Cruising With Friends

We went on our first cruise last weekend. ‘Cruise’ as in slowly chugging along on the ship Monarch of the Seas from San Pedro down to Ensenada, Mexico for a three day jaunt, sleeping in our Altoids box of a cabin at night and eating and drinking and lounging and bullshitting with friends during the day. And night. OK, maybe we didn’t sleep, although I do remember having some strange dreams. K had bizarre dreams as well. “Kind of like yours,” she said, meaning they involved furtive chases, feelings of sheer terror, unspeakably horrific death and dismemberment, and a cute puppy. But I digress.

This trip was the spirited brainchild of some of my high school pals, class of ’72, and about twenty of us showed up; some of us more than others, if you know what I mean. That is, speaking for myself (and why not), I usually don’t even touch my toe into the water of group activities, so my spur of the moment choice to join up gave me a feeling of ‘empowerment’, which means, if you’ve read Cosmo or O magazine (and I haven’t, so I’m making gross uninformed biased illogical connections here) that I can take a completely mundane activity, such as drinking decaffeinated tea, and proclaim that because I didn’t drink good ol’ black coffee, and instead drank some supposedly more nutritious stuff, I’ve ‘risen above’ the stereotypes impinged upon my racial/ethnical/intellectual profile and am floating blissfully above the fray, and am now empowered. Right. OK, more digressing. Sorry. ‘Empowerment’ apparently also means loss of the ability to write coherent sentences. But let’s forge on.

Because I tend to seek out the quiet alcove, rather than the group dynamic, my notes constitute only a tiny slice of the actual happenings over the weekend, but here are a few observations:

A very cool thing: Pete O. had acquired the grandest stateroom on the ship, the Royal Suite, which he generously shared as a hang-out spot with the gang, and we all fit in there easily. Giant living room and bar, master bedroom, huge bathroom and Jacuzzi-like tub, and private balcony jutting out over the sea. Along with comp’d appetizers. Thanks Pete.

The cruise experience: In general, not my cup of green tea. I’m not drawn toward the casino, the group activities, the excursions, or the shows. (So WTF am I doing there?) My happiest moments were probably when I sat in the café drinking coffee at 6:15am reading Echo Park by Michael Connelly, or lazing on a lounge chair drinking a cold cerveza on Sunday with the gang. And, of course, just being with Kim ;-). I mean, aside from hanging with the pals, I’d just as soon be goofing off in Belmont Shore – home sweet home. The cruise ship considered as a “floating hotel” is not an inaccurate analogy.

Ashore: I’ve been to Ensenada a couple of times, several years ago. Well, now that I think about it, I ended up there after the Rosarito-Ensenada bike ride about two years ago, but we hung out by the bus after the ride, and I had no sense of what the city was like, so that doesn’t really count I suppose, but this time, when we took the shuttle into town from the ship, we divided into two groups: 1) the guys, who were heading to Hussongs to down beers, and 2) the gals, intent on going to La Bufadora for some shopping and maybe a taco.

More ashore: So me, Ed H., Bruce R, and Pete O. are at Hussongs drinking beers and we’re having a great time. A great dive bar. Nancy C and Lisa show up and they start getting loosened up via the margarita route, and it amuses me when they start smoking cigs (what happens in Mexico, stays in Mexico, unless it gets broadcast on the internet I suppose). I have an interesting conversation with Lisa: work, lifestyle, religion, you name it. She asks me if I’m religious – I say, “Actually, I’m an atheist.” She says, “Wow. I’m a Christian,” as she holds up her margarita and cigarette with a big sheepish smile on her face. Priceless.

In general: I’m flabbergasted that these folks remember so much about high school stuff, and have such tight neuron knowledge about so many of our old high school friends and activities. In most conversations, I could only listen with slack-jawed awe, thinking, “Have I completely lost my memory? Who are they talking about? Or am I just an idiot? And do I care?”

Well, it turns out I do care. While I’ve come to a point where I’m content to enjoy friendships with a more, shall we say, contemporary set of interesting people, I definitely felt big twinges of envy while hearing such enthusiastic talk from the old locals, and the adventures and camaraderie they share.

One thing I know for certain: these folks turned out to be a bunch of creative, hard working, driven, successful bunch of people. The mind reels. Bloody great, I say.

I’ll write a little bit more later. Like I said, this is just a biased record of a minute slice of the trip.

Comments are encouraged from the gang.
mk