Cruisin' - Pt 1

And then it got better.

It had no right getting any better. We had no reason to suspect that it could get any better. We weren't interested in making it any better on our own, by ourselves. We felt we would be satisfied if it never went beyond the level we had achieved. We would have had a completely fulfilling and more than satisfactory Happily Ever After to remember for as long as we cared to. We had seen it all. We had felt it all. We had heard it all. Our cheeks were flush with fresh sunshine and tender from too much smiling. We had high expectations to start with and felt each and every one had been exceeded within the first day or two and we were so far beyond those initial expectations that the sights and sounds that had, at first, been the stuff of legend had become commonplace. The return to normalcy, we figured, was going to be a painful one. A necessary one. A reluctant one. A return to the norm, to the everyday, seemed so inappropriate. And this was the night we needed to focus on the fact that we were at the end. The return, as inappropriate as it was unavoidable, was a few short hours away. We knew the elation of the previous week was about to meet the equal amount of deflation. How could we soften the blow? How could we delay the inevitable? How could we top the top? What would we see on the other side of the mountain? Another mountain, perhaps? A higher one? A more scenic one? A more magnificent one? Or, in seeing yet another mountain, would we see it as just, oh well, look, another mountain…yawn.

The unusual had become commonplace. The line indicating the separation of normal and un-normal had long since blurred and been officially declared to be missing in action. What was left? What could stimulate these overloaded pleasure senses? Was more, more? Was more, better?

And then it got better.

We signed up for a music themed cruise last summer. July 11^th, actually. I know because that's what our cruise line documents stated and I believed them. July 11^th. Signed up about all of five minutes after my wife was informed of the cruise by the Patty Griffin website. She had been a frequent visitor to the site. Had posted messages and become a member in good standing with other Patty fans. She read off the announcement – "Patty's going to be on a cruise in February with a bunch of musicians and songwriters! Lyle Lovett! Shawn Colvin! John Hiatt! Emmylou…"

"WHOA!!!You said John Hiatt!!??!!"

That's all she needed to say and all I needed to hear. The next thing I said was along the lines of. "Where? When? How much? Let's go! How do we sign up?"

That was close to being the extent of the discussion that launched us into this musical, tropical paradise. Five minutes later we were signing up and letting our imaginations run wild.

Two of our favorite artists. Together. On a boat. In the Caribbean. In February. We were still making plans for our October wedding and starting to get those in place. Coming across the news of the cruise was like the masterstroke, the final piece of the planning puzzle. The Ultimate Susan and Jim Honeymoon! One for the record books! One for the Ages! The Prize we each desired and sought. A loving husband and wife alone with 2500 equally emphatic music fans and the objects of our congregated admiration in a single place for six days of Peace, Love, Music and 24/7 soft serve ice cream!!!

It started out good…

The anticipation started almost immediately. We had thoughts, ideas, questions, daydreams, imaginings – all pointing to our February honeymoon/vacation. The time from summer to our October wedding blurred past. All the plans fell into place and we created a perfect day for ourselves. Family and friends, an idyllic setting for the ceremony and a wonderfully relaxed reception, recordsetting warm temperatures, all contributed to the best day of our young lives. Smiles and photos and pictures and smiles. All captured professionally and digitally and rightfully to be treasured for a lifetime. Prints were printed, framed, distributed. We moved beyond the wedding to jump into the holidays and fall and winter months. Always busy with plans. Important plans. And in the background of it all, we kept checking the progress of the cruise. Was it too early to start counting days when it was still two or three months 'til our departure? Not for us. Well, not for me, anyway. Susan would try to keep from getting too excited so it wouldn't distract her from the things she needed to do. She had highly important tasks. The most important one was completion of her Master's Degree and graduation ceremony. It was a hectic time. There was no room for the distractions thoughts of the cruise would bring. But it was there, in the background. We kept our calendar counts mostly to ourselves. But it was there. Mentally chalk marking our days like a cartoon prisoner, counting down until our time to shine comes along.

All in all we had such a busy year, planning the wedding, moving in together, learning how to become couple, become a combined family with our siblings and parents and kids and grandkids. The crescendo of the fall wedding, the silliness of the busy holidays, the rigors of earning a degree. Then the silence of January. The calm. We were a month away. And the count started up in earnest! Now things were coming into focus. Now the previous distraction became the target of our energies. Now there was nothing left but to plan for the trip. Now we were two weeks away. The hounds of our imaginations were loosed!!! What to bring? What to wear? What are we going to see? What are we going to hear? What are we going to think??? The last minute nervousness of trying to cover all possibilities. We were a week away. We had all of the items we needed from the Sixthman Group (the trip's sponsor/organizer) to ensure that everything was in its place. Papers were in order. Boarding passes printed. Luggage tags in hand. Clothes packed. New sandals , well not quite... And, by the way, it's no easy taskfinding a new pair of sandals in Chicago area stores in mid- to late-January. Not only sandals in my size but finding enough of a selection to consider one pair over another for any other reason than one of the pairs actually fits. I settled on packing last summer's sandals, as beat up as they were, they were better than what I saw on the shelves. And now we're down to the last day. Saturday! We leave tomorrow! Oh my god! It's here! Everything's packed and ready by the door. The cab will be here at 6AM to take us to the airport. We'll be in Miami for lunch on Sunday!!! Oh my god!!!! Everything's set. Everything's in place.

