Last night I went to see Richard Thompson in concert at the Variety Playhouse. It was an absolutely stunning show…just the man and his guitar, playing some of my favorite songs. Recently my dad said that I had never been good at playing the piano because I couldn’t get the messages from my head to my fingers fast enough. Seemed particularly harsh, particularly since that was 10 years ago. But watching RT play, it’s hard not to be amazed at how fast his fingers move. It’s like the messages start down there or something. I don’t know. I don’t play guitar so I can’t say.
Watching the show, I marveled again at how lucky I am to live in Atlanta and have access to the Variety Playhouse, which is probably my favorite place to see a show. I could have never seen Richard Thompson in Seattle because he would have played someplace with jacked up Ticketmaster tickets. The Variety is a fun place with big-name acts that’s general admission. I’ve always been able to walk right in and get right up by the stage. It’s much more intimate than anywhere I ever went in Seattle and for less than what I would have paid there. But in thinking about that, I couldn’t help but realize that there are a lot of things in Seattle that don’t have equivalents in Atlanta that I really miss. Like:
The Seattle Public Library
I’ve waxed rhapsodic about this place before, I’m sure. And I don’t miss the books, because you can get books anywhere, and I don’t miss the movies, because I have Netflix now. But I sure do miss a library system that really invests in music. I heard so much good music by borrowing library cd’s in Seattle. That’s how I heard Richard Thompson, in fact. I feel like I can’t keep up with music as well without spending an arm and a leg here in Atlanta. Speaking of which….
Easy Street Records
This was a music store in my old neighborhood that I absolutely adored, particularly because they had so many indie, off the radar cds for cheap. Plus they had a ton of listening stations, and a pretty sweet rewards program. Even if I never bought much (since I also had the library at my disposal), it was an awesome place to while away a Saturday afternoon. As was:
Half-Price Books
Okay, this is a chain, but I love it. Talk about a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon…browsing bookshelves that have a better selection than Barnes & Noble but for half the price. Not to mention all the $1 and $2 mass market paperbacks. I mean, I don’t need any more books for the duration of my life. But that was a fun place to go for just looking at books.
Coffeeshops
This one is my fault, because I haven’t been trying very many new coffeeshops lately. And of course Seattle is the granddaddy of coffeeshops and you can’t duplicate that experience. But even the duddiest of coffeeshops there beats any of the ones I’ve tried here. But I will try more! That’s a new resolution.
Happy hour specials
I read somewhere recently that happy hour specials are technically illegal in Atlanta. And whether that’s true or not, it certainly feels that way. Gone are the days of $2 cocktails and $3 appetizers from 4-6 pm.
My gym
I always enjoyed going to my old gym. Affordable, good classes, nice equipment, DVD players on machines, right on the way home from work. Who would ever thought I’d miss a gym? But I do.
Riding the bus to work
I don’t always miss this. I love the convenience of driving to work and running errands on the way home if I need to. I certainly don’t miss being stuck on a slow bus or waiting for a bus that never seemed to come. But I do miss all that spare reading time.
Mountain and water scenery
Seattle was pretty.
And of course, the people I knew out there.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not itching to move back there all of a sudden. I could easily do a list of things Atlanta has that Seattle doesn’t, and I’m very happy here. All the same, I do miss these things, after about a year-and-a-half of being gone.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Book #3: Catch-22
Whenever I read a book that has been deemed a classic, I want to read that book and immediately understand why it’s a classic. I want to love that book. I want that book to change my life. I don’t want to listen to any arguments about why listing any book as a classic is a bad idea. These are books I judge not by their covers, but by their reputations. Once named a classic, even by obscure organizations or publications, I feel the need to consume the item.
Recently I finished up “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. Widely hailed as a classic. Selected by my office book club by popular vote. Staring me down at bookstores everywhere. I wanted to read this book, and I wanted to like this book. But I just did not. I’m kinda amazed that I even finished this book.
Now, I knew going in to reading this book that it’s something of a dude book, the way ladies have their chick lit and whatnot. And I knew it was about how ridiculous war is. But I didn’t expect the book to be that ridiculous. I know that’s the point, but still. The only way I got through this book was by essentially skimming the dialogue and not caring too much about which character was which. Now, certainly, there were passages in the novel that I could latch onto and ride with, but they didn’t add up to a larger experience for me.
But you know, certain things in real life have lately just seemed very absurd to me. So maybe I didn’t need a literary reminder that life in any time, in any circumstance, is merely ridiculous and meaningless, and there’s nothing to be done about it. Maybe it was too much salt in a wound.
Recently I finished up “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. Widely hailed as a classic. Selected by my office book club by popular vote. Staring me down at bookstores everywhere. I wanted to read this book, and I wanted to like this book. But I just did not. I’m kinda amazed that I even finished this book.
