Shelby's Life and Whatnot

And First, a Funny Story

Phew! I am exhausted. What a vacation these last 11 days have been. It started with a Saturday-Sunday-Monday visit to Amsterdam, then cruising around Holland visiting several local ports each day on our river cruise ship, landing back in Amsterdam on Sunday, where we took the train back to Hamburg with my parents in tow. Monday was in Hamburg, Tuesday was a whirlwind trip to Berlin, and yesterday was Hamburg again though I was so tired I missed the day's activities. My parents left at some ungodly hour this morning and our vacation has officially ended.

There's lots to write about, of course, and I'll be working on it over the next few days. In the meantime, Kevin has some reviews over at his blog. I'd point you to the specific entries but his blog has a strange glitch that causes individual entries to appear blank (the same thing happens with the comments). A workaround for the problem is to hold down the mouse button and highlight the blank area, and the text will appear. Or you can just access the entries from his main page (link above).

But first, a funny story. On the last night of our cruise, a very strange thing happened to me. The boat had three levels of cabins and ours, 218, was on the middle floor. That night I had been particularly tired and fell asleep like a rock pretty early. Then sometime in the middle of the night I woke up and found myself in the hallway. In my pajamas. Carrying a ball point pen. Sleepwalking. Very confused and disoriented, I had the presence of mind to remember my room number, so I walked up and down the hallway looking for it. I walked the length of the hallway twice before I realized I was on the wrong floor. And that I was barefoot. Holding a pen. I walked up the stairs and found my room, which was the first room past the stairs. I briefly considered trying my pen in the lock to see if it worked like a key, but quickly discarded that idea. I knocked on the door a few times but Kevin was totally out and the way the cabins were designed the door was very muffled. I knew I wouldn't be able to wake him up. I had no choice but to go to the front desk. Sheepish and embarrassed, I approached the night clerk and said, "I believe I've locked myself out of my room." He didn't bat an eye--totally professional--as if seeing people in their pajamas, barefoot with bed head, holding a pen, were something he encountered every night. He let me back into the room, much to my relief. As I walked in Kevin sat up and said "Where did you go?" All I could say was "I don't know!"

Thank God I was wearing sensible pajamas!