Our first traditional cruise dinner

Last night I went through and made us reservations in the sit down dining rooms for all of our nights on the ship. Some nights we got a private table and some nights we will share a table. Tonight was scheduled as a private table. I practiced putting a bit of make-up on Carol tonight – mascara, eye-brow pencil and lip stick to get ready for Thursday. It was pretty minimal but it seemed like a lot to her. She told me that she spent one year putting Mary Kay makeup on every day. It took her about 30 minutes and after the year, she decided it didn’t make her look better so she stopped. I thought the little bit I did made a nice difference. My self-esteem about my appearance was damaged by my older brother and she said her older sister Betty did the damage to her confidence in her appearance. She did not want to wear the sweater with this top because the top was longer in front than the sweater. This is so not a big deal now but was a real no no when she grew up. It was too cool to go without the sweater so she wore it.

She admits she is rather stuck in her ways and likes things certain ways but she is not fighting me on my suggestions too much and I think she does sort of like some of the changes I am suggesting. When we get home she can do whatever she wants, but until then she is going to continue to stretch herself a bit each day.

The reason that she does not want to wear her hair back is because she can see the the clear loop other hearing aide when she looks in the mirror. I cannot see it when I look at her face to face. But she knows it is there and it makes her feel old to see them.

When we arrived at the dining room about 15 minutes early, the couple ahead of us was in some distress because they had changed their reservation to be seated with others to a private table earlier in the day because today was their anniversary. The hostess was struggling to accommodate them so I suggested we switch reservations so the couple could have our private table. They had to wait 15 minutes and we got to eat earlier with a couple from Bend OR who have done a total of 18 cruises. This was their 3rd to Hawaii. The people at the table were a mother and daughter. They had lived in Alaska for a while. Now the mother was in Knoxville, TN and the daughter in Atlanta.

Carol tried lamb for the first time. The salmon was probably very good. I could not taste the shrimp bisque at all nor did I get any flavor from the cheesecake for dessert.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another gray, cold day, but the sun is supposed to come out midday Thursday – Carol’s birthday.