23 Years

I've lived on this planet for 23 years and a day. More, if you count gestational time, but I won't. I've learned a ton of stuff, most of which amounts to the fact that I know basically nothing. Some of it, though, might actually be useful in the future. Might have been useful in the past, too, but here I am, mostly better for it.

When I was 5 years old, my sister, Peyton, was born. I remember, like it was yesterday, being fascinated with age, asking my parents all kinds of questions. "How old will Peyton be when I'm 6?" Still 0. "How old will I be when Peyton is 6?" 11 years old. I freaked out. ELEVEN?! I'll practically be an adult!

This cycle continued for years, until I turned 17. Then, I didn't care. I felt perfectly content as a 17-year-old, and when I turned 18, I welcomed it with open arms. It was time.

Now, 23 seems simultaneously perfect and premature. It's certainly not old, but aren't I supposed to have life figured out by now? Aren't I supposed to know what I want?

I know myself better. I'm more myself and still not quite myself yet.

I had a list of things I've learned lately that I was going to share. I decided not to use it. Seems silly, at this point, because one of the main things I've learned is that I still have so much left to learn.

But I made it this far. And I know where I'm going.

And that is enough.

Music Monday ON A WEDNESDAY! "Say Something"

I present to you the FIRST EVER Music Monday on Reghanland... ON A WEDNESDAY! Because why not? I make the rules.

This week's focus is "Say Something" by A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera. The song is beautiful, vulnerable, simple. The music video made me cry, but it seems everything does these days. I truly hope you feel the song and enjoy it.

Picking Up Chicks, Lesson 1: Get your own card

(Kora, the star of the show.)

Let's say you're at Tres Cantina on a Thursday night. You're there because someone you know - your cousin, perhaps - is playing there. It's a beautiful night in the late summer, so they've opened up the back patio, which is a perfect setting. You've got your best friend (who is also your cousin, extended, by marriage, who will share credit with you forever on making that marriage happen so you could be cousins) with you.

Let's also say that there are three guys hanging around near your table. They are going on and on about something, which turns out to be the "well water" they ordered. They find it extremely disgusting, and they offer you and your friend some. "Heck no," you say, rightly so, since, HELLO, that's gross. Plus, the guys in this hypothetical situation are harmless, but in other situations, you could totally get roofied that way. Duh.

One of them sees your iPhone. It's clearly a 3GS, so he asks when you're due for an upgrade. Let's be honest, it doesn't matter when you're available for an upgrade. He would've responded in the same way. He pulls out a Best Buy business card. Turns out, he's an employee there. He writes his name on the card, since it's actually someone else's card, and tells you to stop by and he can hook you up with an upgrade.

Do you go?

...Your answer should be no. No, you don't go. It's certainly not the worst pickup ever, but it was absolutely not successful, and homegirl (yours truly) next to you was trying not to die laughing right there, and you don't even live here, and he looked like he could easily have been 15 years older than you, and a bar & grill on a Thursday night in a city you don't live in is certainly not where you pick up guys who look 15 years older than you and give you someone else's business card so you can drive to see him at his work on the premise of getting an upgrade.

It's weird.

Cruise Post 2 of 2: Belize & Cozumel

Read part one to get caught up.

Belize City, Belize

Belize City was the second of the three ports of call we visited. The coral reef is protected, so our ship couldn't dock on the port. We had to anchor out and take a 15-minute tender boat ride to the port. The water where we were dropped of was very brown and had a lot of trash floating in it.

There are huge gates that separate the port shops from the city itself. From what I've heard, this is for the best. You can go into town, but nobody recommends it. The prices are dirt cheap (I hear) but it's extremely dangerous. Even being in the shops outside the gates, there were people with flyers crawling on the huge gate and laying on the ground, sticking their hands through, trying to lure you into town to take their $10 tour.

Don't know who that man is, by the way.

Drink stand.

It rained for a solid 5 minutes, and the rest of the time was perfectly warm and sunny. The prices were decent, but they weren't cheap enough to make me return for the shopping. They have a restaurant/bar called the Wet Lizard, which seems like a fun place, but we didn't eat there. We got back on the boat and headed to the ship much earlier than we planned, which ended up being for the best, because many people nearly got left behind! (We believe this was because of the people running the tender boats. The last boat ran at 4:15pm ship time so the ship could leave at 5 - which it did. However, when the ship stopped, we were on our balcony, watching 4 loads of people get dropped off from the boats. They had no idea. They were all taking pictures and waving at us, having a grand ol' time. Ignorance is bliss, I guess, until you watch your ship leave without you.

Catch a fish, drop a fish, catch a fish, drop a fish...

Cozumel, Mexico

Cozumel is a more popular port. That's nice for them, but not for us Americans. From the port where we docked, there all kinds of shops and a couple of restaurants to see. It's all very pretty, and just strolling around is nice. It's extremely commercialized, though, and the prices are astronomical. You can take a 10-minute taxi ride into town, but we have yet to do this in the two times we've been there.

