I went on a cruise last week (Carnival Pride, if you’re interested) with my husband, son and parents. It was amazing fun, but it did get me to thinking about several things.

Our ports of call: Port Canaveral, Nassau and Freeport (Bahamas).

So, we embarked in Baltimore around noon. The weather was cool — in the 40s, but there were plenty of places on the ship to be out of the wind. We had lunch and waited to leave Baltimore for sunnier climes. We’d cruised out of this port before, so we were out on deck waiting to watch as the ship passed under the Key Bridge. It’s quite a sight. As you approach, it looks like the ship won’t actually clear the bridge. I think there’s about a meter of clearance, so there’s not much. It’s why as cruise ships get bigger, Baltimore is a less popular port for pleasure cruises, I think.

We spent a couple of days at sea, and yes, the weather was cool until we got as far South as Florida. This is mostly because 70 in calm breezes is much warmer than 70 in a brisk wind off the deck of a ship! But I’ve discovered that my love of being on a ship is not solely due to my love of sun and warmth. Up until fairly recently, I’ve been resistant to the idea of sailing North out of Boston, but I think I’ve revised my opinion. This graphic was apparently more accurate than I realized.

The sea days were sea days. You dance, you meet interesting people, you eat good food, you read books, you see shows, you play games, or soak in a hot tub, or go to the gym or…. I find drinking too expensive on a cruise ship, so I don’t much. I’m not into gambling, either, but if that’s your thing, most cruise ships have a casino. For me, it’s really being on the ship that’s awesome. Being spoiled rotten for a few days doesn’t hurt, either. Our stewards and waiters were really good. I still can’t get over the serving staff’s memories in the dining room. One day and they were remembering our tastes and preferences, and they were doing this with hundreds of people a week.

Speaking of tastes, my son made me very happy the first day when I asked him how he’d slept. His comment, “Now I know why babies like to be rocked to sleep.” I was terrified the boy was going to be a landlubber. His tastes when it comes to swimming had me wondering, but no. While certainly he’s allowed his own tastes, it pleases me beyond belief that he likes cruising and ships as much as I do.

Unlike some people who seems to think the dining room is “too formal” I rather enjoy going to the dining room for meals rather than the buffets. We had some great table mates — a pediatric oncologist doing her fellowship and a science teacher. Intelligent, fascinating young women. The conversation at meals was just delightful. We totally lucked out.

After a couple of days at sea, we docked at Port Canaveral where of course we took the Kennedy Space Center tour. It was a lot… fancier… than I expected. I’d never been before, amazingly enough, and I need to go back, as the six hours we were there wasn’t really enough to fully explore it. It was sad in a way, because a lot of the exhibits were made when the shuttle program was an ongoing thing, and now… Well. However, there was a great IMAX show about the International Space Station, and other things about current exploration. I learned a fair amount about the first Moon shot that I hadn’t know before. I was also under the impression that Apollo 11 went a lot more smoothly than it actually did. I’m sorry to say our lack of commitment to the space program is depressing me more now than it ever did.

We were surprised to see that the Enchantment of the Seas (the cruise ship my husband and I took for our 20th Anniversary trip) was also at Port Canaveral. Apparently it was having engine trouble, and the cruise line had comped the entire cruise. You know, while I would be maybe a bit annoyed to have to call at different ports than expected, hey… free cruise!

After Canaveral, we set sail for Nassau. I’d been there before, and was happy to go back. It was a strange sensation to sit on the deck going into Nassau’s harbor. When we went about 18 months ago, it seemed exotic and different. This time, it felt odd to know the harbor.

What I was most interested in was seeing my son’s reaction to a foreign port. His comment? He was a bit surprised at seeing Burger Kings and Starbucks there. I don’t think he found the Bahamas all that different from the US in a lot of ways. And in truth, I’m sure it looked like any beach area to his eyes. That’s more or less why our excursion was a historical tour of the island, so he could get an idea of the history of the place and its culture. We saw the Queen’s Stairs, of course, and Fort Charlotte. The guides tend to take you through really fast, so you don’t get a chance to analyze the structure or even read the exhibits as well as you could. I guess most people find historical buildings boo-ooring (some of our tour mates sure seemed to), but I don’t. How did/do they live and why did they make the choices they did is always of interest to me.

