Snow (a very short post)

 

The weatherman said that we wouldn't get much snow today.  So, when I heard the plows in the driveway, I knew that I'd have to move my car.  So I transferred my money and ID into my male wallet, tossed on a pair of jeans and a warm shirt, and went outside to move my car.

Once I cleaned off much of the snow from my car, I drove to the supermarket to pick up some orange juice.  And, of course, that OJ run turned into a full bag of groceries and other stuff.  RQS was wondering why it took me so long to return, and I explained how a planned $5 visit turned into a $50 limit.  RQS was cooking some lentil soup.  So I made a pastrami sandwich, then tasted her soup.  It was good, but it was missing something.

Then, I changed back into my flannel nightie, and said we were in for the evening.  As I said in this entry's title - today, would be a short post.   More news tomorrow.

The only reason for getting dressed was a supermarket run.

 

After an exhausting evening in NYC last night, RQS and I didn't have much energy to spend doing things today.  We relaxed around the house until 1:30 pm, and we went out to the supermarket around 3:00 pm.  

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Going outside as Marian on a cold day can be a struggle.  A smart woman keeps her legs covered by something other than a pair of stockings.  Although I own a pair of women's jeans, I rarely wear them because any top I'd wear would my natural non-feminine figure.  So, I've developed a style where I wear tunic dresses with leggings underneath when the weather is cold.

Last night, I wore a dress I've worn before with and without leggings. Today, I wore a sweatshirt dress with leggings, and I was very warm with my wig on.  Being dressed as a female takes more thought and preparation than I ever needed dressing as a male.  But I don't mind it one bit.  Even if it is to make a quick run to the bank, and then to the supermarket.

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At the supermarket, RQS and I bought the ingredients for 2 different soups.  I'll cook the onion soup, and she will cook the lentil soup.  Both should be tasty and filling - especially with salad and leftover chicken to go with the soup.  But not tonight....

Once at home, it was laundry time for us, 2 baskets ready to go.  One problem - of the two dryers downstairs, one of them wasn't working. This meant an extra trip downstairs, and an interruption after dinner.  At least, my body isn't protesting too much about climbing the staircases.

Operation Mincemeat

 

The important thing on the docket was a trip to NYC to see Operation Mincemeat on Broadway.  The weather was so cold, that I wished we didn't have tickets.  But we did, so I made myself get out of bed, get showered, shaved, made up, and out the door by 2 pm for dinner and a play.

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Today was the beginning of a cold spell in the NYC region, and I couldn't justify wearing a dress with tights as I would have liked.  Instead, it was a dress over leggings, and a heavy coat on top of that - with both ear muffs and gloves covering areas most sensitive to cold.

When I got on the train to Grand Central, I knew I'd have time to kill because I'd arrive at 3:45 with dinner in Greenwich Village at 4:30.  So, I figured that I'd have time to rest at Grand Central before getting on the subway to head for dinner. Once I was done killing time, I got on the subway and was in "the village" 15 minutes later.  And then I experienced the bitter cold again, as I got out of the subway and headed a couple of blocks away in bitter cold winds.I arrived at the restaurant with time to spare, so I grabbed a seat and waited for RQS.  We slowly ate our meal, savoring every bite, killing time until we had to leave for the theater.  

Once done with dinner, we emerged into the bitter cold and made it to the subway.  We should have taken the 8th avenue line uptown.  Instead, we took the 7th avenue line, and that made us walk much more in passageways not designed for a person with arthritic legs to walk through - RQS was hurting by the time we reached 42nd Street and 8th avenue.  But we made it to the theater in time.  And yet, we had more problems - RQS couldn't pull up her online tickets on her phone.  It took the ticket clerk several minutes to help RQS pull up her tickets, and then we made it inside to see the play.

