I’m currently on hold with the Dallas County tax office and feel like I’ll be waiting for a while, so I figured now’s a good a time as any to reminisce our best friend cruise…

This idea started as a semi joke. A lot of us in the group are obsessed with The Office and some of us even have tattoos of The Office memorabilia. Remember the episode when they go on a booze cruise? And the whole thing with Pam and Jim? Course you do. Because it’s one of the best episodes besides the poker night one. ANYWAY. Chaney mused that, wouldn’t it be so cool if we all went on a cruise?! And the next thing we know we’re booking a cruise.

Yes. We made a shirt for the occasion. And also bought a bulk box of captain’s hats off Amazon. We were hence known as “the group wearing captain’s hats” on the ship. It’s our own fault, really.

“FRIENDSHIP IS THE MOST CRUCIAL INGREDIENT TO ANY SEA ADVENTURE SECOND ONLY TO BUOYANCY.” 
-Name That Quote

We boarded and explored that first day wearing our matching shirts. This was my first real vacation with no real “adults.” Just friends. Doing what we wanted. Because we could. It was very liberating.

Our first (and only) excursion was to Cozumel, Mexico. Our route usually also stops in Progreso, Mexico, but something about the ship being broken on one side? I don’t know. I only skimmed the email. Shel and I had been to Cozumel before during our cruise with our family last year and it was just as beautiful as I remember.

Our excursion was one part snorkeling one part beach. We rode on a catamaran out to a reef and snorkeled for half an hour. I saw the most beautiful fish down there. I also met my spirit fish. She was a loner, colored in neon stripes and dots. And I said to myself, “Dat me as a fish!” Bid her good day, and swam on. We got our picture taken by a guy with a really fancy underwater camera with fish food in his pockets to attract the fish and make it look like there were all these fish. There were, but come on. Not that many.

Most important to note is this moment:

It may look like an ordinary selfie to you, but to me it was a right turn. We’d just finished snorkeling and fully exhausted climbing back aboard the catamaran, wet with sea water and covered in salt, holding a margarita, dancing with my friends in the middle of the ocean…I was happy. Like, really happy. Like, deep to my core real happiness. Pure joy. That’s the first time I remember feeling like that for…well, a long time. Years. My life lately has been tangled up and sourced from unhealthy and ugly places. Wrapped up in people who mess me up and manipulate me. But not here. Not on that boat. On that boat I let it all go and stood alone. Independent. Happy. Done. And I’m happy to report nothing has changed! I am still just as happy as I am in this photo. Yay for oceans!

After D-Daying our way to shore, we claimed a cabana way in the back and had a stranger take our photo against the ocean. I’ll treasure the Instax photo he snapped of us, too. One of my favorites. Part of our excursion included these giant inflatable obstacle course things. You literally had to use all of your upper body strength to get on one and then jump on a trampoline covered in broken shells and sand and laugh when someone almost falls off or gets scraped by the sharp shells. We all thought we were going to drown. It was fun.

On our way back, we sipped margaritas and danced line dances with the boat crew. How in the WORLD they all keep their balance while doing the wobble I’ll never know. I almost broke a leg a dozen times.

We chose to do the fancy dinners every night and wore our captain’s hats. Once, three of us showed up late and the waiters just said, “Your friends are seated in the back.” Like he already knew who we were with. HOW DID HE KNOW.

We did karaoke, we swam, went down the slide, watched our friends throw money in the trash can in the casino, saw a show, did more karaoke, napped. Man. We napped. A lot. But mostly we laid out and got sunburned.

If I haven’t said it enough before, I love these people. Here’s to adult vacations for the rest of our lives.

 

xx