Now, I knew going in to reading this book that it’s something of a dude book, the way ladies have their chick lit and whatnot. And I knew it was about how ridiculous war is. But I didn’t expect the book to be that ridiculous. I know that’s the point, but still. The only way I got through this book was by essentially skimming the dialogue and not caring too much about which character was which. Now, certainly, there were passages in the novel that I could latch onto and ride with, but they didn’t add up to a larger experience for me.
But you know, certain things in real life have lately just seemed very absurd to me. So maybe I didn’t need a literary reminder that life in any time, in any circumstance, is merely ridiculous and meaningless, and there’s nothing to be done about it. Maybe it was too much salt in a wound.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
pop rocks in my brain
Here are 5 random thoughts from this week, none of which seem big enough to be their own post. But I need a post in the next 41 minutes, before the day ends. I am trying to cultivate blogging discipline.
1. Tonight I got to go see "A Powerful Noise," a documentary about women making a difference in Mali, Vietnam and Bosnia. Obviously their stories were very empowering, and then the movie was followed by a panel of people that included Madeleine Albright. But the panelist I was most surprised by was Christy Turlington Burns. Apparently she is very involved in the issue of maternal health, to the point that she travels around the world and is taking classes toward a master's in public health. That is not even on her Wikipedia page, guys. I did not expect to be so inspired by a fashion model.
2. Since giving up chocolate and soda for Lent, I'm realizing how much of what I consume daily is chocolate and soda. Sometimes I literally don't know what to do with myself. The sound of an opening soda can in the office is such a heartbreaking sound to me now. This week I got this big tub of animal crackers to snack on, because it was the only sweet thing I liked that didn't have chocolate and that wasn't egregiously bad, like sheet cake from the grocery store. So I might turn into an animal cracker if we really are what we eat. But is eating that many animal crackers worse than eating chocolate? Time will tell.
3. Maybe you saw this on the news, but since I was all busy blogging about the cruise, I didn't get to mention that it snowed in Atlanta this past Sunday! Big fat snowflakes! A sight very rarely seen down here, made the more enjoyable by the fact that it was Sunday and there was no need to worry about driving home from work or something. It must have snowed for six hours, including this time when it thundered and snowed at the same time and apparently that is called THUNDERSNOW if a website that I read is to be believed. But don't worry about us, it will be back in the seventies on Saturday. Mwa ha ha ha.
4. Guys, don't be so hard on The Bachelor. I happened to watch this season for the first time ever because a friend turned me on to it, and I can just tell you that I don't think he did such a bad thing breaking off his engagement to the girl he broke off the engagement with. I didn't like her, and I like the girl he did pick better. Why is everyone so offended? That is all I read about in the past few days, how horrified everyone is. You're watching a show that is designed to end in an engagement after people have spent like eight weeks together. Of course there's going to be a few mistakes. The set-up is ridiculous. We don't need people getting all offended because a ridiculous set-up yields ridiculous results. We have more important things, like maternal health and other things Christy Turlington Burns supports, to worry about.
5. According to a tech guy, my work laptop is "riddled with viruses." The tech guys are going to think I am so dumb, clicking on pop-ups and believing in internet scams. Listen, tech guys, if you ever read this, I don't go anywhere illicit or do anything suspect on the internet at work! I don't know how I get so riddled with viruses! I have a blog, so you know I am not completely dumb about the internet, right? RIGHT?
1. Tonight I got to go see "A Powerful Noise," a documentary about women making a difference in Mali, Vietnam and Bosnia. Obviously their stories were very empowering, and then the movie was followed by a panel of people that included Madeleine Albright. But the panelist I was most surprised by was Christy Turlington Burns. Apparently she is very involved in the issue of maternal health, to the point that she travels around the world and is taking classes toward a master's in public health. That is not even on her Wikipedia page, guys. I did not expect to be so inspired by a fashion model.
2. Since giving up chocolate and soda for Lent, I'm realizing how much of what I consume daily is chocolate and soda. Sometimes I literally don't know what to do with myself. The sound of an opening soda can in the office is such a heartbreaking sound to me now. This week I got this big tub of animal crackers to snack on, because it was the only sweet thing I liked that didn't have chocolate and that wasn't egregiously bad, like sheet cake from the grocery store. So I might turn into an animal cracker if we really are what we eat. But is eating that many animal crackers worse than eating chocolate? Time will tell.
3. Maybe you saw this on the news, but since I was all busy blogging about the cruise, I didn't get to mention that it snowed in Atlanta this past Sunday! Big fat snowflakes! A sight very rarely seen down here, made the more enjoyable by the fact that it was Sunday and there was no need to worry about driving home from work or something. It must have snowed for six hours, including this time when it thundered and snowed at the same time and apparently that is called THUNDERSNOW if a website that I read is to be believed. But don't worry about us, it will be back in the seventies on Saturday. Mwa ha ha ha.
