Royal AWESOME.

Let's talk travel.

I love to fly.

I do not have the face for flying, or apparently the brains.

TSA hates me. Apparently, in their life of misery, they do not see people like me very often.

I love to smile. Smiling's my favorite. If I look at you and you are not smiling, I will flash a big smile until you do....or, in the case of airport security, you think my smile indicates I'm carrying a lot of weed on my person or perhaps a bomb in my suitcase.

Hence the reason I always get checked with pat downs.

I am ticklish.

Do you see how this is rough?

How about those new machines in the airports where you have to step inside what feels like a human microwave, put your hands up in the air (based on personal experience, this is not the time to wave them like you just don't care) and wait to be full-body assaulted by some random spinning x-rays?

I always have something taken out of my bag and thrown away. A bottle of water that they mistake for pure gasoline, some work-out weights in Taiwan...."You no can carry here....I throw away or you no fly".....and some tweezers. My friends, seriously....if someone tries to hijack a plane with tweezers, I will not slide down my seat in fear, I will applaud him and give him some pilot wings, because congrats on being such a dreamer, kid.

I love to people watch. As certain as I'm sitting here typing, every parent with a child looks as if they've been run over by a bus, every old woman with unkept hair will be traveling with a lap dog that looks like it's 19 years old, and every one else will look better-dressed than you. How is that possible? Sometimes I see women in stilettos with their leather handbags and newly-highlighted hair, looking like they just stepped out of a photo shoot, and I think, "How does this happen?" Then in hopes that I can somewhat compete, I run to a mirror. Nope. I am still in an old motorcycle t-shirt with a hole in the armpit, some sweatpants, flip-flops in the middle of January, and my eye-liner and mascara somehow slowly melting off my face. And bed hair. WHY?!?! I just can't explain it, but it's embarrassing nevertheless.

Let's talk cruises.

How did I not know about these?!?! HOW HAVE I NEVER KNOWN THEIR GLORY?!?!

The ocean. GORGEOUS. Who knew there were so many stars in the sky? I love to roam around the ship and read the signs left from somewhat special people. Rounding the corner of the ship, you'll see "Joggers must slow down around corner due to heavy drop off." How many times have they had someone jogging carelessly fly off the edge of a cruise ship?

Glorious food. They have buffets. BAPTISTS LOVE BUFFETS. Gluttony is a sin, but not on a cruise ship, it's an edible embrace. There are pans and pans of bacon. When a pan of bacon is emptied, ANOTHER ONE APPEARS! Endless bacon! How many pigs had to die so that I could spend the weekend on a ship?

They have formal dinners. They give you a menu with a list of 8-10 appetizers, 8-10 entrees, and 8-10 desserts. You don't have to choose between them, you can have them all! I felt like a whale in the ocean, inhaling shrimp-like creatures with each breath. It was beautiful. Could there have been a tear in my eye as I had my eighth helping of mashed potatoes? Maybe.

Every day you're stopped at a different port in the Bahamas. You can swim with dolphins, snorkel, or lay on the beach....all day long. Not saying this happened to me, not saying it didn't, but if you fall asleep with your hand on your arm, chances are you will have a handprint tan line, and it will ruin your life.

All that to say, I was amazed during my travels at how grumpy people were. During the cruise, people were living the high life. At the end of the cruise, they became different human beings. Budging lines, hitting babies in the face with their bags and not apologizing (one person, not every single one), and complaining about everything. I was appalled, but at the same time, it made me think.

We are taught to praise God for the good times, we are taught to praise God for the hard times. All this is amazing and so true, but we have a lot of "normal days". Days that aren't particularly exciting or difficult. But God deserves praise for every day that we have on this earth. The very fact that we're breathing is a blessing. If you're coming off a high or a low, don't forget. God's good all the time. We have so much more than most. If you're reading this, you have internet access somehow. Welcome to being in the tiniest percentile of people on the earth. If you're wearing one set of clothes today while having had tons of pieces to have chosen from this morning when you opened your closet, again, welcome to being overly blessed. Don't take your place in life for granted. Don't take these gifts as normal, as average, or even as deserving. God loves us all individually, and shows in ways we need to remember all the time, even on the regular days.

SO SMILE!