We were supposed to have a party on deck today to celebrate the halfway point of our ocean crossing. You will note the "supposed to" in that sentence. The clouds that screwed up stargazing last night stayed with us and decided to make a light rain. The powers that make decisions on a ship decided that electricity (used by the band, for the party) would be a bad mix with the rain, so pulled the plug on the party. We'll celebrate being 70% across when the weather is better.
Because the party was cancelled, I dropped by the daily art class, which is where I made Grumpy the Sea Turtle. (I posted him on Facebook while he was drying. Now that he's dry and I picked off all the salt - yeah, we used salt for some damn reason - I can show you the final product. Look now; it's not like he's going to be framed on my wall.)
I'm not entirely happy with the lady teaching the class. She sort of walks around and, when she sees something in my work she doesn't like, she just fixes it -- without even asking and certainly without teaching me. Just "this part should be lighter," and next thing I know, she's wet a paper towel and is lightening it up. I mean, yeah, those parts DO look better now. But I would rather have my own shitty turtle than her better turtle. Like I said, I'm not framing it on the wall.
Of course, even when she did tell me what to do, it didn't turn out well. At one point, after I'd done the pink for his tongue, there was a little bit of white space underneath. She told me to put a bit more brown there. I did, and the pink from the tongue immediately started to seep over there. (Thanks a lot, lady; I would have preferred the white.) I'm ok with it. It isn't seeping paint, it's the blood of his enemies on his chin. Do not fuck with Grumpy.
We did drop 3 points in Trivia yesterday (for a total of 4 down) but we won today, so picked up a point. So we're three out of first and holding second by a point or two. I'm pleased, but also miffed; we should've had another point, but I missed a question because I did a stoopid.
As for the crossing, they gave us all certificates - even though the crossing isn't finished. Seemed awfully optimistic of them. (Not going to frame this either.)
It isn't just the awkward syntax. The amusing part is that while the captain's signature is live ink, it's pretty clear that the hotel manager's initials were a cut-and-paste job. (You can see how they're in the white square that doesn't quite match the white of the certificate.) OK, yeah, the hotel manager is clearly busy what with the understaffing. Still, the freakin' CAPTAIN found the time to sign these things. (Flashback to when I had to sign a stack of Nominee Certificates for the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards, knowing that some folks were going to cherish them, while others were going to leave them on the floor at the ceremony. You just tried to think about the folks for whom it mattered, and keep signing.)
The freakin' Captain is very personable and while I'd like to think he was hired for his ability to, you know, captain the ship across the Atlantic, it's also clear that he is quite good at the part of his job that involves dealing with the guests (and posing for pictures with the drunk ones). He runs a ... well, I'm not going to say "loose ship," but he's allowing a little more fun among the crew, which is really enjoyable. Every day at noon, the bridge officers do an update on our status - ship's location, bearing, speed, ocean depth, weather, ... stuff like that. I've previously heard it delivered in that same buzzing loudspeaker voice that you hear on planes that starts with "this is your captain speaking." Pretty dull stuff. So, a couple days in, the captain was down in the Lounge to give us the story about the rocky weather we were facing and he was going to talk to us right at noon. So we hear the update from the bridge officers, and it sounds like a couple of the younger officers got their hands on the mic while the captain was away (although I'm certain they actually had permission). They are "welcoming us to the noon podcast." They're kind of adorable and the captain is in the Lounge with us, watching how well it goes over. ("I'm Matt." "And I'm Ben." "And we are ... Ben and Matthew.") We actually applaud it. We found out later that the two of them have only known each other less than three weeks, but they definitely have a chemistry and manage to crack us up on the daily. Now we're at the point where the "noon podcast" has a special guest each day, as different departments are trying to get in on the fun.
I got invited to dinner at Matthew's table tomorrow. I think it would be delightful, but had to decline on account of it being my friend's birthday and we had planned a special birthday dinner. When I sent my regrets, I made certain to indicate I'd love to go another time.
Tomorrow is a heavily-scheduled day, what with rescheduling some of the stuff that has been cancelled before. Gotta get my sleep on.
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