Wednesday, July 17, 2024

We had two goals for today: attend the Gion Matsuri parade and pick up my new prescription glasses.

Gion Matsuri is a large annual festival that takes place over the entire month of July. We learned from our Free Walking Tour guide that this festival originated as a way to pray to the gods to ease the suffering from a plague, and ironically it was not held in 2020. Aside from a civil war in the late 15th/early 16th centuries and COVID, this festival has been an annual event since at least 1000 CE.

One of the largest events of the festival – the parade of 34 yamaboko floats – was happening today from 9AM-1PM. We dragged our butts out of the hotel about 11AM and caught a bus to get close to the route. Luckily we found a decent viewing spot despite our tardiness – on a corner where the floats turned, about 4 people deep from the curb. I saw a fair amount and Scott was able to get decent photos and videos. It was fascinating to watch the teams of men pull these very tall floats with nothing but their own strength. And when they got to the corner to make their turn they had a routine using wood planks and impressive teamwork to make it happen despite the restrictive construction of the historic floats.

As fun as it was we were done after watching two floats make this turn. It was crowded and hot, and we were ready for a snack.

We used the underground train station to find our way into the Takashimaya Department Store that was kitty corner from our parade viewing location. On the basement level there were many displays of food for takeaway. We failed to get a photo but here’s one from the internet to give an idea. Imagine around two dozen of these with a wide variety of options.

But this is Japan and they like to make eating outside of your home or a restaurant awkward, so of course there were no seating options in what in America we would consider a fancy food court. We made our way over to the banks of the Kamo River to eat our spoils on a bench. I had some tempura and croquettes – tasty and recommended!

Afterward we decided we wanted ~~more snacks~~ some A/C so we did the thing where you go into a McDonalds to see how it’s different in a foreign country. We tried a sugary melon drink and some macrons. Meh. Of course it was meh, it was McDonalds.

We decided to walk back towards our hotel along the Kamo to enjoy the view and the slight breeze off of the water. Look at that – almost no one and so peaceful.

When we transitioned street-side we came across a fun shop dedicated to rubber ducks. Despite having two life reasons to buy ducks (#jeeplife and cruising), I controlled myself and just bought a commemorative sticker.

Next we went back to the JINS store to pick up my new eyeglasses that I had ordered on the 12th. We each got a pair at this store for $130 total and we love them.

We decided to call it early and chill back at the hotel. The next day we had a physically active day trip planned. Goodnight, Kyoto.

Friday, July 12, 2024

Today the goal was to travel to Kyoto. We slept in and took our time packing up since our hotel checkout time wasn’t until 11:00. We ended up leaving around 10:30, with the addition of a large shopping bag that I needed to carry since they were not lying about the shopping temptation in Japan. Even for quasi-minimalists like us.

It was raining so we splurged on a cab to Tokyo Station. The ride was about a mile (maybe less) and cost $7.61. Kind of a silly expense but it was pissing so it is what it is.

At Tokyo Station the plan was to go to a counter and buy our shinkansen tickets from a real person because some of the online advice said the machines were confusing. But online advice also said you needed cash everywhere and that it can be difficult as an English-speaker in Japan – both WRONG. The line for a real person was long so we gave the machine a try and guess what? It worked out. You can toggle to English instructions, and I’ve used computers my whole life. Why do some people try to make travel seem harder than it is?

We ended up buying tickets for a later 12:24 pm train that still had seats together on the right side (increased chance of seeing Mt. Fuji and only 2 seats in the row). It was no problem wasting the time in the station looking for a bakery and buying our ekiben. The ride to Kyoto was smooth and easy as expected. A very pleasant way to eat unagi, journal, and knit. Alas, Mt. Fuji continued to elude me thanks to overcast weather.

The walk from Kyoto Station to the Tune Stay hotel was less than 10 minutes and the initial impression was fantastic. The room was small of course (kind of like a college dorm room), but clean and efficient. In addition to a vanity area with sink just outside the bathroom, there was one of those very cool handwashing sinks built into the top of the toilet. Brilliant for water conservation! (Kind of like this. Not my photo.)

