Yesterday, I traveled to Queens to meet up with TD and accompany her to her sorority's annual basketweave party (big shoutout to the AKAs!). The event was a fundraiser and the proceeds went to a scholarship fund for youths. I'm a big believer in helping youths especially since I was a young, single mom. Anyways, I had a BLAST! It's been a while since I've genuinely laughed the way that I did yesterday and I thank TD for inviting me to hangout with her sisters. There were numerous baskets that were auctioned off and each one held its own special beauty.
Although I didn't win anything, I hope that the money that I was able to donate to the fund helps a little. Hopefully, next year I'll be invited again. Either way, I'd like to contribute a couple of baskets myself.
All in all, yesterday was a good day!
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Rollercoaster
That's been my emotions for a few days now. A series of up and downs. I dug up an old song that I used to listen to whenever I had a heavy heart. It's a duet by Anita Baker and BeBe Winans entitled "Ain't No Need to Worry."
Ain't no need to worrying
What the night is gonna bring
Because it will be all over in the morning
There's a feel of nightfall
When darkness comes and covers all of the day
Sometimes we feel pain
But there are some things that we can change
Just pray
Chorus
Troubles come but they do pass
Heartaches hurt but they don't last all day
Sometimes we feel pain
But there are some things that we can change
Just pray
Chorus
In the morning
Morning
It'll be all over in the morning
It'll be all over in the morning
I've been listening to this song over and over and over again. My faith, my friend TD and this song are what's keeping me together these days. Thank GOD for all three.
Ain't no need to worrying
What the night is gonna bring
Because it will be all over in the morning
There's a feel of nightfall
When darkness comes and covers all of the day
Sometimes we feel pain
But there are some things that we can change
Just pray
Chorus
Troubles come but they do pass
Heartaches hurt but they don't last all day
Sometimes we feel pain
But there are some things that we can change
Just pray
Chorus
In the morning
Morning
It'll be all over in the morning
It'll be all over in the morning
I've been listening to this song over and over and over again. My faith, my friend TD and this song are what's keeping me together these days. Thank GOD for all three.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Damned If I Do, Damned If I Don't...
Why are life's issues so diffucult to figure out sometimes? Why can't life be simpler than it really is? Sometimes I wish that I could just dial-up the answers to my problems. But, life is not like that so I guess I'll have to take the more painful route.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Cherished Moments
You know how you have moments that you wish would last longer than they actually do? I had a few of those last week. It's been quite a while since I've had such a good time. I helped TD celebrate her 31st birthday in style with good food, drinks, awesome dancing but most of all, the enjoyment of great company. It was nice to get out and have some fun for a change and at the same time feel good knowing that your friend was truly enjoying herself. Those are cherished moments that will last forever.
Cruisin '05-Cozumel, Mexico
Friday, August 26th
Today, we are in sunny Cozumel. This would be a total sight-seeing, shop yourself to death adventure. There was no tender to take so once we left the ship the adventure began. Mind you, Mexico is patrolled heavily so if you didn't have the proper ID with you, forget about gong anywhere. I'm saying, the drug-sniffing dogs were on patrol, shun. After my obligatory picture-snapping (I'm saying), we headed to the terminal where we walked through this long atrium filled with shops. Of course, my favorite was the wall-to-wall bottles of tequila lined up just waiting for someone to adopt them. I made a mental note of what I would pick up later. We exited the terminal and I sister, Donna (who had been to Cozumel before) mentioned that there were a strip of shops in town but she didn't remember how to get there. We asked some of the locals who pointed up to The Forum Shops located downtown. It was hotter than Florida so we jumped into a cab and took the short ride into town. The setup was such that every step you took there were vendors standing outside their shops trying to lure the tourists in to spend money.
let me tell you how good their setup is. The jewelry shop salesman/women invite us inside and ask us if we're thirsty. We say yes (it's only about 150 degrees outside) and they offer us shots of top-shelf TEQUILA. I saying, we could have however much we wanted as we perused their wares. Yo, I'm not talking about the thirty dollar bottles either. I'm talking stuff that's been aged at least twelve years. One joint made us a drink that was a pina colada with a tequila shot floating on top. Bananas, man. And, they weren't even upset that we didn't purchase anything. When I'm ready to buy my tennis bracelet, I'm definitely taking a trip back to Cozumel. Their prices are quite reasonable. Oh, I also forgot to mention that you are allowed to walk the streets with your alcohol in hand so don't think that I went back without partaking of an ice-cold Corona :) !!!
