Cruise Cabin Conversion - Pt. 1

Okay, so my January deadline obviously came and went. It’s been so long since I last updated I actually forgot my password! My apologies for the abrupt and long absence. I could give you a laundry list of excuses but I’ll spare you. I’m back and plan to update on a regular basis and that’s all that matters right? ;o)

Now, back to your regularly scheduled program:

Back in October (when the posts stopped), I took a mini-vacation (my first cruise) where I got plenty of R&R and time to think. The sleep was great but the cabin was a tight fit for two people. Still, I was determined to make the best of it. We weren’t trapped in the room after all and would soon have our fun day in the sun! I decided that the cramped space was simply a means to an end.

Then I found out that there would be no fun in the sun due to storms. We were stuck on the ship – a ship with very little to do, which left me trapped in the tiny room. Worse yet, I didn’t stockpile magazines and at least one novel like I normally would. My fun in the sun trip turned into four days in a cramped room with a bathroom that had me trembling in fear. Between the airplane toilet flush effect, the horrible smell before the ship gets moving, and the tiny shower I just knew would overflow into the rest of the bathroom (yuck) and possibly the room, I was fit to be tied.

I procrastinated as long as I could before the first shower, but eventually I had to take the leap. After the first time, when I realized that despite the hand-held showerhead, and lack of a real divider, the shower would not in fact flood the bathroom floor, I became more at ease with the tiny space. I had what I needed afterall – soap and clean running water. Back in the sleeping area, the ship was tossed and driven and I was forced to decide between repeats of cartoons and one movie, watching the crashing waves, and staring at the ceiling. I drifted in and out of consciousness in the comfy bed, pondered life, and received an unforeseen bonus in this lackluster cruise (other than the great ink pens they leave in the room) – an epiphany.

I shouldn’t put this out there like it’s a new thing. Traveling always has, to a degree, often given me a new perspective on things like organization and simplicity but there’s nothing like cramming into a tiny cabin aboard a cruise ship to remind you just how much you don’t need all of the junk awaiting you back home, or how out of control your life has become. As I sat holed up in the cramped cabin, I realized that I was slowly becoming one of “those people”. Who are those people you ask? Those people are a little bit too consumed with material things. Those people always desire more – even when they already have enough. Those people will never be happy because they will always want something bigger and better and there is always something bigger and better out there to be had. A better cell phone than the one you purchased just 6 months ago. A bigger car than the perfectly good one you’ve had for a few years. A bigger house than the one you have now.

I’m not sure when exactly I began turning into one of those people. Maybe it was too much time spent in front of cable watching the many “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” rip-offs. “Look at the big house I’m never home to enjoy! Look the luxury cars I never drive!” I detested these shows for their shameless display of materialism, yet as I watched with friends, I somehow found myself falling victim to the affluenza bug. For many years, I was that person who would hold on to my cell phone forever – only to trade up when I received an offer for a free trade-in from my provider. Now I wanted every PDA and Smartphone I saw. I’ve never been a big beach person, but after watching one vacation special after another of happy people frolicking in the sand, I was running a travel search on my laptop for a beach destination. Oh yes, brainwashing is real – even when you think you’re well aware of it.

During my hours of reflection, I not only realized how materialistic I was becoming, but how much clutter I had back home, and how unorganized and harried I had become – thanks to both the clutter and a mystifying lack of discipline that had taken over since the college years. The question was how would I change these bad habits?



To be Continued...