The hotel common areas as pictured online were what sold me on this hotel to begin with and they did not disappoint in person. There’s a bookstore with primarily Japanese language books but also some in English. The bookstore area has amphitheater type seating that is great for the international short films they play every night. The hotel also has a large communal kitchen with table/chair seating, and there’s a gin bar with tables and chairs as well. The craft gin cocktails were great and were only around $6 USD each. Large coin-operated laundry machines are available for a fair price that automatically dispensed the detergent. Each floor of rooms had shelving with spare towels at the elevators to grab as needed. We paid $852.20 for our 9 nights here booking through Expedia. I failed at taking photos of the hotel, but their website has a lot of good, accurate images.

Scott found us a great spot nearby for an early dinner: 100K Craft Beer & Pizza. I had a nice, fresh salad and realized I hadn’t had much fresh produce on this trip. The camembert cheese fries were like upgraded mozzarella sticks.

Afterwards we went in search of the JINS store so I could get my own pair of eyeglasses. I selected a pair with thickish black frames and got in immediately for an exam. A couple of quick steps and the salesperson recommended +2.25s. Geez perimenopause has decimated my eyesight. They didn’t have the right lens size in stock and asked cautiously if it would possibly be OK if I waited for a few days for them to come in. Otherwise I could pick another frame and could have them in an hour. I was OK waiting a few days since we weren’t leaving Kyoto until the 21st!

The mall with the JINS store – Yodobashi – also had a Uniqlo, so of course we had to buy more things. Scott got another color of his new favorite shorts and I grabbed three colors of a “new release” simple crewneck sweater. I’m going to need to purge some stuff from our tiny closet when we get home. Oh, and I also felt compelled to buy these pajama pants covered in a print of a melancholy kitten in a shark costume. WHY?

Also in this mall was a store called Ishii Sports. OMG, so good. Since I literally couldn’t stop buying all of the things every day in Japan I knew I would need to buy a suitcase to get it home. But when we came across this store it occurred to me that I could go ahead and just buy the new pack I’ll need for our July 2025 trip. I picked the Lowe Alpine Airzone ND28. I love her.

We spent so much money today. Mr. Budget said we’re doing fine. We ended the day back at our hotel in the gin bar.

Monday, July 8, 2024

We had planned on this being a slow morning since we knew we would have a later evening, but Scott was restless so he took off for one of his signature “long walks”. He took the opportunity to scout where he would need to meet his transportation for tomorrow morning.

Around 11:00 am we headed to Shibuya to do some more neighborhood exploring and check an item off our planned to do list before meeting our tour. I had heard in a YouTube video that buying prescription glasses in Japan was affordable, quick, and easy so we had been planning all along for each of us to get a pair or two on this trip. I had picked the JINS location in Shibuya as our primary target as online reviews indicated people had shortest turnaround time at that store. On this day I found frames at JINS that I liked, but their wait time for an exam was a couple of hours and we had that tour later that would interfere with that timeline. We went into another eyeglass shop nearby called Zoff and Scott found a good pair of glasses that were a nice blend of modern and classic. He got in for an exam immediately and he said it was the most thorough exam he had ever had. His glasses were ready to pick up about an hour later. And only $50 for exam, frames, lenses, and their standard fast service!

For lunch we wandered a bit and came across Ojori, a tiny Korean restaurant up one of those narrow staircases. We both got bulgogi, got some traditional starters, and a couple of beverages. It was super yummy and we paid less than $20.

Early in our planning for this trip some friends of ours had told us about Street Kart and highly recommended it. Based on their verbal description alone we were decided, but researching it further online just got us more excited about the idea. I researched their locations and settled on the Shibuya tour because it included driving through one of the busiest intersections in the world. People consider walking across Shibuya Scramble a bucket list experience, but how about driving a Mario Kart type vehicle through it while wearing a costume??? Level up! When we would talk to people about our plans for Japan, this was easily in the top two things we were excited about.

The tour was originally planned for Saturday, but rains had made us reschedule for today. Weather was all good, no rain in sight. But it was just too hot to put on one of the costumes. Bummer. We joined the 6 other people from our tour to watch the short safety and how-to video and then it was time to get going. Scott and I both started to feel a little apprehensive after the video for some reason, but I just used my old mental trick: thousands of people have done this before me successfully – I’m not dumber than all of them – I’m not smarter than all of them, but I’m definitely not dumber than all of them – I can do this.

