I'm On A Boat

I couldn’t sleep in at all today. I think it was because I spent all day in bed yesterday, but I’ve been up since around 7, maybe even earlier. I couldn’t stand to watch another movie, mostly because we’ve seen them all a hundred times since boarding. So, I forced myself back to sleep for a bit until someone else woke up, but ended up just laying in bed with my eyes shut for 2 hours. The waters have calmed only slightly, so it’s still awkward to walk around. From our breakfast table, we noticed that it was sunny out, so we ventured up to the top to snatch some beach chairs. Despite the sunshine, it couldn’t have been more than 60, which is far too cold to sit out in. But, I was getting antsy in the room, so I went back out in jeans and a tank top and sweater and set up camp in front of the big screen. I caught the end of “Alice in Wonderland,” but then turned my full attention to my book, The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. I started feeling my arms burn as the sun shone down with all its might, so I ran back to the room and put on my swimsuit and grabbed my crazy beach hat. The girls were lying in their beds watching “Bright Star,” which was very tempting, but the sunshine was more inviting to me. I read about half my book while the Stevie Wonder concert played in front of me and then changed to “How to Train Your Dragon.” I watched it and read, while also partaking in some of the best people watching known to mankind after Wal-Mart. Cruisers are the most ridiculous people to watch, especially considering that I myself was in a swimsuit with sun glasses that cover half of my face while under a large brim sunhat and covered up with a towel and sweater. I’m sure someone found me just as entertaining as I found the man with a blonde ponytail and tiny red Speedo. It was disturbing, to say the least.

When it was time for dinner, we decided that we missed Zanina, Johann and Paul too much not to visit them in Michelangelo, so we gave it one more chance. And as soon as we got to the door, we were interrogated like criminals. They were asking, “Why have you betrayed us and gone to Da Vinci? We know that you have been eating there. Are you avoiding us? Do you not like us anymore? What is going on??” We tried to explain to them that we needed better dinner company or we would permanently move upstairs to Da Vinci. Johann, the headwaiter, promised us he would do his best, and put us at a table for 6. However, no one showed up to our table. We ate alone. Which I guess is better than eating with demon children or stuffy older people, but it was still sort of sad.

We went away feeling only slightly sad, but knew we would find solace in Crooner’s. And we did. Earlier today, Brooke and I were trying to come up with songs to request, but couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t sad. Don’t know why, but oh well. We wondered out loud if he could play Jimmy Buffett, but doubted it because we weren’t sure British people know who he is. We were mistaken. He did. He even knew “Margaritaville.” We were definitely put into a good mood. And then it got sort of better. Alex, a Russian bartender in Crooner’s, asked us if we would like to try to figure out a trick, and if we did, he would give us free drinks for the rest of the night, and then even call his friends in Skywalkers and tell them what we did and the same free drinks would be offered there. We had nothing to lose, so we accepted the challenge. Without going into too much detail about it and giving away the answer (I want to see who can get it when we get home), I will just say that we got it, but not exactly. There was one minor detail, about what could and could not touch the apparatus that we missed. But Alex was unyielding and simply told us we were the smartest girls he’s ever met and did not share with us free martinis. Needless to say, we were not that happy with Alex, and left after Martin’s version of Alicia Key’s “If I Ain’t Got You.” Its okay, we thought. We have to be up early for Dublin in the morning anyways…