vacation pictures from my baby brother

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4503&l=afdb2&id=500450945

Enjoy.

Vacation Photos

Here are some of the vacation photos we took.  We still have two digital cameras and three underwater cameras to go through.

http://tamu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022856&l=33ccd&id=199305787

Those are the good ones off my camera.

I’m that one person.

Early this morning we all stepped back onto Texas soil.  (And boy was it good to be home!)  I truly love the Caribbean and I could spend my life on a boat just seeing where the tide takes me. 

Still hanging on to our lovely week in the Caribbean, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean this afternoon.  Boy did it suck.

All good fantasy is rooted in reality.  It is the tiny bits of the real world we live in that make something believable.  This is why Harry Potter has been so successful.  Reading any Harry Potter book transforms you to a magical place that is still within the realm of reality.  I felt the storyline in Pirates was too far fetched.

I’ve seen the first two films multiple times and I still had a bit of trouble getting back into what had happened in the previous two.  I would have blamed this on brain damage but my family felt the same.  The thing that made Star Wars so successful is that each stood on its own as a fine film, yet you also appreciated it on another level if you had seen all of them. 

I could go on but I won’t.  Johnny Depp was fabulous, as always.  Keith Richards was amazing!  It was neat to hear everyone on the theater start whispering his name as he came on screen.

So there.  I’m now that one person you know who didn’t like the movie that everyone else in the world did. 

All the federales say, they could have had him any day. They only let him slip away…

Here I sit in Progresso, Mexico. I decided not to go exploring today since I’ve been sick.  Joey, Sarah and John went to see the Mayan Ruins.  My parents went to shop and grab some lunch.  I got to visit the medical office last night thanks to a nasty cold and an ear infection that the beautiful waters of Honduras gave me.  I’m not complaining at all.  It was totally worth it to explore the reefs with my baby brother.  (My baby brother who is 20.) 

Want to know something funny about my brother?  He will take 300 pictures of himself on his digital camera but doesn’t want to pose for a family photo.  I’ve yet to figure that one out, but I’ve also stopped trying.

My baby sister (she’s 18) flipped out on us yesterday.  John (her boyfriend and future spouse) came with us for this vacation.  He had wandered off on his own to go explore the ship.  No one had seen him for a couple of hours.  (We were all sleeping when he went off on his own.)  All of a sudden over the loud speaker we hear, “Alpha, Alpha, Alpha, aft galley.  Alpha, Alpha, Alpha, aft galley.  Alpha, Alpha, Alpha, aft galley.”  My sister flips out and starts calling family members in their rooms because she thought John had fallen off the boat.  I feel for her but we have truly picked on her for flipping out.  Alpha is the code for medical assistance.  Bravo is a fire.  Oscar is man overboard.

How did I find out all these secret codes?  By spending time with the on-ship doctor last night.  I was in so much pain from my ear infection.  They hooked me up with a shot for the pain and antibiotics.  The doctor was super nice.  It only took them three minutes to get the results of my strep test.  Kind of makes me wonder why it takes doctors in the States no less than three days.  (It was negative.)

In general I haven’t done as well on this cruise as I did on the last one.  My body, especially my immune system, is so weak right now.  I’m even struggling with recovering from a sunburn and silly things like that.  Oh…and there was that time I jumped up to answer our phone in the dark and completely took down our glass coffee table.  Or maybe it took me down.  Yeah, that is a better way of putting it.   I get to take home these amazing bruises for free!

I’m so ready to be home.  I think that is mainly because of how sick I feel.  I just want to be at home, in my bed, with Rufus Wainwright on in the background, and my babies at my feet.  (Katie will understand how much I miss Dixie and Dunhill.)  But since I’m a boatload of nautical miles away from doing all of that, I’ll have to settle for heading down to the casino to play some blackjack and drink vodka tonics. 

Honduras was amazing and fricking hot.  It was so hot there!  I was amazed at the temperature.  The sun was shinning and making everyone warm.  It hurt to walk on the white sands in bare feet because of the sun.  Did I mention it was hot?  It was a really neat place and I love to go back and spend some more time there.  However, I still put Jamaica ahead of Honduras in my ranking of favorite place to visit in the Caribbean.  My father did too.  I did feel much safer in Honduras and I wonder if it is just the cultural differences between a society rooted in Voodoo and a society that is rooted Christianity.

