Salt Touched

I studied all the pictures in magazines and books
I memorized the subway map too
It’s one block north to Macey’s and two to Brother’s Brookes ~ Thoroughly Modern Millie

It was, as usual, rainy – well, misty. I swear this run gets more water than Alaska. And I didn’t think that that was possible! And of course, neither of us had brought an umbrella, as we hadn’t actually intended to stay out this morning – crew shore leave was majorly delayed because of some problems that happened on a way higher stripe level than me, so we’d just kind of planned to go out to an electronics store so that Amras could pick up the cables he needed for his bass. But the store we needed was much closer than we expected, which left us with a huge chunk of time and neither of us felt remotely like going back to the ship….so we just…started walking.

Where do you get clothes around here?
In Beverly Hills? Rodeo Drive baby… ~ pretty woman

Okay, so Boston is not Beverly Hills, it’s nowhere near Beverly Hills, but it does have it’s own version of Rodeo Drive.

As Amras and I hoofed it up Newburry street this morning I have never felt more like a poor country cousin. I mean really, this street has shops that I couldn’t even afford to breathe in, aaaaaaand a few that he had to pull me back from the doors of

Remind me that I’m broke big brother

You’re broke sis, you’re really really broke

Can we come back when I’m not?

Yes…

So on we went, past the Boston Commons and the Theatre District (where they are playing Mamma Mia next month and I will not be here, and this makes me sad) all the way up the street past Burberry, Chanel, Ugg, MAC, Victoria’s Secret, etc etc…I mean really, this place just…it feels like I should dress up in the best clothes I have and wander around pretending to be burning a hole in daddy’s credit card. On my best day I might be able to afford one “from the bottom up” outfit, but hey…a girl can dream.

I mean, this is just…I’d never even seen Brookes Brothers…except in movies.

Or Steinway, where the kid in me who took a couple of years of piano lessons just wanted to press palms and nose up against the glass and stare, because that’s only one of the most legendary musical instruments in the world

In his typical vein of knowing me far too well, a long ways down the street Amras just steers me right.

Thought I remembered right…

And there, hanging above my head, is a little tiny black and white sign reading “The Fairy Shop”. Hee! Dragons and mermaids and dream catchers and …I was so well behaved, I didn’t buy anything. Not even the Firefly merch that they had on display. This pretty much deserves a medal.

Especially since there was a dragon there that would have been just so perfect on so many levels…

Days like this, there is just never enough time. We kept spinning it out, five more minutes, five more minutes, one more slice of pizza…

But eventually time caught up with us – as it always does – and reality called, and reality meant a cab back to the ship. And no matter how great your week, the ship always gets its revenge on embark day, once he and I part ways at the gangway we don’t see each other again until dinner, or sometimes even until the I set foot on the stage for the introductory show. This is one of the reasons why neither of us is always that keen on returning to reality.

Do we have to?

‘Fraid so…

Hmph…

Totally….

So…here we go again, Montreal here we come…

As I’ve said before, sometimes I think it doesn’t know how to do anything but rain in Quebec. There are some days where the weather just has you wanting to stay in and be lazy, to just get back in your pjs, curl up, order room service, and watch something mindless (Amras wants to rewatch the Craft for example), but both my Big Brother and I wound up waking up earlier than expected (well, I was awake at the same time I always am, because my opening shift never changes, he was awake earlier than anticipated), so we figured that a bit of fresh air would do us some good, even if it did come with a little bit of liquid sunshine. Besides, at that point the rain was only drizzling, and after all, neither of us have green skin.

That said, when we were sitting at a corner café people watching and munching on bagels, the sky opened up and poured. So we ended up sprinting two blocks to the nearest drug store to buy umbrellas. Not that there was a wide selection, but while I was standing in the hair care aisle trying to pick a shampoo (my good stuff mysteriously disappeared, I blame the ghosts, because I know I didn’t use it all), Amras suddenly taps me on the shoulder. And he’s got that grin on his face that says he’s found something that’s going to make me either laugh or roll my eyes or both.

Found you the ultimate ‘you’ umbrella

And he holds out the single child-sized umbrella with the Tinker Bell handle. Yes I glared at him, and yes I walked out of the store with it.

My nerdiness is so part of my charm.

Besides, it meant I got to tease him for having a boring plain black umbrella for the rest of the day.

And naturally the moment we got the umbrellas the rain slowed, and then stopped altogether. Typical.

All in all though, it was a nice day. One of those lazy days that everyone needs once in a while, where you do nothing except have long conversations over lunch, and drag each other into shops that contain everything you know you could ever want but can never afford.

I think Quebec doesn’t know how to do anything but rain. It’s rained two out of the three times we were here. A drizzly, dreary kind of rain that makes you do nothing more than want to stay inside and just do nothing, but I’m just not one for staying inside these days.

That said, we were in Quebec just day before yesterday, that’s the weird thing about these turn around runs – we bounce back and forth between Montreal and Boston and so we double up on ports at either end. Last time we were here though it was actually miraculously sunny – and Amras and I spent a really nice afternoon wandering through the old battlefield on what was once the Plains of Abraham. These days it looks more like a park – a beautiful park at that – but if you just scratch the surface, I swear you can still hear the shots being fired. Battlefields never really let go of their history, the blood is soaked too thickly into the soil.

We had planned to take the tour of the fortress itself, which is still an active military base, but unfortunately we’re both pretty strapped money wise right now so the price – while reasonable – was above our heads.

Maybe next month…which is also what I’m saying about the Greek Mythology exhibition that’s currently housed at the main museum in town; lots of things are waiting until my next paycheque drops!

So today will likely be spent wandering through the rain-slicked streets, most likely in search of food. There’s a section of Quebec City that looks remarkably like Europe, so we’ve been known to simply wander through there. Last time the sun got to me, my blood sugar took a drop that made me dizzy and I had to fumble for my wallet to get ice cream and water before I simply melted into a puddle 😛 Of course, I could say that was just an excuse to eat really good ice cream 😉

Yeah, it’s one of those contracts…and that’s a good thing. I’ve been overdue for another one of the good ones.