We made our way up to the "nose bleed" seats, and had a good view of the stage. By then, I could have easily fallen asleep for an hour. But I was going to try and stay semi-conscious as best I could.  The play started, and I was bored by the dialog. Its humor was not on target, although most of the audience loved it.  Its music was hard to understand, as the words were coming in too quickly to process the meaning of the lyrics.  (You can see why I hate most hip-hop "music".)  I finally started becoming more conscious for the second act, and found it only mildly amusing.  The best part of the play was when the mood suddenly turned serious when they paid tribute to the real life "man who never was," a man who served his country in death, saving a great many lives as a result of deceiving the Nazis.

After the play, we trekked home, and were at home by midnight.  Although we stayed up a little while, we passes out quickly once in bed.

I'm finally coming back to the real world, and I don't like it. (a short post)

 

I came back from my cruise, and now I'm catching up on things. First, I had to pay bills. And then, I had to do some shopping.  Yet, I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to do, such as laundry.  At least, I was able to get the co-op meeting minutes done.

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RQS texted me to inform me about the letter she received from the tax authority.  Let's just say that our government doesn't have its act together regarding tax payments.  As for me, I received mail from the IRS telling me that there was some interest that I technically earned.  Weird.

For the most part, I did nothing but watch YouTube videos and update my cruise blog for most of the day. Yet, around 5:30, I realized that I should get showered and dressed to go out.  So, I found some clothes, and prepared to go out as Marian.  At this stage of life, living as Marian has become second nature.  This means that preparing to go out as a female is just as easy for me as going out as a male.  I only wish I could have started earlier.  But then, I may not have had a romantic life had I done so.

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Right now, I'm trying to think of ways to be able to take a 4th cruise this year, and still be able to get to Hawaii next year.  Sadly, this might not be possible.  RQS may not have the money to keep up with me. And, more importantly, she may not be able to deal with being on a plane for 11 hours.

I wish I could have stayed on the cruise ship for another few days...

Florida/Bahamas Cruise 2025 -Thoughts on the Cruise (01/13/26)

 

It was a nice 8-day cruise.  However, I wouldn't have wanted to take it alone due to the time of year and its itinerary: Port Canaveral, the Cruise Line's Private Island, and Nassau, Bahamas.  I've done this route a couple of times before (on different cruise lines) and it is one of the most boring routes one can cruise. But RQS pined to get away and warm up for a week, and I wanted to treat her to a cruise that I offered her a couple of years ago.  So, off we went - just after New Year's Day.

Both of us feel that we have outgrown NCL for most cruises.  NCL has lowered the quality of food served in its complementary restaurants.  It has reduced the quality of its main theater shows, cutting back on its adaptations of Broadway shows such as "Six" and "Footloose."  Additionally, it has shifted some of its entertainment focus to onboard versions of "Deal or No Deal," where the audience has to pay for a card to actively participate in the game.  Every chance NCL has to squeeze money from its cruisers, it does so.  Most of each day's activities listed in the Freestyle Daily newsletter seem to promote spa services, jewelry sales, casino games and other onboard products and services which are geared to extract money from cruisers' pockets.

NCL is more of a "Hit or Miss" line these days.  In the past, I could always count on having good dinners both in the specialty restaurants and in the complimentary restaurants.  Now, in the 5 specialty dinners we had, 2 of them were excellent, 1 was very good with excessively small portions, 1 was good with large portions, and 1 was mediocre at best.  Of the complementary dinners, 1 was decent, 1 was acceptable, and 1 was terrible.  NCL's food service misses the mark almost as much as it hits the mark - something that saddens me very much.

Cutbacks in the "hotel service" area (staterooms) have also reduced the quality of the onboard experience.  Due to the ship's cabins not being serviced before 2 pm, all areas where cruisers could eat, drink, and simply wait for their cabins to be made available were occupied.  We couldn't even enjoy lunch, as there was no place for us to sit down to eat it.  As a result, I left a dish filled with food on a pillar in the buffet area (I knew someone would knock it over and make a mess), simply because I was too frustrated to keep carrying this dish around after 15 minutes.

Often, when we went through the atrium, the entertainment was so loud, that we couldn't hear each other talk.  Whether there were singers in the stage area, or a game being played there, we had to avoid it because it was either too loud or too crowded to be comfortable.  When we walked to the dining rooms towards the back of the ship, we had to plan our routes carefully to avoid most of the areas with heavy tobacco odors.

