This was the most difficult day of the cruise so far. But only at the end.
We had our alarm set for 9AM today, and I woke up even a little earlier than that. The reason was a 10AM interview Lori Majewski was doing with Belinda Carlisle at the (dreaded) Royal Theater.
I showered, checked my work box, etc.
When the alarm went off, Denise decided she was too tired to get up. I therefore headed out without her.
I considered going up to the Windjammer. As the food up there hadn't been so great, though, I decided to hit Cafe Promenade instead. Their food was nothing to write home about either, but at least they were right on the way to where I was going.
I arrived there and asked for a couple of their breakfast sandwiches, or as I like to think of them, Ghetto McMuffins. They're sort of like an Egg McMuffin - they have eggs and cheese and ham on an English muffin - but somehow, they're drier and not as tasty.
(And before you give me any grief about the "ghetto" part, I've got to tell you that phrase isn't mine. It's a kid thing. At least around where I live, the kids all refer to anything that's cut-rate as "ghetto" - e.g. my son's best friend used to refer to his mom's car as a "ghetto mobile." And so did his mom.)
I arrived at the Theater a few minutes early for the interview, and I had my pick of seats. Other than when we saw ABC on the first night, Denise and I had been sitting in the balcony for all of the shows. (This had something to do with the sight lines and something to do with the aforementioned Show Nazi's.) But this morning, I chose to sit in one of the soft, comfortable chairs at the back of the theater. I've had my eyes on those babies all along, but I knew that if Denise and I sat there together, she wouldn't be able to see a show over the crowd. As I'm tall, that's not an issue for me.
Majewski steered the interview into some semi-political topics early on, which I wasn't too thrilled with. They kept it kind of light, but it was still a little uncomfortable - I was borderline as to whether I was going to walk out or not. Happily, they eventually moved away from that stuff and onto other personal, and musical, topics.
I learned that Belinda and her husband had lived in Thailand for three years and had ridden out most of the pandemic there. Although they liked Thailand, ultimately, they got uncomfortable with how things were going there. So when the opportunity to get out came (remember, the whole world was shut down for awhile), they moved to Mexico City, where they live now.
Belinda also talked a little about her relationship with the other Go-Go's (which seems to be pretty good these days), and about her life as a contrarian and a rebel. In the end, I was glad I had attended.
At that point, I went back upstairs and did a little work.
When Denise got up, I suggested we go to the Main Dining Room for lunch. (This was a Sea Day, and the MDR only does lunch on Sea Days.) I had my eye on some sort of a seafood sandwich that I'd seen on the advance menu, which turned out to be pretty good.
After lunch, Denise headed up to the pool, and I got to work in earnest. As was usual, I worked through the afternoon, and after a few hours, I had my notes box empty again. (It only lasted for a few minutes, but still. I had made some real progress since the note-bombing travesty at the beginning of the week.)
Once again, I took a short nap until Denise came back from the pool. Then we headed up for dinner.
A few words about the concert schedule over the last two days. The typical evening would feature a headliner, who would play two shows - one for blue-pass people (who went to the early show and had a late dinner) and one for red pass people (who did the opposite). But for some reason, Day 6 had Berlin performing the early show and Belinda performing the late show, while Day 7 had them reversed. I'm not sure why this was - Denise's theory was it done in deference to Belinda, whose voice might not be up to singing two back-to-back shows in one night. She could be right.
In any event, when I first got the schedule, my plan was to sneak into the early show for Berlin on Day 6, then see Belinda for the late show that same night (which was doable). This would have left me free on Day 7 to skip Berlin at 9PM and catch a second showing of my favorites, A Flock of Seagulls.
After a week on the ship, however, I decided it was easier to go with the flow and follow the schedule as intended. This meant giving up my dream of seeing Flock of Seagulls a second time. But it also made life easier in a number of ways - it allowed Denise and I to eat dinner in the Main Dining Room for both nights (a much better option than going to the Windjammer on Day 6) - and as a bonus, it allowed me catch Johnny Hates Jazz on Day 6 after dinner.
