Medical Bullshit

One thing I've been working on for weeks that is completely stressing me out is trying to get my insurance to help me with my Myositis.

Every year for the past few years, I've been traveling to Baltimore to visit the Myositis Center at Johns Hopkins.  It is always tricky because my health insurance is a Utah only plan so they typically don't cover services out of state.  But every year, my current neurologist, Dr. D sends a note to the insurance requesting they consider a consultation.  So far, they have reluctantly agreed....until this year.  I had heard the insurance company has stricter rules on authorizations.  They came back and denied my request.  They indicated I had to see every rheumatologist on the plan  regardless of their knowledge of Myositis nor their specialty!  The really hard part is Dr. D doesn't really have interest in sending me referrals for the 13 Rheumatologists on the plan.  She did send in 1 to Dr. Lee in Salt Lake.  Any others, she said the insurance can arrange appointments since it is their requirement.

I am outraged my insurance expects me to see 13 physicians from Brigham City to St. George before they will consider a claim to see a specialist that knows Myositis!  On top of the time and travel, I would need to find a doctor to send a referral.  Well my GP, Dr. Taylor certainly isn't going to do that either.  There was 1 doctor that has been in practice for a few years that didn't require a referral but he couldn't see me for 3 months!  And the office staff didn't know what Myositis is so I doubt he sees many patients with it.

Lucky or unlucky for me, Dr. Lee declined the referral and sent a note to my insurance that Johns Hopkins is the right place for me to go if I could get an appointment. I also called our Health Advocates we have access too at work to get them involved.  Seriously they were almost more red tape than the insurance however, they did call the 13 specialists on the list to find out if they were taking new patients (many are not) and if they have Myositis patients they treat.  Out of he 13, there were 4 I would need to try to get referrals too and go visit.  I'm sorry but this is all so stupid.  Plus my insurance coverage requires I pay $40 per visit to a specialist so we are looking at $160 out of pocket myself.  Most specialist doctors charge around $300 - $500 for a new patient visit.  This means my insurance would be covering $1040 - $1840 for me to visit these doctors who I know damn well are not as versed in Myositis as the Myositis Center at Johns Hopkins.  It is very likely they would recommend I visit Johns Hopkins any way.  Did I tell you how much I love having a super rare disease that isn't taught in medical school??

During the process, my insurance sent a note stating they received the appeal of my denial and were reviewing it with the medical team. It could take 6-8 weeks for the review.  No sweat.  I got nothing but time.  Haha.  At this point, I decided I do want to go to Johns Hopkins anyway because I just don't have the medical support here from Dr. D.  As an established patient, she usually charges about $250 for the visit which isn't much more than the co-pays I would have been required to pay for the route my insurance wanted me to go.

I also decided that it was probably a good time to look into changing doctors because Dr. D is great and has been happy to see me and send referrals, renew prescriptions, and such but she is not interested in Myositis and isn't keeping up on what is going on.  I get it.  That is fine.  It just simply isn't her area of interest.  But then the grave discovery is that other doctors are almost impossible to get into.  Many doctors feel there isn't much they can do to help a patient with Inclusional Body Myositis and they are super busy so they aren't willing to see me.  What????  Can't find a doctor to treat me??

I have a Myositis friend that sees Dr. Lee and voila' I already had a referral for her.  So I called her office and talked to the scheduling manager.  She wanted me to make a case for why Dr. Lee should take me on and what I would want Dr. Lee to help me with.  Really it is simple.  I want a doctor that is at least interested in Myositis to help me manage this terrible disease.  Let me know what  I can do to live my best life left.  Send me where I need to go to get care (PT, OT, Johns Hopkins, Etc) and track my decline so when I am no longer able to work, I have a case for Social Security disability.  I assured her I am a great patient that most doctors enjoy.  I am proactive in fighting this disease.  I have never skipped an appointment or cancelled last minute.  And I am always on time....or early!  A week later, I heard back that she will see me for 1 visit after my visit to Johns Hopkins to see what they recommend and talk about expectations and if  she can help me.  Seriously frustrating but so grateful I am at least in the door.  I am hoping I can get her to agree to keep seeing me.  I've never had to beg for medical care (well except for when I needed a muscle biopsy from a neuro surgeon years ago).  I fear this is what medical care in the U.S. has come to be.

