Do you have to invite anyone? Solo travel is becoming a lot more popular, and the Caribbean is a great place for it, especially on a cruise. Regardless, good job @LockerK and enjoy the heck out of it. I’ve never done anything more than a day cruise, so I don’t know how much alone time you’re allowed, but I’d think that you can get a lot of reading done in between stops/at night. And of course it’d definitely worth looking up activities at ports prior to the cruise.
Thanks all! I should have specified, it’s a resort stay in the Dominican Republic.
Hmm, I wonder if this is part of why they have a few required group events scheduled. I haven’t got much in the way of details yet, and honestly it was a bit overwhelming - the announcement was on my calendar as a routine meeting - so I’m working through a checklist of everything I need to get done. They’re very good about covering all the bases so I’m sure this will come up. Passport application today!
I’m an idiot. I never do all-inclusive, so my mind automatically went to a cruise. I just woke up. Please forgive me.
Anyway, that sounds even more fun. You’ll have a killer time.
I’ve done that a few times. @Nesrie too, if I remember some of her past posts correctly. It’s probably one of those all-inclusive places where you can do pretty much everything right on the resort grounds, if that’s what you want. There are some interesting things to do around the island…for instance, if you’re a rum person, visiting the Brugal distillery is great…but you’ll want to do anything outside the resort with a guide who knows what they’re doing.
That’s awesome!
Yeah that was my experience too. You can just laze around the resort grounds if you want, hang out at the bars, enjoy the restaurants, or you can sign up, and pay, for going places be it excursions, which they love to push, or visiting local shops and stuff.
Going solo wasn’t a big deal. The staff are not hugely used to seeing single women around but the resort I went to was full of retirees and because I spent an hour or two talking with staff, when they were allowed to talk, it’s not as common culturally there. I think it’s less unusual to them for single men to show up, at least that was my impression.
Don’t go around solo to areas outside the resort. Definitely do the guide thing.
didn’t mean to delete what the shit
Heavy things! Skip past if you’re not feeling that. Just saying.
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It’s really not that bad, I just need to type this out. Thanks, Qt3 people, for listening to me.
My brother just brought up a thing and I’m having kind of an episode about it. This is from when I had the Bad Thing 4.5 years ago and was in the hospital and everything, and he and my sister drove 12 hours across a couple states to come support us as we were, well, 12 hours and a couple states from family and friends.
That hospital stay was…bad. I mean, obviously from a physical perspective, major surgery is not fun. But even so, there was an episode in the ICU that was particularly awful (the specifics aren’t super relevant other than “I was in a ton of pain and the nurses were assholes to me about it, and the doctors didn’t want to deal with anything”) that I still apparently haven’t totally processed.
It came up tonight in the context of talking about our sister, who has been simultaneously going through some awful shit while also being a real awful shit to everyone. It wasn’t out of nowhere, and certainly my brother wasn’t trying to be a dick about it or anything.
But it’s 12:30 and I’m more than zero drunk and my leg won’t stop bouncing and I can’t seem to stop feeling the awful feelings that I felt at the time that I’ve really worked REAL FUCKING HARD to not have to feel any more and there’s no way I can go to bed (lol, yeah, no, hahahahaha no) because I’d just be consumed by it even more than I am now.
Trauma fucking sucks, is what I’m saying. All I want to do is cry, and I probably will yet. I may get to sleep tonight, but I’m not putting any money on it. My breathing is all fucked up like it’s either everything that consumes my whole being or I have to remember and push myself to actually inhale the air that has the oxygen that lets my whatever blood cells do the thing.
I’m not a danger to myself or anything, but man I didn’t know what fucking “triggered” meant until now, I think, and it’s not something that should be trivialized or used for facile bullshit.
Fuck.
Man, there’s a lot to unpack there @inactive_user. I hope you get some rest tonight. But if not, that’s understandable. All the best for you and your family, as it sounds like a rough road these days.
Be well @inactive_user. I have little to offer but sympathy and well-wishing. (thoughts and prayers?)
Aleikum Salaam.
I hope you eventually managed to get some sleep last night, or are sleeping right now even.
What you describe is classic PTSD. People hear the term PTSD and immediately think about military veterans or police officers/fire fighters/etc., but PTSD can happen to normal everyday people who have experienced something profoundly out of the ordinary, anything from the sudden death of a loved one, to a car accident to a medical emergency such as you described during which they experienced intense pain and/or fear.
PTSD can also lurk…for months or even years you can have zero symptoms, and then something comes along that triggers the memory of the stress in your mind and suddenly your having a panic attack, freaking out, terrified or feeling like you’re going to die even though you know in your mind that’s not the case. It is scary as hell.
If you don’t already, I would highly recommend seeing a professional therapist to discuss the issue. At the very least they could provide you with ways to cope with the feelings when they arise, lessening the effects dramatically. Since yours sounds very specific to a certain set of events, a therapist could probably even talk you through why you feel the way you do, what triggers it, and perhaps help you to eliminate the stress altogether.
Good luck, and I hope you feel better today.
Been there, still have the scars. Hope you’re in a better place today.
Thank you so much @RichVR and @SlainteMhath. The difference between a couple of supportive messages at the right time and none is immense. I really appreciate it!
I am doing better now, thanks. Still need to find a proper therapist, but the situation isn’t as dire as it could be.
Got some really good news today that’s just about giving me whiplash. So that doesn’t suck.
Excellent! Good news is the best cure for just about anything.
Shit, sorry man. Feel better. I had one of those “hey, I should say something maybe… --falls asleep instead–” moments in bed the other night when I read your post. :(
Interesting to me, at least: yesterday I notified my boss that I am retiring. Planned date for last day at work is April 19.
I have not told the rest of my office so far, so please don’t leak it.
Congrats! I still hold out hope that I may do the same one day.
Awesome. I look forward to that day too, though I hope to continue to work part-time in some fashion. I’m somewhere between two and five years away.
Congrats! What are your plans for what to do with all the new spare time? I used the first several months doing things around the house & expanding my woodworking. I’m always curious what people decide to do!
I am probably going to do the same after I take some “me” time first. But it will be doing something completely different than my career has been. I want something where my job does NOT go home with me at night.
Ideally? Spend some time being a house-husband. I want to really clean the place, I want to cook dinner at night, I want to do all of the odd-jobs and home improvements we’ve put off and put off.
I also want to get in better shape: exercise, reduce my sugar intake, lose some weight.
And I want to get more involved in my new community here in Troy. Do some volunteering, maybe with Habitat for Humanity. I have a lot of experience–my father was a carpenter, and I worked as an electrician’s apprentice while I was an undergrad. I have several family members who are/were plumbers, who I have learned from. So I think I have something to offer.
Overall–get healthy and happy. My work in the past 20-odd years has been way stressful and both my physical and mental health have suffered for it. I want to try to reverse that.
Heh–all of that isn’t much to ask, right?