Pages

3.14.2012

Not how I planned it

If I take a moment and look back across my life, I can't help but notice that the most poignant times--the times when life was the best or even the worst, the times when I felt closest to and most cared for by God, the times when I grew up the most--were those very times when life didn't go according to my plan.

These days I have more time on my hands than usual, so I have spent a little time mulling on this. And mulling, as you may have noticed, leads to blogging. Funny how that works.

I am married to a pretty amazing guy who is very good at what he does for work, and when I say "good" I really mean "outstanding, over-the-moon, top-notch, rock star". Joal has, for each of the past 8 years or so, been consistantly ranked in the top 10 most productive salespeople in his company.

Consequently, we have been rewarded with all-expenses-paid passage on 6 trips, 5 of which are my beloved cruises. Our sixth cruise was just a few weeks ago.

NWYC awards the cruise to those in the salesforce who earn certain distinctions throughout the previous year and we travel together--the group usually consists of about 30 members of the sales force and their chosen companion (spouse, child, friend, etc). Honestly, I can't imagine an ordinary cruise being nearly as much fun as it is to travel with these 60 or so friends that we have come to enjoy being with so much. Yes, from trip to trip, there are a few new friends, but mostly, it's the same group.

So this year was no different. Our cruise was scheduled for embarkation on February 20. With the sons safely in the care of Nana and Pawpaw for the week, Joal and I flew down to Miami on Sunday, Feb 19 and enjoyed a little time on Key Biscayne that afternoon.

Monday came and the weather was brilliant--a perfect day for boarding a cruise ship in the port of Miami and setting sail to the island of Roatan and Cozumel Mexico. We gathered with our group and took a bus to the ship. Embarkation went smoothly and we were crossing the gangway in no time.

Vacation at last.

We wandered the ship for a while, ate some lunch and found a cozy spot on the sundeck to relax for a bit. All was well.

And then I started to wonder if perhaps our luggage had been delivered to our stateroom. So I left Joal, reading a CS Lewis novel on the deck, and trekked off to our room. I found our room without too much delay, although I still don't understand the terms port, starboard, aft, and forward...and I can never figure out which end of the ship is the front...

No luggage had been delivered so I decided to read on the balcony that's attached to our suite. This, my friends, is my favorite place on the entire ship. It's barely big enough for two chairs and a table but it is paradise defined in my book. It's private and breezy and just sheer perfection. I spend a great deal of time on the balcony during every cruise...and if I'm not out there, there is a good chance that the big sliding glass door to the balcony is open, letting the ocean breeze and the sounds of the waves into our room.

This is my place and we've enjoyed this place enough times now that it feels comfortable like home...only a home with a view of the ocean. :) I read, I snacked, I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds...and then my phone, which was laying in the suite on the bed, rang.

And that's when my plan for the most-awesome vacation went fantastically awry.

Separating the balcony from the suite is a mammoth glass sliding door. Said door rides on a rather tall rail along the floor. At eye level on the glass door, there's a big orange sign that says "Watch Your Step". I know all this. I know you have to step *over* the rail to get into the suite.

And yet, I forgot about the rail that juts up out of the floor just long enough to trip over it and find myself falling into a glass table and taking all my weight on my left knee down to the floor.

And the phone is still ringing.

I laid there for a moment, broken glass from the table and fruit from the welcome plate scattered on the floor around me, and tried to collect myself. And then I realized something was wrong with my knee. I couldn't move my left leg at all. And it was at a weird angle.

Fortunately, cruise ship suites aren't *that* big, and I had fallen into the room. My phone was on the bed so with a little stretching I dragged my sweater off the bed and with it came my phone. My husband was on the other end of the line, as it were, so I told him I had fallen and I needed him to come straightaway--I think I hurt my knee.