Sunday, May 2, 2004

(Second Try at Uploading)

Well, another day of printing cards finished, and the start of another day unloading and loading 6,000 people. We finally had gotten a replacement correlator a few days ago, we had been operating on just one for the past few months, and it takes forever. Unfortunately, it didn't work, so we are still using just one. :(

Everyone has to have an emergency card that works on the ship. It tells what your emergency number is (why the heck they can't make it the employee number, which is unique for every person in the company), where you are supposed to go in an emergency (the muster station), what life raft you are on, and what your emergency duties will be. They decided yesterday to pick me for more duties, so today I have to go for a two- hour ordeal where I will have to change emergency cards and learn to be one of the muster station leaders. Today is just such a bad day for it, and it is something I really don't feel like doing. All part of the fun . . .

For those who don't know, I have dedicated the past four months or so to cutting down dramatically on my sugar. I have had blood-sugar problems for as long as I can remember. I haven't ever been diagnosed with low blood sugar (probably since I never seem to have time to go to the doctor), but I have all of the symptoms. I have been having mild-to-moderate insulin attacks for years, but some years worse than others. Last year wasn't bad at all, but early this year I had gotten to the point of having at least one a day. For a number of years I have been very careful to always have certain types of foods with me at all times at work and home. I finally decided to read up on it and more actively try to combat it. It turns out that Dr. Agaston, inventor of the South Beach Diet (and who is a heart surgeon), has spent the past ten years or so studying sugar (carbs) and the effect it has on the body. The diet wasn't designed to make people lose weight, it was designed to cut down on heart attacks and lower cholesterol. The amount of information about blood sugar in his book is amazing, and helped me a lot. I don't follow the diet strictly, as my goal wasn't really to lose weight, but since the day I cut down on carbs I haven't had an insulin attack. It has been tough though, on the ship, because the bread is SOOO good. The food is only so-so, but I could eat the bread that comes with the meals and nothing else. I have been really careful, I pick one day a week that I eat a little bit of bread and a dessert. For those who know me well, you know that this is hard for me, as bread and desserts are my favorite parts of the meal. :(

Even though the food isn't fantastic, it isn't bad either, and there is a lot more variety than I would have thought. I have salad from the salad bar for both lunch and dinner. There are usually two appetizers for lunch and another two for dinner, then there are 5 or 6 meals for each. There are usually 4 desserts, and then there are 5 standard lunches and 5 standard dinners that they make every night. This translates into 10 different meals that are the same every day, and 10 different meals a day. The meals don't tend to repeat for 2 or 3 weeks, so the variety is really good. I don't know how it is for the passengers, but I would assume that they are the same meals every week, since the passengers change every week.

Well, I am in San Juan now, so it is time to attempt an upload again. :)