Seas the Day!
Three things you need to know about me and my relationship with the sun:
1. I only work in two shades--white and lobster red.
2. I obtain said lobster shade even when applying ample amounts of 100 SPF sunscreen.
3. Even when the lobster red begins to fade, I still turn out an only slightly off-white.
The next two full days were spent at sea (which they refer to as "cruising days") and I had every intention of filling those two days by doing what I thought every sensible person would do on a cruise: lay out and read all day long. This was excellent in theory, but I forgot to factor in two accounts:
1. When you are laying out on the top deck of a cruise ship, you are considerably closer to the sun. So rather than a nice "warming over" that I would have expected from, let's say, the beach, I actually felt much more like Icarus who had ignored the warnings of his father and would now have to settle for arms of melted wax and feathers. This would prove to be quite funnier later on . . . .
2. The gentle lull of of rocking waves and a novel more cerebral than mindless, put me under every time. So much for active relaxation! The ironic part is that I couldn't even actually fall asleep, because every time I got to that state between the conscious and unconscious, my equilibrium would become offset, thinking I was sliding overboard, and jolt me awake so violently that I almost tipped the deck chair over a few times. I am quite sure I was a great source of entertainment for many around me. :)
Each night, there is a standard for dress code to be followed for dining. On the second night, we were dressed in our formal best and headed to our assigned main dining room for our evening meal. Lord knows we certainly could have eaten anywhere as there was so much food on that ship it seemed to be oozing out of the walls. A few people had mentioned this to me before I left, but I didn't think much of it as, well, I am not sure I really believed them. Yeah, I was wrong. In fact, we were informed that on average, a person gains 10 POUNDS on a 7 day cruise. THAT'S CRAZY.
Thankfully that was not our tale of woe, but one could easily see how it might be.
Anyway, we dressed and arrived for dinner, where we were waited on by the absolute best waiters on the boat (I'm sure everyone says that, but who cares if we are a little biased). So much of these people's jobs is to focus on and learn about you, so we often like to reverse the roles and learn a little bit more about them. This provided us with Charles who is from Goa, India. Goa is apparently quite nontraditional from the rest of India. The main religion is Catholicism and is on the Southern coast of the country, making it a prime hub for tourism and a Mediterranean lifestyle. We were also blessed with Shan, a mere 21-going-on-30 year old, who was from the mountains in the Southern part of China. This was her first full-time job and had recently graduated from a university back home in Hotel Management. The biggest perk, she said, was being able to see the ocean and send pictures of it back to her mother at home, since neither of them had ever seen the ocean before. It certainly makes you count your blessings. :)
In the meantime, we had arranged for a dessert of some type to be delivered to my grandparents at dinner one evening, in celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary (the reason why we were on this cruise).
However, we had no idea what night it was actually going to be delivered, so when Charles walked out with a slice of cake and "Happy Anniversary!" inscribed in decorative script across the top, we knew it was about to go down. And trust me, it did . . . Before anyone could say anything Charles shouts, "Don't worry; I am bringing more singers!" and they break out into a rendition of "Happy Birthday" but with the word "anniversary" instead. Go head. Try singing it that way. It sounded just as hilarious then, as well.
My grandfather who is very much like me in that he prefers to keep his head down and out of that sort of thing, couldn't help smiling even for this.
And I think he would agree that with as much life experience as he has had, it's these moments that you simply have to "Seas the Day!".
1. I only work in two shades--white and lobster red.
2. I obtain said lobster shade even when applying ample amounts of 100 SPF sunscreen.
3. Even when the lobster red begins to fade, I still turn out an only slightly off-white.
The next two full days were spent at sea (which they refer to as "cruising days") and I had every intention of filling those two days by doing what I thought every sensible person would do on a cruise: lay out and read all day long. This was excellent in theory, but I forgot to factor in two accounts:
1. When you are laying out on the top deck of a cruise ship, you are considerably closer to the sun. So rather than a nice "warming over" that I would have expected from, let's say, the beach, I actually felt much more like Icarus who had ignored the warnings of his father and would now have to settle for arms of melted wax and feathers. This would prove to be quite funnier later on . . . .
2. The gentle lull of of rocking waves and a novel more cerebral than mindless, put me under every time. So much for active relaxation! The ironic part is that I couldn't even actually fall asleep, because every time I got to that state between the conscious and unconscious, my equilibrium would become offset, thinking I was sliding overboard, and jolt me awake so violently that I almost tipped the deck chair over a few times. I am quite sure I was a great source of entertainment for many around me. :)
Each night, there is a standard for dress code to be followed for dining. On the second night, we were dressed in our formal best and headed to our assigned main dining room for our evening meal. Lord knows we certainly could have eaten anywhere as there was so much food on that ship it seemed to be oozing out of the walls. A few people had mentioned this to me before I left, but I didn't think much of it as, well, I am not sure I really believed them. Yeah, I was wrong. In fact, we were informed that on average, a person gains 10 POUNDS on a 7 day cruise. THAT'S CRAZY.
Thankfully that was not our tale of woe, but one could easily see how it might be.
Anyway, we dressed and arrived for dinner, where we were waited on by the absolute best waiters on the boat (I'm sure everyone says that, but who cares if we are a little biased). So much of these people's jobs is to focus on and learn about you, so we often like to reverse the roles and learn a little bit more about them. This provided us with Charles who is from Goa, India. Goa is apparently quite nontraditional from the rest of India. The main religion is Catholicism and is on the Southern coast of the country, making it a prime hub for tourism and a Mediterranean lifestyle. We were also blessed with Shan, a mere 21-going-on-30 year old, who was from the mountains in the Southern part of China. This was her first full-time job and had recently graduated from a university back home in Hotel Management. The biggest perk, she said, was being able to see the ocean and send pictures of it back to her mother at home, since neither of them had ever seen the ocean before. It certainly makes you count your blessings. :)
In the meantime, we had arranged for a dessert of some type to be delivered to my grandparents at dinner one evening, in celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary (the reason why we were on this cruise).
However, we had no idea what night it was actually going to be delivered, so when Charles walked out with a slice of cake and "Happy Anniversary!" inscribed in decorative script across the top, we knew it was about to go down. And trust me, it did . . . Before anyone could say anything Charles shouts, "Don't worry; I am bringing more singers!" and they break out into a rendition of "Happy Birthday" but with the word "anniversary" instead. Go head. Try singing it that way. It sounded just as hilarious then, as well.
My grandfather who is very much like me in that he prefers to keep his head down and out of that sort of thing, couldn't help smiling even for this.
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