As we were making our way back to port, another ship was arriving. It was the Enchantment. I recognized it from quite far away, which was kind of neat. My parents and son returned to the ship, and my husband and I decided to wander around Nassau within walking distance of the port. I only had one lady bug me to ask if I wanted my hair braided this time. I declined!

We set sail from Nassau late in the evening, but we did watch as we left port so we could see the lighthouses (Mom loves lighthouses) and it was neat.

The next morning we got to Freeport. We’d intended our excursion to be a snorkling trip, but the winds were far too high. The excursion was cancelled, so we took a taxi to the beach at Lucaya. I liked Freeport better than Nassau. Seemed more “real” if that makes any sense. The people were considerably less pushy to sell to tourists, which makes sense. From what I understand, Bahamians looking for work tend to go to Nassau, so it’s the aggressive go-getters that tend to find their way there. Still, I liked feeling free to look at wares without being pressed hard to buy. Hair braiding was considerably cheaper at Freeport than Nassau. If we were going to be there longer than a few hours, I definitely would have gotten my hair done there. I like cornrows when you’re on a ship. As long as my hair is, it’s a much easier hairstyle to manage in high winds. But it’s a minimum of a two hour job on my mop, and there just wasn’t time.

One thing I notice about cruise ships, though. Many of the passengers sure didn’t seem to have a clue about anything nautical. I’m not talking about stuff you’d need to know professionally. I’m hardly a sailor, myself. I mean terms like “bow” and “stern” or “starboard” and “port”. The cruise director would actually give directions using terms like “front of the ship”. And, of course, he had to or he’d confuse many of the passengers. But you’d think that someone going on a cruise would at least get into the fact that you’re on a ship, for pity’s sake.

The last day of the cruise was a sea day and we got to do something really fun. We toured the galley. Maybe that sounds dorky, but I really enjoyed seeing more backstage, and seeing how things were set up. Of course we toured during downtime, so there were a couple of sous-chefs doing prep work, but otherwise the place was calm, quiet, sparkling clean and perfect. I know that’s not what it looked like during dinner hours :) However, the organization was definitely impressive.

Disembarkation was really smooth. We decided to get our own luggage off so it was just a matter of getting off the gangway, going through Customs (they didn’t inspect anything of ours and just glanced at passports) and getting in our car to go home.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to take a cruise again, but it can’t come too soon for me.

Black pants. You’d think this would be an easy thing to get, right? I mean, if there’s a standard wardrobe staple, this would be it.

Well, I need a few pair of black pants. I also don’t have much time, so I figured I’d just go to Wallyworld and pick up a few pair of cheap pants and be done with it. There’s a million women with my shape, and plenty of us get quickie clothes off the rack, right?

HA!

Keep in mind before we begin that I do not exactly make pants for myself that are exquisitely tailored that take seventeen fittings before I get the exact fit. Hardly! I made a couple of incredibly minor adjustments on the fly to get the fit right in the butt, leg length and waist, but I even eyeballed that. We’re talking elastic waistband, even. You really can’t call me picky about fit.

Or so I thought.

Yet, no kidding, I could not walk into that silly store and find a pair of pants that would not require at least an hour of tailoring to get a sort of okay fit in the waist, leg and butt. This is for a $20 pair mind! If it fit me in the rear and thighs, I’d need to take in about four inches in the waist. Any commercial pair of pants I buy needs hemming. I’m short.

Friends, it only takes me an hour and a half to make a pair of the kind I wear from start to finish. If I don’t have time to make pants, I don’t have time to alter them, either.

It boggles me that there are women who like shopping in the face of that. I can only imagine that it must be the challenge.

