Double Nickels at Sea
🌼 Date: Friday, April 3, 2026
⚡Energy: Birthday Bliss
💖 Status: Feeling Grateful
🥰 Outlook: Let the Celebrations Continue
I woke up on my birthday to one of my favorite sights in the world.
The sun shining across the ocean.
There’s something about standing on the balcony of a ship and watching the sunlight dance across the water that just instantly puts your soul at peace.
Today was a fun day at sea, and one of our favorite cruise traditions made an appearance — the travel game bag.
Every trip we bring a small bag filled with:
- a few decks of cards
- some dice
- our favorite board game, Sequence
And because we’ve learned our lesson over the years, I also bring a few printed pages explaining how to play some of our favorite card games…because when you’re in vacation mode and trying to teach someone else, somehow everyone forgets the rules.
And that was happening long before cancer, so we can’t blame chemo brain for that one.
After breakfast we usually head up to the Lido deck, find a comfy spot near the windows, and pull out the games. We’ll sit there playing for hours.
Sometimes crew members stop and ask us to explain the game so they can go play with their friends after their shift.
Sometimes other cruisers stop and tell us how much they love that game at home.
Over the years we’ve actually made a lot of cruise friends just by playing games.
We are also very courteous cruisers though. Once lunch time rolls around and the cafeteria starts filling up, we pack up the games and free the table.
And if we still have open seats, we always invite anyone looking for a place to sit to join us.
One of the things we love most about cruising is meeting people from all over the world. It’s amazing how far people travel just to spend a week out on the water.
For my birthday dinner, we dressed up and went to the fancy Italian restaurant on the ship.
Dinner was incredible.
And tonight marked another small milestone…
It was the first time I’ve had any alcohol since my cancer journey began.
I ordered a bottle of my favorite wine — Moscato D’Asti.
Light.
Sweet.
Just the way I like my wine…
and apparently the way I like my man too. 😉
After dinner the wait staff surprised me with a huge slice of ice cream birthday cake that was big enough for all of us to share, and they all gathered around the table to sing.
It was such a sweet moment — both the gesture and the cake.
After the year I’ve had, I think birthdays hit a little differently now.
I feel a lot more grateful just to be here celebrating another trip around the sun.
And yes, for those of you doing the math…
I officially hit 55 today.
Double nickels.
Apparently that also makes me a senior citizen now.
Who would’ve thought?
And apparently this birthday came with a little bonus milestone.
This post officially marks Post #100 on this blog.
What started as a way to quiet the chaos in my brain long enough to fall asleep has somehow turned into a place where I’ve been able to share my cancer journey, my life, the hard days, the funny days, the puppy days, and everything in between.
I never imagined anyone besides maybe a couple friends would ever read it.
But here we are.
100 posts.
Readers from more than 20 countries.
And a whole lot of life lived in between.
Thank you to everyone who has followed along with me on this wild ride.
Now let’s see what the next 100 posts bring.
💗 Tina –
One Badass Day at a Time