OK – this experience was DOPE.

We drove around Shibuya for a very full hour. We drove through the Crossing twice. We were zooming around right in the middle of big traffic. Lovely people – locals and tourists alike – gave us big smiles and waved to us as we drove around.

This outfit is either Aussie owned or just Aussie managed or maybe just staffed by a lot of Aussies. Makes sense though, doesn’t it? Our guide was Clinton and he did an absolutely awesome job of taking care of us. He kept us all together, communicated really well throughout the whole excursion. And he took a million photos that he airdropped to us afterward.

After our ATV Tour in Iceland last year we realized the value of a GoPro for capturing adventures. When we booked this experience for this trip we knew this would be the prime opportunity to use one so we purchased a Hero 12. And look at me, I managed to edit together a video of all of the GoPro clips Scott filmed! I’m like a video-logger.

Afterwards we headed to Shinjuku to check out a new neighborhood. It was starting to get dark and we enjoyed the Times Square (but cleaner) vibe. There was cool architecture and bright lights and a million people enjoying their evenings.

And we spent some time gawking at that famous 3D billboard. Honestly it was so crazy in person.

Finally we headed off to the neighborhood of Ikebukuro for our last planned adventure of the day – The Muscle Girls Bar. This was the invite we got yesterday from our new friends. I hadn’t planned any themed cafes/bars for the trip because honestly the ones I knew about made me a bit uncomfortable. The Maid Cafes feel super misogynistic to me – sorry, not sorry. And the animal themed ones – come pet a capybara or a river otter or whatever while you drink a coffee – feel not right from an animal rights perspective. Our new friends felt the same way but had found this bar themed around jacked women and it seemed empowering for females, verdad? Sure, I’m game. Plus – NEW TRAVEL FRIENDS.

OK, so… this place was weird. I felt weird being in there. It kind of felt empowering for the women that worked in there and they seemed happy, but it also felt like a venue for men with… fetishes.

The ticket ($32) bought all you can drink for 80 minutes, plus a kind of show. You sit around a long, oblong bar with the women in the middle. Our group of 4 was assigned a “Muscle Girl”/bartender. At one point during the 80 minutes music came on and the women took off their shirts and did flexing poses in their sports bras. At one point one of the women pole danced wearing her sports bra and spandex shorts. At another point all of the Muscle Girls demonstrated their strength by squeezing citrus into pitchers for drinks. The women were definitely in better shape than me (low bar) but not in any shape that would be considered particularly jacked in America. So the flexing felt… weird.

The part that felt the weirdest was that there was a menu of experiences you could purchase. There were some that were super innocuous and innocent, especially since only women could purchase them. I tried to buy a hug for Scott and that’s when I learned ~~that he’s not a lady~~ that some items could only be purchased for women. But their loss – Scott is a REALLY good hugger. #iykyk But then there were the ones where men could pay to be slapped across the face or get kicked in the ass by one or all of the Muscle Girls. OK anyone could pay for that but let’s be honest only men with red flags are going to pay for that. A guy paid for all of the women to smack him while we were there. I found it… uncomfortable. Our Muscle Girl seemed proud of her ability to hit hard and pulled out a couple of pics on her phone of past injuries she had inflicted.

Loads of people have raved about this experience online. I don’t mean to hate. I’m just being honest about my reaction to it. I am ultimately glad we went since it seemed pretty uniquely Japanese – meaning that even though it felt weird, it wasn’t scary or overtly sketchy in any way. If that makes any sense. It was just in that category of “unhinged Japanese shit” that I kept a little inventory of in my head throughout our time there. You know, those sightings, experiences, etc. that remind you that despite the outward appearance of conformity and control and success there’s a big strong undercurrent of… I don’t know… rebelliousness? sass? perversity? Honestly, I dig it and respect it – it’s just the particular application of it at this Bar wasn’t my jam.