When I got home from my vacation 11 days ago, I had a letter from my insurance.  It was rather curt but they agreed to cover my visit to Johns Hopkins.  They were very clear this does not set a precedence for future visits and is good for only 1 visit before the end of September.  Okay.  Good.  I'm set.

Well you would think I am set but then I get a voicemail I finally checked last night from Johns Hopkins.  They are requiring a referral for my visit and if they don't have it by Monday, they will cancel my appointment!  The funny thing is my insurance doesn't require a referral.  In fact, they don't want me to visit anyway.  And I am an established patient so why is this coming up now? I sent my authorization to pay letter and I'm hoping that is sufficient since I already have my flights and hotels arranged. It would really suck to show up at Johns Hopkins and my appointment was removed over paperwork that wasn't even needed.  I'm afraid I would sit there anyway hoping Dr. CS would see my pathetic pout and agree to see me anyway.

I have my fingers crossed it is all going to work out.  Frankly it gives me a headache just typing this out.  What a bunch of riga-ma-roll.  I always felt universal health care would make it tougher to get into doctors.  Doctors are busier than ever because more people have access to insurance.  And so doctors are implementing Tiger Mom like coordinators to only allow in the people they are interested in seeing. Indeed it seems to be true.  In the meantime, I have not whispered a word to Dr. D that I plan to change doctors.  Just in case I am kicked out everywhere, I need someone who will call in my prescriptions, monitor my lab work, and help me with documenting my decline.  I never thought I would have to fight so damn hard for standard care.  I hate my insurance but it is the best offered to me financially so I will keep being persistent in my fight.  It is exhausting.  I see why some people give up.

Cruise entertainment

As you can see from my prior post, there are lots and lots of entertainment options available on a cruise.  You can literally run yourself ragged trying to do it all. For me, this was my 26th cruise.  I am not fussy about cha-cha class, ice carving, port talks, etc.  But I do still like to get out and do stuff.  So I try to balance it with rest time.

I took 2 books on my cruise.  One was "Gulp".  It was written by Mary Roach who also wrote "Stiff" which I read a few years ago and STILL talk about it.  So I was excited to read her next book.  This one is about your digestive track and all that entails (yes Poop too!).  I really dove into it the first sea day while sitting on the Waterfront area. I continued through the cruise as it became a daily event for me to wander to the waterfront and read. I also read in the cabin, the restaurant, etc.

One day, I was in Margaritaville eating my huge order of Volcano nachos, burger and fries, and pie while reading about gorging and what it takes to explode a stomach (for most, it is a gallon of liquid, and I assume food) when eating or drinking.  I found that ironic and I admit, reading about that did make me less hungry and decided to leave 3/4 of my nachos and 1/2 my burger and fries behind.  I also read about how the muscles and sphincters work and ultimately, about rectal cancer.  I found it a little discerning to read all this stuff while relaxing on a cruise where over eating and drinking is standard.  Haha.  I did finish the book on the flight home and was happy to send it back to Mom at the end of the trip.  I never did get to my other book which was a book about sisters who are estranged but one gets cancer and needs an organ transplant from her sister, requiring them to try to rekindle their relationship.  What the hell was I thinking when I picked out these books for the week????  (I will read this book next.)

I also watched movies in the Atrium area. This area has a screen 2 stories high and the width of 1/2 the boat.  It is huge.  I didn't really care what the movie was because 1) I have no control  2) they were shown in the afternoon which is a great time to stop and "movie" 3) I could have a cocktail or two while I watched.  I saw Mamma Mia, Grease, and 1/2 of Hotel Transylvania (I left early when I started feeling a nap was a better idea).  Surprising enough, there were lots of people that watched the movies too.  Because the area is open, there was lots of noise so they turned on the closed captioning so you could read what you couldn't hear.

