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I'm Back!! :-D
13 years ago
General
Hey folks, just letting you know that I'm now back among the living online. This past week and a half has been a trip. Literally.
The reason for my absence was due to a trip that I made to Florida with my boyfriend
mightytauren. We first attended a Christmas party held at Cocoa Beach. I had been going to this party for the past two years, and I thought it was only appropriate that I introduced Mighty to some of the cool people that usually attended. Both of us had a great time - him meeting some of my friends for the first time, and me meeting even more cool people.
And after that party ended on Sunday, we boarded the Freedom of the Seas for a 7-day cruise of the Caribbean! We were scheduled for three ports of call during the cruise, but the first one ended up being a no-show due to someone breaking a hip while on board. (Apparently, with the average age of the cruise-going person, one should prepare themselves for some kind of medical emergency to happen at least once during a week-long cruise.) Instead of going to the Bahamian island of CocoCay, we ended up in Nassau. While the port itself was quite scenic, activities on shore were just...meh. But we made the most of what was available.
Our next port of call was St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. During our stay here, we went on a catamaran ride to St. John, where we spent the afternoon snorkeling off shore (I wish I could put into words the beauty of the aquatic life on that island...it gives you a whole different level of appreciation for what we have than any nature show or magazine article can possibly convey.), and basically lounging on the boat and having a great time. Oh, and they also served champagne, beer, rum punch and snacks on the trip back. The one bit of drama we experienced was on the trip back to port. The same trip that took all of 20 minutes to get to took us TWO HOURS to get back because of the island traffic. Mighty and I both were really scared that we wouldn't be able to make it back on the boat. However, the bus we were on was filled with passengers from a rival cruise line that was going back to their boat...and their group was part of a drag show event. I have a generally strong dislike for REALLY campy gay men, but believe it or not, having them to talk to and laugh with helped to ease some of the anxiousness we felt. I don't know if any of those people can read this, but if they can...thank you.
Our final port of call was Phillipsburg on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. And let's just get this on record right here and now...I LOVE ST. MAARTEN! The weather was beautiful, the scenery was unbelievable, and everyone we talked with was warm and friendly. While we were there, Mighty and I went horseback riding through the hills of St. Maarten. Aside from the sunburn I got on my thighs and nearly getting thrown off my horse twice, the excursion was awesome! Unfortunately, we had to cancel our plans for an outing to Orient Beach on the French side of the island, and a trip to Princess Juliana Airport (look it up on YouTube...you'll see why it's such a tourist magnet). We wanted to do at least one of these excursions, but neither of us wanted to risk a repeat of St. Thomas and the possibility of not making it back on the boat. We really needed at least two days on St. Maarten to do all that we wanted to do...but of all our ports of call, both Mighty and I liked St. Maarten the most.
I won't go too much into detail on this next part since there are others who are better able to talk about it than me, but part of the reason for going on this cruise was because the group we signed on to be with was promised prior to the actual cruise time during days at sea to don our fursuits for the entertainment of the other passengers. Now, for Mighty and I, this wasn't that big of an issue since this was our first vacation together, but having the option of fursuiting was honestly a bonus for us. However, it wasn't until after we got on the boat that we were told that we couldn't do it. FWIW, I feel kind of bad for the tour organizer,
keetcollie, as most of his time on the cruise was spent trying to figure out what went wrong and where, dealing with the cruise staff, and trying to salvage some sort of fursuit time for those in the group who were expecting a lot of time for fursuiting as there had been in past years.
I appreciate Keet for his organization of the cruise and all his efforts to try to salvage what could have been a completely ruined experience for all 29 people who signed up for the cruise.
Other shout-outs I need to give...
kuddlepup, 
yappyfox and Herbie for organizing the Christmas party, 
michelmephit and 
Aikenwolf for being awesome roommates, and all of the attendees of WFCP & FurryCruise2012 for making our vacation experience a very memorable one.
And now...it's nose-to-the-grindstone time. Yup, as of today I am now employed again! (YAY!!!) I never thought I'd miss having a job until I went through nearly four months without one. I might bitch about my job every now and again, but I realize that in today's economic reality, with people out there who have been looking for work FAR LONGER than I have, I'm pretty lucky to be where I am today. I hope I never forget that.
That's about it for now...I have a stack of lists and job description sheets to review. o.O
Take care!