4. Guys, don't be so hard on The Bachelor. I happened to watch this season for the first time ever because a friend turned me on to it, and I can just tell you that I don't think he did such a bad thing breaking off his engagement to the girl he broke off the engagement with. I didn't like her, and I like the girl he did pick better. Why is everyone so offended? That is all I read about in the past few days, how horrified everyone is. You're watching a show that is designed to end in an engagement after people have spent like eight weeks together. Of course there's going to be a few mistakes. The set-up is ridiculous. We don't need people getting all offended because a ridiculous set-up yields ridiculous results. We have more important things, like maternal health and other things Christy Turlington Burns supports, to worry about.
5. According to a tech guy, my work laptop is "riddled with viruses." The tech guys are going to think I am so dumb, clicking on pop-ups and believing in internet scams. Listen, tech guys, if you ever read this, I don't go anywhere illicit or do anything suspect on the internet at work! I don't know how I get so riddled with viruses! I have a blog, so you know I am not completely dumb about the internet, right? RIGHT?
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
top ten list, part two
Okay, as promised, here’s the second half of the “Top 10 Things I Did on the Cruise Ship List.” This entry will represent the last of the cruise vacation entries. I managed to stretch a four-day cruise into eight entries, which seems pretty respectable. Hopefully I will have something to blog about tomorrow!
6. Shows
Each night of the cruise, there was a big show, and the nightly show was by far one of my favorite thing about the vacation. On the first night, the show was sort of an intro to cruise entertainment, emceed by our cruise director Noonan. Noonan was very funny and had a dry wit. There was a game played with people on the cruise ship, and his comments to each of the contestants were very funny. That first show also featured a few brief numbers by the dancers and singers as well as a brief stand-up bit by a comedian. On another night, there was stand-up by two other comedians.
But the best shows in my opinion were the ones with the singing and dancing. One show was sort of a French nightclub sort of thing in which all the dancers were practically naked. The other show was singing and dancing to nightclub standards from around the world. Just watching those shows once exhausted me, but I can’t imagine performing them twice. That is an awful lot of costume changes. To do all that AND help with Bingo games during the day?!?! The dancers have a pretty big workload, it seems to me. We also watched one adorable dancer teach the cha-cha to some cruisers. I could not be a dancer on a cruise ship, because it is just too much work and too much nudity.
7. Karaoke
One cruise ship job that I wouldn’t mind is running the karaoke bar, which is a place where my family spent quite a bit of time. The first night we just watched and got a feel for it. By the end of the evening, Dad had the karaoke bug and told me he would sing if I did. The next day, he was a man possessed, thinking about his song and racing off for the lounge as soon as dinner was over. Before the place got too crowded, I karaoked my way through “Werewolves of London.” When Dad took the stage, though, the place had many more people, including a raucous bachelorette party. However, he absolutely nailed his song, a George Jones number known as “White Lightning.” It’s a fast song with a lot of words, and the whole time I was watching I couldn’t believe that that was my dad up there. He was really really good. After he finished and sat down, this lady came out of nowhere and gave him a big kiss on the cheek and told him how awesome he was. We plotted our karaoke encores the next day, having learned about what was successful in the karaoke bar. But the greatest heartbreak of the trip may have been that the karaoke bar was closed the next night, which was also the last night, for a public event. Stardom foiled!
8. On Deck for the Cure
Carnival has this thing where you can make a small donation and do a mini-walk for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The walk was held on our day at sea and Mom and I decided to do it, since we really needed to get some exercise after all that eating and it was a pretty cool opportunity all around. Carnival has raised tons of money for breast cancer this way. We did a mile on the ship’s jogging track as part of the walk, and then we did another mile just on our own. Maybe if we had discovered that jogging track earlier on in the trip my jeans would fit better now, but frankly that’s unlikely. I just would have eaten more. But anyways, walking on the 10th level of a ship is pretty cool….very pretty, great view of the water.
9. Read
This one sounds a little boring and obvious, I guess, but it was so nice to have some time to read. I read Catch-22 (review on the way). The last day, the day at sea, I read mostly on the deck, but my comfy little bunk and some couches overlooking the water were also nice places to read. The only bad thing about reading on the deck was the pressure of chair wars. A lot of people would put their things on a deck chair and then just disappear for 5 hours, which hindered the other people who just wanted to sit in the sun. It was very uncomfortable. Apparently there were fights. The last day they put a notice in the cruise newspaper that people shouldn’t save a deck chair if they were going to be gone for more than 30 minutes. The last day we sat next to some claimed chairs for like three hours and we never saw the people who had claimed them. Meanwhile people are passing behind the chairs, all sad that there’s nowhere to sit. As I said, very uncomfortable.
10. Towel Animals!
Each night, while you’re off gallivanting about the ship, the steward comes in and turns down the bed and leaves an animal made out of a towel! It’s the most wonderful thing ever! Here is an elephant we received, as well as a creature that I think is a pig. It's hard to tell cause I think you make pigs and dogs the same way.