Anyway, we must've walked forever picking up trinkets along the way. Once funny incident that took place was we went to a market for some of our souvenirs and I planned to purchase the hottest hotsauce they had to take home. Donna and my son, Jay let the vendor talk them into trying one of the hottest ones they had and oh boy, did they cry!!! I had tears in my eyes because they were running around fanning their mouths!!! Needless to say, I purchased a bottle but I'm no fool; I have not touched it since I brought it home!
Being the alcoholics that we are, we picked up about ten bottles between the four of us and headed back to the ship. We decided to eat lunch and chill for a bit before checkin out the happenings for the evening. The next day however, would change the course of our trip both literally and figuratively.
Saturday, August 27th
The day before I noticed (and took a picture) of what was Hurricane Katrina. No one knew how close this storm was to us and we still had a day or so before we were due to port in New Orleans. However, once we went to our mandatory disembarkation meeting, we found out that the storm was closer than anyone thought and we wouldn't be able to return to N.O. because they were closing both the ports and airports. A panic took over the room and people started tossing out questions all at once to our cruise director (Stuart). He did a wonderful job of giving us whatever information he had at the time and tried as best he could to answer questions.
Unfortunately, the information wasn't what people wanted to hear and I found out just how ignorant and dumb my fellow passengers were. Then man clearly stated that because the storm was expected to be pretty bad, no one was allowed back in New Orleans. Thank meant by plane, train, automobile or ship. However, the same question was asked at least a hundred gabillion times, "how am I going to get back to New Orleans?" I just shook my head and said, "dumbass, didn't he just tell you that you weren't?" I know a lot of these people live there and were concerned about their families and property but damn. Listen, please.
The game plan was for us to be rerouted to Galveston, Texas. So, the options were whomever could change their flights would be able to leave on Sunday on a complimentary bus into Houston's airport and those who couldn't get a flight on Sunday could stay and extra day (for free) and leave on Monday. However, every passenger had to leave the ship by eleven on Monday as the it was slated to head to Panama to refuel for the next cruise.
Needless to say, my group chilled until Monday. Our flight(s) were not scheduled to leave until 6 pm so we got a chance to spend the day at the airport. Woohoo!!! Not. It was the most boring time I've ever had. But, thank GOD everyone made it home safe and sound and we landed at LaGuardia Airport at 11 pm that night.
I've been praying ever since for the victims of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita) and will keep them in my heart.
Well, this ends my dream vacation. Hopefully it was just a trial run of many more to come!!!
Peace......
Today, we are in sunny Cozumel. This would be a total sight-seeing, shop yourself to death adventure. There was no tender to take so once we left the ship the adventure began. Mind you, Mexico is patrolled heavily so if you didn't have the proper ID with you, forget about gong anywhere. I'm saying, the drug-sniffing dogs were on patrol, shun. After my obligatory picture-snapping (I'm saying), we headed to the terminal where we walked through this long atrium filled with shops. Of course, my favorite was the wall-to-wall bottles of tequila lined up just waiting for someone to adopt them. I made a mental note of what I would pick up later. We exited the terminal and I sister, Donna (who had been to Cozumel before) mentioned that there were a strip of shops in town but she didn't remember how to get there. We asked some of the locals who pointed up to The Forum Shops located downtown. It was hotter than Florida so we jumped into a cab and took the short ride into town. The setup was such that every step you took there were vendors standing outside their shops trying to lure the tourists in to spend money.
let me tell you how good their setup is. The jewelry shop salesman/women invite us inside and ask us if we're thirsty. We say yes (it's only about 150 degrees outside) and they offer us shots of top-shelf TEQUILA. I saying, we could have however much we wanted as we perused their wares. Yo, I'm not talking about the thirty dollar bottles either. I'm talking stuff that's been aged at least twelve years. One joint made us a drink that was a pina colada with a tequila shot floating on top. Bananas, man. And, they weren't even upset that we didn't purchase anything. When I'm ready to buy my tennis bracelet, I'm definitely taking a trip back to Cozumel. Their prices are quite reasonable. Oh, I also forgot to mention that you are allowed to walk the streets with your alcohol in hand so don't think that I went back without partaking of an ice-cold Corona :) !!!
Anyway, we must've walked forever picking up trinkets along the way. Once funny incident that took place was we went to a market for some of our souvenirs and I planned to purchase the hottest hotsauce they had to take home. Donna and my son, Jay let the vendor talk them into trying one of the hottest ones they had and oh boy, did they cry!!! I had tears in my eyes because they were running around fanning their mouths!!! Needless to say, I purchased a bottle but I'm no fool; I have not touched it since I brought it home!
Being the alcoholics that we are, we picked up about ten bottles between the four of us and headed back to the ship. We decided to eat lunch and chill for a bit before checkin out the happenings for the evening. The next day however, would change the course of our trip both literally and figuratively.
