Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

As promised, tonight's picture of Mattie was the one we featured on our VERY first family Christmas card. In 2002, we had an early snow in November. So literally seeing the white stuff that day inspired me. I dressed Mattie up in his santa outfit, dragged out his entertainment saucer onto our deck, threw a blanket over it, and plopped Mattie right into the mix of it. Peter and I snapped dozens of photos that morning, and this particular one caught my attention! To me this was quintessential Mattie!

Quote of the day: Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble. ~ Frank Tyger

Last night was the first formal evening on the cruise. My mom snapped a picture of Peter and I. As I look around the ship, I see or at least I perceive a lot of happy people. There are plenty of children aboard as well, as they are celebrating Christmas with their families. For the most part I can tune the happiness out. However, when I am not feeling well, I am unable to redirect my thoughts and feelings away from my own grief. Sometimes I see a little boy on the ship and it makes me pause and remember Mattie and wonder what life would have been like if cancer never struck our lives. Last night the captain of the ship made quite a significant public announcement about parents and their responsibility monitoring their children while on the ship. Some of you may recall from our Alaska cruise in August, that one child was reported missing on the ship after not coming back to his parent’s cabin for 12 hours!!! This was our first experience with a missing person aboard a ship, and somehow I couldn’t help but think this frightening experience caused Princess Cruises to make a verbal statement about parental responsibility on their cruises. It is a shame that parents need to be reminded of their roles, a role that is not always guaranteed for a lifetime.

At the moment, Peter and I are sitting outside on deck 14, with about 20 other brave souls. We have been trapped indoors for two days now. Today’s weather was challenging with a Force 9 wind (which is considered a strong gale, with sustained winds of 40mph). Most decks and outside doors are shut off to passengers for our safety, the pool looks like a tidal wave (therefore it too is sealed off to passengers), and because of the intense winds the ship has been rocking and pitching ALL day. There are sea sickness bags lining all the hallways and elevators and if it weren’t on Dramamine, I would be beyond sick.

Nonetheless, despite the warm temperatures outside, I am trapped inside in air conditioning and am frigid. This is impacting my asthma and as of this evening, I am having a great deal of trouble breathing and have all the signs and symptoms that I presented to my doctor a week ago. So to take me out of the air conditioning and to change my view, Peter insisted that we go up to the outside deck to write the blog. I fought him on this, but the humid air is a God sent over the cold air inside. Though I must admit it is eerie to hear the wiping and howling wind and to see the spray of incredible waves.

While we were eating lunch today on deck 5, which means we were about 20 feet off the water, waves were reaching our window. I had Peter take a few pictures so you could get a feeling for what we were observing. We are definitely seeing fewer people out and about the corridors and public spaces today and I greatly attribute this to the rough weather. Literally it feels like being on a very turbulent plane and NO ONE can walk a straight line. We are all swaying and have to hold onto things while walking.

Despite these incredible waves and weather, we did attend the morning zumba class. The class was totally packed and though I enjoyed yesterday’s class, today’s experience left me flat. For me so much is attached to my mood. However, both my mom and I found it particularly interesting that we were both able to do zumba and keep our balance though we were swaying all over the place. We do not have an explanation for this, but perhaps since we were so focused on jumping up and down and the dance steps, that reflecting on the ship’s status was not a priority.

The ship has all sorts of art work throughout the floors of the ship, but this bubbly art has caught our attention. Actually young and old alike seem to be fascinated with it!



We attended two lectures today. The first one was GREAT! It was entitled….Ships – Where are they now? We saw fantastic pictures and heard the history of SO many classic ocean liners like the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and the France. I found it fascinating to hear how one ship could be transformed by paint, name, and purpose throughout its lifetime. For example, the Queen Mary was used as a troop transport in WWII (and painted grey) before Cunard changed its colors and used it as a luxury transatlantic cruiser. Now of course, the Queen Mary is docked near Los Angeles and is a living museum and floating hotel. I had no idea however, that one ship could be repurposed and renamed depending upon its owner and purpose. The future of the cruise industry absolutely intrigues me, mainly because in order for a cruise ship to be profitable, it needs LOTS of passengers. This explains why ships are being built to fit more and more people. We saw plans today for future cruise ships that could hold anywhere from 10 to 25,000 people. Can you get over this? I know I can’t! We are on a ship now that holds about 2000 passengers and that seems like a small city!

The second lecture we attended was about the Panama Canal. In two days we will be going through a portion of the Panama Canal on our cruise. Both my mom and Peter are enamored by the feat of building this structure and have read many books about the Canal. This lecturer however should not be allowed to present to live beings….. because he could make talking about ice cream, brownies, and cake seem disinteresting and boring. He went on for over an hour today, and I noticed he lost 50% of his audience. They literally went to SLEEP! The Panama Canal took over 30 years to build, thousands of people lost their life in this endeavor due to Yellow Fever, Malaria, and overall poor environmental conditions. The French basically went bankrupt trying to create a sea level Canal (which was impossible to build based on the terrain), and in the last decade of its development, the United States purchased the project from the French, took it over, and finished the construction of the Canal. This was NOT an easy achievement and it speaks to the ingenuity of our Country. In fact, learning about what Americans were able to successfully accomplish in Panama is beyond impressive, from engineering feats to medical advancements to prevent parasitic diseases. Naturally the commitment to build a Canal was vital for commerce and industry because by ship one can now get from San Francisco to New York much faster (compare a 5000 mile trip through the Canal versus 13,000 miles going around Cape Horn).

I am signing off tonight and I am hoping we are headed to calmer seas soon. Needless to say we are all looking forward to disembarking the ship tomorrow in Aruba even for a few hours. I appreciate those of you checking in with us and I could use your positive energy to help me pull it together to feel better and attempt to enjoy our time away.