terrienne

Hello to ALL, I AM....,

With Hurricane week coming up next week, I was just wondering if anybody
has a story to tell about surviving one.

Last year in September 11th, of 04', on a Thursday afternoon, my Hubby
and I, and our three Daughters left out of New Orleans, on a HUGE Cruise Ship, on a five day, Caribbean Cruise to Mexico, even though,
" Hurricane IVAN was OUT THERE !"
In all actuality, I NEVER did want to go. It just kind of happened.

I felt like I was dragged into IT !
I heard things like, ' Ohhh Diana , you will have a blast ! '
' Ohhh, the food is fantastic ! ' ' They have food twenty four hours ! '
' There's pizza and ice cream 24-7 ! ' ' There will be fancy seven course
dinners ! ' ' Ohh, the shows are GREAT ! ' ' There is a Casino ! '
' You can get a massage ' ! ' The drinks are Free ! ' ' And, there's Room Service, 24-7 ! '

Well, the night before we were to leave, we were visiting my IL'S, and my
FIL said he just didn't think they would take the ship out into the Gulf !
My GH was quick to say, ' Ohhh, Dad they know how to go around hurricanes.'
I knew then, I had messed up ! My FIL has never been wrong about anything
in twenty three years, NEVER ! Well, it was too late by then.....,

Needless to say, I took a bunch of meds., you know the ' just in case, ones '.
I also had on the wrists bands, I had Scopolimene, Drammamine, Meclomine,
Phenegren, and Antivert (for inner ear probs.), ALL in hand.

We never reached our two main destinations, (Ports of call !) ! Uhhhh,
because that is where IVAN was.
So, we stayed on the inner Gulf side and stopped at a couple of places,
it was places in Mexico that had never seen a Cruise Ship !
These folks thought we were RICH ! HA !lol.

Once, going back to the Ship, we were almost swept away when all of a
sudden, a huge storm came up out of nowhere...,
We jumped inside one of the little places that were set up for selling suvienours, knee deep in water.
I learned a new word that day..., ' Squall ' ! That's what they
call, what we went through, getting soaking wet !
Just as soon as it came..., IT was gone !
I thought that word mean I would be ' Squalling all the way home '.lol.

That night, I learned another new word....., ' Swells ' ! (A new one on me !)
This is the night we were out in the Gulf, dodging IVAN still, and we had
sixteen to twenty Swells ! I don't know the proper info., but it was
HUGE Waves hitting the window of your cabin !!! That was enough for me.
EVERYBODY was sick that night, even the Crew !

I was actually SICK the whole time. If I did get out of the cabin, it wasn't
a pleasent sight ! I was not only sick, but I also had Vertigo !
This is ' Double Sick ! ' I looked like a Drunk, and I do not drink....,
Really, the whole trip is just like a fog to me now. Even now, one of the
girls will mention something about the Cruise, and I am going...,
' I don't remember THAT ! ' Then, the laughter starts.

The most interesting thing was, we didn't have bad weather, no rain,
no thunder..........., just the Ship, not only rocking back and fourth, but
Up and down at the same time !

We couldn't watch TV, and we heard no weather reports, no CNN !
Of course, NOT ! They didn't want folks to panic, for goodness sake !

At one point and time, we heard that New Orleans was going to take a
direct HIT ! We thought, oh well, at least we will maybe get a new car out
of this deal..., thankfully, this didn't happen...,

Our five day Cruise turned into a seven day one, as we had to come up the
coast and docked in Galveston, Texas !
By this time, folks did start to panic !!!
The first deal they made us was that we could get off the Ship and shop and
etc., and they would give everyone a bus ride, into New Orleans.
They soon changed their minds, on that, and said if we did get off of the
Ship, we were on our own ! Or, we could stay the night and get into
New Orleans late the next afternoon !
I think about half of the folks on the ship got off.
We rode out the storm, and...,
We made it back, safe and sound.
I did have nightmares that constantly reminded ME of this trip, for a while !

I didn't handle this at ALL ! I was medicated the whole time, and in bed most of the time.
Do any of you think this was worse for me because of being Bipolar ?
It just seemed to affect me more than anybody else...,

I would love to hear your stories....,

Gee Gee