OK that was long. ass. day. We took trains back to the hotel and crashed hard. We both had early mornings planned for tomorrow.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Some life updates… neurodiversity, retirement planning, summer plans, travel plans (x2):

The Trendy Diagnosis

My ~~suspected~~ ADHD brain actually let me follow through on a goal I’ve had for awhile now. I got evaluated and officially diagnosed, so I am now a confirmed ADHDer! I also worked with a nurse practitioner to figure out the right medication and dosage for me.

Can I tell you that Adderall is a game changer for me? To folks unfamiliar with the ADHD brain this is going to make me sound unwell, but Adderall makes the voices in my head go away. I no longer have a continuous narrative loop in my mind telling me everything I should be doing and that I’m a loser for not doing all of the things. I also sleep a lot less, which has been a bit of an emotional adjustment since I really loved excess sleep. I think I loved it because it was the only time I couldn’t hear my narrator. But now when my mind turns on at 6:00 or 7:00 am I’m learning to accept it and not fight it.

And being on Adderall reminds me of when I first got on Bupropion (aka Wellbutrin) for depression – it didn’t cure my disorder, but gave me the mental room I needed make the life changes necessary to squash my ever-imposing chronic depression, and eventually get off the medication. Not a quick solution at all – I started that medication in 2011 or 2012, and stopped it just last year. So far with the Adderall support I’m learning about time blindness, and managing ebbs and flows of energy, and creating routines, and learning how to work through an all-or-nothing mindset. Maybe someday I can do these things without the pharmaceutical support, but I’m not in a rush.

FIRE-ing

Thanks to Uncle Joe a bunch more months counted towards my student loan forgiveness and moved up that timeline.

And the accounts keep growing. It’s starting to feel real that we are going to be able to start that full-time travel thing in the next couple/few years. So we have followed through and hired a fee-only financial planning company to help us sort out some details and learn some nuts and bolts. Scott has been sending them our information and was told he might have the best spreadsheet they’ve ever seen. That made Scott’s year, I think. We have a big 4-hour session in a couple of weeks to see what advice they have.

Summer Side Hustle

I will be “working” for a few days at the start of summer break. It’s 5 days. It includes field trips, and a baseball game, and two meals at a couple of Seattle’s best restaurants. I get to hang out with international visitors. I’ll be getting a paycheck. This seems too good to be true.

Another Country

We have a trip to Japan booked for July. Even though we aren’t full-time travelers yet, we still prefer slow travels on our trips. So instead of following a typical recommendation for a two week itinerary to catch a train to a new overnight stay every 2-3 nights, we are spending 7 nights in Tokyo and 9 nights in Kyoto. Those two locations have a lifetime of things to see in and of themselves, plus there are lots of day trip options from each. We know we will love Japan and want to return, so why try to cram everything into one trip? We shall move slow and smell the tea. Except when we are driving these.

I Prefer to Call Them Boats, I Don’t Care What People Say

A stranger (maybe a cruise employee I can’t remember) actually verbally corrected me when I called the vessel we were on last summer a “boat”. Cruise people are so weird. They get offended when you don’t call it a “ship”. Get over yourselves. Plus, when you have a (copied) Midwest accent it’s way more fun to say “boat” than “ship”.

We have an Alaska cruise booked for a week in August. I’ve only been to Anchorage on a short work trip before. Scott has been on three cruises before, including one last year that he did without me. First of all, we are not codependent and know how to enjoy ourselves apart. Second, he had vacation time he had to use up and I couldn’t take time off at the beginning of the school year. Third, he brought me home souvenir stickers and scouted yarn shops for me. So, anyway, this year I am going on one with him. It’s a week, and we don’t have to fly anywhere to catch it. We can take the bus or even walk if we want. Scott is treating me by paying for an upgrade to a balcony cabin AND we are going to buy thermal suite passes. This will not be a repeat of my bad attitude on the cruise last summer.

Monday, July 24, 2023

This is the day we traveled home from Reykjavik, so here’s the post-mortem on this trip.

The Wins

Scott still wins as best travel partner I could ever hope for or dream of. I am so, so lucky to have him as my life partner.

Reykjavik is a lovely city. I’m really glad we had some time here before and after, with the bonus day due to the cruise itinerary change. I don’t think it’s a candidate for a long-term stay during retirement but when we come back for a road trip we will definitely budget in some time here again – maybe a week? We love a city stay where we don’t feel the need for a car.

