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It's Monday and I slept in half an hour. I think that's going to be my new thing. Instead of setting my alarm at 4, I'll set it at five and get up sometime in that range. Today, it was 4:33am when I finally got out of bed. It seems to help with the excessive tiredness I was having in the morning, though I am a little tired today because I had very broken sleep.
Upon looking at everything and running the numbers again, I realized that there was no way we were going to be able to go on the Hawaiian cruise this year. Which is sad, but that's okay. We're sort of going back to our original plan and doing a week long cruise along the West Coast. This one starts in my beloved Vancouver and sails to LA with stops in Astoria, Oregon, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Catalina and ending in Los Angeles. This one is on Virgin Voyages, and costs about $3000 less than the Hawaii cruise. Here's hoping that the possible surgery doesn't fuck this up too.
The problem with Hawaii was that if I did have surgery in September, it was going to eat up about 2-3 days of PTO that I would be getting, because you always have to use your PTO for FMLA/Short Term if it's available. And if I added those three days, it took my probable allot ment to 16 days of PTO. And it was a 15 night cruise. Even when you subtracted the weekend days from it, It was going to be close. This one will be probably about 8 days off, which is much easier to plan for. If I have surgery later, it could still be a problem, but we'll see.
I do still want to cruise, and I'd like to see the west coast, so this seemed like the best option. And starting in Vancouver is like a little homecoming, since that's where we left from for Alaska. We'll stayat the Pan Pacific Hotel and let them drop off our bags and all that. We're 100% flying into Vancouver this time. I'm not messing with driving again. The Canadian Border patrol on the ground entry was less than welcoming. It looks like if we come out of Dulles, we can get nonstop flights both ways. I'll have my normal driver take us and pick us up, so that I won't have to drive in rush hour traffic after a redeye flight.
I'm currently back on my bullshit, doing research on the ship, and the theme nights, and most importantly, what the food is like. It looks pretty good. The nice thing about Virgin is that most things are included. Which is not to say that there's not upcharge items available, but for the most part, it's all included in the fare. We will upgrade our wifi, but that's about it. Fortunately, this is my favorite part of pre-vacation--the early planning stage. I will do so much research.
I feel really bad for basically playing Vacation Roulette. It's changed so many times at this point. Like four or five times over. I spent a good chunk of yesterday apologizing to Jess. They assured me that they don't mind and this will be fun, too, but I still feel bad that my stupid body is going to fuck us over.
Right now, there's just a hold on the cruise. I figure I'll wait to book until Wednesday when I know more about what we're going to be doing for Claudio. Good lord, I hope this doctor is willing.
Aside from watching some videos, we didn't do a whole lot else. I was truly a lump on the sofa. My sister actually went out and brought us home lunch, so I had a very tasty piece of halibut in a sriracha sauce that was mildly spicy, but very tasty, It's rare to be able to get halibut on the east coast.
I'm looking forward to being on the west coast and having that and other seafood available again. Alaska spoiled me.
I did dye my hair last night after having the formulation for like three weeks,so that was one productive thing. It's not as purple as the last one, more a dark brown with purple highlights. But if I'm doing the Leadership Academy, that's probably for the best. I can maintain this til at least May and then go a little wild again. It's very difficult to find fun colors that also have gray coverage. And I need the gray coverage. This didn't quite cover the stubborn hair right at my temples, but I'm okay wiht that. I kind of like the little distinguished gray. Just not the whole freaking head. I went to bed with it wet, so the sides of my hair and back are choosing violence today, or I'd put up a pic. It's a pretty, though more sedate color, but I do like it.
Today will doubtless be a busy day, so I'm going to drink my coffee and be ready. I'm going to have to break it to my boss that my plans have changed for vacation. She's very invested in me getting to go to fun places.
Tonight, I think we shall make some ribs. We'd gotten a peach bourbon bbq sauce when we went to the Peach and Blackberry festival a few weeks ago, so we might use that as a glaze. I'll have to see what we have to have with it. Might need to put in a small order to get some carrots or green beans or something. Anything as long as we cook it well. I'm not trusting that anything that isn't cooked well is going to be safe with the current state of food safety in the country.
