April 2005 Archives
I had a whole vacation entry written up but then somehow I just got SUPER lazy and thought posting the picture would be better but you know, I'm such a whore for guilt, so thanks, Max.
I have absolutely no shame in admitting Jeff and I are totally cruise people. We took our second cruise this past week, down to the Caribbean this time and it was spectacular. Not only was the weather beautiful and warm and the islands hospitable and interesting, the actual cruise was perfect. There is nothing like being pampered and coddled to within an inch of your life all with booze and food you can eat. People can poo-poo cruises as old-people vacations but honestly, it's the most bang for a buck that someone can get. We're already planning our Alaskan cruise for next year after graduation.
Weirdly, the vacation ended on a very strange turn. On the flight home from Puerto Rico, I answered a call for any medical personnel as they thought someone was having a heart attack. Not much to do on a plane and we were close enough to NYC to not have to divert but still, it was a weird way to close the week...I thought. On the way from our house back to the city the following day, a guy was killed on a motorcycle just minutes before we got there. Since we were one of the first on the scene, I had to try to do something but with an amputated leg stuck to the guardrail, it was pretty much too late. So then I thought THAT was a weirdish way to finish the vacation.
But wait.
Being true to my pledge not to check work emails until I got back to work on Monday morning, I spend the first few hours on Monday sorting and reading and then came to the email from my sister-in-law. Oh, by the way, Grandma died last week while you were on the cruise so hope you're checking your emails. It was weird to have completely missed my Grandmother's death and her funeral but as my Dad said when I finally called him, there wasn't anything I could have done from the cruise and so I can appreciate that. I do feel like my little grandma had an amazing last two years of her life (strangely since my grandfather passed away) where she got amazing care and attention but could live at home and do the things she loved so I'm glad she had that kind of happiness.
Ultimately, even with all that weird stuff at the end, it was still a good vacation. Good to be away from work and school, good to spend some great time with Jeff and his parents who joined us on the cruise. We also upgraded our beaten silver rings we'd bought back on our first anniversary to white gold bands cut with sapphires the color of the Caribbean waters so we felt like it was a meaningful trip for our 10th anniversary.
I'm not sure about the rest of the country and world but for upstate New York, March has been the coldest, most inhospitable month I can remember for some time. Two years ago when Mom was dying, March had the good manners to be warm enough to let us open the windows and bring in some of the outside world she loved so much. It was such a fortunate thing at such a horrible time.
But March this year had snow and sleet and gray skies. The last piles of snow were actually still melting this weekend before the downpours that have flooded our valley worse then back in September from Hurricane Ivan. Our yard was positively swimming all weekend and we were housebound.
And now April is here and after a several year hiatus, my gardening ire is all raised up and needing to be scratched. I have piles of compost and topsoil coming next week while we're on vacation so when we get back, I can start building my raised beds in the new garden enclosure we had built last year. I'm making all the dirt for the garden in those raised beds, a fluffy mixture of peat, compost, top soil, sand, bone meal, vermiculite, and earthworms. I remember back when we first moved how I would toss and turn at night, thinking about getting a garden out and now I'm feeling the same kind of excitement starting to grow deep inside. April is starting off cold and wet but I know it's going to change abruptly and soon it'll be warm enough to get some seedlings out and get our flowerbeds all ready. I have big plans and dreams for roses and clematis and some pots of boldly colored annuals paired together.
It's been too long of a break but I'm ready to jump back into it again. Full force and dirty hands.
Holy SHIT. I logged on to my Gmail account and spent about five minutes trying to figure out what Infinity plus one means for a Gmail account. I finally got the April Fools joke until the part about actually now giving 2 GB of storage to their account holders. Awesome! And I still have 50 Gmail accounts to give away so anyone who wants one, come and get 'em.
