{"id":43,"date":"2009-01-01T17:30:59","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T22:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/?p=43"},"modified":"2009-01-01T17:30:59","modified_gmt":"2009-01-01T22:30:59","slug":"paradise-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/?p=43","title":{"rendered":"Paradise Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alright, the title\u2019s an overstatement (I was just feeling literary), but I\u2019m back to the small room again. <\/span>Not so bad, really, but I do quite miss the window. <\/span>Waking up in darkness stinks. <\/span>And I\u2019m not playing my guitar as often, because I don\u2019t want to subject another human being to that. <\/span>But still, wearing shorts, so who\u2019s complaining?<\/p>\n

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So since I\u2019ve written last, holidays a-plenty! <\/span>Christmas was pretty fun. <\/span>The JARs threw a hall party, theme rooms and all. <\/span>Good times were had, vodka was drank out of a peppermint cup, pictures were taken, I intervened to break up a fight that probably wasn\u2019t going to happen anyway, and I slept the sleep of the righteous.<\/p>\n

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Boxing Day was spent in Miami, where they of course don\u2019t call it Boxing Day, but still acknowledge its religious significance by having sales. <\/span>I bought myself a basketball (they have some on board, but it was worth it for the quality upgrade), a printer (to inspire additional feelings of guilt to keep me writing, but of course, it was only after I was onboard that I realized I needed to buy a USB cable separately, so as of now, it\u2019s only taking up space), and a mesh hamper (far and away my best return on money spent.) <\/span>And it\u2019s my understanding that due to his own splurge, I\u2019ll be getting a hand-me-down TV from my brother (I prefer to think of them as hand-me-sidewayses), so all in all, a big shopping day for me.<\/p>\n

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Also that day, we got our first guest as a group. <\/span>Caroline (apologies if it\u2019s Carolyn), a friend of Ashley\u2019s, joined us, which has been lovely. <\/span>A breath of fresh air, she is, and she\u2019s married to someone I went to high school with. <\/span>Someone I barely remember, mind you, and he probably has all but forgotten my existence (apparently, before she came, she showed him a list of the cast, and my name was \u201cfamiliar\u201d, but he didn\u2019t have the context, so maybe I\u2019m worth a nod of recognition when she gets back), but it\u2019s nice to be able to talk Toronto as well. <\/span>(There\u2019s also a hypnotist on board for this cruise from Toronto, and the four of us talked a little T-dot.)<\/p>\n

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On the 28th<\/sup>, the JARs hosted a party for the entire crew, and some passenger treated us all to free drinks, which was nice. <\/span>They performed a number from Chicago. <\/span>I can\u2019t remember what it\u2019s called, but it\u2019s the one where a bunch of women recount the circumstances of the murders they committed. <\/span>Long story short, big dance number in sexy lingerie. <\/span>Suffice it to say, I think the crew is going to be pretty disappointed in our crew show!<\/p>\n

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I had to make my first set list for our improv shows. <\/span>I threw a fair bit of new stuff at them, but everybody stepped up, and the shows worked out quite well. <\/span>(Schwarzenegger killed!) <\/span>After the show, I had some girl come up to me and say that I looked exactly like Napoleon Dynamite. <\/span>Using my friendliest incredulous tone, I pointed out that that wasn\u2019t exactly a compliment. <\/span>She countered \u201cNo, it\u2019s okay, I loved Napoleon Dynamite.\u201d <\/span>I thought \u201cI loved Forrest Gump. <\/span>Would you take it as a compliment if I said you reminded me of him?\u201d <\/span>I said \u201cThank you?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Around this time, I finished The Great Gatsby<\/span>. <\/span>Short but sweet, a classic for a reason. <\/span>Going through my books, I was torn between two books that had potential to be uplifting but also the potential to be horribly depressing: The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat,<\/span> by Oliver Sacks, and Kasztner\u2019s Train<\/span>, by Anna Porter. <\/span>In the end, I chose the former. <\/span>I think my time with Mr. Kasztner will be best spent in a private room. <\/span>I think I\u2019ll be able to handle reading it, but I probably won\u2019t want to talk about it much. <\/span>So far, so good, but Dr. Sacks doesn\u2019t shy away from the big, big words, so it definitely takes some concentration.<\/p>\n

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As for New Year\u2019s, fairly anticlimactic, but I always feel that way about them. <\/span>Highlights include someone asking me if my Humphrey Bogart tie was Barack Obama (what is this world coming to?!?), hugs and kisses (awwww!), and turning the first page on my X-ed out calendar. <\/span>December, we hardly knew ye!<\/p>\n

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Happy 2009, everyone!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alright, the title\u2019s an overstatement (I was just feeling literary), but I\u2019m back to the small room again. Not so bad, really, but I do quite miss the window. Waking up in darkness stinks. And I\u2019m not playing my guitar as often, because I don\u2019t want to subject another human being to that. But still, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}