I Kissed A Dolphin, and I Liked It

“Structural Dissatisfaction: Returning to circumstances that once pleased you, having experienced a more thrilling or opulent way of life, and finding that you can no longer tolerate them.”

The quote above is from A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, the novel I coincidentally began reading on my vacation, which perfectly describes how I now feel that I am no longer on vacation.

From November 20th – 27th, I was aboard the Carnival Valor cruising for 7 days and nights with my bestie and travel buddy Erin. I was completely disconnected from the real world and it was absolutely blissful. Nothing but island time for a whole week. Rather than go through my trip day by day, I’ve decided just to list the highlights interspersed with some of my favorite photos.

THE SHIP

Being that this was my first cruise I don’t have a point of comparison, but in my opinion the Valor was fantastic.  With 13 different decks the ship itself is impressive and immaculately kept. We booked an interior state room as it was the least expensive, and I was more than happy with the accommodations. My bed was very comfortable and there was a lot of storage space for luggage and personal items. Never did I feel cramped. Our room was at the very front of the ship, so in rough waters we could hear the waves crashing against it as we sliced through the water.

Sailing away from Miami, Florida.

The Valor docked at Cozumel, Mexico.

THE CREW & STAFF

I cannot say enough positive things about the crew, staff, and service. Our House Steward was simply awesome. He was so friendly and always had a kind word. The housekeeping staff was also very observant and paid attention to when you left your room so as not to disturb you.

Amos, from Bali, was the Team Headwaiter for our dining table, and our Bar Waiter was Siwapakorn (who we nicknamed Sip Sip), from Thailand. Amos was very charming and included all the ladies at our table in the dancing routines performed by the servers.

Dinner on the first night. (Photo credit to Erin.)

Towel swan.

FOOD & DRINK

I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to want for anything on a cruise. There is constantly yummy food and even yummier alcoholic drinks at your disposal. One small complaint is that the healthy food options were not very tasty, so most people (including myself) opted for the non-healthy options. This makes it hard to not gain the 1.5-2 lb. per day that many people average. Drinks were more expensive than I thought they would be, but after a few days we figured out where the best specials and bartenders were to get the most bang for your buck.

Sunday drink of the day. It was tropical, fruity, and full of rum just like all vacation beverages should be.

Best. Thanksgiving. Ever.

THE SHORE EXCURSIONS

Erin and I booked shore excursions in the ports of Cozumel, Mexico and Georgetown, Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. Both excursions were well worth the money we spent.

In Cozumel, we took a ferry to Playa del Carmen where we then caught a bus to the city of Tulum. Driving to Tulum involves going through rural, rather poor, areas of Mexico. It was interesting to see a part of real Mexico, rather than just another tourist trap. In Tulum, we hiked through the Mexican jungle to the Mayan Ruins of Coba. Our tour guide, Marco Polo (seriously) had a degree in history and was extremely knowledgeable in explaining the history of the area.

The Mayan Pyramid of Coba.

I did not walk to the top because stairs make me dizzy.

The second shore excursion in Grand Cayman took us to Dolphin Cove where we swam, danced with, and kissed dolphins. It was absolutely amazing to be in such close proximity to these creatures. After, we took a boat to Stingray City, which is a sandbar in the middle of the ocean where hundreds of stingrays live. Some of the rays are very old and large, up to five feet across in wingspan. They are very accustomed to humans and they glide around you and through your feet fearlessly. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of these excursions because I couldn’t take my camera in the water.

Dolphin Cove - the weather was horrible.

Parrots at Dolphin Cove.

NIGHTLIFE & ENTERTAINMENT

Our dining time was 8:15 pm, and often it was close to 10 pm when dinner finished up, so I was glad that Carnival provided a number of late shows and other entertainment options. We saw musical routines, magic shows, three comedians and some classically bad karaoke. Even if we didn’t go to a show there was always the casino or a number of bars and dance clubs to hang out in. I felt like Carnival really catered to the younger crowd in that respect, which I appreciated.

Mexican dolls.

Indigenous man dancing in Belize City, Belize.

