Every once in a while I get the opportunity to experience something truly eventful, well eventful to me at least. Every once in a while the planets align, global warming calms, and the world seems to take on a new look of love and peacefulness that I am sure one experiences only a few times during his or her life. This past week may very well have been one of those periods of "Zen" for yours truly.
It began hectically enough, as life seems to be in this day and age. The wife, M, was actually on time getting home from her half day at work. That was the good news. She had told me to be packed, and be ready. Well, I was. Unfortunately, the US Postal Service was a bit tardy on this Monday morning.
M packed and insisted we give the mail person more time. She had ordered three outfits the moment she learned of my winning an Ante Up Poker cruise at our local card room, and only one had arrived. She was expecting the other two this very day. She even went so far as to drive around the neighborhood to see if she could spot said mail person.
No luck.
We loaded the car and headed out for our two hour drive to Port Canaveral to board the Monarch of the Sea. This was to be our first cruise, and all week long I had been eagerly anticipating it. That had all changed when I learned that my grandmother had been hospitalized. She is 83 and had suffered a stroke about 3 or 4 years ago that left her unable to communicate as clearly as she would like. This hasn't really prevented her from trying to let you know what she is thinking however, and that is how I know my grandmother is still the same ole gram who used to paddle my ass when I was a youngster. I love her dearly, and the news of her hospitalization made my guilt meter rise.
What right do I have to attempt to enjoy myself with my grandma going into the hospital? My mother had told me gram was fine. She may have had a minor stroke, but they would know more once they ran more tests. It made sense to go on the cruise. There was not much I could do for her, in Florida, while she was in the hospital in New York. My logical side took over and the decision was made to put our heads down and have a good time.
M was not happy about not having her new outfits. To her defense the outfits were at our doorstep when we returned, and they were really nice looking. She looks good, in anything, anyway. I still can't believe she hangs around with my overweight ass, but I am happy about it.
I thought the drive down was under two hours. I did not press M as we waited for the mailman. As we got closer to Port Canaveral I realized I may have been a bit passive in guaranteeing our on time arrival. The ship leaves at 4:30. They said we have to be boarded by 3 PM. It was 2:45 and we were not yet close enough to even be sure we knew where we were going.
We could see two ships. One of them was ours, this much I was sure of. There were two exits, one for piers 1-10, and tho other for 11-18, or something. We did not know which exit to take. I drove past the first exit and almost immediately wished I had not. As I went by I could see how the road wound around and went on right towards the ships.
Shoot.
U-turn off next exit.
Driving too fast now. I slow down and tell M to relax. M is thinking they won't let us on the boat. I am secretly thinking "good because I don't even know if this is a good idea or not". Of course, I keep this to myself.
I instead calm her by saying there is no way they won't let us on the ship. It doesn't even leave for another hour and a half. Be cool, sweetie.
We follow the signs and proceed through the parking lot arriving at the baggage drop at almost exactly 3 PM. Michelle flies out of the car and the baggage man, a portly, older, black man smiled at her and said "relax, slow down, you have plenty of time. You are here to relax ma'am."
I slip him a couple dollars and ask him where I should park. He points out an open spot quite close to where we are. Everything is fine. Crisis averted.
We go through customs. They don't check anything. There are no lines as I believe we were one of the last few to get on the boat. I think I like this.
We wander around, luggage in tow, and spot a place to buy a week long "soda pass". It cost six dollars per day. My cousin had told me to get one because it allows you to have all the juice and soda you want at meals as well as anywhere on the boat including the private island we would be spending one day at later on the trip. We got two, one for each of us.
They make it very easy for you to pay as you go. You are given a "sea pass" card. This allows you to charge anything you wish to purchase to a credit card allowing you to not carry your wallet or even any cash. It's also your room key and the key piece of identification when disembarking or getting back on the boat. This allows you to be as frugal as you wish to be. It is quite convenient.
When you purchase the soda passes you also receive two large refillable cups. You don't need these cups to get the unlimited soda but they are nice to have out by the pool. The only reason I mention these cups is because we lost one of them the very first evening. We were sure it was gone forever. Nice investment, that was.
We found our room, and boy was it small. You know what though? It had everything one would need. You spend almost NO time in your room other than to sleep, or do other intimate things, usually right before or right after sleep, a least for me. So, there you go. The room was small, but the bed was comfortable, and it was a very cozy experience. The bathroom may have been big enough for only one, but there were plenty of mirrors.
The next thing we needed to do was "muster" on the 7th deck. Everything is in decks, because it's a ship, and if you say "floors" they sort of look at you like you are a bit slow. It ended up taking me two solid days and nights to finally figure out the quickest way to get around the ship. I mean, stuff like this is how I know I'm not very smart.
After mustering, and everyone being accounted for, they pushed off from the dock. We made our way out of Port Canaveral, and out into the Atlantic. We were bound for Nassau, Bahamas and would arrive there in the morning for our first port of call.
Eventually M and I stumbled upon the Ante Up Poker magazine's Welcome Party. There were appetizers and free drinks. I decided to partake in both, as did the wife. We listened to Scott Long, publisher of the magazine, talk about some things. He introduced some gentleman who had won a World Series of Poker bracelet. He introduced the poker dealers that were on the trip. He talked about some other things, but I don't remember. I was drinking, and eating, and still taking it all in.
I heard him mention the hours the poker room would be open, and it was more than adequate. Lately I had been running bad. I had a few losing sessions. I had also played badly the last time I had sat down in a game. I really wasn't in the mood to grind out any kind of long ass poker sessions. I was looking way more forward to having fun.
I believe, but do not quote me, that there were like a thousand people on the cruise. 200 or so were here because of Ante Up. Ante Up had reserved two conference rooms to act as poker rooms. They brought very competent dealers to deal their cash and tournament games. They ran the games well, and stayed on top of things like good room managers should do.
The only criticism I would have was the proximity of the tables to each other in the cash game room. The second day an older gentleman went down when a woman tried to move in her chair so he could get by. Instead she picked up the back legs of the chair and put one of them down square on his big toe. He went down and gave a yell that sounded like he had been shot. As he went down he also scraped his arm on something. He was bleeding a little bit. I think they removed a table after that incident. They may have just rearranged them, I don't know, it seemed like there was more room after that man went down.
I won a little bit that first night playing 2-5 nl hold em. I didn't play for very long as the game was not that great. A couple of winners had changed games, and a couple of losers had gone to lick their wounds. I was winning, but I was card dead. I had an intense toothache that had been building throughout the day. So, I quit and went to bed. M was tired anyhow, it worked out nicely.
Another troubling thing was the only reason I made any money that night was because I put $300 in the pot, on the flop, with a flush draw. I was called by two pair and top pair, top kicker. It was a good gambling situation, and I hit it. I was not getting the good starting hands to really gamble very much, however. That, and the month to this point had not been very good. This was still not quite a vacation for me even though I wanted one desperately. It's like this ongoing battle I have with myself, and quite often. Sometimes card playing becomes work, and everyone knows work is not play.
M and I went to bed, a very cozy bed. I was liquored up, body numb, and very exhausted. Did I mention the bed was cozy?
I'm going to stop for now because I am sick of writing. I'll continue tomorrow, or sometime soon, with our arriving in Nassau, and our stroll down Bay Street. Never a dull moment as there was actual gun play, or near gun play, I suppose.
Codsey out.
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