Lot on My Mind..
I have a lot on my mind lately, none of which is helping me sleep at night.. But first things first.
Matt and I just got back from our cruise! It was a blast. We left from Baltimore, and despite our earlier decision to not drink for a little bit and decide what to do about prices of alcohol etc. we already had our first drink in hand by 2:00 (boat left the dock at 4:00). Well, its hard to say no to the thousand servers who walk by you constantly asking if you want a drink. The trip down to the islands was relatively uneventful, we sat around a lot by the pool, listening to the live music, going in the hot tub, going in the pool, reading, etc etc. We also explored the ship some, but honestly they didn't really have much in the shops that I was dying to have. We had dinner with our table-mates Josh and Charity and Giulianna and Kevin, who were very nice, and we hated on a LOT of people. All in all, a solid couple days. Then we arrived at Puerto Rico where our excursion to the rain forest to do the canopy tour was cancelled :( So we were dropped in Old San Juan where we toured around the old forts there and walked 10,000 miles. But there was really not much to see except a bunch of malnourished cats who needed medical attention desperately. We ended up going back on the ship early because there just wasn't much to see. Then off to St. Thomas! When we woke up that morning and went to the top of the ship to check out St. Thomas I was blown away! It looked just like I imagined a tropical island would look like; Puerto Rico was very commercial/industrial. But St. Thomas was like a tropical paradise. We hopped off the boat early for our excursion: snorkeling with turtles! We got on a sail boat and were jetted out to Turtle Cove where they promised that we would see turtles. I was skeptical, but was eventually proven very very wrong. We must've seen 15-20 turtles on top of a little reef full of fish and other creatures toward the shore a little. It was great! I got lots of pictures of the turtles and other sea life and had a great time. Though, I had a panic attack when I first got in the water with my snorkel. I jumped in like a SCUBA diver with fins and everything but as soon as I hit the water my mask flew off and my mouth was inundated with the MOST SALTY water I've ever tasted. I tried to get my snorkel back on, it was soaking, and then I tried to breathe and I felt like there was this pressure on my chest and it wouldn't go away. Apparently I was breathing too shallowly because you can't breathe in the water like you do on land. But I got used to it and then really liked it. Then we got back, did a little shopping, and hitched a taxi to Magens Bay which was beautiful. Then back on the boat! Off to The Dominican Republic. What a disappointment. I had scheduled the excursion of horseback riding to a waterfall and then there was the option of swimming in the waterfall and then riding back. What it turned out to be was these men who own horses individually would turn up with their horses at this gathering point and would load us up and then LEAD US on their own horses through the forest and jungle to the waterfall where they would escort us down to the waterfall and follow us around, and then they would escort us back up and lead us back through the jungle to the outpost. Great. You could swim in the waterfall but there were a MILLION people on the one little rock that we could stand on and I didn't feel very comfortable in a bathing suit in front of all the creepy guides. Also, none of the guides spoke English, so I got to really practice my Spanish.. And discovered how rusty I truly am. The island was so poor and depressing and full of shacks with starving dogs and children out front and we just couldn't stand it so we got back on the boat immediately. I wish we had done a different excursion there, or not stopped at all to be honest. Then off to our unexpected favorite island... HAITI. Yup. We got off the dock in Labadee and it was a heavenly resort. Beaches were great and Matt and I wasted no time getting snorkeling. We explored this wall along the beaches that had a little reef and found a lot of interesting stuff. We saw coral banded shrimp, a lobster (hiding under a ridge), baby fish and an octopus who was asleep in a little cave surrounded by empty and consumed shellfish. We even watched a hermit crab type critter move into an empty shell by blowing sand out of the shell with a jet of water out the tip of the shell. It was very entertaining. Among trumpeter fish, and many other different kinds of fish. Then we went on our excursion which was a short boat ride with about 30 people to a small private beach where we were served a drink and Matt and I got back in the water to check out the snorkeling there. A few things freaked me out about snorkeling at the private beach.. the first was that the reef kind of dropped off into what looked like absolute nothingness at one point and I was kind of scared about whats down there.. the second is right after I saw that I turned and ran into the butt of a 3-4 foot barracuda. Terrifying. Matt used the perfect word: they're eerie. He just exuded this dangerous vibe, I knew he could really mess up my day if he wanted to and swim a million miles an hour. But he just stayed there, nice and still, HUGE. I got out of the water at that point, he was super scary! After that it was back on the boat and back up to Baltimore doing a lot of the same: reading, relaxing, going in the pool etc.. And that was our cruise adventure.