My husband, son and I were invited by a friend of ours do to the Otherworld Adventure weekend.  It’s…  Okay descriptions get a bit weird.

You could call it a LARP[1], but a hard-core LARPer would have her expectations kinda messed with attending it.

I’m a minor Rennie and it does have a bit of a Faire feel to it, but it’s not based on a real historical period.  It’s fantasy.  And it doesn’t have vendors. And you’re really part of the shows.

Probably the best way to describe it is being a character in a fantasy novel.  The idea is that instead of playing a character, though, you’re supposed to play a heroic version of yourself.

The weekend generates dozens of “No shit, there I was” stories.  Yes, I have a bunch of them, and they were all kinds of fun.  I can’t tell ‘em.   Why?  Well, mostly because putting them out on the Internet would screw up the story for the next batch of participants.  Suffice to say, the weekend generated a lot of those stories.

So, on to what I can talk about:

Otherworld creates a weekend-long adventure to be played by eight parties of six participants and several dozen staff playing characters within the event.  Participants can bring their own costumes or dress up in costume items provided by Otherworld, or even some combination thereof.  I do recommend that if you do bring your own costume, make sure it has a good belt to hang things on – just saying.

Each party has a set of six character classes and each one is pretty necessary to solving the puzzles assigned to the parties.  It really discourages any one participant from taking over the party, but instead encourages some pretty serious teamwork.  I was really lucky, as my party was amazing.  Well, I knew my husband and son are fun companions, but the other three people in the party were also awesome.  Anyone who reads this knows I’m hardly the world’s biggest people fan, and I don’t necessarily automatically like everyone, but I can say with all honesty that I thoroughly enjoyed adventuring with the people in my party very much.  Like many a fantasy adventure, yes, it starts in a tavern.

There was a lot that was impressive about the weekend.  The setting is wonderful.  It’s in a 4-H camp in Connecticut and the grounds are just gorgeous.  The cabins are small for seven people[2] but it doesn’t matter.  The only thing you do there is sleep.

Part of what impressed me was the level of organization that went into creating it.  The bones didn’t show.  It is incredibly easy to dive into the fantasy and forget you’re not really living there.  I think the most complimentary think I can say about the organization is that it’s so smooth that you don’t notice it.  Having organized a minor event or two, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that Otherworld is good at what it does.

I’m a bit sorry you can only do this once as a participant[3].  I’d do it again in a red-hot minute.

I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. – US Federal Service Oath of Office

I was briefly a civil servant in 1990 and I took this oath, as did my husband when he entered Federal service.

In honor of today, I’d like any Americans who has taken this oath (and I know many of you have) to go re-read the Constitution of the United States of America, then ask yourself, “How well am I fulfilling this oath?”

I don’t think anything else really needs to be said after that.

Okay, some follow up. I had to go question by question to tabulate the responses as Survey Monkey doesn’t let you filter responses on a free account.

Out of 100 people, 18 people self-identified as a Christian.  11 of them had read the Bible in its entirety, giving us an approximate “Yes” percentage of 61%.

Now here’s the funny part:

A slightly larger percentage of non-Christians who took this survey had read the Bible in its entirety.  However, if you take a look at the bar chart from yesterday’s post, you’ll notice a lot more people claimed to be non-Christian than Christian.  I am not a statistician, and the survey population was only 100 people, but I am wondering how statistically significant that 5% would be considered.   I am genuinely surprised at how close the responses are.

First off, this is an almost textbook example of a poorly-written survey that does not actually answer the question asked, even though it does give some interesting data.   Kiddiewinks, spend more time in the design phase!  (I’m always telling my students this in various classes, and here I am not doing it.  I hang my head in shame).

Some friends of mine and I were discussing religion when one of them mentioned that he had never met a single self-identified Christian who had read the entire Bible.  I found that such an odd thing to say, since we were both reared in the same denomination and the practice was encouraged in the church I attended as a youngster, that I started asking around.  The answers I got became a little complex, so I designed this rather simplistic survey.  Unfortunately, as designed, it cannot answer the question originally discussed:  Is it really unusual for Christians to read the Bible cover to cover?

