Hello and a hearty HUZZAH! to you my, Friends!

I’m back from cruising the high seas aboard the Carnival Freedom.  Seriously, who was worried that I was aboard the Carnival Triumph?  Anyone?  Anyone?  No?  Okay!  The class was paying attention!!

One of the tweets that made me laugh hardest was (yes, it’s from a relative):

@The_AmusingMuse I realized that if anyone in the family would be capable of surviving a shit filled cruise from hell it would be you. ❤

No, there was no need to balance precariously on the Deck Three railing and poop into the ocean or carry around biohazard baggies as I took myself on walks.  My very first cruise was aboard the Triumph, and she was a beautiful ship – sure, I might have been all glossy-eyed and star-struck from the glitz and glamour – but that poor ship is going to need a steam cleaning from top-to-bottom and stem-to-stern.  I commend the crew of the Triumph for having done the best they could for their passengers in that most inconvenient of situations.

As for our cruise, our crew on board the Freedom was fantastic!!!  Every time I’ve cruised I have had the most awesome crew members take care of me and Mr. Muse.  SO, before I forget, shout-outs and Thank You’s to:

• Eva – Maitre D’ of the Posh Dining Room who made sure I didn’t get “glutened” during meals.
• Araiwon aka “Ari” – Room Steward
• Sari – Room Steward assistant
• Siriluck – Cocktail Waitress who made sure we got ALL of the martinis we ordered (I HATE when they walk away with 3 oz in the shaker)
• Sherwin, Wiky, Florian, Rudolpho and Dragan – our waiters in the Posh Dining Room, you all were FANTASTIC!

Now with the Thank You’s to my “peeps” on board the Freedom out of the way… the Monster.

The people who are on cruise ships, from crew to passengers, numbering in the thousands, come from around the globe.  These people all bring on board their own special little versions of whatever viruses are running the course on their home turf.  Cruise ships have created a system of disinfecting their ships and having Purell Hand Sanitizer stations placed throughout the ship.

I prepared for the onslaught of “bugs” my immune system was going to be subjected to starting with downing Emergen-C daily for a month ahead of the cruise as I have a history of getting sinus infections when I travel abroad.  I Purelled (that’s right… I’m using that as a verb) my hands religiously on the planes to get from Madison to Fort Lauderdale, washing my hands in the airports and hitting them again with sanitizer on the way out.  I was bordering on OCD hand-washing, mentally singing the “Happy Birthday” song twice as I scrubbed my hands, between fingers and under nails, just like the experts say.  I kept up the routine throughout the cruise.

Every port we were in I made sure to scrub and sanitize my hands, not touch my face and then it happened – Mr. Muse started to feel poorly.  Uh oh.  He got a sore throat, stuffy nose, was exhausted.  He took allergy meds and started to feel better, in his mind he figured that the tropical plants had affected his allergies and he had things under control.  Then I felt the sore throat, the somewhat stuffy nose.  I thought, “Okay… it’s just allergies”.  We’d been to Cozumel, Mexico, Limon, Costa Rica and Colon, Panama, the latter two we’d gone into the jungle on tours.  Allergies wouldn’t be out of the question.

We got home on Sunday. Monday I woke up and didn’t feel too differently, but Tuesday, I woke up and managed to stay upright for an hour before I curled up under a blanket on the couch and fell asleep.  I had… the “Monster at the End of the Vacation”… or what is commonly known as:  a sinus infection.

If you’ve never had a sinus infection, count yourself among the lucky.  Blowing your nose should not result in things that color seeing the light of day.  Sinus infections are ugly.  They make you feel like you’ve been punched in the face (I really know what that feels like unfortunately), your sinuses plugged up with nastiness, sore throat, fever and all around exhaustion.  Research online had me discover that 90-98% of sinus infections are caused by viruses, so everyone who is asking me if I am taking antibiotics – the answer is NO.  I don’t believe in rushing for antibiotics for everything.  I’m at day seven and feeling better.

I even managed to write a guest post over at HomeClothesFree about my experience on board the Carnival Freedom as a staff member of Bare Necessities for the Big Nude Boat.  Oh yeah… a cruise full of Nudists/Naturists.  You should go read it – even in my sinus infected state, I think it turned out well.

I’ll recap more on my trip soon!  (I’ve also been asked to write an article/story about being a Naturist Model for submission to N Magazine!)