Gale Force Winds

Sept. 29

The Captain came on the loudspeakers last evening and apologized for the rough ride while acknowledging the winds got a bit rougher that he earlier predicted. He said we were experiencing force 10 gale winds with 50 mile an hour winds and 40 foot and higher waves, so he adjusted course as best he could so we were going into the waves as opposed to broadside as we has been. All along we have been experiencing this tremendous trembling every time the bow would slap down on the sea or the props would chew air instead of water. We have become somewhat used to the rough weather, but I know I am more tired than usual and I’m sure it’s from constantly fighting to stay upright and not fly into walls or collide with rapidly approaching decks. I would say we are all sea weary. A flat little pond sounds very inviting right now.

When I first boarded the Amsterdam I noticed the elevator had a carpet that said Friday on the floor. I absently thought Holland America must name each elevator after a day of the week so you knew which elevator took you to which part of the ship. Please don’t laugh, I’m sea weary remember? Well, I finally did figure out that they changed the carpet each day of the week because you become so disconnected from reality that you really have no idea what day it is. So Holland America provides you with this gentle little reminder. Today I got up and went to mass, used the elevator, which yesterday said Tuesday, got to mass and was told by the priest that we obviously knew now we were were celebrating the Thursday mass. I knew no such thing! If it was Thursday I had to get back to my cabin immediately and call my daughter as she was leaving today to study in Rome for the year. I panicked. I hadn’t read the elevator carpet! What happened to Wednesday when I was going to call my daughter? And then I remembered -- we had passed the International Dateline and while I was kneeling up in bed in the middle of the night, watching the tremendous swelling ocean and the Big Dipper in a brand new sky I’d never seen before, someone was changing the elevator carpets from Tuesday to Thursday. Very clever. And quite cool too, my very first time at losing a day. I wonder if I look younger…..

Oct 1

See, I lost Sept 30. That is very weird. And the ship can’t quite figure it out either because each night they have been having us put our clocks back one hour so when we arrive in Russia tomorrow we will be on local time. I managed to miss one night and got up an hour too early after I bought a new $10 watch and forgot to switch it. But this morning I again used the ships’ wake-up call system for my morning mass alarm. It woke me at 7:15AM informing of the time, so I jumped out of bed, checked the dark and dreary weather and started getting ready. It seemed darker than usual, but we are getting close to Russia and I’ve always imagined Russia as pretty dark and grey so I wasn’t concerned. I even turned on the ship TV channel to check the time and it corresponded with my wake-up call. So off to mass I went to find I was the only one there. I went to the front desk where the only clerk was answering phone calls concerning the time and I found out the ship’s clocks were off as were the wake-up calls too. I had to eat breakfast before mass which really threw off my schedule. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do!

It’s really funny because the ship plans multitudes of activities all thru the day and hands out the schedule the night before in a handy little tear off form so you can run from activity to activity clutching this paper like a high school student. Only everyone is really old. I know I mentioned a lot of these people are Extreme Travelers and when some of them get these schedules they take out their own notebooks and parcel their days into 30 minute allotments and take off running each morning. It is very daunting if you are trying to relax and just want to attend one or two classes because these people are scary. Some of the husbands and wives only see each other at dinner and bedtime. Others will tell you in no uncertain terms exactly what you should and should not be doing. And DO NOT get in their way or sit in their place during one of their activities. These are opinionated, professional travelers and don’t you dare interrupt a placemat-making demonstration!!! Actually, many of them are quite kind and very open to the solo traveler such as me. I have met many wonderful people and had the opportunity to really observe human nature in this closed sort of environment. And I find the animal is coming out in me in one of my two activities: treadmill and watercolor class. The treadmill I can do on my own and I found it’s safe to go to the gym in the middle of the day. But early in the morning if you don’t sign up on the sheet for a treadmill I am told you get berated by fiends with canes and varicose veins. So…. mid-day in the gym for me. But watercolor class starts at a very particular time in a very small space with poor lighting, so if you want a good seat near the window, you need to get there early. Well look out Blue Hairs, I have no talent ( the teacher really couldn’t find anything nice to say about my painting yesterday and she always has something nice to say), but I can beat you to the window seat! So I may laugh at all these scheduled people, but I make sure to get to my class early so I get the good seat. We really never graduate from high school.

And I am totally exaggerating when I say everyone is old, partly because I forget I’m getting old and partly because, well, there are a lot of old people onboard. But not all old, some are middle aged like me, and 2 or 3 are younger. That’s the truth. Aside from staff there can’t be more than a handful of people under 50 unless they are hiding. And many are solo travelers; travelling alone as I am and this often cause me to reflect upon the single condition. I see so many solo travelers and some are out making connections, involved in activities, obviously very social. And others are quiet, alone, reading, eating, perhaps attending a lecture. And I know people are observing me – do they feel sorry for me when I eat alone or go to an activity alone? Sometimes people approach me and ask me to join them, sometime s they just ignore me, and I don’t really take offense one way or another. Being alone is a learned activity. We grow up in a family, in school, at work, in a marriage, with a built-in social systems. We don’t know how to be alone in society, only perhaps in our homes; our personal spaces. And when we find ourselves alone in life we have to choose: stay in that space alone or go out in society alone. And that is a big step for every single person. So my heart goes out to the solo traveler who is just starting, who is shy, really, really scared and has no idea what the world will do to them. Because we are not taught to do this. This is only my second trip alone, but I am more outgoing than some people and a little more comfortable with aloneness than others. I don’t hesitate to walk up to the sour looking single person and say something. Maybe I get rebuffed, maybe I get a smile. It doesn’t matter. I tried. I offered. Last night a man came and sat down with the two other women and myself who were listening to the really boring sing-a-long in the Piano Bar. That took a lot of nerve. Today I was eating my breakfast alone and he saw me and asked if he could sit down. Then he told me today, October 1^st, was the first day of his retirement. I hadn’t even realized it was October. He really wanted, and needed, to tell someone that big piece of news and I was so glad he had found someone he could tell. I guess that was why God messed up the ships clocks and got me up to breakfast early.

There are a lot of charities we hear about today and a lot of needs, but no one talks about the needs of the lonely. And I don’t mean the beggars, the homeless, the poor – they are all so needy and must be foremost in our minds and pockets. But the lonely are all around us, and no one is collecting money or setting up foundations for them because they don’t necessarily need money, they need time, a little coaching, a little listening, some encouragement, a prayer. This is a ministry everyone can partake in because we all know someone who is alone, someone who may be lonely. Single people take cruises like this, because they don’t have any other way to be with people and still see the world. Yes, they have the money, but it only buys them a ship full of people and the hope that someone will say something kind or touch their hearts or fill their otherwise empty days. Please say a prayer of thanksgiving for all the people in your life who love you and fill your days with joy, and pray for those who are alone that they may find God’s peace and friendship.

Now I need to put on my jogging suit, track shoes and boxing gloves to get ready for watercolor class.