Last night after we published our Blog we listened to the Press Conference with John and Elizabeth Edwards. We were so very sorry to learn of the reoccurrence of Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer and our hearts and prayers go out to both of them and to their family. We were impressed with the strength and courage that each of them exhibited in not only talking about this issue but in how they plan to deal with it.
We awoke earlier today as Keith continues to feel better each day. The medication he is taking is helping quite a bit along with the extra rest he’s been getting and he should be back to normal in another couple of days. We enjoyed another nice breakfast in the Lido Café. The Café was not as crowded as it has been since this cruise segment first began. We then worked out in the Fitness Center. The Fitness Center has been more crowded than the previous few segments. We attribute this to a somewhat different mix of passenger’s on this segment with an overall average age that seems to be younger than the other segments. Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill for an hour and Keith was able to do likewise on the elliptical machine. He just went at a slightly slower pace than his normal workout.
We attended a fascinating lecture this morning, which was given by book dramatist Barbara Rinella who presented Meet Delightful Dolley Madison. Rather than just giving a review of the book, Ms. Rinella portrayed Dolley Madison and provided a wealth of knowledge about her life from the time she was born until she died at the age of 85. For 26 years Ms. Rinella has been presenting one-woman shows dramatizing current literature. We look forward to her other book dramatizations that she plans to present during the course of this segment of the cruise. Overall, the amount of information that she was able to present about Dolley Madison in her dramatization was incredible. We would think that these types of dramatizations would be a great method to use in order to teach school age children about the history of the United States Presidency or other types of American or World History. As part of her dramatization she not only covered Dolley Madison but also James Madison along with other key figures of the day including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and George Washington.
Since today was a sea day we had team trivia for the second time this segment. While we did not finish in first place as we had done yesterday, we did finish in a respectful tie for third place. After team trivia we had lunch in the main dining room with several members from our trivia team.
In the afternoon we went to a lecture given by Sleep Scholar Dr. Jim Maas whose topic was titled “Everything You Should Know About Sleep but Are Too Tired to Ask.” Dr Maas is a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, Professor and past Chairman of Psychology, and a member of the graduate fields of Education and Communication at Cornell University. He has taught a Cornell University for over forty years. He has appeared frequently on national television shows such as the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CNN, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, along with several other television shows including Oprah. Today’s lecture focused on the importance of sleep. According to Dr. Maas the ideal amount of sleep for adults is eight hours at night and that statistics show that 75% of people have sleep problems. Further, he presented statistics that show that sleep is key to determining longevity as when one sleeps the brain regulates the immune, hormonal and endocrine functions, which are essential for ones general health. Today’s lecture set the stage for his follow-up lectures which will include recommendations on how to get an optimal amount of sleep each evening. His lecture was very interesting and we look forward to his next lecture.
Before dinner, we enjoyed another play presented as part of Repertory Theatre at Sea. This evening’s play was Blind Date by Horton Foot. The play is about, Delores, the matriarch of the house. Dolores manages to juggle her husband, her children and her larger than life personality all while attempting to set up her teenage niece with a nice young man, Felix Robertson. Southern hospitality is pushed to the test in this heart-warming comedy. Once again, we thoroughly enjoyed this play performed by four wonderful actors from Repertory Theatre At Sea. We’ve included a picture that we had taken this evening with two of the four actors. When not performing on stage, these wonderful actors and actresses have participated in a variety of venues from the cruise games held a couple of segments ago to the renaissance fair to a countless number of other activities. They are wonderful on and off the stage and we are very fortunate to have them on the ship with us for the entire World Cruise.
After the play, it was time for dinner, which we ate, in the main dining room. We had a wonderful dinner as we do each evening. As they do from time to time, the nice quarter of musicians came around to each table in our section of the dining room to play requested songs. We always enjoy their music.
Keith & Anne Marie
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