Well, back to whats on my mind though as this medium is supposed to help me express that. My Uncle Chris is dying. I guess he went into the hospital for appendicitis and went into surgery where they discovered that it had burst and he was suffering from peritonitis. During surgery or after at some point he aspirated fluid into his lungs and began suffering from aspiration pneumonia and he was intubated with a respirator so it could help him breathe. I guess he started to or never stopped running a high fever, and this was a few weeks ago, so he's been slowly cooking his insides on top of all of this. I think the fever would be due to the peritonitis, and I think he probably is septic at this point though nobody has told me that, its a safe inference I guess. Then a few days ago his fever spiked to 104 and they couldn't get it down quickly enough and my Aunt says that now even though its down and his eyes are open, he looks like he's a blank slate. He's not making efforts to communicate, she says his eyes are just blank and "he's not there". Which is.. awful.. And he's dependent on the respirator while the pneumonia has destroyed his lungs, he's on 100% oxygen, and they can't give him any more. He will likely go into cardiac arrest soon due to lack of oxygen and die. I haven't seen my uncle in many years, but he was nothing if not a great guy. He was always kind to me.. and now he's dying in his mid-50's. It shocks me. Because even though he wasn't in the greatest shape and he was a bit of a drinker, he was otherwise healthy. And he was taken out so soon by something otherwise treatable. It scares me that no matter what you do to ensure your health, death can strike at any moment, and even though I work hard to stay fit and eat right, in the end I could have a stroke and die. Or similar. So I think I will have to go up to Massachusetts in the nearer future for a funeral..
Brian and Anna get married this weekend.. we are flying out on Thursday morning, so in 3 days. I'm sure people are wondering why Matt and I aren't engaged. Its probably because I'm unmarriable so don't worry about it. I feel so sad with Uncle Chris's situation and now I'm expected to go to a wedding.. I dunno, I can't bring myself to care about it. I can't bring myself to care about much right now. Anyway, I should maybe do some work..
Matt and I just got back from our cruise! It was a blast. We left from Baltimore, and despite our earlier decision to not drink for a little bit and decide what to do about prices of alcohol etc. we already had our first drink in hand by 2:00 (boat left the dock at 4:00). Well, its hard to say no to the thousand servers who walk by you constantly asking if you want a drink. The trip down to the islands was relatively uneventful, we sat around a lot by the pool, listening to the live music, going in the hot tub, going in the pool, reading, etc etc. We also explored the ship some, but honestly they didn't really have much in the shops that I was dying to have. We had dinner with our table-mates Josh and Charity and Giulianna and Kevin, who were very nice, and we hated on a LOT of people. All in all, a solid couple days. Then we arrived at Puerto Rico where our excursion to the rain forest to do the canopy tour was cancelled :( So we were dropped in Old San Juan where we toured around the old forts there and walked 10,000 miles. But there was really not much to see except a bunch of malnourished cats who needed medical attention desperately. We ended up going back on the ship early because there just wasn't much to see. Then off to St. Thomas! When we woke up that morning and went to the top of the ship to check out St. Thomas I was blown away! It looked just like I imagined a tropical island would look like; Puerto Rico was very commercial/industrial. But St. Thomas was like a tropical paradise. We hopped off the boat early for our excursion: snorkeling with turtles! We got on a sail boat and were jetted out to Turtle Cove where they promised that we would see turtles. I was skeptical, but was eventually proven very very wrong. We must've seen 15-20 turtles on top of a little reef full of fish and other creatures toward the shore a little. It was great! I got lots of pictures of the turtles and other sea life and had a great time. Though, I had a panic attack when I first got in the water with my snorkel. I jumped in like a SCUBA diver with fins and everything but as soon as I hit the water my mask flew off and my mouth was inundated with the MOST SALTY water I've ever tasted. I tried to get my snorkel back on, it was soaking, and then I tried to breathe and I felt like there was this pressure on my chest and it wouldn't go away. Apparently I was breathing too shallowly because you can't breathe in the water like you do on land. But I got used to it and then really liked it. Then we got back, did a little shopping, and hitched a taxi to Magens Bay which was beautiful. Then back on the boat! Off to The Dominican Republic. What a disappointment. I had scheduled the excursion of