And now, on that note, I'm going to go forth and start getting myself together. Starting with more coffee. Everyone have an amazing Monday!
Upon looking at everything and running the numbers again, I realized that there was no way we were going to be able to go on the Hawaiian cruise this year. Which is sad, but that's okay. We're sort of going back to our original plan and doing a week long cruise along the West Coast. This one starts in my beloved Vancouver and sails to LA with stops in Astoria, Oregon, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Catalina and ending in Los Angeles. This one is on Virgin Voyages, and costs about $3000 less than the Hawaii cruise. Here's hoping that the possible surgery doesn't fuck this up too.
The problem with Hawaii was that if I did have surgery in September, it was going to eat up about 2-3 days of PTO that I would be getting, because you always have to use your PTO for FMLA/Short Term if it's available. And if I added those three days, it took my probable allot ment to 16 days of PTO. And it was a 15 night cruise. Even when you subtracted the weekend days from it, It was going to be close. This one will be probably about 8 days off, which is much easier to plan for. If I have surgery later, it could still be a problem, but we'll see.
I do still want to cruise, and I'd like to see the west coast, so this seemed like the best option. And starting in Vancouver is like a little homecoming, since that's where we left from for Alaska. We'll stayat the Pan Pacific Hotel and let them drop off our bags and all that. We're 100% flying into Vancouver this time. I'm not messing with driving again. The Canadian Border patrol on the ground entry was less than welcoming. It looks like if we come out of Dulles, we can get nonstop flights both ways. I'll have my normal driver take us and pick us up, so that I won't have to drive in rush hour traffic after a redeye flight.
I'm currently back on my bullshit, doing research on the ship, and the theme nights, and most importantly, what the food is like. It looks pretty good. The nice thing about Virgin is that most things are included. Which is not to say that there's not upcharge items available, but for the most part, it's all included in the fare. We will upgrade our wifi, but that's about it. Fortunately, this is my favorite part of pre-vacation--the early planning stage. I will do so much research.
I feel really bad for basically playing Vacation Roulette. It's changed so many times at this point. Like four or five times over. I spent a good chunk of yesterday apologizing to Jess. They assured me that they don't mind and this will be fun, too, but I still feel bad that my stupid body is going to fuck us over.
Right now, there's just a hold on the cruise. I figure I'll wait to book until Wednesday when I know more about what we're going to be doing for Claudio. Good lord, I hope this doctor is willing.
Aside from watching some videos, we didn't do a whole lot else. I was truly a lump on the sofa. My sister actually went out and brought us home lunch, so I had a very tasty piece of halibut in a sriracha sauce that was mildly spicy, but very tasty, It's rare to be able to get halibut on the east coast.
I'm looking forward to being on the west coast and having that and other seafood available again. Alaska spoiled me.
I did dye my hair last night after having the formulation for like three weeks,so that was one productive thing. It's not as purple as the last one, more a dark brown with purple highlights. But if I'm doing the Leadership Academy, that's probably for the best. I can maintain this til at least May and then go a little wild again. It's very difficult to find fun colors that also have gray coverage. And I need the gray coverage. This didn't quite cover the stubborn hair right at my temples, but I'm okay wiht that. I kind of like the little distinguished gray. Just not the whole freaking head. I went to bed with it wet, so the sides of my hair and back are choosing violence today, or I'd put up a pic. It's a pretty, though more sedate color, but I do like it.
Today will doubtless be a busy day, so I'm going to drink my coffee and be ready. I'm going to have to break it to my boss that my plans have changed for vacation. She's very invested in me getting to go to fun places.
Tonight, I think we shall make some ribs. We'd gotten a peach bourbon bbq sauce when we went to the Peach and Blackberry festival a few weeks ago, so we might use that as a glaze. I'll have to see what we have to have with it. Might need to put in a small order to get some carrots or green beans or something. Anything as long as we cook it well. I'm not trusting that anything that isn't cooked well is going to be safe with the current state of food safety in the country.
And now, on that note, I'm going to go forth and start getting myself together. Starting with more coffee. Everyone have an amazing Monday!
