Bodacious Boomer

I known for two months now that almost everyone I’m close to would be going on an Alaskan cruise starting today. I was really OK with it until about 3 weeks ago. Then I decided that I really wanted to go to. Years ago Doug and I traveled all over the northern US from Seattle to the Catskills doing summer festivals. By this time of the summer we usually had a nice little stash of money built up by now. Money we could have spent on say, a cruise. However, we quit going all over God’s country to work because it’s physically exhausting, you never knew what the weather would be like, and frankly we just got burned out. So we’ve stayed in TX and dealt with a lot of family matters. (You know what fun that is.)

So now, our summers are much slower paced. Unfortunately that also means the money is slower coming in also. On top of that, Doug did a bunch of renovation work which we have yet to be paid for. At any rate, about three weeks ago I went ahead and booked the same cruise, hoping and praying that one of the countless little old ladies that I had helped across the street in my lifetime would croak and leave me enough for two tickets.

Since no one croaked, my reservation cancelled out the following day at 6pm, or so I thought.  I accepted my fate. Almost a week later I received via email a notice from the cruise line that I had two fully paid tickets waiting for me. How this happened I do not know, but I was walking on air. I just took it as a gift from God. I waited another week to see if there would be another email stating that a mistake had been made. Nothing came. By  then I was starting to get excited and thinking about what I needed to get before the trip.

Now we’re only 10 days out. I thought I’d better go ahead and see what else I needed to do to be ready to go. I called the cruise line. Their agent was very nice, but perplexed. “I don’t understand this at all.” is what I was told. I told her that if this was a joke, it certainly wasn’t very funny. When she finally got back to me the next afternoon she informed me that it had been a computer glitch, and so sad, but no cruise for me. She was a super nice, and very apologetic about the mistake. Now that ship was going to go anyway, with or without me, so why didn’t they stand behind their system? I was going to get to Alaska on my own anyway and board the ship there.

According to the BBC this week, in Venice, Italy the Crown Plaza Hotel had a computer glitch. By mistake, their rooms were advertised online for the price of only $0.01 per night. Before the glitch was caught 230 people had booked rooms at a combined value of over $132,000. The hotel decided to stand behind their system and take the loss. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8202842.stm Good for them. I’m just glad Doug and I weren’t ready to board the ship in AL and then told of the snafu. That would’ve really sucked since from Houston to Seward is 4,479mi.

So instead of getting on a cruise ship today, I’m sorting my Tupperwear, discarding tops with no bottoms and bottoms with no tops. This really sucks.

Yesterday I decided that if I was going to go on this cruise for a week that I had to go through my closet. Since at least April, maybe earlier, I have been wearing almost the same thing every day. It’s just so easy. Being self-employed I have no one to impress to get ahead nor do I have any corporate guidelines to which I must adhere. Therefore I wear what I want. Pretty much I have worn a T-shirt, shorts and Crocs sandals almost everyday for the last 5 months.

On the plus side I don’t have a big dry cleaning bill. Nor do I have to iron anything. In face I haven’t ironed anything in over fifteen years. (If Doug wants anything pressed he sends it to the cleaners.) In my defense, I really never learned how to iron when I was still at home. My mom had a wonderful woman named Lela Mae who came to our house every Weds. from the time I was three until I was thirty. She would clean the house in the morning, then have her lunch while she watched As the World Turns. After lunch she’d start the ironing. (She had one of those sprinkle tops stuck in a bottle of water she used to dampen the clothes.) I was amazed at how fast she could iron and how perfectly.

I did iron a little when the kids were young. Amanda went to private school for her first two years and had to wear a uniform. If I didn’t get it out of the dryer soon enough I’d be stuck having to iron it. After that she went to a very small school for young brainiacs. They didn’t believe in uniforms, not wanting to stifle the creative mind. (I fully supported that philosophy.)  I’ve read that some people really get into ironing-kinda of Zen thing I guess. I can’t imagine that, but to each their own.

The down side of being self employed and working from home (most of the time) is that it’s easy to become complacent and not give a thought to what you’re wearing day after day. Some days, if I’m having a all-day hot flash, I’ll sit in here at the computer with just a tank top and undies, a fan blowing on me from two feet away. I keep my thermostat set above 84 and I still got an electric bill for over $400 last month-for a one story house. How crazy is that?

After putting it off as long as I could, I finally went into my closet last night. Other than trying on swimsuits under unflattering fluorescent lights at a store, going through my closet really ranks up there on my “I don’t want to do this.” list. I was face-to-fabric with some of my unfortunate clothing choices from the past. (I should never go shopping alone.) Why did I think I could ever wear horizontal stripes? I’m 5′4″-or I was before I started to shrink. The ghosts from failed diets past were lurking in there too, just waiting to ruin my self-esteem. I heard them whispering to one another “She really thought she was  going to get into that again?” Then they snickered.

As my father used to say “I girded up my loins” and went right on in, passing the pencil skirt that’s never been worn and ruffled blouse. (Why I ever thought I needed to draw attention to my boobs I do not know.) In the past, I’d get bummed out and leave the closet without having faced my fears. This time, I was a woman on a mission. The clothes I knew I would never wear for whatever reason were taken out and bagged for Katy Christian Mission, the local resale shop. It was a liberating experience.

When I went into the closet this morning it was silent. It was great. All of the ghosts are gone, never to return. I am in the here and now and not going back. It feels good.

We were away for a week or so due to a family emergency. Thank God everything is OK now and we’re back. While we were gone we were given the most wonderful gift ever- a cruise to Alaska. I think that we’re one of the few couples our age who have never been on a cruise and I’m so looking forward to it. Doug and I haven’t been anywhere in forever it seems. At least we haven’t been anywhere for fun. (Traveling to all the festivals in the Suburban doesn’t count.)

To make things even better, my good friends Ken and Evelyn are going as well. Nate and Amanda will be there too. As well as Brian, Nate’s brother, and his significant other. I’m glad we’re able to go with a group of people we know. Doug isn’t into nature nearly as much as I am. (I just hope the ship has ESPN.) I know that with Evelyn and Amanda there I’ll have someone to “ooh and ahh” with over the magnificent things we’ll be seeing. Doug even sat in the car while the kids and I visited the Monterrey Bay Aquarium a few years ago.

I’ve asked Evelyn what to wear since she has cruised five times. She said Carnival is casual, but this is Holland America, an upscale line. No shorts in the dining room at night. She said some people even wear a tuxedo or long gowns on formal night. I know we won’t be dressed like that, no matter what. It would be nice to have clothes like that to wear. However, I’d never have anyplace else to wear them. So, my dressier clothes will just have to do. Since I’ve been doing better with my exercise and healthy eating, maybe going through my closet trying on clothes won’t be so stressful. (I am thinking about having a glass of wine before I go in there though.) Anyway, I’ve put it off long enough. Wish me luck.