October 24, 2008
It’s cloudy out tonight. Last night you could see stars in the sky. Pretty. Tonight, nothing. Just darkness that if you thought about would be just too big. I can only see the waves being created by the boat when I look down. Not much far out before everything disappears. Ah well.
Today has been good. Better than last night. I managed to go to sleep content, almost smiling, because I wanted today to be better, and for Lisa. I thought about her, and how she wanted me to have fun for her, too. Live vicariously through me (on this trip), she said. I don’t want to disappoint. And I want to enjoy this vacation. Can’t let one incident of Kareoke pull me down the whole time. Not that it would. But shortening being upset by it would just be better overall. So I tried. I thought about Lisa, And I thought about Emily, and I thought about having a better day “tomorrow.” Eventhought I had to be up for an 8am appointment AND we lost 1 hour crossing the time zones AND I’d stayed until the end of Karaoke, which was midnight. Ugh!
Anyway, I woke up fine when the wake-up/reminder call came in the morning. Thankfully the phone’s ringing wasn’t very loud. Though Mom snored a couple times and that woke me up. I hope I didn’t snore. We got two calls, one a reminder from the spa, unexpected. Then about a minute later the wake-up one. Oops! I got up, didn’t dress, brushed and flossed (like you needed to know that), put my contacts in, and finally had to turn on a light in the room to find my SeaPass card. Mom was okay with it, she was waking up anyway. Oh, forgot that I had opened the drapes slightly for light, and peeked out at the ocean. Blue waters, lighter sky, a couple clouds, SO Pretty! The sun was just rising, but not on our side. I went out and got cereal for breakfast before going to the spa. On my way I saw the sun rising into clouds, reds and lighter. Pretty pretty.
I also saw why the ship was rocking so bad. Waves were coming in towards us as we moved, not just the ones we created by moving. And some of the waves were pretty big! I watched a big one come, and sure enough when it got to the boat the ship rocked well to the side. The waters were not quite as chopy looking as last night, but still very much in motion, up and down.
I was slightly late to my appointment, but there was a lot of staff and only two other customers I saw when I was taken back to the quiet room to fill out my form, so I was okay. (They even told me so.)
The facial was great. The girl did like five treatments (all included, of course). One of the treatment was an electro-whatic one, with two probe type things she rubbed all over my face, the end thing they were attached to when under my right shoulder. I had a prep, an exfoliator, a cleansing run, a deep hydrating mask, I think something I can’t remember too. Also she did specific eye gel with one of the treatments, for puffiness and dark circles – the reason I initially wanted a facial, and then an eye mask along with the general facial mask. No cucumbers, put just fabric pads on my eyes over the mask. I actually felt the facial mask working, started with tingling and slowly my whole face felt infused all at the same time. A very interesting, would have been cool feeling if it hadn’t made me feel so cold! She also massaged my shoulders, neck and face. Ah.
When it was done, she said I had about a 50% improvement around my eyes. I had gone in telling them (on the form) I wanted my eyes to look good in photographs for the trip. I told her that darkness under my eyes had started within the last year, the couple fine lines also. The darkness is now gone! The lines are still there, but not as noticable. I think the treatment continued to work after I left because I did see that much improvement at first. But, within half an hour my eyes felt so much better, I could feel it without looking at them. Before that, Mom immediately said my chin looked better when she saw me. I didn’t know that was having an issue, but good. After she said that I looked and saw my forehead looked good too – it’s usually very dry and not quite the same color as lower on my face (-more washed out.) I managed to get talked into buying the eye mask before I left the spa. The girl said it should maintain the improvements under my eyes if I use it twice a day (morning + bedtime). I sure hope so.