Saturday, August 27th
The day before I noticed (and took a picture) of what was Hurricane Katrina. No one knew how close this storm was to us and we still had a day or so before we were due to port in New Orleans. However, once we went to our mandatory disembarkation meeting, we found out that the storm was closer than anyone thought and we wouldn't be able to return to N.O. because they were closing both the ports and airports. A panic took over the room and people started tossing out questions all at once to our cruise director (Stuart). He did a wonderful job of giving us whatever information he had at the time and tried as best he could to answer questions.
Unfortunately, the information wasn't what people wanted to hear and I found out just how ignorant and dumb my fellow passengers were. Then man clearly stated that because the storm was expected to be pretty bad, no one was allowed back in New Orleans. Thank meant by plane, train, automobile or ship. However, the same question was asked at least a hundred gabillion times, "how am I going to get back to New Orleans?" I just shook my head and said, "dumbass, didn't he just tell you that you weren't?" I know a lot of these people live there and were concerned about their families and property but damn. Listen, please.
The game plan was for us to be rerouted to Galveston, Texas. So, the options were whomever could change their flights would be able to leave on Sunday on a complimentary bus into Houston's airport and those who couldn't get a flight on Sunday could stay and extra day (for free) and leave on Monday. However, every passenger had to leave the ship by eleven on Monday as the it was slated to head to Panama to refuel for the next cruise.
Needless to say, my group chilled until Monday. Our flight(s) were not scheduled to leave until 6 pm so we got a chance to spend the day at the airport. Woohoo!!! Not. It was the most boring time I've ever had. But, thank GOD everyone made it home safe and sound and we landed at LaGuardia Airport at 11 pm that night.
I've been praying ever since for the victims of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita) and will keep them in my heart.
Well, this ends my dream vacation. Hopefully it was just a trial run of many more to come!!!
Peace......
Cruisin '05-Grand Cayman Islands
Thursday, August 25th
Today, we visit the Grand Cayman Islands in all of its splendor. I have to take my daily snapshots so I go up to the top deck and I can see 7-Mile Beach in the distance. After
a few dozen shots, I head back to have my daily breakfast before the crew heads to our tender. While we are on the boats that would take us to the Island, I gaze into the water and realize that it is a perfect blue color. I mean a RICH blue and clear too. I'd never seen anything like it before and felt like I was in heaven for real.
Once we arrived at the beach, I ran (yes, ran) to the sand and just walked barefoot in awe. You see, I'm used to the beach at Coney Island (blech), Rye (yawn) and Fire Island (okay) but this was way better than all of them. The further down I stuck my feet the cooler the sand was. And, it was perfectly clean!!!! We proceeded to grab some beach chairs so that we could laze for a few hours while my sister tanned (who knows for what cause they are both already tanned but whatever, we're on vacation!). Libra is not a water sign but ever since I was a little girl, I've always been attracted to water. I would beg my mother to let me play in the rain, I'll take walks in the rain or just sit by a window and watch it rain. Listening to it has a very calming, sensuous affect on me. So, while they tanned I headed to the ocean. I'm not a strong swimmer but adequate enough that I felt comfortable. Being able to see the ocean floor was so tranquil I closed my eyes and thanked GOD for blessing me with this trip. Later on, I took a nap and then treated myself to some mahi mahi (dolphin fish) which was delectable.
After a few hours of fun, sun and sand we decided to head back to town to pick up some gifts. We all found some really good bargains so after a little sightseeing, headed back to the tender that would take us to our ship. I'll definitely be returning to Grand Cayman in the future.
Today, we visit the Grand Cayman Islands in all of its splendor. I have to take my daily snapshots so I go up to the top deck and I can see 7-Mile Beach in the distance. After
a few dozen shots, I head back to have my daily breakfast before the crew heads to our tender. While we are on the boats that would take us to the Island, I gaze into the water and realize that it is a perfect blue color. I mean a RICH blue and clear too. I'd never seen anything like it before and felt like I was in heaven for real.
Once we arrived at the beach, I ran (yes, ran) to the sand and just walked barefoot in awe. You see, I'm used to the beach at Coney Island (blech), Rye (yawn) and Fire Island (okay) but this was way better than all of them. The further down I stuck my feet the cooler the sand was. And, it was perfectly clean!!!! We proceeded to grab some beach chairs so that we could laze for a few hours while my sister tanned (who knows for what cause they are both already tanned but whatever, we're on vacation!). Libra is not a water sign but ever since I was a little girl, I've always been attracted to water. I would beg my mother to let me play in the rain, I'll take walks in the rain or just sit by a window and watch it rain. Listening to it has a very calming, sensuous affect on me. So, while they tanned I headed to the ocean. I'm not a strong swimmer but adequate enough that I felt comfortable. Being able to see the ocean floor was so tranquil I closed my eyes and thanked GOD for blessing me with this trip. Later on, I took a nap and then treated myself to some mahi mahi (dolphin fish) which was delectable.