On the last day, Mom and I went to a class to learn how to make towel animals from the stewards. I just looked back over the pictures of the ones I made, and I don’t want to post them next to the professional examples. I learned how to make an elephant and a dog. If stewards didn’t also have to make beds and tidy rooms, I would want to be a room steward so I could bring joy to all the people with my towel animals.
6. Shows
Each night of the cruise, there was a big show, and the nightly show was by far one of my favorite thing about the vacation. On the first night, the show was sort of an intro to cruise entertainment, emceed by our cruise director Noonan. Noonan was very funny and had a dry wit. There was a game played with people on the cruise ship, and his comments to each of the contestants were very funny. That first show also featured a few brief numbers by the dancers and singers as well as a brief stand-up bit by a comedian. On another night, there was stand-up by two other comedians.
But the best shows in my opinion were the ones with the singing and dancing. One show was sort of a French nightclub sort of thing in which all the dancers were practically naked. The other show was singing and dancing to nightclub standards from around the world. Just watching those shows once exhausted me, but I can’t imagine performing them twice. That is an awful lot of costume changes. To do all that AND help with Bingo games during the day?!?! The dancers have a pretty big workload, it seems to me. We also watched one adorable dancer teach the cha-cha to some cruisers. I could not be a dancer on a cruise ship, because it is just too much work and too much nudity.
7. Karaoke
One cruise ship job that I wouldn’t mind is running the karaoke bar, which is a place where my family spent quite a bit of time. The first night we just watched and got a feel for it. By the end of the evening, Dad had the karaoke bug and told me he would sing if I did. The next day, he was a man possessed, thinking about his song and racing off for the lounge as soon as dinner was over. Before the place got too crowded, I karaoked my way through “Werewolves of London.” When Dad took the stage, though, the place had many more people, including a raucous bachelorette party. However, he absolutely nailed his song, a George Jones number known as “White Lightning.” It’s a fast song with a lot of words, and the whole time I was watching I couldn’t believe that that was my dad up there. He was really really good. After he finished and sat down, this lady came out of nowhere and gave him a big kiss on the cheek and told him how awesome he was. We plotted our karaoke encores the next day, having learned about what was successful in the karaoke bar. But the greatest heartbreak of the trip may have been that the karaoke bar was closed the next night, which was also the last night, for a public event. Stardom foiled!
8. On Deck for the Cure
Carnival has this thing where you can make a small donation and do a mini-walk for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The walk was held on our day at sea and Mom and I decided to do it, since we really needed to get some exercise after all that eating and it was a pretty cool opportunity all around. Carnival has raised tons of money for breast cancer this way. We did a mile on the ship’s jogging track as part of the walk, and then we did another mile just on our own. Maybe if we had discovered that jogging track earlier on in the trip my jeans would fit better now, but frankly that’s unlikely. I just would have eaten more. But anyways, walking on the 10th level of a ship is pretty cool….very pretty, great view of the water.
9. Read
This one sounds a little boring and obvious, I guess, but it was so nice to have some time to read. I read Catch-22 (review on the way). The last day, the day at sea, I read mostly on the deck, but my comfy little bunk and some couches overlooking the water were also nice places to read. The only bad thing about reading on the deck was the pressure of chair wars. A lot of people would put their things on a deck chair and then just disappear for 5 hours, which hindered the other people who just wanted to sit in the sun. It was very uncomfortable. Apparently there were fights. The last day they put a notice in the cruise newspaper that people shouldn’t save a deck chair if they were going to be gone for more than 30 minutes. The last day we sat next to some claimed chairs for like three hours and we never saw the people who had claimed them. Meanwhile people are passing behind the chairs, all sad that there’s nowhere to sit. As I said, very uncomfortable.
10. Towel Animals!
Each night, while you’re off gallivanting about the ship, the steward comes in and turns down the bed and leaves an animal made out of a towel! It’s the most wonderful thing ever! Here is an elephant we received, as well as a creature that I think is a pig. It's hard to tell cause I think you make pigs and dogs the same way.
On the last day, Mom and I went to a class to learn how to make towel animals from the stewards. I just looked back over the pictures of the ones I made, and I don’t want to post them next to the professional examples. I learned how to make an elephant and a dog. If stewards didn’t also have to make beds and tidy rooms, I would want to be a room steward so I could bring joy to all the people with my towel animals.Tuesday, March 3, 2009
a top ten list, in two parts
So far on this epic cruise recap, I have mostly detailed what my parents and I did on our trips off the boat. However, we did spend the majority of this trip on a boat. In fact, the entire last day was just a day at sea. But time at sea is never boring. Oh my, no. There is so much to do on board, including the trivia challenges that I mentioned yesterday. There’s so much that you can’t even do it all – for example, we didn’t really hit up the casino, the dance clubs or the mini golf course. But I did compile a top 10 list of things that we did do aboard our cruise ship. However, I am going to break the list into two parts, because now that I’m blogging every day I don’t want to run out of material too fast. So here’s the first five:
1. Eat
This one is pretty obvious. Cruise ships are famous for the amount of food that they carry on board, and I certainly was not disappointed in this respect. As soon as we got on the boat we were sent up to the ninth floor of the ship, which had various eating stations as well as a full buffet. You know a trip will be good if you get fresh-carved roast beef within an hour. And then have a fancy dinner just a few hours later. I can’t even remember all the things I ate on this boat, but they included lobster tail, a ooey gooey warm chocolate cake, a Mexican midnight buffet, steak, eggs benedict, fried chicken and several types of breakfast meat. I probably should have taken more copious notes on all I consumed, but it would likely make me feel bad now. I have gained weight, y’all. I have been wearing fat pants since I got back. I am trying to exercise, but unfortunately, I still get hungry every 2.5 hours, which was roughly the feeding schedule I was on during the cruise.