- Colin
The reason for my absence was due to a trip that I made to Florida with my boyfriend
mightytauren. We first attended a Christmas party held at Cocoa Beach. I had been going to this party for the past two years, and I thought it was only appropriate that I introduced Mighty to some of the cool people that usually attended. Both of us had a great time - him meeting some of my friends for the first time, and me meeting even more cool people. And after that party ended on Sunday, we boarded the Freedom of the Seas for a 7-day cruise of the Caribbean! We were scheduled for three ports of call during the cruise, but the first one ended up being a no-show due to someone breaking a hip while on board. (Apparently, with the average age of the cruise-going person, one should prepare themselves for some kind of medical emergency to happen at least once during a week-long cruise.) Instead of going to the Bahamian island of CocoCay, we ended up in Nassau. While the port itself was quite scenic, activities on shore were just...meh. But we made the most of what was available.
Our next port of call was St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. During our stay here, we went on a catamaran ride to St. John, where we spent the afternoon snorkeling off shore (I wish I could put into words the beauty of the aquatic life on that island...it gives you a whole different level of appreciation for what we have than any nature show or magazine article can possibly convey.), and basically lounging on the boat and having a great time. Oh, and they also served champagne, beer, rum punch and snacks on the trip back. The one bit of drama we experienced was on the trip back to port. The same trip that took all of 20 minutes to get to took us TWO HOURS to get back because of the island traffic. Mighty and I both were really scared that we wouldn't be able to make it back on the boat. However, the bus we were on was filled with passengers from a rival cruise line that was going back to their boat...and their group was part of a drag show event. I have a generally strong dislike for REALLY campy gay men, but believe it or not, having them to talk to and laugh with helped to ease some of the anxiousness we felt. I don't know if any of those people can read this, but if they can...thank you.
Our final port of call was Phillipsburg on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. And let's just get this on record right here and now...I LOVE ST. MAARTEN! The weather was beautiful, the scenery was unbelievable, and everyone we talked with was warm and friendly. While we were there, Mighty and I went horseback riding through the hills of St. Maarten. Aside from the sunburn I got on my thighs and nearly getting thrown off my horse twice, the excursion was awesome! Unfortunately, we had to cancel our plans for an outing to Orient Beach on the French side of the island, and a trip to Princess Juliana Airport (look it up on YouTube...you'll see why it's such a tourist magnet). We wanted to do at least one of these excursions, but neither of us wanted to risk a repeat of St. Thomas and the possibility of not making it back on the boat. We really needed at least two days on St. Maarten to do all that we wanted to do...but of all our ports of call, both Mighty and I liked St. Maarten the most.
I won't go too much into detail on this next part since there are others who are better able to talk about it than me, but part of the reason for going on this cruise was because the group we signed on to be with was promised prior to the actual cruise time during days at sea to don our fursuits for the entertainment of the other passengers. Now, for Mighty and I, this wasn't that big of an issue since this was our first vacation together, but having the option of fursuiting was honestly a bonus for us. However, it wasn't until after we got on the boat that we were told that we couldn't do it. FWIW, I feel kind of bad for the tour organizer,
keetcollie, as most of his time on the cruise was spent trying to figure out what went wrong and where, dealing with the cruise staff, and trying to salvage some sort of fursuit time for those in the group who were expecting a lot of time for fursuiting as there had been in past years.I appreciate Keet for his organization of the cruise and all his efforts to try to salvage what could have been a completely ruined experience for all 29 people who signed up for the cruise.
Other shout-outs I need to give...
kuddlepup, 
yappyfox and Herbie for organizing the Christmas party, 
michelmephit and 
Aikenwolf for being awesome roommates, and all of the attendees of WFCP & FurryCruise2012 for making our vacation experience a very memorable one. And now...it's nose-to-the-grindstone time. Yup, as of today I am now employed again! (YAY!!!) I never thought I'd miss having a job until I went through nearly four months without one. I might bitch about my job every now and again, but I realize that in today's economic reality, with people out there who have been looking for work FAR LONGER than I have, I'm pretty lucky to be where I am today. I hope I never forget that.
That's about it for now...I have a stack of lists and job description sheets to review. o.O
Take care!
- Colin
You take care, too...hopefully I'll see you again soon! *hugs and foxielicks*
#^.^#