Bon Voyage! The Sail Away Party on Celebrity Xcel and Carpe Diem!
We have been on quite a few cruises and always love being on the top deck of the ship as it sails out of port. It's always a moment where I fall in love with Dan even more.
…it is very satisfying to be with my friends with forgotten phones lying face down on the dinner table while our stories, teasing each other, and laughter drown out any app alerts.
It’s been a minute since posting, and I have missed y’all. I did post a few photos on IG and FB (and here on Notes) some short posts while we are on vacation, but not much else and nothing this past week. That nothing is because a pretty large project was fast-tracked and required 100% attention. However, I want to share the experiences from our voyage because they are pretty dang cool. But first…
“Guess what Randy? You know that training we postponed till the first of the year? Well, you are going to start doing that tomorrow! Woohoo!!”
The Monday after the cruise, I went back to work, glad to see everyone but in all honesty, was exhausted. We got back home Sunday evening, and I went to work first thing Monday morning. No quiet time or time to just relax. When I arrived, I hadn’t even sat down or booted up my laptop yet when the above greeting(?) was one supervisor’s response to my simply saying good morning to my coworkers.
Lol. I love said supervisor. She can tease me any time she wants.
It’s a good thing I had the training 95% ready to go before leaving for vacation. After catching up with my boss, I got busy polishing up the training and trained about 30 people over the course of this week on a new tool they will be using. When I train our department, my schedule gets weird and all over the place. Which is fine because I signed up for that, and our department is 24/7. The training sessions went on for 2+ hours, so needless to say, I need a vacation a week after returning from my vacation!
As a result of that, I literally had zero time to post anything online this week or share all the fun we had on our adventure across the Western Caribbean.
Let’s change that…
“Sail away, sail away, sail away!”–Enya (IYKYK)
After driving 3.5 hours down to Fort Lauderdale with Elfie trying to steal my sunglasses, I needed a nap. However, I woke up in plenty of time to participate in one of our newish cruise traditions.
Like a lot of other couples, and singles for that matter, Dan and I will take a couples selfie while sailing out of port (above with the other photos). Plus, he always makes sure I get a photo (or more) of the first sunset on the trip. This time it was absolutely gorgeous (see the above gallery).
And of course I had a Jack & Coke and the drinking started. That evening we got dressed up for dinner and met another older gay couple (very handsome men) and they joined us (and our other four friends) for dinner. We had a lot of laughs, good wine, and delicious food. I don’t have photos from the dinner because I was too busy enjoying the moment.
And I do not feel an ounce of regret for that!
Documenting life is great, but it will never replace living life.
I realize I take a lot less photos now than I did when I was younger. That is because experiencing life without a lens in front of me to preserve the moment is not as important as just enjoying the moment.
Memories outside of photos are far more relational and satisfying. I love photos and of course take them, but there are times I want to stare at my loved one’s face in real time instead of his face through a photo lens; it is very satisfying to be with my friends with forgotten phones lying face down on the dinner table while our stories, teasing each other, and laughter drown out any app alerts.
From the moment we got on the ship, I knew it was going to be a very good trip. We were at peace and ready to just “be” present to each other. I look forward to sharing more about the trip, day by day, over the course of the upcoming week with you.
More about Randy…