…then it got better.

Here are two words that are very seldom seen strung together – flawless flight. I'm taking a chance, a huge chance, in stringing them together here. We have been conditioned, with good reason, over the last few years to expect and receive the worst service at the times we need good service the most. And by making too much out of a positive experience, I'm taking the chance of somehow risking that the next experience will be just as equally negative. The cosmos somehow balancing things out. If every bad turn of events ensures that good will come of it, then, it would seem that the reverse also is true. Needs to be true. That every good turn of events ensures the crap is going to hit the fan at the cosmos' earliest convenience. While the jury's still out on the whole karmic law discussion, if it happens that it turns out to be true, that everything evens out in the end, then we either had one coming to us or we've got a hell of a payback coming our way.  All because of those two words – flawless flight. But it's true. It happened! I have a witness!

The cab picked us up, as scheduled. The weather was frigid, as expected. The cab was properly warmed, as hoped, justifying our decision to not wear heavy coats for the ride to the airport. We were heading to the tropics on the 3^rd of February and our thoughts were - do we bring the coats for the trip to the airport, then store them in our already maxed out luggage in order to have them for the trip from the airport back home when we return? Why would we want or need our coats? Would we want even the faintest reminder, while far away from the winter's cold, of what those coats would represent? We had just packed our luggage full of summer, outdoor clothes; shorts, t-shirts, bathing suits! Screw the coats! The coats stayed in the closet. We wore sweatshirts and ran to the warmth of the waiting cab. Excellent choice!

The trip to the airport was uneventful and we arrived at the right time to spend the next hour in one line after another. Except for the small fact that it was 7AM on a Sunday morning and apparently, no one else thought it was a good time to leave the city. We walked ourselves and our bags to the ticket counter. The empty, unobstructed ticket counter. I slipped my plastic card in the slot of the automated ticket printing machine, pressed a couple of buttons on the touch sensitive screen, had our bags weighed, measured, accepted and properly tagged and were on our merry little way all within five minutes of walking into the terminal. So far, so good.

The next  obstacle-that-wasn't was the security checkpoint. Checking photo ID's against the boarding passes. Normally a shuffle, shuffle, wait, shuffle, shuffle, wait, faceless, nameless line with the all important approvals nodding you on to the next line. Except today. That was not happening today. My new wife, my bride, was complimented on her brand spanking new driver's license picture. She smiled and thanked the guard for the nice words and explained that the picture was new due to her recent name change and the other guard chirped up about how he was getting married this coming summer and they were going to honeymoon at the Grand Canyon and I looked nervously around – What's with the small talk, I wondered. I looked over my shoulder. No line of people getting anxious at the delay caused by the small talk. No line in front of us. No line behind us. And we were making conversation with the security guards! How weird. How unexpected. How nice!

Again, so far, so good. It's becoming almost routine, this good fortune. We're on a roll!

We found a cup of coffee and a bagel and a clean, empty table and a half hour with nothing better to do than sip our coffee and eat our bagel. Finishing up we made our way to the gate. Again expecting a delay of some sort to appear just around the next corner but, again, finding no crowds, no infuriating lines, no hostile uncooperative airline reps telling us about canceled flights or hours long delays. We walked up to the gate to find no one at all. What ungodly mistake had we made? Were we early? Were we late? Um, nope. Just another unanticipated stroke of good luck. We were smilingly waved directly on to the plane. We walked down the ramp, into the plane, greeted by yet another smiling airline employee (what's with the smiles? Are they pushing a new toothwhitener? I don't get it…) and walked directly to our seats. Two of us in a row of three seats. No third person! No intruder! Leg room! Arm room! Could this get any better?

Well, only by leaving on time and not having to sit on the tarmac waiting for a place in the take off line. Which is exactly what happened. No line. No wait. Just taxi, taxi, taxi, turn right and take off down the runway like a crazed teenager in his daddy's Porsche. Stomp on the GO Pedal! Let's see what this bucket o' bolts can do! Put the spurs to 'er, Chuck!

And into the wild, blue yonder we streaked as the engine roar ripped the sky to shreds behind us. Next stop Miami. Winter warmth. Gateway to the tropics, to our paradise, to our cruise, to who knows what…