Day 12 Par-taaaaay

I need to start with an addition to last night; when we went out to 6 forward it was perfectly clear and the gigantic full moon was lighting the ship like a floodlight. And when we woke up this morning, there it was again on the other side of the ship. I went to the gym for TBP BB 4, and Dave did his morning walk. Sea day are always busy for me, so I finished up in the gym, scarfed down my yogurt (no walnuts for the past two days) and rushed off to Tai Chi. I was a little late and when I walked in Jorge yelled “It’s Rachel!” and then several other people yelled back “Rachel!”. It was very gratifying. I had a short time after Tai Chi to change my clothes and get to the Coffee Chat, where I got to sit with Dave. It was the safety officer and the training officer. The coffee didn’t arrive on time and Yann, the safety officer, gave Dario a very hard time about it.

I had to leave a little early to go to the mask making class. I tried doing a doodle on the mask but it totally didn’t bring me joy, so I didn’t finish it. They told us they’d be giving out masks at the ball so I figured that would be fine. And then I had to leave there early to get to papa hulu, where we are starting to learn a Tahitian Ori. The difference between the Hawai’ian hula and the Tahitian ori (other than the l->r shift) is how they move the hips and also Ori is rhythm based while Hula is story based. Or that’s what I think I remember. Anyway, hula Is always fun. I didn’t have any activities after that until lunch, so I went back to the cabin and read for a while. Meanwhile Dave went to hear William Beeman talk about Polynesian navigation, a subject they are both fascinated by, so the talk was better than past talks. Dave had lunch on the Lido; I went to the dining room where I met Marcia Snidow, who was born in Southern California but who moved to Medford in high school because her father had taken a job as a vice president of Harry and David (ooo, pears! said everyone at the table), and then she met and married her high school sweetheart who played professional football for 10 years (defensive end, Washington Redskis and Cleveland Browns). She was a delightful lunch companion.

At 1:00 there was a talk on whales and dolphins that was disappointing. First off she kept calling them citations, and her presenting skills just aren’t there. But she did point out something I’d never thought about, which is that South Pacific whales go south to feed towards the Antarctic, rather than north to Alaska or Cape Cod like the whales I’m used to. I know it’s obvious but it was a little mindblowing for me. Dave was chairing his first ARS communication commity meeting on Zoom so he wasn’t available. At 2:00 it was ‘ukelele time – I’m going to try to get a recording of all of us warming up. I didn’t use the pick I got at the ABC store because it makes my play too loudly and then it’s really obvious that I skip the G7 in the vamp portion of E Huli.

Then I had free time! I took our Target mat and went out on the 6-aft deck and recorded a short Pilates workout for my people, then went back to the cabin and read for a while. Dave came in and we got ready for dressy dinner. When we got there everyone at our table was pretty dressed up, and Ilene gave me her mask which is excellent. The food continues to be excellent and the dinners are enjoyable.

Usually after dressy nights there’s nothing special, but tonight they had the Masquerade Ball. We started with an hour of music from the Vivace Trio (keyboard, violin, cello) of the popular tunes sort – we sat upstairs for that. Then the Dam band came on for dance music so we went downstairs. The dance floor (a tiny clearing in front of the stage) was very crowded so at first we just stayed near the back and danced. Officers are available to be snagged for a dance – I’m never sure how they feel about it. Eventually towards the end of the set we moved closer to and eventually onto the dance floor. At one point we were dancing next to Jorge and he saw me and yelled “Rachel’s here!” and jumped up and down and gave me a big hug. I suspect Jorge was not entirely sober.

We did our nightly outside time, including a trip up to deck 9¾ to see if we could see the north star only 15 degrees above the horizon, which we could. I haven’t talked about the weather much. It tends to be cloudy/rainy in the morning and clear up by afternoon, but it is hot – in the 80s day and night – and sticky. So far I have had equanimity about it, which we all (especially Dave) hope will continue because it’s not going to get better.

Towel Animal! We think they only come on dressy nights.