Both of our Reykjavik hotels were good and the breakfast buffets made us smile. Unless I could get a similar rate at a hotel up by Laugavegur, I would stay at the Storm Hotel again for sure. And using travel hacking/Hilton AmEx points to get a free stay at the Hilton was a big win.

Another food tour FTW! Wake Up Reykjavik knocked this out of the park. Highly recommended to anyone that will listen. This is the post where I detail what we did.

In addition to the hotel breakfast buffets and the food tour we also had good food and beverage experiences around town. I’m looking at you, Einstok, Te & Kaffi, Icelandic Street Food, Bastard, and Bjor Gardurinn.

Walking to/from the cruise port worked out really well for us on this trip. Obviously it saved us some money but there is so much sitting on a cruise that the walks also just felt really good. This won’t be a realistic option in a lot of cases, but in this situation the city’s walking culture, the weather, and the hotel locations made it work well.

Renting a car in Akureyri was the right call. Super simple and convenient to the cruise port (the Avis/Budget office) and we had a fantastic day of freedom in the countryside! Godafoss was a highlight of this trip. And I learned that driving on Route 1 aka the Ring Road is super easy – well signed, well paved. Well, at least the section we did that day. Confidence for a future Ring Road trip boosted! Here’s the post about that day.

The ATV tour we did in Isafjordur has put ATV tours on our radar for future vacations. We had so much fun! This is the post where I detail what we did.

I saw icebergs for the first time ever thanks to Greenland. Epic. The first picture is horrible because it was a frantic “THIS IS MY FIRST ICEBERG EVER!!!” photo, but keep scrolling the rest are better.

Overall the weather on this trip was better than we could have hoped for, with loads of sunny days and pleasant walking weather. We had that rain on our Nanortalik port stop day, and high winds kept us out of Djupivogur. Climate change made us miss two stops in Greenland. But overall I think we just really lucked out since all of our days in Reykjavik were super pleasant for long meandering walks, and on the day of our ATV tour in Isafjordur the tour guide said it was the best weather he had seen all summer.

Airalo FTW! I’m going to do a post about this app for eSims eventually, but this was my first time trying it and it was fantastic. The coverage was inexpensive – I paid $4.50 (incl. $3 off for first time user with a referral code) for Iceland for 15 days/2 GB and $8.10 for Greenland for 7 days/1 GB. And if we were on the boat and sitting next to a window with view of land the coverage actually worked from the boat! My referral code is STACY6621 if you want to try it and get your own $3 off. But more details to follow in a future post…

The Lessons Learned

I learned a lot about how I can make cruising work better for me in the future. I anticipate we will be on a cruise ship at least once a year for the rest of our lives, so this knowledge is good to accumulate. There will always be a bit of a discomfort just because I’m so introverted, but I know I can figure out how to enjoy them since I do love me some down time.

Unless there’s some sort of extenuating circumstance, I doubt we will ever go on the Norwegian Star (or any other Dawn class ships) again. Looking back on it I think my main complaint was the minimal natural light anywhere inside the ship. The windows felt small. And the sea weather wasn’t good for any outside time. It just felt crowded and claustrophobic.

We should have spent the money on Thermal Suite passes. In the moment the extra $500 felt like a lot, but considering the lack of natural light in the ship, how crowded everywhere felt, and the extra sea days I think it would have helped a lot to have these lounge chairs available (not my photo).

Although I’m a knitter which is the best downtime hobby in the world (I’ll fight you), I need to have more downtime hobbies because cruising is a lot of downtime. Especially if you’re introverted and a bit snobby when it comes to typical onboard entertainment offerings. My ADHD is pretty bad so reading books is like impossible. I could use downtime to be better about keeping up on this blogging hobby. I could. But what else can I get into with minimal packing needs that could hold my attention? Maybe Scott and I should learn how to play cribbage and a couple of other card games.

Next time I will take a closer look at the cancellation policies of any tours/activities we book for cruise ports if they are booked with a local operator (i.e., not thru the cruise excursions). We completely just lucked out this time that the kayaking operator in Djupivogur refunded all of our money when that port was cancelled due to weather.

I learned that I don’t think I like geothermal hot springs because of the smell. I think I’m willing to try one more time at another location to make sure, though.

