elation.

We got the cruise tickets, we got the airline tickets to get there too, and via the wonders of the internet, we already made friends with the couple who is next to our cabin. (Their cabin is next to our cabin, I should say. They wont just be standing in the hall. That would be creepy.) That's odd to me. The net has changed things so much...We are still great friends with all we met via the net in Agave before moving here, now we are invited to a private party in the cruise penthouse with "friends" we met on the cruise ship's website (Holland America) and we are chatting with our next door cruise neighbors.

Alex always called me the cruise director because I've gathered friends and planned things along the way of our relationship every second. Now I get to really earn the title.

I can't begin to say how excited I am to win this cruise. It's like God gave us a Christmas present a tad early. And we get it AND all the other half-wrapped items under the tree. (I say half-wrapped because we have a puppy...and, y'all...bows and ribbons, it turns out, are highly attractive to Pomeranian puppies. As is wrapping paper. So she's doing her part to bring more early Christmas gifts...Alex cheered her on this morning as she tugged out the edge of one of Alex's items just before I caught her.)

Here's the thing: Alex and I agreed we were gonna cook our hineys off over Christmas and not count one frickin calorie...and worry about it the week after Christmas.

But, y'all, bikinis are in our near future.

I'm burnin up my tennies on the workout room floor every day now and heatin up the elliptical. Oh, I'm still gonna eat. I'm just gonna start paying penance a little early to make up for it. Afterall, a gal needs to lose an EXTRA five pounds prior to every cruise...because you gain at least that while cruising. That way you start off underweight and dont feel one shred of guilt at that midnight buffet when you taste all 100 appetizers and grab a main dish and 50 different desserts.

Think I'm kidding? I do that every cruise...get stick skinny so I can eat dessert at every meal, partake of all 5 courses, and taste everything that's free on the menu.

Which would be everything.

They have no idea how much they'll be spending on food by giving me a free cruise.

Like they'll ever make THAT mistake twice!

Just to ensure I can even enjoy the cocktail-of-the-day each day, I'm packing up my heart rate monitor and workout attire for the ship.

But, like the movie "yes man" with Jim Carrey that's just come out...

I don't plan on uttering "No thank you" at anytime during the week's trip.


Oh! We booked the swimming with stingrays excursion. I've done it before and I still talk about it. I LOVE it. They take you to a sandbar in the outskirts of the ocean and the stingrays know the sound of the boats that have tourists...they swarm to the sandbar from all over the ocean until the white of the sand under the water looks like God poured ink in it...it becomes solid black. Even the men on the boat were too freaked to dive in when they saw that. I, of course, squeeled happily like a 5 year old and dove in and after I screamed in happiness for 10 minutes finally the second person decided to brave it... and then I was the last one out. In fact, they just gave me my own bucket of fish to feed them since I was still happily squeeling like a pig the whole time. (they are attracted to bright colors and I had on a florescent pink and orange bikini so I got felt up by the rays while everyone else had brief encounters)

There is NOTHING like being swarmed by wild stingrays all over your body, I don't care what ya think. I'll never forget it.

I did have to convince Alex the stinging barbs, in all likelihood, will not end her cruise early by piercing her heart like the untimely death of the Crocodile Hunter.

We do, afterall, also have a child (dog) named Bindi.

How freakishly coincidental would that story be in the news?

And, should this venture stress her out to much, we are also touring the Bicardi factory so...we're good. It's well thought out.