horseback riding to a waterfall and then there was the option of swimming in the waterfall and then riding back. What it turned out to be was these men who own horses individually would turn up with their horses at this gathering point and would load us up and then LEAD US on their own horses through the forest and jungle to the waterfall where they would escort us down to the waterfall and follow us around, and then they would escort us back up and lead us back through the jungle to the outpost. Great. You could swim in the waterfall but there were a MILLION people on the one little rock that we could stand on and I didn't feel very comfortable in a bathing suit in front of all the creepy guides. Also, none of the guides spoke English, so I got to really practice my Spanish.. And discovered how rusty I truly am. The island was so poor and depressing and full of shacks with starving dogs and children out front and we just couldn't stand it so we got back on the boat immediately. I wish we had done a different excursion there, or not stopped at all to be honest. Then off to our unexpected favorite island... HAITI. Yup. We got off the dock in Labadee and it was a heavenly resort. Beaches were great and Matt and I wasted no time getting snorkeling. We explored this wall along the beaches that had a little reef and found a lot of interesting stuff. We saw coral banded shrimp, a lobster (hiding under a ridge), baby fish and an octopus who was asleep in a little cave surrounded by empty and consumed shellfish. We even watched a hermit crab type critter move into an empty shell by blowing sand out of the shell with a jet of water out the tip of the shell. It was very entertaining. Among trumpeter fish, and many other different kinds of fish. Then we went on our excursion which was a short boat ride with about 30 people to a small private beach where we were served a drink and Matt and I got back in the water to check out the snorkeling there. A few things freaked me out about snorkeling at the private beach.. the first was that the reef kind of dropped off into what looked like absolute nothingness at one point and I was kind of scared about whats down there.. the second is right after I saw that I turned and ran into the butt of a 3-4 foot barracuda. Terrifying. Matt used the perfect word: they're eerie. He just exuded this dangerous vibe, I knew he could really mess up my day if he wanted to and swim a million miles an hour. But he just stayed there, nice and still, HUGE. I got out of the water at that point, he was super scary! After that it was back on the boat and back up to Baltimore doing a lot of the same: reading, relaxing, going in the pool etc.. And that was our cruise adventure.
Well, back to whats on my mind though as this medium is supposed to help me express that. My Uncle Chris is dying. I guess he went into the hospital for appendicitis and went into surgery where they discovered that it had burst and he was suffering from peritonitis. During surgery or after at some point he aspirated fluid into his lungs and began suffering from aspiration pneumonia and he was intubated with a respirator so it could help him breathe. I guess he started to or never stopped running a high fever, and this was a few weeks ago, so he's been slowly cooking his insides on top of all of this. I think the fever would be due to the peritonitis, and I think he probably is septic at this point though nobody has told me that, its a safe inference I guess. Then a few days ago his fever spiked to 104 and they couldn't get it down quickly enough and my Aunt says that now even though its down and his eyes are open, he looks like he's a blank slate. He's not making efforts to communicate, she says his eyes are just blank and "he's not there". Which is.. awful.. And he's dependent on the respirator while the pneumonia has destroyed his lungs, he's on 100% oxygen, and they can't give him any more. He will likely go into cardiac arrest soon due to lack of oxygen and die. I haven't seen my uncle in many years, but he was nothing if not a great guy. He was always kind to me.. and now he's dying in his mid-50's. It shocks me. Because even though he wasn't in the greatest shape and he was a bit of a drinker, he was otherwise healthy. And he was taken out so soon by something otherwise treatable. It scares me that no matter what you do to ensure your health, death can strike at any moment, and even though I work hard to stay fit and eat right, in the end I could have a stroke and die. Or similar. So I think I will have to go up to Massachusetts in the nearer future for a funeral..
Brian and Anna get married this weekend.. we are flying out on Thursday morning, so in 3 days. I'm sure people are wondering why Matt and I aren't engaged. Its probably because I'm unmarriable so don't worry about it. I feel so sad with Uncle Chris's situation and now I'm expected to go to a wedding.. I dunno, I can't bring myself to care about it. I can't bring myself to care about much right now. Anyway, I should maybe do some work..