There are also movies in the back of the ship in the open deck known as H2O.  But they were often at night starting later than I care to be out for movies (11 pm) and there were other things to do.  Plus you could really feel the movement of the boat on deck 16 in the back (there were 17 decks on the boat) and it is open with different levels so it isn't very mobility friendly for me.  So I didn't do those.

In addition, each room has a TV in it.  The programming is served up by the ship and often recorded or interrupted by the loss of satellite signal.  There were 5-6 ship stations.  They show things like the bridge cam, videos of games and activities already past, the safety station showing the safety video in a 24 hour loop, the shopping channel for the ship, and even a shore excursion channel even when we have past the particular stop.  Then there is several news stations like BBC, FOXNews, and CNN.  Unfortunately, it was Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing so that was about all I ever saw except the BBC where they talked about how stupid American politics are.  Then there was 1 "Shows we love" station that played the same episodes of a variety of shows on loop.  I saw 2 Broke Girls (2 episodes that rounded and rounded and rounded), Suits, Mom, The Good Place, Instinct, and other shows I never knew what they were called.  Because there was no commercials, the shows lasted either 21 minutes or 43 minutes.  And finally, there was a movie station but no guide or no knowledge of what was on when.  I caught pieces and portions of many movies.....some I had no idea what they were.  The was a teen movie based on The Little Mermaid, Elizabeth and Abdul, Home Again, Beauty and the Beast, and a few others I either didn't want to watch or remember what they were.  Frankly, it got irritating. Not that you should spend the cruise watching TV but there are times you want to just rest and have something to entertain you.  I wanted my pants off and my feet up.  I wanted to peel off my makeup and put my hair in a ponytail in the comfort of my own cabin.  I found it funny how these inputs are thrust upon us without any control.

It is really interesting because you are literally cut off from the world for the week on the ship unless you pay a few hundred dollars for terrible internet service.  I admit I was given 250 minutes of internet for the week as part of my package.  But I couldn't use my comcast email and it wasn't strong enough to stream content.  Facebook hogged the data (it was secretly 250 minute and/or 200 mb of data...which isn't much).  So I used it to send emails to Mom to make sure she was doing okay as she was staying at my house and checking my flight and checking in.

I don't mind disconnecting. It is one of the reasons I enjoy cruising.  I do need to consider downloading shows on my IPad and think more seriously about my books I bring.  Maybe a RomCom genre.  You know...the Fabio books you see in the check out line at the grocery store (Nah....just kidding) or something that isn't about blowing up tummies and how your intestines handle poop...and famous people that died from poop (Elvis Presley).  That way, I can escape to my great book instead of watching TV as often.  Regardless, it was all done while looking at the ocean enjoying the calm breeze and sunshine.  Can't bitch too much about that!!

Cruise people

During the cruise, I had the opportunity to meet lots of  people.  This cruise was especially freindly and I noticed way more "hook ups" then I have ever seen before.  As I met people, I found myself trying to learn a little about them to figure out who I would like to hang out with....or not.  And in true Alex style, I gave them nicknames.  Would you like to meet the people? Or really their personalities as I found them to be?

The Tranny Granny  - This woman was very sweet but almost as soon as I met her, I learned her husband of 17 years (divorced for 6) was a cross dresser.  And she was VERY hurt still (6 years later!!!) by it.  Every chance she had, she would talk about it and how she is single because her husband liked ladies panties.  I told her I could feel her pain and encouraged her to learn to let it go because she is the one suffering but she seemed to enjoy that pain she was bearing.

The Token Gay - Every large group has one or two.  I actually really enjoy gay guys. They are funny so usually really in touch with themselves (no pun intended).  Tony was a very nice man and so so funny.  A group of us straight people found ourselves crashing the gay party every night after dinner.  And there was usually 20-30 gay (mostly men) guys at these gatherings every night.  I was happy to see out and and supported.