It has been interesting to see all the security that the local ports offer.  It is a scary time to be an American who is traveling outside of the United States.  In the three Mexican ports we’ve been in there have been several boats full of Federales protecting our ship.  (Either that or they were keeping an eye on my father because of his recent personal correspondence with Hugo Chavez.)  To get back on the boat they require you going through several security checkpoints.  It is scary to think that all this security is just because Americans are such big targets right now. 

Ohhhh!  They just announced that they are about to hold a crew drill.  How exciting!  I get to hear all the alarms and codes over the loud speakers.  This could be interesting.  I better go order that vodka tonic before all the crew runs off the boat!

Quote of the week

“The more you be boozing the better the cruising.” – Our way cool Jamaican bartender who brings us drinks when we are laying out in the sun.

 We are living the good life.  My freckles have popped out all over and I’m full of rum.  Does it get any better?  I think not.  I’m off to take a nap…

Off we go

I’m packed and ready to go.  I can’t wait to be soaking up the sun (and God’s amazing creation) in Honduras.  Be good, my babies.  Be good.

All You Need is Love…and the Internet

I never realized how much Beatles related news there would be to catch up on after being without internet for a few days. I used the life out of an old router and had to wait for the new one to show. It was a torture I wouldn’t even wish on Heather Mills. But our house is happily connected. It is hard work being the IT department for 5 computers.

I made it through a spinal tap yesterday (that indicated I’m dealing with meningitis). I was able to grab lunch with Mr. Wizard at a quaint little place and got back home in time to cook another fabulous meal for the ones I love. Oh how I love cooking! Oh how my back hurts thanks to yesterday. I thought the cutting of veggies would never end. Fo’ reals yo. It was bad. Next time I’m thinking of trying the spinal tap without any anthestetic.

All this to say I’m ready for Honduras! I have shopped and shopped for clothes and I haven’t begun to pack a single thing. It is brilliant! I’m ready to relax. Every member of the family is ready.

I promise to catch up up on e-mails (I love you, Katie and Abby…so much!) as soon as my feet hit American soil again. And isn’t that the best thing about traveling? Seeing new places, meeting awesome people, and thanking God you are an American! Hooah!

Funny

Header Change

10 days from now I’ll be in Roatan, Honduras with the people I love.  I can’t wait.  So much so that I’m changing my header early.  Enjoy looking at this beautiful reef.  I’ll let you know if it looks as amazing in person.  (That was a joke.)

I am bat shit crazy.

Despite all the ways I plan on loving my husband, and the fact that I already have a list to screen future candidates, I am currently single.  I actually like being single because it allows me to do spontaneous things without thinking about another person.  (Like pack up and head to Austin for ACL with my friend Kelly.)  That is something I will miss someday.

So after talking to my friend Amy on the phone tonight, I decided to make a list of the crazy things about me that ensure my status as single.  (Other than the whole being 23 and still living at home thanks to a pseudo brain tumor.  At least my hair is growing back now.)  So, here is a list of reasons I’m single.  It is really more of a list of things that different men in my past have been turned off by:

• I’m 23 and still have a giant crush on Paul McCartney.
• I’d like to name my future dogs after philosophers.
• I have a serious thing for nerdy guys and my family and friends know it.  (Which means I hear about it all the time.)
• I think Texas should secede from the USofA.  For many reasons, one being that we’d be the first nation with a national beer.
• I am extremely anal retentive about organizing my digital music and pictures.
• I like beer.
• I own multiple pairs of glasses with plastic frames.
• I will get in a car and drive for hours just to find a good dirt road to lie on and look at the stars.
• My ambition in life is to be barefoot, pregnant and cooking my man a meal.
• When I was 13 I read the entire Warren Commison’s Report on the death of JFK.
• I don’t think it was a plane that hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
• I’m from Texas, dammit!
• I spent ten minutes today in a parking lot trying to cram a plastic swimming pool into my car just so my two labs would have a pool this summer.  After seeing the nice guy I flirted with in the store see me, I realized he thought I was a mother who had bought that for my kids.  It was a turn off for him.

I guess I just get to look forward to finding some crazy guy who knows all those things and still likes me.  Gosh, he is going to have to be so crazy, that I hope I like him.