Dont Call it A Comeback

First off, I want to wish everyone a very Happy, albeit belated Holidays and New Years. My “Christmas Holiday” consisted of a three -day cruise with my parents to Mexico and then an unforgettable trip to Australia with five of my friends for a buddy’s wedding. There are a lot of memorable stories there, but instead of unloading them all at once, I will try to do so over a couple posts.

To be honest, I tried to write a couple posts in the beginning of the trip. I learned a couple things.
1.) It is extremely hard to write when people are reading over your shoulders.
2.) When the hotel offers free 20 second previews for all adult channels, it is hard to reflect on life.
3.) When your choice is between goofing off with your friends and experiencing Sydney or writing a post, the blog will always lose.

The Cruise
The cruise was sick. Of course, I thought there would be a lot of young ladies perusing the ship, so I could holler and hang with them when my family crashed. (Is there an equivalent to the Mile High Club on a boat?) Of course, my hopes were dispelled as the parking lot was filled with kalus. Not that I have anything against kalus, except 75% of the people boarding the boat scared the shit out of me.

This was the first family trip since India, which was my senior year in college. Given how busy everyone’s schedule it was amazing we all got together. Some highlights:

- People eat a lot on cruises. You tell people, especially kalus, that food is free, and people eat. There are breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets. If that is not enough there is pizza and cookies available 24 hrs a day. There was even a midnight Mexican food buffet. And the thing is, you have multiple courses at dinner and multiple desserts. It is really sickening.

- I was constantly entertained. I was surprised how active my family was during the trip. Both of my sisters made it to the top of this awesome rock climbing wall on the ship. My dad was not so fortunate. He was perhaps 5 feet off the ground and he got stuck, meaning he did not which “hold” to go after, so he just hung there for 20 minutes. He was really determined to get on top, and was pretty disappointed when he did not make it to the top.

What else did we do? We rented ATVs in Mexico, where my sister somehow managed to crash into another ATV, went salsa dancing, went to a Mexican winery, saw comedy shows and some musicals. All in all it was a good time.

I got to give props to my dad. No matter what happens, he is still old school. I bought a bottle of wine for the family for one of our formal dinners. My mom normally does not drink, but she had some just for the occasion. Of course my dad said no. When we tried to push him and told the waiter to pour him a taste, he knocked the bottle out of her hands, causing some wine to spill on the table. At first, I was slight annoyed at my dad for not being social and “cool”. After awhile, I gave him props – he is not a fan. It most likely bothered him that we were all drinking, but he kept to himself. Like the song goes, he is “Like a rock.”

The same story happened when gambling on the boat. All the kids in my family like to play, especially my brother in law and my sister. They can play video poker for hours…My new game is roulette. I like it because I could make one dollar bets, its all luck, and its pretty interactive with the family and its nice to leave things to chance. Now, I know you say that these are the worst odds, but I actually hit 5 numbers in a two-hour period. My dad , on the other hand, does not like to gamble and really does not see the point. When I asked him for some numbers, he looked at me like he is going to kill me, and then said he was going to sleep (only to wake up at 5:30 am for a morning walk around the boat). Again, funnier and pimp afterwards, especially since their was no lecture.

The one thing that was surprisingly difficult was that I had to be vegetarian in front of my parents. While they know I eat meat, I do not have the guts to eat a chicken breast in front of them. Not only would both of them would slap me but it is just disrespectful . As a result, I was stuck eating macaroni and cheese and Indian food, since the cruise was not veggie friendly. Its was hard for me to get full and nearly impossible to avoid carbs. I tried to sneak some chicken in a salad, but my sisters ratted me out. Fuck me. No matter how old we get, the simple joy of tattling on someone never fades.


Here are some videos that are simply awesome.

Shahrukh vs. Amitabh



Pauly Shore Getting Knocked Out