“Well then women in London must have learned not to breathe!” – Pirates of the Caribbean.
They say that beauty is pain. ‘Tis true. Never was it more true than when one has a black & gold formal Captain’s Ball, and one’s ship is in the middle of Asia, where the air temperature ranges from hot to boil-a-lobster even with the ship’s AC running full blast. And one’s only black & gold outfit worth wearing? Involves a corset. A real corset mind you, like the kind you get in bridal stores, with sprung-stainless steel boning, that takes a good two inches off your waist.
While simultaneously rendering it impossible for you to do something as prosaic as breathing.
It takes an hour and a half to fully get into my black & gold outfit, if you include the time it takes to do hair and make-up. And in case anyone who’s seen me in my corset ever wonders how I get into it without help? It’s very simple really: it’s designed to tie in the middle, which means I can actually lace it up myself. Once it gets to a certain point I just hook the ribbon loops over my bathroom door handle, and take one – very large – step forward.
The solo equivalent of having a friend plant her knee in the small of your back and pull.
Ah ball nights.
This particular ball was more work than usual. It’s always work of course, by now you all know the ups and downs (sometimes literally) of preparing to be Cinderella. But in this particular case – well, we have a representative from Head Office on board at the moment, who is here for something completely unrelated to most of my team, but never the less was in the show lounge while we were prepping last night. While we were clambering around on walls – needless to say my boss was a bit concerned. Not to mention, half the team couldn’t stay to finish decorating because they’d either worked all day, or worked early in the morning, so by 1am, it was me, the youth program coordinator, the event manager and the cruise director with his wife.
We all were supposed to gather this afternoon to do the last of the balloons and such, but due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict, only two of us showed up, and we couldn’t find the helium, which threw off everyone’s schedule for the rest of the day, and ended up with us having to go in the hour before the ball actually started and do a lot more than we normally would have to.
That said, when we all stood in the center of the ballroom at 9:50, looked around us, and saw the lighting shining off the glimmer walls and the brass poles ringing the dance floor, making everything seem like it was drenched in sparkle – we were able to realize just how well it had all come together. The place went from looking drab to spectacular in under an hour. We did good.
The ball went well, as they usually do. We have a considerable amount of new guests on board after our stop in Hong Kong, so we’re sailing with an almost full ship – which makes a big difference to the turnout at events like this. The dance floor was full, and the people were happy.
But in this case, Cinderella was very happy for the end of the ball – or at least…her ribs were.
Ouch…