Our prepaid excursion was for snorkeling and a beach party. However, because it was so cloudy and rainy, we had the option to get a refund instead. I will not deny that, at the time of the offer, I was very much in love with the idea of getting back on the ship and taking a hot shower & a long nap. But, since we had so many people in our party, we decided it was all or nothing - either we all went on the excursion or we all got back on the ship. The majority, myself included, voted we ignore the crappy weather and do the excursion as planned. I am SO glad we did, too, because snorkeling was amazing!

We boarded the catamaran, which holds 130 people and is usually full for this excursion, ended up having around 20. When we got to where we were snorkeling, we got our gear on and jumped in the water. Between the cloudy sky and the rain, you couldn't see below the water's surface. When I jumped in, I was not prepared for the beautiful sight. I jumped directly into a school of fish! I'm sure the water was not a clear as in the daytime, but you could see all kinds of coral and other fish in the distance. The salty water was disgusting, and eventually the waves made me seasick for the first time in my life, but I can't wait to see the photos we took. I'm excited to snorkel again someday.

The only sun we got all day.

We got back on the boat and went to the beach, where we played on the huge inflatables in the water and ate an $11 meal. (Yes, $11 per person: big burger with potato salad and pasta salad.)

Overall, the whole trip was amazing. Honestly, I could go on a cruise and never get off the ship and be perfectly satisfied, but now I know I can never pass up another opportunity to explore Roatan or go snorkeling. I can't wait until our next cruise.

*All photos in this post were taken with my Samsung ST76.

Cruise Post 1 of 2: Roatan

You guys.

Justin & I went on a cruise with some of his family (and a handful of others) late last month. I am here now to tell you all about it.

We sailed on the Carnival Magic for seven days and visited three ports:

1. Isla Roatan, Honduras
2. Belize City, Belize
3. Cozumel, Mexico

This is our second cruise. Our first was with on the now-retired Carnival Ecstasy (which is currently being transformed into the Carnival Sunshine) a few months after our wedding in 2010. We were completely by ourselves, and it was the first trip we had taken alone. We drove the near-8 hours to Galveston, stopping to sleep in Conroe the night before boarding. We were so excited and anxious, we drove around the Port of Galveston for 10 minutes searching for our parking lot (which ended up being right in front of the terminal). We were so relieved to just get on the ship! It was terrifying and awesome, and it wasn't until this cruise that we realized how special that time was. We look back and just want to pinch our own little cheeks for being so adorable. (And we're sure we'll continue this cycle for the rest of our lives.)

This cruise, we had 10 people in our party. Besides Justin and myself, we had 5 family members, 2 friends, and a neighbor. We drove two cars, and the car I was in ended up being the fun one. (Duh.) The trip down was extremely stressful, but we made it Conroe intact. We all ate at Wolfies for dinner that night, which is a really good seafood restaurant that sits right on the lake, but many of us were disappointed that they were out of crawfish for the season. AND the most upsetting part is that the servers were all wearing awesome Wolfies t-shirts and sweaters that wouldn't be available for customers for another 2 weeks! Lame.

View of Roatan from the ship in port.

We fell in love with Roatan. It was the first of three stops, and that set up the other two for complete failure, honestly. The people are amazing, the landscape is beautiful, and there's just a sense of community there. We met up with our tour guide, Kislin, who has been leading tours for 16 years. We were taken ziplining first, which is way more fun than I imagined. Afterward, we got to play with some monkeys and see their other animals, like toucans, sloths, and deer. (No deer hunting in Honduras, by the way, unless you want to go to jail. They told us the deer only have two babies in their lifetime, so they are very protected.)

Coconut trees and campaign posters.

View of the ship from the zipline cliff.

In Roatan, most everyone speaks both English and Spanish. The official language is Spanish, but the primary language is English. The teacher/student ratio is so unbalanced that they split classes up so some kids go to school in the morning, and the rest go in the afternoon. Most college classes are taught in the evenings.

An old wrecked ship by the other port in Roatan. (That's the Carnival Victory, not ours.)

Our tour guide took us to the pharmacy so we could get some medicine for one in our party with a sinus infection. They went in to buy the medicine, and the pharmacist asked if they had a prescription. When they said no, she immediately went in to tell the doctor. $20 and half an hour later, they had seen the doctor and gotten their prescription. (Talk about health care.)

The pharmacy.

We had lunch in a small restaurant right on the water. The view was awesome on all sides, and the food was great. The tacos were similar to American tamales, and comparing authentic Spanish food to a type of Americanized Mexican food made me laugh.

Walking up to where we'd eat lunch. (That's the owner of the restaurant.)

The view from my seat at lunch.

View of the restaurant from the pier. We're in the top part!

When we finished lunch, we continued our tour and ended up at a private beach called Parrot Bay. I had taken so many pictures all day, my battery died when we got there. Because of that, I wasn't able to capture the tiny hermit crabs Justin and I encountered as we walked around the water, or the dead squid we saw on the bank. This private beach was surrounded by nice townhouses (contact Century21) and also included a beautiful private pool.

After that, we headed back to the ship. Even though I was tired and sunburned, it was truly sad to leave. We intend on going back someday, and maybe if I'm lucky, we can have a vacation home there! I vote yes.

*All photos in this post were taken with my Samsung ST76.