2. Drink
I guess one follows the other. Now, my parents and I didn’t go as crazy as some of the people did on this traveling bar, but I think we did a respectable bit. Every day, Mom and I got the specialty cocktail, which came in this cute cruise cup of which I now have a set of 4 (Mom has the other half). These are the kinds of cocktails that have numerous types of fruit on the edge of the glass, as well as an umbrella. They were usually pink. We also had delicious mojitos and ice cold beer. Dad drank wine. And at the cocktail reception that was thrown by the captain, I had champagne and a lime daiquiri. That captain, he throws a good party. His name was Giuseppe. We learned that because on the first day the televisions in the room have a video that shows on repeat in which Giuseppe tells you how important it is to take part in the life jacket safety drill. We did do that, but it’s not going to merit its own entry on the list.
3. Watch the Academy Awards
Speaking of having televisions in the room, I was able to see an hour or so of the crown jewel in my annual television watching schedule, the Oscars. No doubt many of my readers were disappointed that I was not around to type drunken thoughts on the event this year, but frankly, I am glad I was on a boat and not in front of the computer. For the obvious reasons that being on a boat is far superior to being in front of a computer, but also because from the little that I saw, the Oscars sucked. Everything was too predictable, and I definitely did not like the feature where past winners came out to announce the nominees. It was too uneven; some presenters loved their nominees, while others didn’t even know who they were. It made me uncomfortable.
4. Fend Off Paparazzi
Much like the celebrities at the Academy Awards, I spent day after day having my picture taken even when I didn’t really want it. Cruise lines employ all these photographers, some of whom are stationed to photograph you at the most inopportune moment, such as when you’re stepping off a boat and getting wind all in your hair. Or when you’re trying to juggle all your travel documents before you get on a boat. Or when you’re eating dinner and they want to bring a pirate around to everyone’s table. It was an awful lot of photography, it seemed to me. But it was still fun to walk through the photo gallery and look for yourself amidst all the photos, even if it was only to cringe at how bad the photos turned out.
5. Waterslide!
One moment that I prayerfully hope wasn’t captured on film was the time I spent walking around in my bathing suit after four days of cruise eating. But I had to do it so I could spend some time in the hot tub and go on the waterslide! My dad went on the waterslide as well. We made three trips on that waterslide, along with several little kids. If a waterslide can entertain everyone from children to grownups, then I think that’s a pretty good waterslide.
1. Eat
This one is pretty obvious. Cruise ships are famous for the amount of food that they carry on board, and I certainly was not disappointed in this respect. As soon as we got on the boat we were sent up to the ninth floor of the ship, which had various eating stations as well as a full buffet. You know a trip will be good if you get fresh-carved roast beef within an hour. And then have a fancy dinner just a few hours later. I can’t even remember all the things I ate on this boat, but they included lobster tail, a ooey gooey warm chocolate cake, a Mexican midnight buffet, steak, eggs benedict, fried chicken and several types of breakfast meat. I probably should have taken more copious notes on all I consumed, but it would likely make me feel bad now. I have gained weight, y’all. I have been wearing fat pants since I got back. I am trying to exercise, but unfortunately, I still get hungry every 2.5 hours, which was roughly the feeding schedule I was on during the cruise.
2. Drink
I guess one follows the other. Now, my parents and I didn’t go as crazy as some of the people did on this traveling bar, but I think we did a respectable bit. Every day, Mom and I got the specialty cocktail, which came in this cute cruise cup of which I now have a set of 4 (Mom has the other half). These are the kinds of cocktails that have numerous types of fruit on the edge of the glass, as well as an umbrella. They were usually pink. We also had delicious mojitos and ice cold beer. Dad drank wine. And at the cocktail reception that was thrown by the captain, I had champagne and a lime daiquiri. That captain, he throws a good party. His name was Giuseppe. We learned that because on the first day the televisions in the room have a video that shows on repeat in which Giuseppe tells you how important it is to take part in the life jacket safety drill. We did do that, but it’s not going to merit its own entry on the list.
