss my land-lubber legs, and Chik-Fil-A. Maybe a run around my old haunts'll put me back in the sway.
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