The Tilted Ship

Day 2 of my Love Bet 'journey'... and we're at sea on our way to Cozumel. Why? Cuz'.

I slept very well, considering the mattress. I did 10K steps plus all the excitement and stress and that all made for a solid rest. The ship was smooth and I wore earplugs, even though it's quiet in my Cabinette.

A number of you have mentioned that I could ask for a mattress topper to help the Lumpy the Dreamsmasher - well, it turns out that I already have one!

And it is where the problem (ahem) lies. The topper had bunched up in a few places. Quickly sorted.

I headed down for breakfast around 7:40 and it was blissfully unbusy. But I noted it picked up very quickly and filed that away for future use. Get to breakfast earlier, around 7:30 at the latest.

Bin eggs, sausage, 'taters.

I sat on the pool deck to eat and sip my coffee. It was breezy and lovely. A great start to the day. My mind filled with beautiful, colourful projections of how I might send this one straight to the dumper.

None seemed feasible. I'd work on it later, after a shower and a shave.

Which I did, and then fetched my Chromebook and headed to the library to sit and blog. As mentioned it wasn't the quietest, but seems to be the best option to be able to sit comfortably and concentrate.

There was a lot to type up, and I had one eye on the clock.

Captain Flushiepants is 'the "it" guy' and 'in high demand' and I had a zoom call scheduled for 1:00pm that I could not miss.

There was just enough time to wrap up my posts, get down to the buffet to grab a sandwich, and head back to Cabinette 00.

There's a deli option in the buffet with 'handcrafted' sandwiches - you saw the menu in yesterday's posts.

I ordered up a cheese steak, slapped a second plate on top of the sandwich, made a stop for three of the excellent chocolate chip cookies they bake on board, and headed to the Cabinette.

There's a fairly new local program in Flusherville to breed, train, and provide guide and service dogs. They are looking for volunteers to help raise and train the dogs.

I thought this would be an excellent pursuit for Flushie, and would be a good way to give back to the community. Plus dogs. DOGS. In my house. PUPPIES. BLACK AND YELLOW LAB PUPPIES.

The call went well and there was an excellent presentation using something I seem to recall Norbert using at Royal Canadian Veeblefetzer during layoffs called "Power Point" or similar.

Even though I'm a snowbird, I think I can contribute to this cause in the 6 months I'm back home in Flusherville.

Now, the important part of all this, is of course, the cheese steak sandwich. I ate while on the call, checking 1900 times to be certain my video and audio were off. It was crushed flat from being literally sandwiched.

And it was OMG Good. Can recommend.

Next stop, the casino, of course.

I haven't played many games with the hold and spin flaming gold balls of destiny, so I saddled up to one that started at 50 cents a pull.

I guess it was fun. I only added $20 to start, using my Sign and Sail Bankruptcy card. Then another. Then another. Then another.

It should be noted that the casino bar makes an acceptable mojito. This has no bearing on my decision-making process.

At some point it seemed the smart thing to do would be to increase the denomination to $1 a spin. And by gum, things began to happen.

Now, these are, of course, the highlights. In the middle, I went broke and added $100 in credits. I played for a good long time and then the inevitable happened. Yup, I burned through it all.

Well, video poker would probably work then, right?

Wrong.

Disaster.

Wait, a few minutes ago I was $200 in and coasting along with most of that in the Egyptian slot machine. And now that's gone and $200 more?

Well, yes. Yes, that's exactly the situation.

Not. Impressed.

I vacated back to the Cabinette for a nap and a reset.

By the way, it turns out, my Cabinette is, in fact, about 4 doors down from a loading hatch.

So, back in the Cabinette, I chilled for an hour or two.

Cruising Ships usually have a night for dressing up - and that was tonight. Elegant night.

I'd brought a sport coat, proper slacks, the right shoes, and of course, my brightly coloured Beatles socks.

But I wasn't feeling it. At all. To be honest, I feel quite alone at times on this ship. There are not many people that I can relate to, really. Having this adventure without Karen at my side is tough. I miss her terribly (and always will, I'm sure).

I'd brought all these clothes so I thought, well, I'll just get busy, put them on, get through dinner alone, and it will probably be fine.

I even took a couple of selfies.

I'm not sure why I emotionally crashed so hard in the next half hour, but I did. Time to be brief and concise.

I scheduled my dining time, left my Cabinette all dressed up, walked to the restaurant, and realized I didn't have my Sign and Sail card. Fuck.

I looked on the Carnival app for where I should go to get it sorted, found none. Talked to some guy who couldn't understand. Tried to find the front of the restaurant. I'm at the wrong one.

Go to the Carnival Fun desk or some such and get redirected to Guest Services. Go there, explain the situation, get an access card to get me in my Cabinette.

Get inside. Cancel dining. Take off and put away elegant night clothes. Take Beatles socks off. Put loud Hawaiian shirt back on. Put shorts back on.

Delete stupid cow selfies that I now feel so stupid taking.

In all the time Karen was sick with ALS, I never quit on her. Not once. I told her I never would, and I never did.

But tonight, I just quit on myself. For some reason, something tilted inside my head.

Now I just want to be home.