This turned out to be a good thing. I really wasn't all that familiar with this band except for the song "Shattered Dreams," because as lead singer Clark Datchler rather humorously explained, they'd had a number of other singles all over the world (mumbling:) "except in the United States".
Now that I've heard these guys, I'm certainly up for checking out the rest of their catalog. One of the phrases that Wikipedia uses to describe their music is "sophisti-pop", and I think that's a pretty accurate way to describe it. The band was tight, the songs were good, and Datchler was consistently entertaining.
After that, Denise and I headed across the ship to the (miserable) Royal Theater for Belinda.
I'd say of all the shows I saw on the ship, Human League and Belinda drew the biggest crowds. (At one point during the show, Denise had to run to the Ladies Room, and I knew I was going to have to fight someone from taking her seat. And I was right.) The theater was packed.
Belinda looked great and sounded pretty good. She did have some vocal trouble with one or two of the Go-Go's' songs - "Our Lips Are Sealed" in particular - but overall, her voice was sturdy, if less distinctive than it used to be. (My understanding is that at some point she took professional vocal lessons in order to preserve her voice, and unfortunately, they trained that cute little guttural growl out of her.) In any event, it was an enjoyable show, with Belinda singing all of the Go-Go's' biggest hits and her own solo hits as well. The crowd gave her a very warm reception throughout the night. I was glad to see her get the love and respect she deserves.
I'd had some thoughts about heading back to Studio B for the late band, which was Strangelove. If I did so, I would have sat as far back in the room as I could have, due to the band's excessive volume. Denise made it clear that if we went, she wanted to be closer to the action, though. So ultimately, I just decided to call it a night.
As I'm writing this, it's four days later, so I honestly don't remember if Denise went to Studio B without me and caught part of the show or not. (I think she did, but I'm not certain.)
What I do remember is this. The night before we left New York, Denise was trying to weigh her suitcase, and in doing so, she had hurt her back. It wasn't even a typical lower back problem - she'd felt something pop more in the middle.
When we left for the cruise, she was still sore, but was hoping it would heal up. But as the cruise wore on, her back got sorer and sorer, to the point where she didn't feel able to dance (and she loves to dance). This soreness was also what made her decide not to get off the ship in St. Maarten.
The night of Day 6, when she tried to lay down for the night, her back started spasming. The mattress was reasonably firm, but still, it was a mattress. Every time she moved, she set off more spasms, to the point where she was screaming and crying in pain. I was helpless to do anything for her.
Eventually, she was able to find a position flat on her back where the spasms stopped, and she settled into a tenuous sleep. I was up for awhile, and then I fell asleep too.
After a couple of hours, I was awakened to her cries of pain. She had tried to get up to use the bathroom, but was unable to do so. No matter what direction she moved in, it just set off more muscle spasms, until she got to the point where she was having spasms even when she wasn't moving.
I suggested calling the ship for help - I figured they had to have 24-hour medical service available. What would they do if someone had a heart attack in the middle of the night, right? But Denise didn't think there was anything they could do for her at that time of night.
Eventually, the spasms stopped again.
Meanwhile, my mind was racing. Forget the rest of the cruise, how was I going to get her back to New York if she couldn't even get out of the bed? I started to think about how we could handle it if she had to go to the hospital in Florida. My mind raced through who we knew in the area we could call for help if we needed to. The closest people were my sister and her partner, who live in Vero Beach, followed by our friend Tom (Denise's old keyboard player), who lives in Ft. Lauderdale.
And never mind that, we were still a whole day away from Florida.
At this point, I was glad I had chosen to come with Denise this year instead of my son. He was now physically stronger than I am, but would have had no idea about what to do if she got incapacitated for awhile while they were away.
Eventually, when her back settled down, Denise was able to get up to use the bathroom, which was a relief. (Unbeknownst the me, she had actually successfully gotten up once earlier in the night while I was asleep, too, before this second wave of back spasms.)
When she got back into bed, she was able to do so without setting off another round. She went to sleep for the night, and after a long while of mentally running through options, so did I. But I had no idea of how the next few days would go.