SERENITY DECK

Probably my favorite part of the actual ship was the serenity deck, an adults only sun deck with circular lounge chairs, hot tubs, sauna, steam room and bar. It was incredibly peaceful to just lay in the sun with the sea breeze blowing against my face and sipping a pina colada.

A dying moth in Tulum.

Sunken ship in Mahagony Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras.

GUESTS

The success of every good party depends on the people who attend. We met so many interesting people who were all down to drink and dance the night away. The experience would not have been the same if the cruise guests hadn’t been fun! At one point, it was said that there is a 1 in 10,000 chance that you will ever see or hear from the other guests ever again, so just put yourself out there and live it up. While I agree with living life to the fullest, I have also located several other guests via Facebook because we (unknowingly) had mutual friends. So, the lesson here is to have fun but don’t be an ass. And, if you are going to be an ass, make sure you do it on the last night of the cruise.

Eating red beans and rice and drinking Belizean beer!

Erin and I excited to swim with dolphins! (Photo credit to Erin.)

Overall, I had SO MUCH FUN. The words I have written here cannot even begin to encapsulate what I experienced. We’re already starting to plan another trip. Going on this cruise and swimming with a dolphin also fulfilled numbers 18 and 30 on my Thirty Before 30 list! I can’t wait to complete all 28 other items!

– A Very Sad, Post-Vacation,  American Twenty-Something

Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November

November has always been one of my favorite months, and this year it has also become one of my busiest. All of my “free” time has been consumed by school projects. I sincerely envy those students who can financially afford not to work while they are in school. It would be so nice just to focus on studying. This past week alone I wrote a policy critique for Tuesday, conducted and transcribed an in-person interview on Thursday, and met with the Public Administration PhD Program Director on Friday. And of course, all of these things have to be researched and prepared for preceding the actual task.  Before the end of the semester I have three more exams (two of which are essay-based), two 20+ page research papers due (one of which is a group project), and a group presentation. Somewhere in there I’m also supposed to submit my PhD application and work 40 hours per week as well. You notice I didn’t include sleeping or having a social life in my laundry list.

Speaking of laundry, since today was Saturday I decided to run a few wash loads and start purging my closet. This purge was nowhere near as exciting as Carrie’s in Sex and the City: The Movie where she prances about in her classic designer clothing. I started dividing my clothes into the following piles:

• Too big – Donate to the battered women’s shelter
• Still too small – Try on again after losing 20 more lbs
• Clothes to pack for my cruise
• Clothes to wash

Many people who lose weight talk about how fun it is to go shopping for new clothes, but rarely do they mention the expense. After you’ve lost 88.5 lbs like I have, there is very little in your wardrobe that fits well. I’m constantly in a limbo stage where clothes are too big or too small, but never just right. Piecing together outfits is a challenge, and so I tend to wear the same things a lot. There is little point in buying new things in every size because in a few months they don’t fit any more, but at some point you have to because public nudity is not an option. Ultimately, you spend a lot of money on clothes that you don’t wear for that long.

This afternoon I headed out to the annual Tallahassee Greek Food Festival with two goals: spanakopita and baklava. Spanakopita is a Greek pastry with spinach and feta cheese wrapped in phyllo. Unfortunately, they were sold out, but I did have Greek fries (spiced), tiropita (think spanakopita minus spinach), and I bought baklava to go. In addition to food, there were a few tents set up up with interesting wares for purchase, such as belly-dancing attire, jewelry, pottery, fragrant oils, and other mystical items.

Fortune Telling or Story Telling?

This last Saturday I attended a psychic fair being held at Railroad Square Art Park, a hodge-podge of warehouses filled with artsy, vintage, unusual or avant-garde stores and activities. I have never had a psychic reading before, and don’t really take that sort of thing seriously, but it seemed like at worst a fun way to pass the afternoon and at best a chance to gain some otherworldly insight.

For the past year or so, I have felt like my life has been deeply uprooted and out of my control, as if time keeps on moving and I am just a passenger floating along. I don’t think I have ever felt so powerless and disembodied from my own destiny as I do now, but I hope to regain my grasp soon. If a psychic could trigger this change, I wanted to be open to the possibility.