3. Watch the Academy Awards
Speaking of having televisions in the room, I was able to see an hour or so of the crown jewel in my annual television watching schedule, the Oscars. No doubt many of my readers were disappointed that I was not around to type drunken thoughts on the event this year, but frankly, I am glad I was on a boat and not in front of the computer. For the obvious reasons that being on a boat is far superior to being in front of a computer, but also because from the little that I saw, the Oscars sucked. Everything was too predictable, and I definitely did not like the feature where past winners came out to announce the nominees. It was too uneven; some presenters loved their nominees, while others didn’t even know who they were. It made me uncomfortable.
4. Fend Off Paparazzi
Much like the celebrities at the Academy Awards, I spent day after day having my picture taken even when I didn’t really want it. Cruise lines employ all these photographers, some of whom are stationed to photograph you at the most inopportune moment, such as when you’re stepping off a boat and getting wind all in your hair. Or when you’re trying to juggle all your travel documents before you get on a boat. Or when you’re eating dinner and they want to bring a pirate around to everyone’s table. It was an awful lot of photography, it seemed to me. But it was still fun to walk through the photo gallery and look for yourself amidst all the photos, even if it was only to cringe at how bad the photos turned out.
5. Waterslide!
One moment that I prayerfully hope wasn’t captured on film was the time I spent walking around in my bathing suit after four days of cruise eating. But I had to do it so I could spend some time in the hot tub and go on the waterslide! My dad went on the waterslide as well. We made three trips on that waterslide, along with several little kids. If a waterslide can entertain everyone from children to grownups, then I think that’s a pretty good waterslide.
Monday, March 2, 2009
the trophy story
For better or worse, I have a long memory. I am -- how you say -- good at keeping grudges. Unfortunately for my family, that means I am able to remember obscure things they did to traumatize me during my childhood. And there is no anecdote that I pull out of my little twisted mind more often than “the trophy story.”
When I was a girl, I played softball for a few seasons. I was not very good; I am not very good at many sports at all. I distinctly remember one unfortunate incident when I swung at a ball that was BOUNCING. ON THE GROUND. That was not my finest moment.
Anyways, one season my dad was the coach of my team, Pink Panthers. Coach sat the team down at the beginning of the season and said that the only thing that mattered was whether we had fun. It wasn’t about winning or losing, but about doing our best and having fun and being a team. I would say that mission was accomplished. We certainly didn’t win every game, but we won a few. We had fun. It was a good season.
Until the end of the season, when my dad revealed that we wouldn’t be getting trophies. BECAUSE WE DIDN'T WIN ENOUGH.
Now, I certainly don’t believe that mediocrity should be rewarded. But I will tell you that it was somewhat implicit in that league that if you played softball as a kid, you got a trophy at the end of the season, usually presented at a pizza party. It was a memento of a summer in your life and I still have all the ones I got from playing on other teams. Teams, that I might add, may have lost more than the Pink Panthers did that season.
My other problem with this scenario is that in that heartwarming talk that Dad gave us at the beginning of the season, winning was in no way defined as a metric for our success. The only metric provided was that we have fun. We had fun; therefore, didn’t we deserve a symbol of our accomplishment? If he had said, “If you girls win a lot, we will get trophies,” then a merely decent record would not have sufficed. But he never brought up the parameters of receiving a trophy, because at that age, they were implicit: If you played, then you got a trophy.
I mean, the parents paid for them. I think they were reasonably priced.
Now, this is an anecdote that I bring up a lot. When people come over for dinner, I ask them in front of my father about the fairness of this situation. Dad has tried to make it up to me over the years, giving me little fake trophies or trophies with masking tape labels recognizing my accomplishments. BUT IT IS NOT THE SAME.
Now, maybe you are wondering what this has to do with my cruise vacation, which I was in the middle of recounting. Well, on the cruise ship, one of their little activities is playing trivia, and the prize is a little trophy of the cruise ship. I told Dad that if I won a trophy, then I would put this anecdote to rest.
I do just want to state, however, that I made that deal when I thought we’d be playing as a team. In actuality, we had to play as single individuals. So I don’t know if this deal still holds up.
The trivia game was 15 questions. Four people playing in the room got 9 out of 15, including both Dad and me. Which means we had to go to a sudden death tiebreaker, which some other guy won. It was especially heartbreaking, because Dad and I had both changed an answer at the last minute, and if we had only kept our original answer, either of us might have won without having to deal with the tiebreaker.
But there was another chance to win a trophy, and that was for a game called “Famous Faces.” They would flash people up on the screen for just a second, and you had to identify as many of the 60 shown as possible.
I got 54 correct. The guy who had won the first trivia game got 56, so he got another trophy. But the guy who was running trivia said that my score was so impressive that he gave me a trophy too! Hooray! A trophy for me!
What is especially significant about this trophy, to me, is that I didn’t have to win first place to receive it. I just had to do my best, which is what Dad said I had to do all those years ago when I was playing softball. Sure, that trivia guy may have just given me a trophy because the other guy had already won one, but doesn’t a ragtag team of softball playing girls deserve trophies too, maybe especially because all the other teams already got one?