Swinger Guy - This guy (never learned his name) was very nice and quite interesting to talk to but he was very open about being married.  His wife was a big wig diplomat at the UN.  They were currently living in France but he was stateside to visit family and decided to cruise while here.  On night 3, he told me in a very serious conversation that he and his wife were swingers and he was looking for a single woman or married couple on the cruise to play with.  No judgement here. I believe everyone is allowed to be their authentic self...but no thanks.  I really really wonder if indeed his wife gave him a free pass for sex or if he just wanted to play while he couldn't be checked on.

Moocher or Meat Market Matt - Oyi.  Where to begin.  Matt and his friend Rob (who I will introduce next) were on the cruise on a Florida resident special.  There were many on the cruise on the special.  Hell I would be too because it was $199 for the week!!  Anyway, Matt was cruising for women hard.  He had a stream of women he was chasing.  Many women fell for his gig during the week but I was totally turned off.  He and Rob both thought they were real ladies men.  One night, Matt asked me to get him a drink of my package (he didn't get the package in his deal) so I took pity on him and did but then I wanted out.  He chased me to the elevator telling me he is a nice Italian man, a great lover, and really liked me.  Uh.  No thanks.  It is day 5 and I've already heard of your escapades from other women.  He was pretty surprised and put off I wasn't interested and was pretty frank about it.

Rob the Creeper - Ran with Matt. Every meet those types of guys that just make your skin crawl?  I met Rob (and Matt) the first sea day at the meet and greet.  I was at a table with other ladies when Rob came up and said "Oh a table of ladies!  I need to join you." He proceeded to pull up a chair and tried to hit on each of us one by one.  One lady said she had cruised with him before and he invites women to his room all the time.  That is a creeper for sure!

Ms Peebody - I feel bad bringing him/her up because I think there is more to the story but this was a woman/man (I really couldn't tell through the androgyny the entire week) that was from England.  Pleasant enough but was so incredibly stinky.  Not just "I am so hot and sweaty" stink but I've not bathed for 2 weeks and not only do I have urinary incontinence I refuse to address, I have a serious sweating issue that requires medical intervention.  I really noticed this issue one night when we were standing next to each other waiting to be seated for dinner.  I made sure to sit away from her (I'll use female because she wore makeup every day).  I saw her several times and when she would sit, it was only seconds before those around her got up and found another seat.  About half way through the cruise, I noticed she quit coming to any of the group things and wandered the ship alone.  Pretty sad really.

Historic Lawyer - One night, I sat next to a gentleman (retired defense attorney) that seemed pleasant enough but he could not stop dribbling on about history in the most minute detail.  After 45 minutes, I told him I am just not interested in history at all and turned my head to talk to someone the other direction.  He got up and left after a salad.  Sadly, the last night, he had a coupon for free dinner at the french restaurant for 2.  He invited me to join him but I quickly declined because I just didn't want to get stuck listening to him again.  No Cordien Bleu is worth that!

Hot for you Scott - Awe Scott.  He was a Southern man that was very open that he was looking for a date beyond the cruise.  He would look at a woman and size them up quickly to decide if she was up to his standard.  There were some very attractive women traveling solo. Each one he would run up too and introduce himself in his most charming way.  Full on obvious pick up attempt.  Well, obviously I wasn't his cup of tea.  In fact, when he would look at me, he pierced his lips and would just turn away.  No sweat off my brow.  One night, someone tried to introduce us in the solo room.  I said "Oh I've met Scott.  He seems very interested in beautiful women."  Scott snapped his head around and asked if I had been watching him.  I replied that yes indeed I observe everyone. People watching is one of my favorite things.  On the last night, I had the misfortune of sitting next to Scott for dinner.  He had "bites" all over his right arm. He was convinced they were bedbug bites and practically was in a full fledged anxiety attack all through dinner.  Several of us told him they didn't look like bed bug bites but right after dinner, he was going to march right down and demand a refund for his cruise and generous compensation for the inconvenience.  I learned he was 59 and lived with 5 other people in a 3 bedroom house.  He is a customer service rep for a health insurance brokerage.  (LOSER)  I saw him the next morning and asked him what he learned.  They told him it was Sand Flea bites from the beach at Harvest Cay and that is why they tell everyone to use bug spray with Deet. No compensation.  He did ask me to come visit him in Charlotte, NC. He said this as he gently rubbed my arm.  I'm pretty sure I pierced my lips when I said I probably wouldn't make it.