Image courtesy of chicagoist.com.

Having no idea what to expect, I asked my friend Kellie to come with me. As we approached the fair, we were offered a cold drink and the opportunity to paint. (What we were supposed to paint, I don’t know.) There were a handful of tables available, each with a psychic doing a different type of reading. We first sat at a table providing spiritual readings. Two young men sat across from us, both probably around 20, while an older man and younger woman stood watching. I gathered the impression that the young men were nervous and perhaps new to doing these readings and the two bystanders were there to mentor them.

They began by introducing themselves and asking us to tell them a bit about ourselves. Initially, my friend Kellie said she was just going to watch, but after being prodded by the three men she decided that she would have a reading as well. In a strange way, it felt like they all wanted her to have a reading, even needed her to, as if it would be wrong if she didn’t. They explained that they were going to pray to God for direction, tell us what they believed God wanted us to do, and then offer a blessing.

When I heard this, I immediately started to shrivel inside because I am just as skeptical of the idea of God as I am about the idea of psychics, but I decided to hear what they had to say. They all began to pray by clasping their eyes shut with looks of deep concentration. One of the younger guys grew red in the face and his eyes started to flutter which I was unsure whether to interpret as him becoming emotional or being overcome by divinity.

As they all finished praying, they first turned to Kellie and told her God’s message. Then, the older man standing by, the mentor figure, turned to tell me my message. According to him, God said I am experiencing a great frustration, a frustration of being trapped in this life and even trapped within myself, a feeling of wanting to scream and explode that there is more to me and more to everything that others can’t see. He said that I have become accustomed to being misunderstood and so have settled into a complacency by allowing others to have a false perception of me because it is easier than working through the frustration. He went on to say that there is a beautiful person, a beautiful light, inside me that God will begin to reveal. He said that as this person comes out that others will begin to notice this person and become intrigued and amazed by this person, and that I should challenge God to reveal himself in me. I was unsure of how to react to this message. Although it did resonate with me in a sense, it was also very generic information that could have been applicable to anyone.

The second table I went to was a tarot card reading. The reader was a flamboyant young man from the FSU Pagan Student Association. He asked me to hold the cards and think about a question, then cut the deck as many times as I wanted and restack it. He then drew the top four cards from the deck. The first three cards indicated that financial prosperity was coming, but I would have to stand my ground to achieve it, that I would have the choice to be passive or aggressive and I would be rewarded for aggressiveness. The fourth card showed that it would be happening soon, perhaps even within the next week. The reader kept asking me if I would be aggressive, and although I answered yes, he kept prompting me to say it louder and with more conviction. He started to make me feel really uncomfortable demanding that I say “Yes!” repeatedly louder, and I began to feel like I was reprising the restaurant scene of When Harry Met Sally. Despite the awkwardness, it was interesting that those particular cards were pulled, since I am beginning a new, very different job in approximately a week.

After that reading I’d had enough and was happy to leave. I left feeling puzzled and confused. One reader told me to wait for God’s revelation, whereas the other reader told me to be aggressive. Is God’s revelation supposed to come about through aggressiveness and abandonment of passivity and patience? My conclusion is that I can only take their words with a grain of salt and live my best life possible.

– An American Twenty-Something

Thirty Before 30

Every January I grow one year older and (sometimes) wiser. Twenty-four found me recovering from the death of a beloved pet and a messy breakup. Twenty-five dragged me kicking and screaming into a new quarter century. Twenty-six brought me inspiration.

As I turned 26 last month, I realized that I am getting older! I am now much closer to being 30 than I am to 20, and I feel as though I’m not accomplishing as much in my life as I would like. There are so many things I want to do, places I want to see, and people I want to meet, and each day that I am not working towards meeting these goals is a day wasted. Life is passing us by and it is our individual responsibility to live in the moment and enjoy it as much as possible.

