{"id":1696,"date":"2012-10-15T03:24:08","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T11:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=1696"},"modified":"2012-10-15T03:24:08","modified_gmt":"2012-10-15T11:24:08","slug":"step-and-glide-at-sea-10142012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=1696","title":{"rendered":"Step and Glide – At Sea \u2013 [10\/14\/2012]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>And the only thing that matters, is climbing up that social ladder….
\nStill care about your hair and the car you drive
\nDoesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re sixteen or thirty-five<\/i><\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange how you realize well after the fact how much some things bothered you long ago. High school for instance, that torturous four years that is really never easy for anyone, even the people that it looks easy for. I don\u2019t know any one person who had an easy time of it in high school.<\/p>\n

I was no different of course. When I was in high school I was the geeky arts kid who was a serious diva about her voice in senior year (because she didn\u2019t have anything else, though few knew that). I had crooked teeth and glasses and I was pretty much a walking stick-girl until eleventh grade.<\/p>\n

In short, prom queen I was not.<\/p>\n

Of course being Canadian we didn\u2019t really have a prom per-say. We had a graduation dance which we called<\/i> a prom, but it wasn\u2019t really one. My graduation class was horribly apathetic. But still, I went. Stag. And spent much of the evening wandering through the gardens trying to ignore the fact that I had no one to be \u2018with\u2019. In short, I had the same experience that most people who aren\u2019t head cheerleader do at prom.<\/p>\n

However, unlike most other people I got a second chance.<\/p>\n

My job lends me continually unusual opportunities. I\u2019m not sure what was behind the decision to throw a shipboard prom, but leave it to the flagship team to do just that. Five o\u2019clock in the afternoon found us all sitting in the show lounge watching huge streamers of pink and blue material being hauled to the ceiling where it would hang like a giant brightly coloured circus-tent roof, while we blew up balloons. My goodness so many balloons! Honestly I was starting to think it would look more like a massive baby shower than a prom, but by the time I returned later that evening, the showroom had been transformed with balloon arches over the stage and shimmering banners everywhere. Welcome back to high school \u2013 don\u2019t forget to cast your vote for the prom queen!<\/p>\n

Some of you may think less of me for the fact that I was nervous about this whole prom thing. But I was. There\u2019s a large part of me that\u2019s still that gawky girl with crooked teeth. I rushed through dinner, even though I\u2019d not eaten much that day, downed a couple of glasses of water and then promptly threw the \u2018privacy please\u2019 sign into my key slot so that my cabin stewards knew that I didn\u2019t require turn down service. Then I sat down in front of the dresser mirror, and started to tackle my hair. You see, if I want my hair to look half-way elegant in and up-do I have to work with it damp. I have fine hair and trying to get it smooth if it\u2019s fully dry is a useless endeavor in frustration. Since the dress I was going to be wearing was partially off the shoulder, there was no question that my hair had to go up.\u00a0 Eventually I managed to wrangle my always uncooperative tresses into what I wanted. Granted, that was with the aid of half a dozen bobby-pins and two decorative hair combs, and a LOT of hairspray. But it stayed. Thankfully.<\/p>\n

Then of course, there was the dress.<\/p>\n

Before I shipped out for this contract I spent hours staring at the computer screen looking at prom dresses. I needed a new formal anyway (all of mine, lovely as they are, were showing signs of wear), so I figured that \u2013 since we were having a prom \u2013 I may as well actually invest in a dress for it. Thing is, I needed something that I could wear again. \u00a0I spent ages picking it out. I had it made to measure, rush ordered it, and was in constant communication with the shipping company to make sure it arrived on time. But what should have been a simple process turned into a nightmare when the gown arrived only four days before I was due to fly out and it didn\u2019t fit<\/i>. It was a good four inches off in the hips, and required some serious emergency alteration by my genius of a tailor who actually called all her other clients<\/p>\n

I\u2019m terribly sorry, I\u2019ve had a rush order come in, I\u2019m going to have to postpone finishing your suit<\/i><\/p>\n

The result of all that stress was a perfectly fitted formal the likes of which even me, with my slight addiction to formal wear, had never worn before. I looked in the mirror and realized that the caterpillar really had become a butterfly. That said, I had only enough time to fasten my earrings, slide on my high heels and pull on my evening gloves before rushing out the door to make the 9pm call for final decorating.<\/p>\n

Okay chica, let\u2019s go be a prom queen<\/i><\/p>\n

Those of you who\u2019ve worked with me before, or known me for years, know that when I flip the switch to go from desk-mode to princess-mode, the difference is quite considerable. This was even more so than usual. Head\u2019s turned, eyes followed me. I\u2019m not really used to that kind of attention.<\/p>\n

Who is *that*<\/i><\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s the librarian…<\/i><\/p>\n

She…doesn\u2019t normally look like that<\/i><\/p>\n

About the only thing I had to consistently remind myself of was the train. The gown has a good three feet or more of train, which looks beautiful, but which I had to remind myself to pick up when walking in a crowded room or someone was going to put a heel through the chiffon. Miraculously it was only \u00a0stepped on twice.<\/p>\n

The night itself was a lot of fun. It went quickly, as the grand balls almost always seem to these days. At the end of it all the women on the team \u00a0who had their hair pinned up looked at each other, and nearly as one reached back and pulled a single bobby-pin out of our hair, pried off the protective tips, and started attacking the balloons.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t have a pointy thing!<\/i><\/p>\n

Here, take one of mine!<\/i><\/p>\n

Hey! We had 422 balloons in that room! Someone had to break them! There was so much noise it sounded like a miniature version of New Years Eve fireworks. Moreover, for some reason it struck everyone as hilariously funny, so the constant noise of the exploding balloons was interlaced with squeals of laughter. The guys, particularly the musicians, just looked at all of us and shook their heads.<\/p>\n

While I was asked up for drinks at the after party, I didn\u2019t make much of an appearance (in fact, I actively dodged the person who asked me, something I feel vaguely guilty about, but I\u2019m just so off-market right now), instead I slid out as soon as I could. Instead of going home via the inside route, I cut across the outside deck, where there was no one but me and the sea breeze to clear the cobwebs out of my head.<\/p>\n

Some occasions are better the second time around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And the only thing that matters, is climbing up that social ladder…. Still care about your hair and the car you drive Doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re sixteen or thirty-five It\u2019s strange how you realize well after the fact how much … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26,27,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-asiaaustralia-2012","category-grand-balls","category-theme-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-rm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}