Will I cruise NCL again?  Right now, I only plan to cruise with the line for trips to Bermuda and for the 7-day cruise on the Pride of America.  My partner and I feel much more at home now on Princess and Cunard.  We'll cruise with MSC (with all of its flaws) iif they ever cruise out of NYC again and sail to destinations we'd like to visit again.  But NCL is no longer a line I can count on, and I prefer those lines on which the only surprises I experience will be good ones.  

Florida/Bahamas Cruise 2025 - Disembarkation Day (01/12/26)

 

This would be our last morning on the ship.  Not having a balcony cabin, we weren't tempted to go outside and get pictures of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge and the Statue of Liberty as we cruised upriver to pier 88. The ship was a little late clearing customs, we were a little early clearing out our room, and we were finishing breakfast by 7:30 am.

Most people on the ship for a last breakfast gravitate to the buffet.  We gravitate to the main dining rooms, where fewer people go and where we're allowed to linger after breakfast is finished. Our scheduled exit time was 8:30 am, so we killed an hour on the ship before walking to the exit for our last card scan, And then, we were finally off the ship.

Our next step was to pick up our luggage at the pier.  This part of the trip is slightly less chaotic than on embarkation day, as our luggage is placed in areas on the pier based on luggage tag color.  We were able to find our bags relatively quickly, and then were able to walk outside.  In the past, this would require a stop where a customs official would check the cruiser's paperwork before the cruiser was allowed to leave the pier.  Now, with facial recognition, one walks to a scanner where one's image is matched to one on file, and upon a match, one is free to leave.

Now that both of us had cleared customs, it was time to catch a cab.  One hustler tried to get us to take his car for $65 - a ripoff, when the metered fare would be between $20 and $25 plus tip.  Of course, as native New Yorkers, we went to the official cab stand and got a nice driver who shared serious talk and jokes on the way to Grand Central.  

Roughly 90 minutes after our arrival at Grand Central, we were back in Croton, and finally able to rest.

Florida/Bahamas Cruise 2025 - Sea Day #4 (01/11/26)

 

The day started off with us going to our last, non-rushed breakfast at the ship's main dining room.  Nothing special for me, as I ordered the usual: OJ, Eggs Benedict, a Fruit Cup, and Coffee.  (I'd order Scrambled Eggs off the ship, but I've been burnt before with powdered eggs - and I hate them, no matter where they are served.) 

On the way back from breakfast, we saw that the ship's atrium was packed with people enjoying a dumb entertainment - Twenty Questions, where someone from the ship is trying to figure out what is on screen in back of her.  I'm not knocking this, as much as the two of us have experienced better onboard activities on other lines, such as Princess and Cunard.  So, we headed back to the cabin to relax and watch the vidiot box (TV).

Yesterday, I sent out most of my dirty laundry to get cleaned.  Although it should be delivered by 6 pm, I was looking for it well before then, so that I could get a head start on packing - as RQS did before me.  While she was doing that, I kept working on my travel blog, editing pictures and moving them to my laptop for posting with the current entry.   

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We returned from our last lunch on the ship, and guess what?  Laundry had been delivered, and my trousers and shirts had been hung up in the closet.  I haven't yet seen any charges to my account, so I wonder - did the second bag cost me anything?  Well, several hours later, just before going to dinner, I checked again - and there was no charge!  Maybe I got lucky. 

On our way to dinner, we stopped by the Inch of Gold stand and had a nice char with a lady called KD (from Jamaica). We talked of our cruises, and how she gets to spend port days.  I noted that she must love it when the ship makes port in Bermuda, and then she noted how a stop in Quebec City is just as good for her.  And then, we went to the main dining room - and were surprised by a decent meal!  (Remember, when we ate here last, we were upset by everything.)  Although the meal was not as good as that in the specialty restaurants, we enjoyed it much more - and were glad to have eaten there.

Finally, it was time to go back to the room and finish potting out our bags for pickup tomorrow at the pier. This was the greatest reminder that we'll be back in the real world tomorrow morning.