I’m ba-aaaack! February is over, which means I can have a life again. I just turned 22 on March 13, and coincidentally have 22 new things to check off my bucket list!
#44: Drove from Michigan to Florida, and back. Given that the longest drive I’ve ever had to endure before spring break was the 5-hour drive up north, I had no idea what to expect out of this 25-hour drive. Thankfully, my friend Cheadle volunteered to drive for 18 hours straight – and somehow enjoyed it. Although I didn’t drive myself, I did offer to drive, and was “lookout” in the passenger seat once… but within minutes I nodded off. All in all, the drive was bearable because of good company (and delirious 5 a.m. conversations about how adding the word “kangaroo” to the end of a sentence doesn’t make it an Australian accent).
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I also acquired the world’s tiniest spork.
#45: Drove through a massive tornado outbreak. March 2, 2012 was arguably the worst time to drive through the Midwest ever. Good thing we drove through Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky that day! Essentially, we dodged several bullets, as we had the potential to bump into 78 tornadoes. #Illgetyoumypretty
#46-48: Went to Georgia, West Virginia, Virginia. Pretty uneventful, but worth recording. In Georgia, however, at 4 a.m. in a random gas station, I bumped into two MSU friends!
#49: Met the Cheadle family. When we finally reached Florida around 10 a.m. on March 3, we stopped at Cheadle’s grandparents’ house in The Village. Yes, the city’s name is The Village, and only people aged 55 years or older can reside there. It’s basically a mini Utopian golf paradise for retired people, equipped with personal golf carts and a town square. His grandma served us a very nice brunch, and his uncle was pleasant too. His grandpa… well… he’s too old to give a damn.
#50: Went on a Carnival cruise. Last year, I went a Royal Caribbean cruise with my family, but this is the first time I’ve taken Carnival, or gone with just friends. The ship (NOT boat) was called the Carnival Freedom, and we went to Key West, Grand Cayman and Jamaica. So much fun and well worth the $500. More details later.
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KEY WEST
#51: Went to a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museum. I was obsessed with Ripley’s show when I was younger, so it’s strange that I haven’t been to a museum before. It reminded me a lot of Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum near my parents’ house, so I felt right at home!
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Ripley’s Key West location *would* have Madonna’s panties
#52: Went to the Key West butterfly museum. A little too expensive (which tourist trap isn’t?), but very pretty and definitely worthwhile.
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Kelsey “Snow White” Loeffler over here caught a butterfly on her head
GRAND CAYMAN
#53: Snorkeled in Grand Cayman. Brandon and I were supposed to go boating out to Stingray City and then snorkel, but the “bad weather” aka 20 minutes of light rain, was reason enough to cancel the tours. Instead, Brandon and I just snorkeled along the side of a restaurant for $10, since we already had most of our snorkel stuff. The snorkeling was cool, as we saw giant fish (tarpon) that I mistook for sharks/barracudas/sea monsters, but I really enjoyed the tide pools!
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Mr. Krabbs
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I’m basically a mermaid.
#54: Went to a Hard Rock Cafe. As a classic rock fangirl, this was a let-down. The checkerboard tablecloths and mediocre food was pretty underwhelming, and everything was entirely overpriced. Let’s not talk about it anymore.
#55: Went to Margaritaville. We were there for about 20 seconds… until the sight of 300 drunk people grinding on each other to “Sweet Home Alabama” left me wondering why I wasn’t outside enjoying the ocean instead.
JAMAICA
#56: Went to Jamaica. The weather in Key West and Grand Cayman was definitely better than Michigan, but still pretty windy and breezy. Jamaica, however, was sunny and hot and gawwgeous! Despite the country’s poverty, Jamaica’s residents were some of the happiest and friendliest people I’ve ever seen (from the guy who let us rent jet skis to the random people singing songs on the beach), and that’s probably due to the beautiful landscape.
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This is a picture of Jamaica…
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And this is Jamaica a wee bit closer…
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And this is as close to Jamaica as you can get without getting your eyes wet
#57: Drove a jet ski. I’ve ridden on the back of a jet ski on Lake Charlevoix when I was a kid, but I’ve never had the chance to actually drive one. This is something I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do. In fact, for my Bat Mitzvah, I aimed high and asked for a jet ski as a present, but quite reasonably didn’t get one.
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Me and Brandon on a jet ski! Oh wait…
#58: Played Craps. Brandon is a card guy. He deals poker, plays every card game under the sun and blows my mind on a regular basis with his magic tricks. Naturally, he spent a lot of time at the ship’s casino, and I tagged along. After a few nights of watching (and after a few drinks), I decided to give Craps a try … a.k.a. Lauren rolled the dice clean off the table, and then lost. Never again.
#59: Played Blackjack. THIS was a much better game for me, as I ended up winning $100! Well, to be technical, Brandon gave me $10 to start with, I got it up to $105, he took back the $10 he lent me, and I was left with $95. It was fun, and my luck was INSANE, as I managed to get a 10 and a face card almost every time. I made ten-dollar bets (the minimum) and even worked up the courage to make it fifteen a couple of times. Brandon, on the other hand…. won $2000. I KNOW, RIGHT?
#60-62: Met new people: Amanda, random people, dinner people. Keeping my new year’s resolution in mind, I forced myself to talk to new people. It was obvious that I’d talk to Amanda, the girl who was hitching a ride with us to Florida to visit friends, but I met all sorts of interesting people on the actual cruise. Between the rich gamblers, the rebellious Catholic college girls, the total bros, the highly fashionable yet somehow straight Russian dancers, and the world’s worst pickup artist (“Hey baby, want to buy me a drink?”) there was a lot to learn about people. I did manage to meet some seemingly normal adults at our dinner table, though.
#63: Tried frog legs. My new philosophy with food: if it hasn’t killed anyone yet, it’s worth trying. So, frog legs it was. Blocking out the thought of capturing a frog, killing it, ripping its legs off, and frying them up to serve as a delicacy, I actually quite enjoyed them, despite the fact that they tasted eerily similar to chicken.
#64: Had a banana butterscotch drink. DAMN was this good! Winner of the ship’s mixology competition, the drink was a nice contrast to the ungodly amount of fruity umbrella drinks I’d consumed during the course of the trip.
#65: Tried every new food I could find at the buffet. While most of the buffet played it safe, there was the occasional strange-looking dish, so I tried it every time, though sadly, I can’t really recall any of them.
#66: Went on a lunch date with myself. When I came back to Michigan, my bragging rights for getting a tan decreased exponentially, since the weather has been in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Instead of staying inside and playing usual rounds of MW3 before class, I slapped myself on the wrist, got on my bike, and bought myself a nice sandwich and smoothie from Potbelly, and ate it outside of the Union. This may be somewhat normal for most people, but for the past three years, I’ve been too dependent on others for outings, and haven’t really enjoyed my alone time much. It felt nice Image may be NSFW.
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