Strictly Boxing

We went to the mall today and saw “Cinderella Man,” and all left official members of the Paul Giamatti Fan Club. To get to the mall, we ride a bus designated for the ship's crew, and the bus makes two other stops at Wal-Mart and Cocoa Beach. Our bus company is currently engaged in a price-gauging war with another bus company that is trying to edge it out of bus. I'm not sure why we're loyal to this particular company and not to the other one, but they have given us bottled water for free and always tell interesting facts like how the alligators have to be driven away from Cape Canaveral whenever there is a shuttle launch. Our bus driver told us that he was probably going to be driven out of business next year and speculated that the other company would quadruple the fare. So I just wanted to let you know ruthless business practices even extend to ship crew shuttle buses.

Sue and I took the cha-cha lesson taught by the ballroom dance couple on the ship tonight. It was basically like the opening scenes of “Dirty Dancing,” and I'm pretty sure the couple was scouting which of their students they would invite back to their private underground cha-cha party later on tonight, or which of us could fill in for them in case of any unexpected medical emergency. The class was a diverse bunch: some elderly couples, one Asian couple who clearly had more than a little cha-cha experience and were frustrated by the class' beginner pace, and then younger couples with mismatched rhythms. There was also one man with a pencil-thin mustache who showed up late and chassed through the couples, causing a few near collisions. Sue and I were quick students and really only had problems mastering the spot turn, which we had down by the end of class. We have plans to go for the next few weeks, so that by the end of the cruise we can be entered in some intra-ship dance competitions.