Shipping off

Well, we've been at sea for the last two days. The forced relaxation was a nice thing. As a friend is fond of saying, “Isn't it a wonderful thing to do nothing, and then rest afterwards.” That probably typifies the last two days.

The trip is a conglomeration of med school friends, with the cruise being an extension of the our ten year reunion. My how time flies. Tom started to see if people were interested about a year ago. Quite a few expressed interest, but when push cam to shove, only four of us from our class (six total in the group) ended up going.

The last two days consisted of eating, shows, bingo, eating, some craps, eating, sleeping... During one of the talks on the upcoming ports of call, I came across an interesting saying for the first two stops, Jamaica and Grand Cayman, since they were former British colonies: “Drive on the left and you'll always be right, drive on the right and there won't be much of you left.”

While on the cruise, I had some grand plans to get a little sun. When younger (since I really haven't tried to tan in recent years) I would lay out initially for about 30 minutes a side. Usually I'd start in June and then add time on after a base coat. Well, I thought that 15 minutes a side for a total of one hour would be a good start. I thought, “It's March and the rays shouldn't be that strong.” Well, whether it's that we are further south, there isn't the Dallas haze to absorb the sun's rays or some other combination of factors to precipitate the perfect storm, I got a nice burn. Fortunately it isn't too bad and it already seems a bit better—two days on. From now on, I'll be putting on the 1 Billion SPF that I should have been doing from the start. I know that will be enough, because that's what I used in Cambodia where we spent probably eight hours a day out in the sun.

Today, Wednesday, we have arrived in Jamaica. The three groups on the cruise were out on the balcony as the ship was docking at the pier. The small Coast Guard boat was cruising past when Tom decided, embarrassingly funny as always, to yell, “Yo Mon!!!” It didn't get a reply—if they could even hear us.