A Kind of Fun Everyone Else Isn't Having

 Wednesday, May 14th  

Ah, a whole day of zen! Today was our second full day at sea and after two days of islands and merriment it was time for some well-earned loafing about! The day started, as usual, at 10:15am for me (actual 10:15am now as we had turned time back one hour as we reentered our original time zone). The Windjammer was, as expected, pretty wild as everyone was on the ship and had apparently decided to sleep in as well after 2 days of island-hopping. This would have been fine except I missed the frosted donuts? Only cinnamon dusted awaited me at my beloved pastry stand! How dare these low lives take all my frosted donuts. For shame. Back at the room Jess told me it was my own fault because I had, over the past few days, alerted several people to where the donuts could be found in the Windjammer as people spotted them on my plate on my way to the room. It’s possible she’s right. I shared the Donut Wisdom with too many and cost myself. The price we pay for generosity. 

I ended up getting 4 cinnamon donuts, 1 frosted cinnamon roll, and 1 pain au chocolate, just some light fare as I figured we were just gonna get something in us real quick then head up to the pool and hit the Windjammer for some lunch fare to enjoy while we basked! And that’s basically exactly what we did! Bathing suits on, sunscreen lathered, pool bag packed, and we were off! It was, of course, total madness at the Solarium! The pool was full and every chair in the place was taken! We ended up stashing our stuff in one of the cubbies and Jess left me to continue the hunt for chairs while she hit the Windjammer to get some sandwiches for us. I looked around a bit for chairs, and dipped my feet in the pool a little, but I’m awkward and lame and felt super out of place just... hanging at the pool by myself, so I ended up just circling the place like a vulture for a while until Jess got back with the ham sandwiches. 

When Jess got back she decided to do a sweep herself and lo and behold, she came across two people who were just leaving and she asked for their chairs! They were facing the pool AND in the shade! Score! She waved me over and I carried our towels, bag, food, and the last of the peach bellini we’d brought with us over to the chairs and we set up shop! Jess had her Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories Not for the Nervous to read while I’d brought Mothman: Sightings and Investigations of the Iconic Flying Cryptid. I brought this book because it was compact and small, and also because it provides an interesting pro-cryptid, pro-supernatural counter balance to The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained which I’d been reading at home, which is more about the psychology of why people believe in the fantastic and how often those ideas come to exist in our minds and culture. As we read, ate, and drank, Jess got up at one time to take a spin in the pool, and I of course had to go get some ice cream! As we lounged we periodically would ask each other for updates in each other’s books, Jess asking me for fun facts about Mothman, me asking her for summaries of her short stories, and it was all great fun! 

Around 2:20pm we’d been debating doing the FlowRider again and had kind of leaned more towards not doing it because we figured we’d hit it again tomorrow, but I was nervous we’d been too tired after our day at Coco Cay, or we just might not want to rush back to make the 3pm time, so I decided I would indeed be going back to the FlowRider and Jess decided that was a good plan so off we went! We go re-wristbanded, cheered for those who went before us in line, and then it was our turn! I went first this time, and I managed to pop up onto my knees! I didn’t manage to do that 360 spin, but I did pop up twice without falling! Jess went after me and she did the ‘jump into the wave from the top’ thing that she hadn’t done last time, but she jumped too far and didn’t keep her feet together so she ended up all the way up on the dry part of the FlowRider where the instructor stands! He was like “Where you going? The water’s back there!” But she made it work and also managed to pop up onto her knees! She didn’t make the spin either, but we both felt quite proud of our achievements! 

We decided, since they were open and we were there anyway, to do the slides again, this time racing against each other both times! I won both times and Jess said it’s cause I’m fatter but I argued it’s just the weight of my hair. After that it was back to the Solarium, which had cleared out somewhat as people started going to get lunch, or nap, or get ready for dinner. We found two chairs this time facing the windows overlooking the water and got set up there to do more resting and reading and people watching. Jess hit the hot tub for a little while but I was watered-out, so I stayed in the chairs and when she came back I decided I was hungry and ready for more food. The Windjammer wouldn’t be open for another half-hour so I decided to hit the cafe for pizza and water. They were out of the coffee cake that looked good, but c’est la vie, can’t have everything we want, so I took the pizza and water back to the pool for us to eat while we lounged. Around 5:45pm we decided to head back to the room, I went first while Jess got some ice cream and strolled around a bit, getting some tea and 2 oatmeal cookies from the cafe on her way back. 

While she showered I did some writing, Pollyworld playing in the background, and I decided to try out the cinnamon bun I hadn’t had earlier and WOW it was AMAZING! So soft, so flavorful, just perfect! I was also super hungry at the time so that might have something to do with how good it tasted, but it might also just be an amazing cinnamon bun! While we were in the room the Cruise Compass and some information about disembarking was dropped off and I tried to explain some stuff about that to Jess and she looked at me like I was a crazy person babbling nonsense, so I figured I’d just handle all of that and she could just trust me and follow my lead aha! It was only 6:30pm so we debated doing some shuffleboard but we ended up snacking and chatting until 7:50pm when it was time to get ready for dinner! It was another Dress Your Best Night and we had our second best dresses ready to go, though we took longer than expected getting ready and didn’t get to the dinning room until 8:20pm. Oops.  

But, it was no matter! We were seated at a table that was ALREADY set this time and had a wonderful meal, as always! Jess got the Caesar salad, the lasagna, and the coffee creme desert, while I ordered the beef carpaccio, the mushroom risotto, and the tiramisu. The waiter, once again, recommended adding a fish dish to the entre, as it was, once again, a vegetarian dish I’d ordered. I, once again, ceded to his knowledge and he brought me a seasoned salmon to do with the risotto, and it was, indeed, perfect! He said the staff like to have that specifically, the risotto and salmon, that it’s a favorite combination dish of the cruise crew and I believe it! I’m not really a fish person, but it was very well seasoned and went so good with the mushroom risotto! There was another dance parade from the staff, but this time it ended with a choreographed dance from the cooks and chefs and these girls could MOVE it was great! And because we were in the center of the room they were dancing right around us, it was super fun! 

As always after dinner Jess and I hit the cafe to get some tea and coffee. Jess went to the bathroom while we were there and as I waited for her I ended up sitting on the floor by a statue in the corner, playing on the Nintendo DS we’d brought in case we wanted something to do and I felt, for a few moments, very young and small again, there on the floor, playing a game as grownups wandered to and fro around me. One of those little ‘out of space and time’ moments that aren’t sad or happy, just... something. But Jess emerged and the moment past and we went back to our room, though Jess forgot we had to go down one more floor and tried to start walking down the hall on 3 aha! It was 9:30pm, terribly early all things considered, but this was our vacation, and we got to spend it however we wanted. C.S. Lewis once said "Have fun, even if it's not the same kind of fun everyone else is having." And the kind of fun we wanted to have was to get into our pajamas, watch Pollyworld, drink tea and coffee with cocoa in our room, and talk about how much fun we’ve had on this trip before we headed off to bed! Just a soft, easy, comfortable day of waking up late, going to bed early, and just eating and lounging in-between. Perfection!