Government Assistance Sob Story - One day I was sitting at the bar area watching the Atrium antics from the second story.  A woman came and sat by me and started talking to me about her world of woe.  Honestly, the surroundings were so loud and she talked so softly, I only caught about 40% of what she said.  I did learn she is on government assistance (for many years) and saves up for a cruise 1-2 times a year.  I'm no judge but I can't imagine cruising while on Medicaid.  Just seems wrong to me.  And why would you tell everyone????  I might eat my words one day but for now, I find that just wrong and sad.

The Hot Grandma - One night, I was down at Howl at the Moon.  Someone had requested a song to celebrate her 60th birthday.  Well they called her down to sit on the piano while we all sang to her.  This woman in a skin tight mini dress, long thick styled blonde hair, and 5" heels comes down.  I swear she looked 35.  Her skin was soft and non-saggy.  No real wrinkles.  Her legs were toned and youthful.  Everyone was shocked.   Well her husband came right down and stood by her while everyone sang.  I am sure he keeps a close eye on her.  Seriously 60???  I saw her later by the pool in a skimpy bikini.  Very toned and smooth.  Seriously really 60??  No way.

Ashley Know it All - I feel really bad about this one because I met Ashley in  my Solo Cruiser Facebook group about a week before we sailed and helped her get into a cruise group on Facebook.  I regretted it almost immediately. She is one of those really loud know it all people.  In fact, without saying a thing, many people were turned off by her almost right away.  I'm sorry I sponsored her in.  Obviously she must be fun because  she made lots of friends.

Elephant leg Alex - Yes.  This is me.  By Thursday, I woke up with swollen legs, ankles, and feet.  This does happen to me when it is hot, my legs dangle too much, or I have too much sodium.  It was bad and frankly, really hurt to walk.  It got so bad, I couldn't even shove my feet in all the way in my flip flops.  It never did get better the rest the cruise.  On other cruises, I brought enough pants I could kind of cover up the problem but in my haste to pack light, I only had 1 pair of jeans and 2 pairs of capris.  Since it was hot a Hates, I wore the capris with my HUGE white legs sticking out.  No lie when I walked, they jiggled.....thuga wugga...thuga wugga...thuga wugga. I'm still working on getting the swelling down through keeping them elevated and drinking lots and lots of water.  Maybe by the weekend they will be back to normal.

Don't get me wrong, I met lots of great people but sitting in a room of solo people, it was pretty easy to see why some people are still single and searching. I'm sure others thought things about me too.  Thank goodness we aren't all the same because that would be boring.

Here are my poor feet the last day of the cruise.  Ouch!

My Literal Getaway

Yep.  As I teased recently, I did jump on a great deal for a cruise over Labor Day weekend.  I booked fairly late in cruise time but was able to get a great balcony (later upgraded to a Mini-Suite) to enjoy by myself..along with 5 different "perks" including drinks, dining, shore excursions, etc.  So I took it.  I know a cruise always seems to reset my world and indeed it did.

This time I cruised on the Norwegian Getaway.  It is a sister ship to my other 2 favorite ships, the Escape and Breakaway so the layout and ship was very familiar to me.  This cruise went to the Western Caribbean - Costa Maya, Harvest Cay, Roatan, and Cozumel.  I had not really planned to get off the ship at all since it is just so hard for me.  So mostly, I was looking for a fun ship to relax and recharge on for a week.  One added bit of excitement is that it is the height of hurricane season so I purchased trip insurance just in case we had trouble but I certainly didn't need it.