Please feel free to tell me how correct I am on this matter in the comment section. You can also forward me emails that mention how I deserved a trophy when I was 10, and I will make sure my father sees them. But I will, on my honor, try to put this trophy anecdote to rest now.
When I was a girl, I played softball for a few seasons. I was not very good; I am not very good at many sports at all. I distinctly remember one unfortunate incident when I swung at a ball that was BOUNCING. ON THE GROUND. That was not my finest moment.
Anyways, one season my dad was the coach of my team, Pink Panthers. Coach sat the team down at the beginning of the season and said that the only thing that mattered was whether we had fun. It wasn’t about winning or losing, but about doing our best and having fun and being a team. I would say that mission was accomplished. We certainly didn’t win every game, but we won a few. We had fun. It was a good season.
Until the end of the season, when my dad revealed that we wouldn’t be getting trophies. BECAUSE WE DIDN'T WIN ENOUGH.
Now, I certainly don’t believe that mediocrity should be rewarded. But I will tell you that it was somewhat implicit in that league that if you played softball as a kid, you got a trophy at the end of the season, usually presented at a pizza party. It was a memento of a summer in your life and I still have all the ones I got from playing on other teams. Teams, that I might add, may have lost more than the Pink Panthers did that season.
My other problem with this scenario is that in that heartwarming talk that Dad gave us at the beginning of the season, winning was in no way defined as a metric for our success. The only metric provided was that we have fun. We had fun; therefore, didn’t we deserve a symbol of our accomplishment? If he had said, “If you girls win a lot, we will get trophies,” then a merely decent record would not have sufficed. But he never brought up the parameters of receiving a trophy, because at that age, they were implicit: If you played, then you got a trophy.
I mean, the parents paid for them. I think they were reasonably priced.
Now, this is an anecdote that I bring up a lot. When people come over for dinner, I ask them in front of my father about the fairness of this situation. Dad has tried to make it up to me over the years, giving me little fake trophies or trophies with masking tape labels recognizing my accomplishments. BUT IT IS NOT THE SAME.
Now, maybe you are wondering what this has to do with my cruise vacation, which I was in the middle of recounting. Well, on the cruise ship, one of their little activities is playing trivia, and the prize is a little trophy of the cruise ship. I told Dad that if I won a trophy, then I would put this anecdote to rest.
I do just want to state, however, that I made that deal when I thought we’d be playing as a team. In actuality, we had to play as single individuals. So I don’t know if this deal still holds up.
The trivia game was 15 questions. Four people playing in the room got 9 out of 15, including both Dad and me. Which means we had to go to a sudden death tiebreaker, which some other guy won. It was especially heartbreaking, because Dad and I had both changed an answer at the last minute, and if we had only kept our original answer, either of us might have won without having to deal with the tiebreaker.
But there was another chance to win a trophy, and that was for a game called “Famous Faces.” They would flash people up on the screen for just a second, and you had to identify as many of the 60 shown as possible.
I got 54 correct. The guy who had won the first trivia game got 56, so he got another trophy. But the guy who was running trivia said that my score was so impressive that he gave me a trophy too! Hooray! A trophy for me!
What is especially significant about this trophy, to me, is that I didn’t have to win first place to receive it. I just had to do my best, which is what Dad said I had to do all those years ago when I was playing softball. Sure, that trivia guy may have just given me a trophy because the other guy had already won one, but doesn’t a ragtag team of softball playing girls deserve trophies too, maybe especially because all the other teams already got one?Please feel free to tell me how correct I am on this matter in the comment section. You can also forward me emails that mention how I deserved a trophy when I was 10, and I will make sure my father sees them. But I will, on my honor, try to put this trophy anecdote to rest now.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
like a whole other country
After Key West, our cruise ship headed off for Cozumel, in Mexico. Unlike Key West, in which we had a lot of ideas about what we might want to do, we didn't have much of an idea of what to do in Cozumel. There were a lot of excursions offered through the cruise line but they were expensive, and furthermore, I didn't find anything that was too appealing. Apparently I have no desire to swim with dolphins or go to Mayan ruins. Oh well.
So I did some research, and basically we decided that we'd walk through the town of San Miguel and then go to a beach. We came in at a port that was a few miles down the road from San Miguel, so we hopped in a cab and the guy let us out downtown. Which looked like this:
We walked around for awhile, going into shops. Mom and Dad started to find this stressful, because each shop had someone outside yelling at you to come in and take a look. Then the salesperson follows you around. It's not a very enjoyable way to shop. Also, most of the shops have the same souvenirs, so after just a few shops you feel like you've seen it all.
After awhile, Dad was ready to go back to the ship, and the plan was for Mom and I to continue to a beach club for a few hours, before we too would head back in time for dinner. We passed a place advertising $1 Coronas, however, so we decided to stop and have a drink. Plus the place had shade, and this was a very hot day.
