Time Zones Are Weird

There's "ship time" and there's "real time" and they aren't always the same thing.

Because, I mean, you can cross into a new time zone at any time of day or night, and the ship isn't gonna immediately flip the clocks back. So they sorta just plan the clock changes at night, when convenient, even if that puts you off from what the time "actually" is.

All of which is background for the fact that they told us sunrise was at 7:56 this morning, and when I bounced out of bed when my alarm went off at 7:55, it was pitch freakin' black out there. Sun didn't rise for another freakin' hour. But this was basically because sunrise for our location WAS at 7:56, but the ship hadn't changed the clocks to "real time" yet.

This is complicated by the time zones in this part of the world. We started in Malaga, Spain (in the sea), the jogged on around the Rock of Gibralter into the North Atlantic, and are now tooling down the coast of Morocco. Technically, we should've jumped into the light green colored time zone as soon as we entered the ocean, but actually, Morocco is on the same time Spain is, and (as we go further South) it's still on Spanish time (the beige one) even as it juts further West. (Meantime, we're headed for the Canary Islands. Which are still owned by Spain, so you could make an argument that they should be in the tan zone extension, too. Or, just based on location, put them in the blue zone. But they're in the green anyway, for ... reasons?)

Yeah, so it was dark until about 9 is what I'm saying.

I was less green today - much less pinballing - and I slept LONGER, although still not ENOUGH. I'm having trouble adapting to all the ship noises at night. I decided to crank up my White Noise app and - in a burst of creativity - I set it to the "Ocean Waves" setting. This was actually ideal; rather than hearing the hum of the engines and the creaking of the ship, I now hear waves crashing while my ship rocks me to sleep. I'm clearly not on a quiet sailing vessel, but I can pretend that I am!

We came in second in Trivia again - but it might have been to a different team, which keeps us competitive in the long run. The entertainment director also gave us homework for Extra Points. Each team is to write a funny poem about New Year's Resolutions. My little team of over-achievers ended up producing 3 different poems (we're forcing one of the ones who didn't write to choose which one to submit for judging). Anyway, I sat in this window, looking out over the ocean and waited for the rhymes to come.

And as I'm pretty sure none of my competitors are reading this blog, I'll share with y'all the product of my labors.

::: clearing throat dramatically :::

Should I resolve to take more cruises?

Or to drink a bit less boozes?

Stop obsessing over the newses?

Or buying more expensive shoeses?

Instead, I think I'll get some clueses.

Be the person that I chooses.

Shake off the sadness and the blueses.

Greet each morning after I snoozes.

Be kind to creatures - even the gooses.

Eat more healthy; drink all the juices.

Try veg and fruit, like the pamplemousses.

Love all the angles (acute and obtuses!)

Roll with the punches and the bruises.

Celebrate the wins; accept the loses.

With love to all and no excuses

Happy New Year to all of youses.