Next Time Cruising

I’m very glad that whenever we cruise next with NCL we will have Platinum status. This will get us priority embarkation (which should improve my mood that day) and priority tender boat boarding (never again with a 3 hour wait to get off the ship). We will also get a free bag of laundry and an extra specialty dining meal.

On all future cruises I will be looking more closely at the common areas that are available on the ship. And I need natural light! We’ve begun looking at doing an Alaska cruise next summer, and the NCL Bliss has this observation lounge that looks perfect.

Unless it’s a particularly scenic cruise (like Alaska maybe) I’ll be fine with booking a cheaper interior cabin again. Especially if I book a Thermal Suite pass like I plan to on all future cruises. Again, the NCL Bliss seems to have what I’m looking for…

Next Time in Iceland

We definitely want to go back and spend more time on land in Iceland. That will likely look like a Ring Road trip with a side quest up to the Westfjords. Previous to this trip I assumed we would want to do a campervan trip but now that I’ve experienced the cold and the wind even in a warm summer month, I’m thinking this will be more of a road trip with scattered hotel stays. Being able to get warm every night and have hot showers will increase my interest in all of the outdoor exploration – hiking, kayaking, etc. – that Iceland really deserves. This next Iceland trip will probably happen post-retirement so we don’t feel rushed, and when we can again stack up points and miles for flights and hotel stays.

Overall Rating… Great trip! I’m glad I memorialized it here for future reminiscing. Peace out from Keflavik airport on our way home.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Since apparently we have more Hilton status than I realized, we joined about a hundred of our closest friends at the hotel breakfast buffet. But oh my goodness it was really good. I’m generally not a fan of buffets, to be honest they kind of creep me out. But if they are very well attended and the food is turned over frequently, then I can be down. And also since Reykjavik attracts a pretty geographically diverse tourist crowd, this buffet had the good stuff like cheeses and olives and grilled tomatoes and good bread.

During my early trip planning in looking at options from getting from our hotel to the cruise port, I had decided that we could just walk there, weather permitting. If we could save on the taxi fare then why not? Although the route was a little long for dragging rolling suitcases, it appeared to be flat on the map. And taking the city bus would only save us half the walking distance, but add the extra time and brain work.

Not only was the weather really nice, we had seen yesterday during our walk that Reykjavik has great sidewalks and walking paths. The walk was a nice start to our day, meandering through neighborhoods and even a park. Eventually we got the first close glimpse of our ship as we walked along the dock… I present to you the Norwegian Star.

Then we had the embarkation experience. And my mental health started taking a beating that would last through most of the day.

NOTE: The rest of this post is pretty whiny. I probably shouldn’t put this out into the world, but
I want to document both the greatness and sometimes disappointing nature of travel honestly.
The reader can simply scroll away if they want. You have been forewarned.
We had some great experiences after today, though!

Because we walked to the port, we didn’t approach like the busses and taxis. We kind of rounded a corner and landed right at the entry for the security/check-in line. So we just got in it. After we had progressed a bit through the line I started to realize many other people didn’t have their luggage and that we had missed wherever it is you can drop your bag for delivery to your stateroom later. That would later culminate in finding a place were we could drop our bags for safekeeping on board, but we were expected to come grab them later and bring them to our room ourselves. I know this sounds super princess-y, but that’s really how a cruise ship should operate.

I was honestly a bit surprised at the rudimentary nature of the port. This place gets a LOT of cruise ship traffic, yet it’s mostly a pop-up building. I’ve only been on a couple of other cruises (out of Venice and Rome) but they had big appointed buildings with bathrooms and sitting areas; Scott says the Seattle port is also well-appointed. This was very, very bare bones. And the gangways up to the ship were from the dock to I think Deck 4, which were steep, narrow, and had thick nonslip ridges in them that made walker and wheelchair accessibility impossible. I noticed a little lady with Parkinson’s really struggling to get onboard. I think it’s time to invest a bit more in your tourist infrastructure, Reykjavik?