With this in mind, I resolvedly sat down and tried to determine what goals I want to accomplish before I turn 30: A “Thirty Before 30” list. You’ll notice a new tab on the header of this blog where you can click to view my 30 goals and track my progress. The list has been divided into the categories that made the most sense to me: 1) Health &Wellness, 2) Work, Finances & Professional Success, 3) Dating & Love, 4) Travel, and 5) For Fun. These goals are not ranked in order of importance, nor will they be accomplished in the order they are listed. Some items are long-term goals that will require a great deal of patience and persistence whereas some items can be accomplished in a few minutes. Some items will mostly be out of my control. All I can promise is that I will do the my best to finish these things and live my life to the fullest. I am done cheating myself out of living the best life possible.

Take a moment to check out my list. What would be on yours?

– An American Twenty-Something

2010 Year In Review

As 2010 comes to a close, I feel it is important to reflect on this past year to see what was accomplished and how I have grown – an annual report if you will. So, here was my year.

January: I (rather reluctantly) turned 25 and celebrated surrounded by friends over wine and chocolate fondue. My grandparents and parents visited Tallahassee where the weather was unseasonably warm, and we visited Bradley’s Country Store.

February: A month for entertainment. It began with a bang by taking a short, yet awesome, trip to Jacksonville with my partner-in-crime Erin to see the Black Eyed Peas in concert, opened by LMFAO and surprise guest Ludacris! As per usual, I also partook in the best that FSU’s Seven Day of Opening Nights Festival had to offer by seeing the Vienna Boy Choir live in concert, and an exclusive pre-screening of Blue Valentine with post-discussion between acclaimed directors Derek Cianfrance and Geoffrey Gilmore. In late February, I saw actor and comedian Rob Schneider do his standup act at The Comedy Zone Tallahassee.

March: Participated in the Disney Give-A-Day Get-A-Day volunteer program by walking in a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Attended a Stanley Kubrick film festival where Full Metal Jacket was screened followed by an in-person interview with Vincent D’onofrio. Florida Suicide Prevention Day was March 24^th.

April: Flew to Quantico, Virginia for an interview with the Marines Suicide Prevention Program. Spring semester ended.

May: Cashed in my Give-A-Day Get-A-Day Disney pass with Erin at Animal Kingdom. It was so hot we nearly passed out. While in Orlando we also saw Cirque du Soleil La Nouba. Later that month Erin moved to Virginia.

June: Flew to Washington, DC for an interview with Active Minds – was subsequently made a job offer which I accepted. Became somewhat acquainted with the DC area and learned how to navigate the Metro public transportation system. Visited my Great Aunt Mimi who lives nearby.

July: Flew back to Washington, DC for job training and apartment hunting. Faced with financial difficulties, unrealistic deadlines, and a looming nervous breakdown I reneged on the job acceptance at Active Minds. Made a conscious decision to pursue applying for a PhD in Clinical Psychology before considering relocation again.

August: SWEET VICTORY! Graduation with a Masters in Integrated Marketing and Management Communication celebrated with my grandparents, parents, and brother in Tallahassee.

September: Selected to serve on a jury for a five day medical negligence and wrongful death civil trial and loved every second of it. Strongly considered applying to law school but ultimately the astronomical student loan debt discouraged me. This month I also began volunteering with the Leon County Humane Society and met author Carl Hiassen at a book signing.

October: A month of debauchery filled with weekend outings, Downtown Getdowns, drunken dancing, and a visit from Erin, rounded out by Halloween festivities. This month also included the Leon County Humane Society Fur Ball (which was not part of the debauchery).

November: Election Day results revealed Rick Scott would become the new Governor of Florida. Henceforth, resignations were requested from all staff of the Executive Office of the Governor. I studied for and re-took the GRE. Thanksgiving was held at my apartment in Tallahassee where I was joined by my parents.

December: I submitted my PhD application on the 1^st. Christmas was spent with family in West Palm Beach and in Orlando where we visited Sea World. At the end of the month the Florida Office of Drug Control (in the Executive Office of the Governor) was dissolved and the majority of my co-workers were dismissed. I remain in place for 60 – 90 days to continue statewide suicide prevention efforts.

Happy New Year!

– An American Twenty-Something