Day 2: Three Minutes of Suffering and The Sink
So there we were in the Cove area munching on chicken fingers and pizza and ice cream having a great ol time. When wed had our fill, we got back into the pool, and
I sunk straight to the bottom. Nah, not really, but I felt like I should have! We hung out there lounging against the side. There were plenty of people in the pool. David, one of the cruise entertainment crew members, showed up at the pool and announced, microphone and all, that it was time for Adult Pool Games! Cheers!
He said he needed two teams, men vs. women and then started to canvass the pool with his piercing eyes. This was my clue to slink away, hide behind my wife, or sink to the bottom! I am NOT a center of attention kinda person
at all.
I do not want to get picked for things. So when David called for guys, I would have gnawed at the screws to the grate at the bottom of the pool to rip that thing off of there and swim down inside away from all eyes. Luckily
THANKFULLY, I was spared.
The pool evacuated, the teams were formed and chaotic craziness ensued. It was a blast to watch, for sure! There was a dolphin nose relay, wet shirt relays, a gold coin retrieval game, fun and funny antics. David is an extremely entertaining host. He even jumped into the pool himself, fully clothed to try and keep the guys from winning.
So once the festivities were over, everyone made a mass jump back into the pool
Im surprised the Magic didnt dip a few inches! We were at the pool until about 3:45 pm then decided for a bit of inside time. We went back to the room, changed and rested for a bit, watched some TV
I bet I dozed, youll have to ask my wife.
My wife wanted to hit TV Tunes Trivia in the Promenade Lounge next so we went up there and were paired with another couple for some friendly team competition. I consider myself fairly savvy when it comes to television, but I hardly recognized any of these theme songs! We scored 29/39. I wasnt much help.
Now heres where we veer off into madness and I make a complete booty of myself. My wife and I decided, weeks before this cruise, that we were going to make a point to visit the gym and have a healthier cruise experience exercise-wise (not necessarily food-wise if youve been paying any sort of attention). I mean, we wouldnt want our muscles to seize up and atrophy with all of the lazy lounging were doing, would we? 2009 has been a year of weight loss for both my wife and I. As of embarkation day, I had lost 40lbs, and my wife 18lbs so we were on a roll and feeling good and feeling good about ourselves. About mid May I vowed that I would lose five more pounds before cruise day (which I didnt hit, but almost) so that I could gain five pounds over the course of the cruise week. We were not going to diet on this cruise, but a little bit of activity and some visits to the fitness center were desirable for both of us. We had visions and intentions during the cruise planning stages of waking up every morning and going to the gym before breakfast and doing the elliptical or walking on the treadmill or peddling on a bicycle and then having a lighter breakfast at Topsiders focusing the majority of our food intake to afternoon and dinner.
Well
intentions are wonderful things. Intentions are like cuddly little furry caterpillars that nuzzle your nose and make you giggle and smile and see all of the beauty and possibilities of life and then suddenly through nearly supernaturally instantaneous metamorphosis they change into a vampire moth that swallows your head.
Intentions are funny and scary things
you may have noticed that at the beginning of this day I didnt say that I bounded out of bed and ran right up to the fitness center with glee. I am not a physical person. My cardio comes from walking up and down the stairs at my house and lifting fork fulls of tortellini to my lips. Sometimes motivation attacks me and gets me out for a long walk/jog in the morning, but that doesnt really happen all that often. Surprisingly, all of my weight loss so far this year has come without any intentional exercise. So really
physical activity and exercise are not my forte. So I am not an expert on going to the gym which is where we were going to go now, after the annihalation of the trivia game in the Promenade Lounge.
There were only a few people in the gym which was good. My wife and I walked up to that front row of ellipticals up against the windows overlooking the front of the ship. What a gorgeous view, and unless you look carefully, it appears youre going to walk right off the front of the ship, and walk right out onto the ocean. Well when I stepped up onto the foot platforms of the elliptical my head butted up against the ceiling!
Uh yea
Im 6 4 so this was the first of two times on this cruise that my height was not playing in my favor. The second time is coming up on Tortola day. So I had to move back to the second row of equipment where the ceiling was higher more in the center of the room. Well, Ive never been on an elliptical in my life, and watching them in action in infomercials I think, How the heck hard can that be? Its just walking on air. Uh
its not walking! Its not walking at all. Its some odd, unnatural movement that sets your thighs aflame with a fire that burns at 8,000 degrees. I felt like a complete idiot because just as soon as I began I was ready to give up. I was laughing, my wife was laughing, I felt that all on the ship were laughing, but take a guy with no real stamina, and throw him on an elliptical for the very first time and you get
well
pain
and suffering, and something to laugh at. Three minutes. I lasted three minutes. Then I moved over to the treadmill which was much better. Much more natural. And easier. And safer. So we were there for about 25 minutes forcing the calories wed inhaled over the course of the day out of our pores.
At 6:00 pm we decided to head back down to the room to get cleaned up and get ready for the evening. My wife took one bathroom to shower, and I took the other to shave. I started running water in the sink and I lifted the sink stopper thingybob behind the hot and cold handles, and it kinda made this odd clunking sound and lifted up much further than it should have. I thought, Dang! That trip to the gym bulked me up already and ripped my monster biceps to strength of unmatched glory. Look how strong I am!
The plug at the bottom of the bowl of the sink closed as it should have, but it just seemed odd. Well, once I was done shaving, I pushed the sink stopper bar thingybob down, and there was no resistance. It just fell right down and clanged against the base of the sink, and the plug in the bottom of the bowl remained closed. Uh oh.
Theres something about going on a cruise that causes me to be destructive I guess. If you read my trip report from two years ago, you know that I broke the bed and maintenance had to come give us a new bed. Now here I was going to have to call maintenance again! Hmmmm
do they keep records of who breaks what?
We tried to pry it open with various different things, but no, that wasnt going to work. I stood staring down at the sink, full of water, trying to decide if the water was just barely trickling down the drain (again wishing I had telekinetic powers) but knew that it wasnt. So I called maintenance, and the guest services lady told me that someone would be right up. While I waited I decided to fake that I may be able to be of some help in this matter, so I crammed myself on the bathroom floor on my back and looked under the sinks hood. Those bathrooms are difficult to stand in let alone lay down in. So there I was laying half in the bathroom and half in the entryway to the stateroom, my long legs flailing every which way, and I may have kicked the closet door a few times, on accident of course. I am just not a handy person. I dont fix anything. I dont attempt to fix anything. I dont hammer. I dont saw. I dont look under hoods. I call people and say its broke. But this time
miraculously, as I was crammed up underneath the Magics sink, I could see what was wrong with it. The rod doohickey gizmo had come out of the hole in the lever pulley thingy and it just needed to be shoved back in
and I did it! And I was king! Sink king!
(sorry, I have no pictures to document this afternoons antics)
Up Next: The Donkey on the Table
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But it's not quite the same as being on the ship...besides my kids will think I've lose it!!
"aroma like a costarican waterfall..." I almost fell off my chair while I was inhaling just imagining the smell...
execept.....
