Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I'm Home

I thought I would spend time yesterday catching up on my Reader, but it just didn't happen. I will start up again slowly.

I had a great time. It was pretty much everything I wanted in a vacation. The only bummer was that, even though it was 80 degrees two days before, and will be 80 degrees again tomorrow, the weather wasn't so hot during the actual trip. But there was still plenty to keep me busy and plenty of time to just veg, too. My friends, J and L, and I had a really nice time. There was lots of drinking (of course), not quite as much sleeping as we anticipated, but a whole lot of laughter.

We loved meeting different people. We hung out with everyone from the Red Hat Ladies to the guys there for a bachelor party - people from Long Beach to Ohio. Well, we hung out with everyone that didn't bring their kids on board. J, a fellow single mom, and I resented those people.

For the most part, however, very few people knew I was a single mom or how old we were or what we do off the ship. We were just 3 females, having a good time. I loved that part of it.

I spent time at a piano bar, singing along and shouting out requests (and I even sang a solo at one point). I made daily trips to the jacuzzi. I drank a lot of alcohol, but never felt I had lost all control. We laughed when the ship got rocky on our last night and walking became an adventure regardless of our level of sobriety. We laughed with people, and yes, we laughed at people. We flirted with staff members, we found times to be quiet and solitary (I read for a couple of hours straight, which I never get to do), we ate - but not too much. We didn't make it off the ship on our day at port, but we needed that time to decompress. We had fun annoying our dining neighbors (who didn't like they were having nearly as much fun as we were). We danced, did shots, and read trashy mags.

I have a lot of great memories, and I didn't go broke making them, which was a relief. We hope to plan another one for Spring of next year, we had so much fun.

I took most of yesterday to catch up on my West Wing re-runs (I started having withdrawals towards the end), and doing housework. The girls were SO happy to see me when I picked them up on Monday, and we spent some quality time cuddling that evening.

And now, it's definitely back to reality, but that's okay, too.

And even though I haven't read any of you in a while, you've all been in my thoughts, and I look forward to finding out what you've been doing, thinking, feeling.

19 comments:

Loth said...

Welcome home! Not much been happening here without you, really.

Julie@My5monkeys said...

welcome home and its sounds like a fun time.

Shiona said...

Welcome back! Yeah things have been pretty boring for me as well. Hope you are getting back ito the swing of things. Glad you had such a great time! :)

FreedomFirst said...

Welcome home. :)

Anonymous said...

Welome home sweetheart....so glad you had a fantastic and well desrved fabulous time!

won said...

Welcome home April! I could not be more happy for you.

You know what really stood out for me? Where you wrote "very few people knew I was a single mom or how old we were or what we do off the ship." That is something to think about-how we can become defined by such things, either in our own minds or the minds of others.

I'm gonna try that the next opportunity I have-not letting such info out.

Hope it's warm where you are now.

Tara R. said...

Welcome home Girl Friend! Glad you had such a good time!

Anonymous said...

Woo hoo rock on girl! You deserved it. What a great feeling it is to come home to your kids so happy to see you :)

jenn said...

Glad you had fun.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! Good luck coming down from the vacation high!

Kori said...

Welcome home, my friend!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you had a perfect little get away. Good for you...and welcome back. :)

Meg said...

OMG. Someone else is living my life--my fantasy life, that is. Welcome back.

Suzie said...

What fun I wanna go

Megkathleen said...

Oh sounds like fun! I'm slightly jealous.

Anonymous said...

Oh, so now it's an annual rite of passage, so to speak. Glad to hear that you enjoyed yourself so much. It is nice sometimes to put on the cloak of anonymity and just be "what you see is what you get."

Unknown said...

Glad to see you back, missy!! Your vacation sounded just perfect. I'm totally jealous but absolutely happy for you!

Mama Smurf said...

That sounds like such a blast! Glad you had a great time.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I am late in on this one, but, Welcome back and I am so glad to hear that you had the wonderful time that you deserved! Do make it an annual affair if you can..it makes such a difference!