I flew into Miami the day before. I scored an upgrade to first class for part of the flight which was really nice.  I was able to get a room at my favorite hotel, the Intercontinental at Biscayne Bay.  I had a lovely room that faced the water so when I woke up in the morning, I saw 2 ships docked...and 1 was mine!! I was anxious to head over to the pier and get on that baby. As a solo traveler, it is really easy to just sort of mix in and push through to board.  And it doesn't hurt that I had my cane.  I got to board with the handicapped people and was probably one of the first 50 people onboard! I had joined a Facebook group for the cruise and a few of us solo traveling ladies decided to meet for lunch at the restaurant onboard.  They were very nice ladies and we enjoyed a leisurely lunch waiting for our cabin to be ready.  By the time we finished eating, we could go to the cabin so I got my carry on stuff unpacked and switched from tennis shoes to flip flops and set out to explore.

We all met up top for an "unofficial" sail away party.  I got my first margarita.  Unfortunately, I really couldn't enjoy the view of sailing out of Miami where we were so I beat feet down to the pool deck for music and a view of the shore and finally out to sea.

Storm clouds the morning we set sail.  View from the hotel.

The Miami Skyline

A little bit of the sail away party by the pool.

My first margarita.  I love these!

That night, I went to the solo gathering to meet the other solos.  Holy solo cruisers!  This was such a gigantic group, we didn't even all fit in the lounge....about 60 active solo members but many more solo travelers not participating in the ship's program!  We met the coordinator for the week and found out the plans for the week.  But no dinner that night which was fine because I made a reservation to go to the Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant for dinner.  It is always a ton of food but really delicious.

The next day, we had a sea day.   I drank a few Margaritas and Martinis the night before so I was a slug and slept in and ordered room service breakfast.  I was slow to get out but we had a Facebook meet and greet.  There was about 120 people there. We also did a shot glass exchange as a means to meet people.  I got Debbie from Kentucky's glass.   That night, I joined the solo group for dinner in the regular dining room.  I participated in the games and music in the Atrium that evening.   I love the games!!

One thing I really love on these ships is they have "Howl at the Moon" which is dueling pianos.   You can request songs and if you share a few bucks with your request, there is a good chance they will play it.  They are fun and very funny and encourage everyone to sing along.  They tease people and it is a generally good time.  This time, one of the guys was pretty crazy.  And they accepted Jager shots from the audience.  I can't believe how many they do in a night.  Anyway, at one point, this happened and I had to snag a photo.

Sometimes, he would sing lyrics in Meows too.  Made me laugh so hard.  I spent many an evening in this venue.

We changed time 4 times on the cruise.  One night was forward, then back the next day but I screwed up in my blurry drunk state and went forward again.  It took me until 2:00 the next day to figure out I was 2 hours off.  I went to breakfast in the buffet and couldn't believe no one had gone ashore.  I even commented to someone.  To me, it was 10:30 and I couldn't believe no one got off yet as I wandered the ship.  At 11:30, I went up to get lunch because it had been a few hours since breakfast.  There was still breakfast food there!!  So I grabbed some bread, bacon, tomatoes and made myself a BLT.  So weird though.  I finally went back to my room for a nap and finally figured out when I woke up that I had the time wrong.  HAHA The bad news is that means I had a bloody mary at probably 7:30 after I ate breakfast.  HAHAHA

So let's talk about where we stopped.  We had 4 stops.  I only got off the ship at one but I can share the photos and tell a little story.

Gotta turn your head.  I don't know why but
this is Costa Maya, Mexico

This one too.  Look at that ocean!  That is what I
love about the Caribbean!!  Look at the storm
clouds though.  The sea was pretty rough even parked

This is how I did Costa Maya.  I went and found a
spot on the ship's waterfront area.  They have couches
and wide decks so you can enjoy the area in peace.