As is typical, our room wasn’t expected to be ready until 15:00. After we dropped our bags we started to explore the ship. I knew from research that this is an older, “smaller” ship originally built in 2001 that had been refurbished in 2021. I have laughed in the past at people online saying they were skipping an itinerary because the ship offered was “too small”. Are you kidding me? How can a ship that carries 2,300 passengers and more than 1,000 crew members ever be considered small?

Well, I have become one of these people now. I was so overwhelmed by people as we walked around the ship. Claustrophobia-induced anxiety set in. The walkways felt so narrow. Poor Scott just had to follow me around while I muttered things like, “I need to find a quiet space”. I am so blessed with a patient partner! I seriously don’t know how he does it.

We went and found the spa area, and checked out the space known as the Thermal Suite (video is 7 years old, from before the refurbish, but the layout is the same). I believe anyone that purchases a spa service can access this area before the treatment, but you can also pay $250 for an unlimited pass for the duration of the cruise. The Suite has a heated pool, hot tub, sauna, and loungers that overlook floor to ceiling windows of the back of the ship. Most importantly they limit passes to something like only 60 people, and there are no kids. A quiet haven. Did we buy passes? Were we willing to add a last minute $250 pp for this? Nope, too frugal. Honestly kind of a big mistake, considering how much ship time we ended up having on this cruise (spoiler alert). Next time, this is a non-negotiable I think.

I think all-in-all we had around 3 hours of time on the ship before our room was ready. Again, poor Scott had to deal with this face the whole time.

This was my first time in an inside cabin (meaning no windows whatsoever). We booked it to be frugal, and submitted a $300 bid to upgrade to a balcony which failed. The cruise was 100% booked so no go on the upgrade. I didn’t take any pics but this is a good tour video if you’re curious. The room was pitch black for sleeping which was fantastic in a 24-hour daylight situation. I was super happy with the shower size, too. The only thing I missed about not having a balcony was the chance for a comfortable sitting space in privacy, but I think it was typically too cold to enjoy balcony sitting anyway. And of course our cabin steward did a great job of tidying it up every day. Usually we use the Do Not Disturb sign liberally on hotel rooms, but on the one day we left it like that on the cruise it seemed to cause some staff anxiety.

This was my least favorite day on our trip, but hey – we made it onboard and were on our way! And look how cute my mans is.

Thursday, July 6, 2023

I have never done anything like this before.

I mean, I’ve dyed my hair before, but never like… this. I’ve been thinking about it for a few years off and on but never felt like I was in the right place to rock this before. I definitely didn’t want to do it while I was in geriatric healthcare, because that’s enough of a difficult job without adding this to the interactions. And then I got the school job this last year and didn’t want this to be the initial impression with everyone in that new professional realm. But now… fuck it. This is fun.

This might be yet another sign that my lifelong chronic depression has healed (for the most part).

Saturday, July 1, 2023

HELLO SUMMER BREAK!!! (Well, kind of…)

I just finished my first (school) year working as an occupational therapist in a public school system. And now I get my summer break. Except I still have paperwork to do. Because I procrastinate. I might have ADHD. It’s on my summer to-do list to get evaluated for that. But I probably have ADHD so we’ll see if that actually happens.

It’s a running joke (but not funny) that if I want to be sure to never get something done I should write it down on a to do list. The more effective approach is for me to berate myself over days, weeks, months, years and then eventually I’ll hate myself enough that I finally do it. Super healthy.

We have two international trips planned for the summer – one two-weeker and another one-weeker – but aside from that my time is unstructured. I have some goals in mind to tackle, and maybe returning to blogging will be the thing that helps me finish the summer with my head held high.

In no particular order here are a few items on my mind as possible successes for this summer (no particular order):

Institute a daily exercise routine – start with stretching and then alternate with a cardio activity.
Institute a daily blogging routine.
Build the daily “long” dog walk from 30 to 60 minutes.
Spend time outside of the apartment with a friend 1x/week.
Get caught up on my medical appointments/checklist – blood draw, mammo, colon cancer screen (yay my MD says I can skip the colonoscopy for now!!!), dermatology, and ADHD assessment.

OK before I get overwhelmed and just go take a nap I’ll stop with that list. But my head is screaming with a list of all of the things that I *should* do and I’m already starting to hate myself for not listing that I’ll finish the bathroom painting that I started 4 years ago.