Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Wednesday April 30, 2015

PThe AHad a bit of a day today. Down, depressed. There is a book by Jon Kabat-Zinn entitled Wherever You Go There You Are. It's seems an incredibly stupid title but really there is a lot of wisdom in that statement and I've been experiencing a bit of what I think Zinn is talking about today. For months I have been anticipating this trip and building it up in my mind. Now here I am and I don't feel as I imagined that I would. I don't feel giddy or energetic or excited. Mostly today I just felt tired and kind of bored and frankly very much myself which is apparently what I was hoping to avoid.

So what specifically went wrong today? Well, first we went to the dining room for breakfast. Usually we go to the buffet breakfast not the sit down breakfast. This morning however we decided to mix things up. It's doubtful that we will do that again as the wait for our food was interminable. 

Needlepoint spot one

After breakfast we attempted to find a spot where we could needlepoint. Our first spot of the day was by the pool at the bottom of a set of stairs and next to the pool bar. Well we both felt too "on display" and the bar was quite loud so it was difficult to hear the audio book we are listening to with earbuds, so we moved. Our second spot was near our favorite spot from the day before. No sooner had we set up than people started to come over to see what we were working on and to chat. This despite the fact that we both had our earbuds in. The coup de grace though was the music trivia game which started on the loudspeaker at noon complete with a "Let's all party mahn" Jamaican host. 

Central lobby area with glass elevators

Spot number three came after lunch. The Sky Bar. This started out  poorly as it was stuffy and warm. Also the Sky Bar (Deck 14) is located under the basketball court (Deck 15) and apparently there was one heck of a game going on! We figured we would try to gut it out but then a trivia contest began at two pm (which was really three pm as we were to turn our clocks ahead one hour today just as we have done for the previous two days). On to spot four -- the library. This attractive though completely exposed space (it is open to the atrium and in full view of the bank of glass elevators running through the heart of the ship) featured contemporary wing chairs which succeeded in being both claustrophobic and confining -- not ideal for needlepoint. 

Didn't even try to needlepoint here as all they have in the way of seating is chaise lounges (plus it smells like chlorine anyway!)

At this point, having been repeatedly discouraged, we figured the little piece of deck outside our cabin was maybe our best bet. It worked though the splashing of the ship as it moved through the waves made listening to our audiobook difficult. (What's the audiobook? It's called The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. It's really good. What a disaster the main character is though! Just one bad decision after another! So frustrating!

R decided to take a nap and I did some reading (The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope). Before dinner we sat and talked about our down day. I mentioned that I was worried about how we will do during some of our longer cruises with a room that is even smaller than the one we have now (and no window either). Of course we will have more ports to visit so I am hoping this will make a big difference because with these upcoming cruises I don't think needlepointing in the cabin will even be an option.

The other thing that was bothering me today is embarrassing to talk about but I will nevertheless. I noticed when I went to get coffee this morning that the two people in front of me in line had different passenger "charge" cards than I did (these are the ID cards that you are issued at the start of a cruise that are used for going on or off the ship and for charging items to your account). We all had our cards out so that we could pay for our speciality coffee. The two people in front of me in line had "better" cards than mine. One was an AquaClass card and the other was a Concierge Club card). Now I don't know anything about the rewards program for Celebrity Cruises but I know that cards with words like "class" and "club" surely beat out my plain Jane blue card with no writing on it. 

So, I saw those cards and I was jealous. I am not special I thought. They are special. But I like to be special. I want to be special. But I am not. I just have an ordinary room on a tatty, ten year old ship by some cruise line (that isn't Seabourne)  whose service and food are mere shadows of what they once were. You can see how quickly this sort thinking  spirals into a death spin.

So I couldn't find a comfortable place to needlepoint and I don't have a special card and, did I not mention that at breakfast this morning these two gay guys got their food before us when we had been there long before them? And I think that their waiter was being friendlier to them than our waiter was with us!

So, this is the level of thinking I have been dealing with today. I want. I don't have. Why not? Poor me. No wonder I didn't have a good day. I did say to Russell that I was thinking that you probably get as much out of a cruise like this as you put into it and so far I have not put too much into it. At least not in the way of meeting people or going to activities. I would like to say that I am going to do more. Get out there and meet those people. Attend a lecture. Go to bingo. But I probably won't. I am however going to go exercise tomorrow and that usually improves my mood. As for the rest of it? I suppose we will just have to chalk it up to a serious case of "stinkin' thinkin'" and leave it at that.

As an aside, I seriously wonder about fellow cruise mates who study the daily schedule put out by the ship's staff and mark off all the things that they want to do. Like go to a lecture on "American Madams" (11:15, Equinox Theater) or rush to participate in a game show "gender war" (Celebrity Central, Deck 4) or make it to the "unveiling" of Tag Heuer watches at Pieces of Time (Deck 4 @ 4:00pm). Honestly. What are these cruise directors thinking? But these events have attendees, so what do I know?

 I better sign off now before I bore you completely to tears. S

My humble blue card! (Which I see now says I am a "select member" so maybe there are actually people with worse cards than mine! Wahoo!)

No comments:

Post a Comment