Me with Costa Maya in the background.  Proof I was there.

Harvest Cay, Belize which isn't really Belize.  It is an island before
the mainland that is owned by the cruise lines.  I do love the lighthouse
though.  Many people enjoyed that beach that day and then spent the
rest the cruise with terrible sand flea bites.  Icky!

The other side of the Harvest Cay island where it isn't developed.
Lots of wild jungle stuff.

Our 3rd stop was Roatan, Honduras.  I had been there years ago.
It was great to see it developing since my last visit.

Typical Roatan property on the ocean.  A very poor country and quite
Jungle like.  People here went to see the Monkeys and Sloths at the farm.

Look how cute! This is the pier area.

It wasa pretty easy pier soI decided to get off.  I went to the bar
by the ship as they usually have wifi you can use if you buy food or drink.
 I got a $6 Corona and then found out they don't share their wifi.
 It was fun to get off anyway.  It was really really hot and humid.

And Cozumel.  It rained like crazy this day.  Many people got caught out on
excursions on the ocean in the tropical storm.  Me?  I was on the waterfront
reading and enjoying the rain while staying covered and dry.  I've been to
Cozumel many times and don't mind skipping it.

Another onboard selfie.

Let's talk food for a minute.  I had 4 chances to "specialty dine" and I thoroughly enjoyed each one.  Here is some of the yummy stuff I ate.

This is a wasabi martini.  It has a Lychee garnish!

Surf and Turf at Cagney's steakhouse

Me at Cagney's.  Yep...alone.

This is the volcano nachos at Margaritaville.  I wish the portions
weren't so big because that is ridiculous.  For the cover charge, you get an
appetizer, entree, and dessert.  So this was followed up with a burger
and fries and finished with a Key Lime pie
(which I learned before to get it to go and enjoy later).

I went to the super fancy seafood restaurant.  I got the Grilled Mango lime
shrimp.  I went ahead and had them remove the heads for me
but they will serve them with the heads on if you wish.

This was my chosen side.  I got the tomato, onion, blue cheese salad

I know this is a drink.  It was my new found obsession this trip.
It is called a Daydreamer Daiquiri.  It has lime, cranberry, and peach juice. 
So yummy!  I won't tell you how many of these I drank but it was enough
that the bar staff started getting it ready when they saw me walk up.

Here are some photos from around the ship.

The ship has some areas where the deck hangs over the water and
there is glass to walk on.  Super freaky.

I took this video to watch when I get stressed at home.  There is a

bird drifting  through the sky that I found so relaxing to watch.

Some of the Atrium games.  I got a sore throat at this one.

The captain and first officer.  They were talking about the ship
but  also about the Cuban refugees we picked up in the ocean
the first night!

Some Howl at the Moon fun

Love me some Bob Marley

I made it up to the pool area.

Here are some of the solos from the last night.  This is a rowdy and so fun crowd!


The last day, I signed up for a Wine Lovers Lunch.  Frankly, 6 glasses of wine on the last day is probably not the best idea.  I was  hoping to learn some new wines but I learned some I don't like and needed a nap right after.

 I really had a great time and met some nice people.  Of course, I drank too much and ate too much but I also relaxed and came home totally de-stressed.  And that was the goal....well the well-being.  Not the drinking and eating part although that was fun.

Here are two final photos to share.

This.   This makes me happy.

Home for the past week.  Not my photo...well because I didn't get off the
ship but I loved it and was authorized to borrow it.

We got back to Miami Sunday morning and we all started our way home. Unfortunately, there is a possible hurricane coming in too and many people had a tough time getting out.  I had a bumpy flight to Detroit and then got delayed there due to storms and a mechanical issue.  I was happy to get home at 9:00 Sunday night.  Pooped but happy and fulfilled.

I have more stories and thoughts to share but I will break it up into pieces so watch for more.