awesomeness

I've been home since Monday, but it's taken me until NOW to clear the brain fog(from getting up early & going to work & missing Monday, so my work days were off by a day XD) away enough to let you all know I'm back. XD

I had a nice time on my cruise, it was in the Caribbean. We went off ship at the Bahamas & walked around Nassau, looking for a shop that was not only open, but sold British sweets. It was a Sunday & I guess everyone not in a touristy shop was at church. Then we set sail for Belize. I ended up not going there as it was a nearly one hour boat ride in the tender to get there, plus a similar ride back. No one was masked, except in the casino onboard, if you can call wearing your mask under chin or hanging off your one ear wearing it, so I didn't want to deal with that for a 2 hour boat ride. XD Plus I read on the cruise boards that the people are very PUSHY about buying their stuff & there was a State Department warning about SERIOUS crime there. XD Then we set sail for Cozumel, which was nice. :D And then back down to Costa Maya, also nice. I got shirt in Cozumel & one onboard as I ran out of clean clothes. XD I miscounted my days onboard, plus Dad made it sound like I could do wash at my grandparents' apartment in Miami, which is where we spent a weekend, before going home. XD Washing turned out to be more of a pain than not, so I washed a bra & my outfit that I wore going down as I needed a clean one as well as something warm to wear going home. XD

Onboard, we explored the ship, ate like kings (I had a filet Mignon that was like butter! YUM!!), swam in the pool, watched TV (and found out what was going on in the world), went to a few music trivia sessions which were fun, & learned *LAUGHS* how to make an origami bird that can "fly." I also met the cruise director; a cute & funny Italian guy, & on the way home they stopped the ship to find & take onboard (briefly while they waited for the Coast Guard) 3 Cubans in a rubber dingy! o.0 The poor things had to go back to Cuba too as the ship wasn't registered in the US. Oh, one of things we watched on TV when we got tired of the BBC & CNN, was the Red Bull channel. Besides the documentaries on extreme sports like surfing, & snowboarding down a mountain, & car racing, they ran repeats of some of their old European Soapbox Derby races. Look them up on YouTube; they're hysterical! :D

I had left for a few days to go visit Virginia Beach. We stayed in one of the hotels on the beach,which is nice as we often sat on the balcony & watched the people go by. :D Anyways, it started on Tuesday at the butt crack of dawn, where we drove to the airport to catch a morning flight to Baltimore. Once there we had time to grab some breakfast from McDonald's in the food court, before getting on another plane to go to Norfolk. When we got there, there was some grief with the rental car, but Dad seemed to have sorted it out. (*LAUGHS*) We check in, dump our luggage & head to Target for snacks for the room. Then we came back & basically crashed & burned until dinner. Dinner was nice, we went to Mahi's which is just a couple of blocks away. I got a flounder sandwich & I swear they battered & fried the whole fish. XD I have never seen a sandwich bun look sooo small before. XD But it was YUMMY! :D Another rest so the food could go down, before wandering across the street for some Ben & Jerry's. :D Before crashing & burning, I went out & picked up a bunch of the freebie books they have every other block with local coupons. XD Then it was shower, watch an hour of TV before getting an early night.

The next day we went to the Back Bay wildlife refuge & walked around there, looking for tree frogs, which we didn't find at all. XD We did find some butterflies, a TON of dragonflies, a bunny (YAY!), an Eastern Rat snake & a cottonmouth that I nearly stepped on. XD Luckily, I had stopped short of it, I hadn't seen it, but Dad did & I backed up & away from it. XD Not sure if I was close enough to get tagged, but if I had kept going, I wouldn't be here telling you about it. XD The snake was not happy, said "F*** this sh*t!" and slithered off into the bushes. Thankfully the rat snake was cool & turned around & disappeared from whence it came. XD We really didn't see or hear any birds, which was odd, but not odd as the remnants of Ida was heading our way. We did see some military planes, so when we left, we headed over to Oceana. Outside & across the street from the base, next to the dump, was a lil park, where people park & watch the planes. Just over the barrier is the neighborhood. We saw a lot, taking off & landing. When they came in for a landing, overhead, you could see them getting a bit buffeted by the wind (a sign of things to come). Then we left when no planes came by in a half hour & went back to the hotel. We hung out a bit & went for a walk on the boardwalk. You could see why there was hardly anyone on the beach as the wind was picking up & sandblasting us. XD Then we went to this fish place on the docks, where I got a lobster roll. It was just a ton of lobster meat on a toasted hot dog bun. It was messy to eat as stuff would fall off, so I just ate stuff out of the bun & dipped it in the butter they gave me. XD So it was like eating a lobster tail without all the mess. :D Very Yummy! :D So we walked down to the Dairy Queen & watched a local band playing. There's a small park with a bandshell across from it. The DQ is basically just a walk up window with a parking lot & a bathroom. XD So when the first set ended, we left. We also got Blizzards, which I never had before, & ate them while watching the band. Also the sky got weird looking, & I was like it's going to rain, so we started back to our hotel, which was several blocks away. By the time we got out of the DQ's parking lot, it was starting to rain. No biggie, right? Just a few gentle drops, right? NOPE! By the time we got to the end of the block it was monsoon season! Since there wasn't any nearby shelter, by the time we did make it to this hotel with an overhang out front (guests pull in under it to check in), we were DRENCHED. XD We waited for it to mostly stop, before heading back to our hotel, which was still several blocks away, & a nice warm shower & some TV.

