Week 47 - Countdown to Cruisin'

Anne and I were leaving for the cruise at o' dark thirty on Friday and besides getting ready for that, my work week was jam packed with zooms and training plus an eye doctor appointment and some yard work snuck in too. Busy busy!

I had an eye doctor appointment on Tuesday afternoon and it was super warm outside. I walked there and back (it's a block from my house) and then slammed through clipping the parking before going back inside to finish the work day. I could have waited but was happy to get my last pre-winter yard work done. I have to cut the perennials between the sidewalk and street before snow flies or they act like a snow fence and my sidewalk ends up piled with snow. Done is good.

I had zooms all day on Wednesday - ALL DAY! One after the other, ending with my PD with The Ripples Guy, which I normally enjoy but was so zoomed out that I didn't get much out of it. Oh well. I started packing that night, which mostly meant transferring the stacks I'd made into a suitcase. I also made lists for the next day, which would be jam packed with everything pre-cruise that I hadn't done yet.

I had done some work Wednesday night (I'm a sucker for answering late emails since I'm in front of my laptop anyway) and then woke up early on Thursday so started work early. I had a training demo to do at 3:00 and then had 2 covid tests scheduled - a spit test on campus and a nose swab behind the mall. Working the extra meant I didn't have to put in 2 hours of vacation time. Nice. I did my spitting on East Campus then had a peppermint mocha with Darla in the East Union before heading to the mall. I was there early so was home early too, which was great because I had more to get done and Anne was picking me up at 6:15 the next morning so it all had to get done. And it did. It helped that I was using my big suitcase so had plenty of room. There may have been extra sock yarn thrown in over the course of the night.

I set the stove timer and an alarm clock but woke up before either of them went off. I had a bowl of cereal and some coffee before Anne arrived and we were off! We talked our way into free bags on United (at least Anne's should have been free since she used miles and is the primary card holder on the United visa we charged the fees to but something wasn't right so we both had our $35 waived by the agent - yay!) and had a completely uneventful flight, which seems like a gift these days. Anne had passes to the United lounge so we had snacks and good wifi during our layover - another gift before our second leg. We called the hotel shuttle when we got to Fort Lauderdale only to wait nearly an hour in the rain for it to arrive. We ate at a seafood restaurant next to the hotel and went to bed early. The next day was cruise time!

Our boarding time had been moved earlier 3 times already but we still had the morning to kill so walked towards Walgreens to pick up a few things, settling on Dollar General when we saw that first. It was hot so we were sweating but happy. We checked out, took an uber to the ship and were ready to go! We checked in, showing our vaccine cards and negative test results, and were onboard. Our veranda room was palatial compared to cabins on our previous cruises and we were ready to relax. We had 48 hours at sea before we'd get to our first port so settled in, explored the ship in search of the best knitting spots on deck where we could take our masks off and scoped out eating options. Let the cruising begin! It felt great to be out of town and in warmer climes. Life is good!