Even though it doesn’t fulfill the original intent, the answers are interesting nonetheless.  It does seem a lot of non-Christians have indeed read the entire Bible.

Curious, that…

Michigan is proposing a law that says that foster children can only have clothing bought from second hand stores.

I get that the intent is to save money during budget cuts. I totally get that one needs to save money. I bought second-hand clothing for my children on a pretty frequent basis, and it’s an order of magnitude cheaper to do so.

Here’s the thing:

Buying clothes from second hand stores, while something I’m utterly in favor of on principle make a lousy mandate. You cannot count on getting something the right size in good enough condition when you’re shopping there. You have to have time and be patient. Oh, and shoes that fit properly and are in good enough condition? Forget it. Outwear? When you’re lucky, and you plan ahead to get the coat in June, it can work out great. I got my son a great down jacket for less than ten bucks that way once. In October? Fuggetaboutit.

Foster care situations are urgent situations. The child might need clothing right away. The child might be of a size that one can rarely find second hand clothes for. There might not be the necessary outerwear available.¹

The individual proposing the bill comments that he wore lots of hand-me-downs, so what’s the beef?

Well, Sen. Caswell, I wore hand-me-downs from time to time, too. I was even pretty fond of some of them and excited to get them because it they were kinda cool. That doesn’t change the fact that mandating used clothing, while cheaper, has way too many gaps in the system where kids who are already falling through the cracks are going to fall harder.

I’m all for encouraging it as a principle, don’t get me wrong. But if I have a child in my care that needs a warm coat, that kid gets a warm coat no matter where I had to buy it. Just sayin’.

¹ Being expensive and long-lasting, really good outerwear often goes first at second hand stores in cold climates like Michigan.

I got kicked out of the pool today. Lightning. It was about five minutes before I would have gotten out anyway, so I called it good. I might have gotten in as much as 800 yards. Maybe.

It wasn’t a hard-core workout today anyway. I lifted yesterday. Remember how I was in that room of big, beefy men and feeling self-conscious about it? Well, true to Noël form, I lifted far too heavy to compensate. I’m very, very sore this morning.¹

Oh, and it’s chilly and damp, so it’s the joint thing on top of muscle soreness. No, today was not a day I’d be getting my orca on.

Here’s where the whole “gotta improve all the time” would be kicking me in the ass right now. Today was not much of a workout due to several factors. If I were completely focused on constant improvement, this workout would have been discouraging to the point of upsetting. I don’t like being thwarted in my goals. I’d be plotting how to make up for the bad workout, and making myself nuts about it.

The reality is that Life Happens. It is less important that each workout be a linear improvement than it is that I show up consistently. I have other things in my life that deserve more intense focus than lifting heavy stuff sometimes, or getting my heart rate up. I mean, really, it’s on par with evaluating bowel movements! They need to happen, yes, but past that? Unless it’s a serious factor in an illness, you don’t need to give it that much attention.

¹Yes, I broke Rule One.

*Ellie was my maternal grandmother, and paid an odd amount of attention to bodily functions.

When I got back into swimming for fitness, I ran across a marathon swimmer named Martin Strel. Forget swimming to Alcatraz, this guy is really nuts. He swam the Yangtze River. He swam the Danube. He swam the Mississippi.

He swam the Amazon!

I remember his Amazon swim pretty clearly. I was going through some rough stuff, and just the idea that someone was insane enough to attempt this was a real motivator for me to keep getting my butt in the pool for some needed laps as I was rehabbing knee surgery. Following along with his swim meant a lot to me, and was probably at least in part the inspiration for the crazy leap (and it was crazy, I assure you) of opening Figart Consulting.

He’s got a new project in the works. Starting in May, he’ll be swimming the Colorado River. No, he doesn’t have to worry about piranha, but this is a river people like for white water rafting. I’ve no idea how anyone is going to manage to swim it, but Strel intends to try.

I’ll be cheering him on.