After feeling better / happier for my first facial ever, I went back to the room to change out of my pajamas. Mom was up and changed. She ended up going out and I ended up falling back asleep. It was nice having quiet, (I turned the TV off as Mom left) and being about to hear the waves at the boat’s sides! I got to be lulled. Nice. Mom came back just before noon, waking me up (probably unintentionally), but I stayed in bed hoping she’d let me go back to sleep. Instead, the Captain used the intercom right at noon, which startled me even thought I wasn’t asleep. It woke up Michael too, but we didn’t figure that out until later. I got dressed and Mom and I went for lunch. All I had was fruit, two little Jello cups (the second I went back for) and half a slice of some fluffy cake thing. The fruit and Jello really helped my stomach.
October 23. It has been REALLY rocky on the boat. Last night after dinner I asked our porter (?) if the ship usually rocked this hard? He said no, and that it would calm down. The ship began going side to side, deeply at time, just about as we finished dinner. Full stomaches and having rocking did not mix well. I felt some better as my stomach and body emptied naturally. Michael and Mom both took naps, Michael by accident, which seemed to help them. Michael also went and ate a slice of pizza and got one other thing I forget, which he said helped settle his stomach, that he’d needed comfort food. While they were sleeping I wandered around waiting for the kareoke competition to begin, and ended up at the night’s trivia competition. Teams had already formed, but they were only just starting. A nice woman saw I had decided to play alone and told me to come over and join her team, so I did. Four of us total. We ended up winning both rounds! But we didn’t officially get the first round because the team next to us counted wrong by one, and then they won the tie breaker question. In the second round, there were 3 teams tied and we won the tie breaker. Still fun. Especially because of my teammates. We were writing down or mouthing answers to each other so as not to give answer to other teams. My partners were pretty smart, but I got some answers too! We each won a Royal Carribean key chain. (Plastic)
The then Kareoke Competition. I don’t much care to write about it now. Still, some good come out of it. More of the staff knows me, and some of the passengers – I’ve even been asked if/when I’m signing again! Michael showed up to, as it put it, “watch me make a fool of myself”. Eventhough we was late because of his nap, he didn’t miss me sing. He says I sang better as the song went on, even after the guy jumped up on stage to sing with me unbidden. (Arg.) and that what I really needed was to have warmed up. ANYWAY…
My stomach got bad during Kareoke. But it was fine while I slept. I think the rocking died down some overnight. But it was pretty bad again this morning. End October 23. I realized some time while in bed after the facial, that the boat was rocking in two ways, side to side as the waves hit, and front to back as it moved forward. And I figured that might be part of the problem.
Turns out the real problem was the rocking side to side only, because back to forth rocking doesn’t really both our bodies – think of a rocking chair. Once I realized that – which took a while. I had noticed earlier today that I felt fine when up on deck, but not when inside. Michael said the same, and surmised the higher on the ship one went the less the rocking was likely felt. Perhaps. I thought maybe it had to do with being able to see the horizon. But, in the end, at dinner tonight because I sit in the end of the table and so am facing the side of the ship, I figured it out. Mom and I, and Michael some too, have been doing much better with the hard and not so hard rocking now that we know how to orient ourselves.
In the Captain’s annoucements, he told us the reason for the bad waters was a Low pressure system up above New England, sending out rocky waters. Both that and the winds today are from the NE. We’re travelling S by SE true. So, chopy waters, moderate winds, both about perpendicular to us, all gives hard motion. So bad that there were motion-sickness bags on the stair railings at every deck! Mom says she’s never seen that before on a cruise. More than one of the staff on board has said this isn’t normal. We’re hoping the harbor at Bermuda will provider still(er) waters in the morning.
About time for bed now. Will have to write about the rest of the day tomorrow. The stars did come out tonight, I saw about 2 hours after I started writing (I broke to go watch the show, then back to the room). Anyway, Good Night! It was a nice day! And a fine night.
Walk w/Mike
Food
No piano lession <- No Mom
Mini golf: - I won! Medal: Feel kind a bad, but so nice too.
Oragami
B-ball shotout
Formal pics
dinner
Writing
Show
Writing
Balcony - Stars! Water Nice.
Writing
Mom (not sick, I fe(? what is this word? feel? fear?))
To bed.