Signing in for another shitty and exhausting day on the Independence of the Seas. They need to change that to Imperfections of the Seas or something like that.

Royal Fuckups has announced that there will be no docking in Costa Maya today because of the choppy seas. Not their fault, but disappointing. It’s not storming or raining, but the wind is really whipping. You can hear it howling by the door to the balcony. Tom said the ship was really rocking like the plane when it hit turbulence at about three in the morning and that it was a lot like driving down a bumpy road. I’m surprised I slept through it. Tom said that when they were attempting to dock the smell of diesel was horrible.

The pools have been closed, but we may be able to catch our first swim in one of them later on. The kids’ pool looks really cool. Will definitely get pictures of that, the rock wall, and a few other things over the next couple of days as we make our way back to Port Everglades at just 12 miles an hour. Something like that, anyway.

I have mixed emotions about not being able to dock today. Even though the heatstroke wasn’t my fault and we couldn’t have anticipated what happened with the delay and all that, I feel like I screwed us out of excursions, even though Tom assures me I didn’t do anything wrong. I definitely shouldn’t have that much more sun exposure at the moment, but what pisses me off about not being able to dock is that now I can’t mail the three postcards we picked up yesterday. I guess we’ll just keep them for ourselves.

I’m so behind in my journaling that I’m struggling to remember where I left off. When I’m not busy I’m either too tired or too disoriented, thanks to lousy sleep along with the heatstroke I suffered. I don’t think I’ll ever spend a moment feeling all that awake until we’re back home and I’ve had a chance to catch up on sleep. I do perk up a bit in the afternoons and early evenings, but mornings I’m dragging.

My battery life is down to 21%. I’m going to just use my laptop to catch up until it runs out of juice. I’ll do the rest by hand, but chances are I won’t fully finish until we’ve gotten back home and I’ve had a chance to fully recover.

We were never able to connect to the Internet so hopefully we’ll not only get our money back for that, but no one will be worried about us.

Let me jump to the present before I jump back and backtrack from where I left off. Our neighbors are worse than the last time around. Not the couples on the sides of us, But the people above us. I know there’s at least one young guy up there diagonally from us as well as directly above us, though I don’t know if it’s just a wild bunch of adults or if there are kids up there. I just know that the evening banging is horrible. They usually don’t start their shit until about 7 PM and then it tapers off around 9-10 PM, but for some reason, they returned to their room early yesterday and I had to listen to the constant bumps and bangs from about 5-11 PM. A classic reminder of why I loathe living attached to others. Too much banging.

To make matters worse, Tom and I got into a fight. He seemed very annoyed at my bitching about all the banging. You would think I would have learned years ago that for some reason, although it’s not anything I ever could understand, he takes complaints against others personally. Yet I just had to vent like an idiot.

He also got really fed up when I couldn’t find the three ankle bracelets I got in Cozumel and I feared the housekeeper stole them. He then said he was at his breaking point, he’d been supportive of me, I was abusing him, and was just about ready to take off and leave me alone on the ship once it docked at Costa Maya, not that we ever made it there.

I never said he wasn’t supportive of me and I just didn’t understand why he was so upset all of a sudden, but I assumed it was because it had been a rough trip in general thus far. I knew I wasn’t a fun person to be around, but I also didn’t see how complaining about very noisy people would be pushing him to his “ breaking point” or “abusing” him.

I realized then that I really should be less vocal about the things that annoy me, especially when it pertains to other people. He just takes it way too personally. Like I said, I don’t understand why, and it’s never made any sense to me why anyone would take such things personally, but nonetheless, that’s just what he does. I quit trying to figure out why a long time ago, but it offends him and he becomes defensive of them, whoever they are. I personally could never and would never side with anyone that upset or annoyed him, but that’s just me. He’s him and I’m me.

Secrets, Jodi, I said to myself. It really is okay to have a few here and there and not let him in on every little thing that’s bothering you, unless it doesn’t have to do with someone else.

So I will make a point of complaining less!

What really got to me was his constant ordering me around, but at the time I didn’t understand why he was being so bossy and treating me like a little kid. The heatstroke left me disoriented, and while I’ve been getting better, he was afraid to leave me alone because I kept getting confused. Although it was anything but funny then, it was funny how I went up a set of stairs that looped back to the same place on both sides and asked, “Which way?”

My battery life is now down to just 18% and so I’m going to go in random order and I will just edit everything when we get home.

We sailed by Cuba and that was a little exciting since it was almost like seeing yet another country, even though we never stopped there and nobody vacations there anyway. But I still saw Cuba. :-)

Just like on the other ship, the housekeeper comes around twice a day, which seems a bit overkill to me. After the first day, I just had him empty our trash as that was all we needed, but I let him give us the full treatment yesterday. Today he can just take the trash and dishes and give us a spare roll of toilet paper. Maybe make the beds up a bit, too.

On our second night, I went to the Windjammer for the first time, and Tom wasn’t kidding when he said that it has a much bigger selection than room service. Dinner was absolutely delicious. If I had a bottomless stomach I would’ve sat there eating all night long. I had prime rib, a little bit of macaroni and cheese, breaded tilapia, and the most delicious chocolate cake ever. I think it was a mud pie. Sometimes I have kiwi-strawberry juice to drink and other times I fill my soda cup.

This ship has more stores than the other ship had, but most of them either don’t appeal to me or the prices are just totally ridiculous. Prices are always insane on ships. They do have some nice jewelry, though, and even though I don’t exactly need another pen, I got a beautiful pen in which the bottom half is a solid pale pink color and the top is filled with shiny “diamonds.” I was also sure to spray perfume testers on each wrist every day.

Some of the inside rooms overlook the Promenade instead of the ocean. I could see a young girl sitting on her bed doing something on a laptop while stealing glances at the people milling about down below. Not a view I would like. I’m sure it’s anything but peaceful there, too.

I ran into one of the ladies at the Windjammer that was in line with us and she asked how I was doing. I told her I was getting better, and she said I looked better. Well, I definitely got some color, that’s for sure.

Later…

Battery life is now down to 14%.

Like I said, it seems that everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. Even the elevators lose their minds. The doors kept opening and closing on one of them.

They post the day of the week on the floor of the elevator because it’s easy to lose track of the days when you’re at sea. If I worked on the ship I would be tempted to change it to the wrong day, as the prankster in me came out.

Yesterday’s breakfast consisted of granola cereal and it was okay. I also got some other things with it like OJ, a banana, assorted rolls, and some yogurt. At least they don’t fuck up the bacon like they do the eggs. Today I just settled for a banana and bacon, and I always have coffee, of course. I did take a bite or two of the eggbeaters, which are slightly better than what they call real eggs, but nothing I care for. I think going to the Windjammer for all our meals is our best bet. I grabbed some bacon, tater tots, and potato slices with onions earlier, along with a side of corned beef hash. It was pretty good.

For both lunch and dinner yesterday I had a delicious spinach and onion frittata, breaded fish, mashed potatoes, and cappuccino cheesecake that was to die for.

Not sure what we’re going to do today. The Wave Rider or Flow Rider, as it’s called, as well as the miniature golf course doesn’t look appealing, but I will get some pictures of it. Maybe I will treat myself to one of the necklaces I like at the Promenade. I also have a Fire and Ice manicure and pedicure set up for 1pm, and I don’t just want the pampering but I need it as well.