The Ambassador's Ball . . .

The Ambassador’s Ball was lovely. It went off without a hitch. It couldn’t have been better. Decorations went very smoothly and turned out really nice. The dining staff went all out and turned the dining hall into an unrecognizably beautiful dining room. The tables were covered in white linens with real cloth napkins, and we had real place settings and three separate glasses a piece (water glass, wine glass, champagne flute). They even made individual scrolls with the menu. All we did was add some silk and shell centerpieces to each table. But, honestly, it wouldn’t have even needed it. We decorated the union with hanging stars, Christmas lights, and hand painted signs with the lyrics to the song “Beyond the Sea”, which was our theme.

I ended up wearing both my dresses. I wore the blue/gold one that I had made in Vietnam for dinner and the beginning of the dance. Noel had helped me add an extra seam to the back so that it fit me better. Once I started dancing, the seam started coming undone, so I went down and put on my pink dress. I wore my hair in curlers all day, so all I had to do was pull it out of the rollers and pin it up. Not my best work, but it came out fairly nice and it was simple. I felt silly about running around the ship all afternoon in leopard print and hot pink rollers, but it was kind of funny and people seemed to get a kick out of it. It all worked out fine.

There were two dinner seatings. I was at the 8 p.m., so we had our media presentation from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. The hour long presentation consisted of a forty minute slideshow sampling of Chris, the photographer’s, pictures and a twenty minute preview of Sony, the videographer’s, video. They were both marvelous, touching, and entirely appropriate for the evening. I showed up here and there in the video and slideshow.

After the presentation, people just milled around and took pictures and tried to socialize in the piano lounge, where we had someone playing the piano in the background. I ended up involved in several pictures with Captain Jeremy.

Dinner was marvelous. Our table consisted of me, Noel, Patti, Lauren, Krystal, Kristen, Tiffany, and Keith (a random eighth person who we had added to our table when we realized we needed one more person and no one person was still looking for a table – anyways, he was good company and we considered him our date – hence, the silly picture above). The menu consisted of: rolls, shrimp cocktail (which I distributed among the table), French onion soup (the best ever), Caesar salad, and either chicken, steak, or lasagna. I had the steak. They actually came around and asked how we wanted it cooked, which was a nice touch. It was a nice steak. We also had two glasses of wine each and a really good glass of champagne (for the toast).

After dinner, we had a little in-between party in my room. That was kind of fun for me because the party has never been in my room. There have definitely never been seven of us in there at once.

The dance was a lot of fun. The music was good. Of course the age old problem of dancing in a rocking union, in stilettos, after a few drinks came into play. But, it was a really amazing time. There was a dessert buffet during the dance. I heard it was really really good, but I didn’t want to wait in line, so I never even saw it. I was kicking myself at 1 a.m. when I was craving a chocolate chip cookie.

When the dance ended, there was a little after party in Kristen’s room. I stayed for a little bit but then took myself off to bed. It wasn’t a crazy crazy party like the last night in port or the last pub night, but it was nice and a lot of fun. I slept from maybe 2 a.m. until 5 a.m. And, then I woke up and couldn’t fall asleep. I came up to the surface to check my e-mail. I didn’t have any good new ones yet. It’s Monday morning at home, so I should be seeing some soon. I’m feeling anxious now. I’m feeling the pressure of the impending end of the voyage. There is a lot still to be done and even more to do when I get home, and I’m really starting to feel sad that I will be leaving everything and everyone that I’ve grown so close to behind in just 9 short days (I am reminded by the sign on my left in Purser’s Square that started at 100 days). It’s all coming to an end . . . Well, I’m going to do something to kill some anxiety – maybe work out, then try to get off to bed for a couple more hours.

P.S. I tried uploading a pic just of me three times, but it won't do it. So, I'll try later so you can see my dress.