It turns out all the beers were $1, so Dad asked the waiter if there were any local ones on the list. He and I enjoyed Montejo, a Yucatan beer.
Look at all the fun we're having in the picture above! And for only $2! I also split a strawberry daiquiri with Mom, which was $4. I guess there's a reason kids go to Mexico for spring break. It's so cheap to drink! Too bad I didn't figure this out earlier, before Mexico got all dangerous!
Another plus for Mexico is you can wander the streets with a beer in your hand. That's what I'm doing below, with the Mexican flag carefully placed in the background, so as to prove that I did in fact leave the country:
After all the drinking, it was getting late so we decided to head back to the cruise ship together and forego the beach trip. We did take some time to walk along the coast. We walked out on this pier and saw these little fish that looked like sharks! Also I saw these fish out of water:
There are all sorts of these statues along the main road along the coast.
We walked down to Senor Frog's before we caught a taxi back to the boat, because when I see giant frogs, I must have pictures with them. Luckily, my parents support me in this quest. If you have a real eye for detail, you might notice that I've moved on to a beer in a can. Dos Equis in a souvenir shop for $1 a can!
A few more swigs of Dos Equis led to this:
Then I was drinking and driving!
After my froggy photo shoot, we got in a real car, though. And it turns out Mexico doesn't have any of those pesky open container laws so I enjoyed that beer all the way back to the cruise ship.
At the dock there was like a little miniature downtown Cozumel, only the drinks were more expensive and the shops catered to American tourists that don't want Mexican shopkeepers shouting at them. I found a nativity scene made in Mexico at one of those stores that was far cheaper than anything I saw in the real downtown, so that was my Cozumel souvenir. (I'm sure it will get a picture post when it becomes my seasonal centerpiece!)
Apparently, all those shops were brand new and built after damage done during 2005 hurricanes. While that part was nice to walk around, I'm glad we got to go into the real town. We met some ladies who only went to that part, and that seemed sad. Granted, they didn't seem like ladies that drank, so I guess they wouldn't have been impressed with all the cheap alcohol prices.
So I did some research, and basically we decided that we'd walk through the town of San Miguel and then go to a beach. We came in at a port that was a few miles down the road from San Miguel, so we hopped in a cab and the guy let us out downtown. Which looked like this:
We walked around for awhile, going into shops. Mom and Dad started to find this stressful, because each shop had someone outside yelling at you to come in and take a look. Then the salesperson follows you around. It's not a very enjoyable way to shop. Also, most of the shops have the same souvenirs, so after just a few shops you feel like you've seen it all.
After awhile, Dad was ready to go back to the ship, and the plan was for Mom and I to continue to a beach club for a few hours, before we too would head back in time for dinner. We passed a place advertising $1 Coronas, however, so we decided to stop and have a drink. Plus the place had shade, and this was a very hot day.
It turns out all the beers were $1, so Dad asked the waiter if there were any local ones on the list. He and I enjoyed Montejo, a Yucatan beer.
Look at all the fun we're having in the picture above! And for only $2! I also split a strawberry daiquiri with Mom, which was $4. I guess there's a reason kids go to Mexico for spring break. It's so cheap to drink! Too bad I didn't figure this out earlier, before Mexico got all dangerous!Another plus for Mexico is you can wander the streets with a beer in your hand. That's what I'm doing below, with the Mexican flag carefully placed in the background, so as to prove that I did in fact leave the country:
After all the drinking, it was getting late so we decided to head back to the cruise ship together and forego the beach trip. We did take some time to walk along the coast. We walked out on this pier and saw these little fish that looked like sharks! Also I saw these fish out of water:
There are all sorts of these statues along the main road along the coast.We walked down to Senor Frog's before we caught a taxi back to the boat, because when I see giant frogs, I must have pictures with them. Luckily, my parents support me in this quest. If you have a real eye for detail, you might notice that I've moved on to a beer in a can. Dos Equis in a souvenir shop for $1 a can!
A few more swigs of Dos Equis led to this:
Then I was drinking and driving!
After my froggy photo shoot, we got in a real car, though. And it turns out Mexico doesn't have any of those pesky open container laws so I enjoyed that beer all the way back to the cruise ship.
At the dock there was like a little miniature downtown Cozumel, only the drinks were more expensive and the shops catered to American tourists that don't want Mexican shopkeepers shouting at them. I found a nativity scene made in Mexico at one of those stores that was far cheaper than anything I saw in the real downtown, so that was my Cozumel souvenir. (I'm sure it will get a picture post when it becomes my seasonal centerpiece!)
Apparently, all those shops were brand new and built after damage done during 2005 hurricanes. While that part was nice to walk around, I'm glad we got to go into the real town. We met some ladies who only went to that part, and that seemed sad. Granted, they didn't seem like ladies that drank, so I guess they wouldn't have been impressed with all the cheap alcohol prices.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)