I wasn’t planning on heading to the crew party last night; Amras had a well-earned night off and was turning in early, and partying alone isn’t always my style. However, somehow I found myself there – still clad in the red Chinese formal I’d worn to work, perched on a bar stool, sipping corona straight from the bottle (the days of cosmos on tap are long long gone), and chatting with friends I sometimes forget that I have.
Even then I was kind of content to just sit there, the cast are the ones that jump out and burn up the dance floor, I usually don’t venture out until there are more people around. So I just watched, and made the mistake of losing track of one of the dancers…it’s not always the safest bet to lose track of cast member friends at parties, they have a habit of sneaking up behind you…
Literally…
I didn’t know that Eámanë was anywhere near me until I felt the playful smack to get me moving.
Come on you, I know you dance! Come! Now!
Soo…I danced. Maybe a little, maybe a bit like I used to back in the day…
And as a result, hung out much longer than I had planned to; but that’s what always happens with crew parties; put us all together and the departmental dividing lines disappear, the stress lifts (because very few of the people who cause it ever attend), and we’re just people – hanging out, flirting (sometimes with intent, sometimes without), dancing, and generally just existing.
Eámanë was awarded Most Valuable Player for her participation in the tug-o-war, because she was the only girl to sign up – her reward was a faux fur hat and a pashmina scarf. Entertainment department won a package of socks for coming in second. Seriously, socks! Not quite sure precisely what that was supposed to be about, but I suppose the musos can always use new black socks! Maybe we can make sock puppets…
Also, if any more proof was needed that we currently have one of the best Cruise Directors in the fleet, Merenwen could be found sitting cross legged in the front row fringing the dance floor, watching the “Miss Indonesia” performance and hollering at the top of her lungs before jumping back behind the bar to finish serving. It’s…very rare that you get a supervisor who even comes to crew parties, let alone actually has fun at them. I told her that in fact, she just grinned at me and said
Sweetie, I was cast [what feels like] five minutes ago…
Which is a fair point.