Day three, which was crappy looking from Ida's passing through, so we decided to go to the air museum to see some planes from both world wars. They also had some shells, & some military vehicles. It was pretty cool. but Dad was annoyed as he knew there was more to it, but that was closed off due to COVID (most likely), & the fact that a ton of planes were being stored there, with no room to safe walk around. But they had dinosaurs! So I was happy! :D Someone had made some different kinds of dinos out of scrap metal & plopped them down near the museum's entrance for the kiddos to see & play around. They were set up so you really couldn't get to them unless you pushed through some bushes, although a few were out in the open. I thought they were cool, yet kinda tacky, but still had enough cool in them, since they were art. The rest of day was nice, & we did a bad & threw fries at the sea gulls, & watched the gulls steal them. I had gotten some DQ chicken tenders for lunch. It came with fries & Texas toast. :D

That night, had Italian, walked back down to the DQ to watch another local band, left after the first set, got some frozen custard (soft serve ice cream) & headed back. We had also explored some of the shops, while out for a walk, & walked the pier as far as you could go before they decided to charge people to go to thee end. XD

Last day, before going home, we took a harbor tour of the local navy base. Saw a ton of battle ships, both new & older models, some dolphins & had a nice relaxing time on board. :D Then we went to the Nauticus, which is a naval museum, & got tickets to tour the Wisconsin, which is a WWII battleship. they give guided tours, but you can also explore on your own, which we did. Then a quick look inside the museum, before heading back to the airport. Trying to turn in the car was a hassle & a half. Dad was POed big time that it was over a $100 more than he had contracted for, but it was straightened out & he wound up paying a bit less than he was supposed to pay, which made him happy. Basically the same two flights in reverse & totally uneventful. We ate dinner at McDonald's at Baltimore airport's food court, got home, I managed to do my trip laundry, before heading off to bed.

Also work starts up again on Thursday. I'm also much to my sadness, working in a middle school, instead of an elementary. While I'll miss the lil ones, I won't miss the woman in charge as she can be a lil bitchy. XD I'm also in charge, & while I have a ton of kids & a lot of them have no idea how to behave, they don't all come the same day & hopefully they will behave, or I'll speak to my boss about suspending them. The most disruptive ones can get suspended if need be. I'm not looking forward to it as I knwo one of them came be a real HANDFUL. I get that parents need to work, but they need to parent their kids so their kids aren't a bunch of A$$HOLES.It's not my job or the school's to discipline your kids.

I'm back! I had an awesome time in Virginia Beach! :D Got to see the air show this past weekend, finally made it to the beach, had a great time wandering around, great food, & I finally got to eat Dairy Queen food! XD

It sucked going back to work today. I wish I could have stayed there... *sighs*

I'm back, tired as hell, but I had fun! :D

I got home last night. I had fun visiting my family. My granny & I worked on my fem!Poland costume as well as one I call "Magical Girl Prussia." XD That one's based off some fanart I had stumbled upon a while ago, so I can't link it, but I can toss it under a cut. ;p

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I had a great time at my cousin's bar mitzvah! He was awesoem! the food was good. I had fun & best of all I got to not only see cousins I haven't seen in years, but, I got to meet some new cousins! :D

All in all, a great trip! :D

I'm back! I had a great time, visiting family.

I'll read my flist & answer stuff tomorrow when I'm not so tired. XD

*laughs* kira is running away from home again! ;p

Seriously... I'm just going away for the weekend again. I'll see you all when I get back! :D Be well, my friends!! *huggles*

Just a heads up to let everyone know, I'm going away tomorrow morning & won't be back until Monday night. I'm going to go visit some family & won't be online, so someone could watch my scroll, I'd appreciate it. Thanks in advance. I ahev a gold shimmer who's very delicate, right now I believe it's only in the one fansite (Valley Sherwood) cuz it kept getting sick on me. T.T I would go there to check its stats as I'm trying to keep clicks down. It's at 6 days, 21 hours at the moment since it just hatched & sick too. T.T So in about 2 days, can someone please add it to AOND? Thanks!

*hugs & kisses to my f-list*

*HUGS & KISSES to my special friends* (You know who you are! :D)