After a few hours of fun, sun and sand we decided to head back to town to pick up some gifts. We all found some really good bargains so after a little sightseeing, headed back to the tender that would take us to our ship. I'll definitely be returning to Grand Cayman in the future.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Cruisin '05-Some More
Wednesday, August 23rd
Today when I woke up, we were already docked in Montego Bay, Jamaica! As the excitement build up, I took my shower, got dressed and called my sisters' room. They were halfway dressed so we would meet in their cabin. As usual, my son out partied everyone so I had to awaken him to let him know that if he didn't get ready soon, we would leave him. He promised to meet up with us at breakfast so I headed to my sisters' deck. Once there, we called our parents and told them to meet us in our normal spot for breakfast. We would all be heading out to town together since it's foreign territory. Gotta watch out for the parents, you know?
Anyway, we took a cab into town and the first thing we got out of the way was the souvenir shopping. My snap-happy ass immediately zoomed in on a couple of shops so we headed over to them. Once we picked up some treasures for our friends we headed over to Margaritaville (oh buddy!) where the place was already jumpin and it wasn't yet noon.
My parents chilled with us for a bit and then headed back to the ship. Not long after, the place got crunk! The deejay was Jamaican-born and Tennessee raised so his music was an interesting mix that please everyone. Both of my sisters are a lot more outgoing than I so they didn't hesitate to take to the stage for the booty-shaking contest (yes, you read correctly). And guess what? My sister Donna won the damn thing. Her prize was a gift certificate to their gift shop so she picked up something for us, which was nice. We also played TV Trivia where the deejay would play tunes from various television shows and whoever answered the most won a tee-shirt.
Between the dancing, singing and whatnot, we also received free vodka shots which enabled us to stay nice!!!!! Overall, we had a freakin blast during the six or seven hours we were there!
We headed back to take care of some more shopping and BOY did I rack up on some liquor. Not the punk-ass stuff either. I'm talking Appleton Estate Rum, Wray and Nephew Overproof Rum and the like. I've stopped drinking the cheap stuff a long time ago as my tastes have changed dramatically. Five years ago, I would have been satisfied with some Bacardi but not now. I also remembered to pick up the banana rum that TD had requested along with some Jamaican hot sauce and spices to take home.
By the time we re-boarded the ship, we were famished so we dropped our things in our cabins and headed up to lunch. Later that night, more casino-fun and clubbin'. Yeah Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today when I woke up, we were already docked in Montego Bay, Jamaica! As the excitement build up, I took my shower, got dressed and called my sisters' room. They were halfway dressed so we would meet in their cabin. As usual, my son out partied everyone so I had to awaken him to let him know that if he didn't get ready soon, we would leave him. He promised to meet up with us at breakfast so I headed to my sisters' deck. Once there, we called our parents and told them to meet us in our normal spot for breakfast. We would all be heading out to town together since it's foreign territory. Gotta watch out for the parents, you know?
Anyway, we took a cab into town and the first thing we got out of the way was the souvenir shopping. My snap-happy ass immediately zoomed in on a couple of shops so we headed over to them. Once we picked up some treasures for our friends we headed over to Margaritaville (oh buddy!) where the place was already jumpin and it wasn't yet noon.
My parents chilled with us for a bit and then headed back to the ship. Not long after, the place got crunk! The deejay was Jamaican-born and Tennessee raised so his music was an interesting mix that please everyone. Both of my sisters are a lot more outgoing than I so they didn't hesitate to take to the stage for the booty-shaking contest (yes, you read correctly). And guess what? My sister Donna won the damn thing. Her prize was a gift certificate to their gift shop so she picked up something for us, which was nice. We also played TV Trivia where the deejay would play tunes from various television shows and whoever answered the most won a tee-shirt.
Between the dancing, singing and whatnot, we also received free vodka shots which enabled us to stay nice!!!!! Overall, we had a freakin blast during the six or seven hours we were there!
We headed back to take care of some more shopping and BOY did I rack up on some liquor. Not the punk-ass stuff either. I'm talking Appleton Estate Rum, Wray and Nephew Overproof Rum and the like. I've stopped drinking the cheap stuff a long time ago as my tastes have changed dramatically. Five years ago, I would have been satisfied with some Bacardi but not now. I also remembered to pick up the banana rum that TD had requested along with some Jamaican hot sauce and spices to take home.
By the time we re-boarded the ship, we were famished so we dropped our things in our cabins and headed up to lunch. Later that night, more casino-fun and clubbin'. Yeah Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!
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