Key Issues

Although during my trip with Melissa I saw amazing sights every day, I was constantly challenged with "things" happening to me.

I am generally a glass half full kind of girl, but during this trip, some days I saw the glass as half empty.

Much like Murphy's Law says, "If something can go wrong, it will."

And sometimes like Murphy's law states, "If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway."

And then there are the times in life that when, "Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse."

So begins my story.

The first thing that you receive upon signing in to board the cruise ship is a key. Like this one.



You have to keep this key with you at all times. It is your life line on the ship so to speak.

You need this key to check you out as you leave the ship, and you also need it to check yourself back in as you board the ship.

Then if you want to purchase anything on the ship such as a Diet Coke or say four prescriptions in the infirmary, plus the cost of your doctor's office visit (but that is for another post), then the ship would use this card to charge the purchases to your account.

And last, but most importantly, it is the key to your cabin.

So, Melissa told me to be sure that I don't lose this key, because I would need it all of the time.

Well, as it turns out, losing my key was never the problem for me.

Apparently the only problem with me and my key was simply me. And my skin.

Let me explain.

We both received our first keys, and both of our keys worked perfectly for the first day.

Then on day two, I was very surprised to find out that my key would not work to let me open our cabin door.

So, I had to go to the purser's desk to ask for a new one. They then informed me that I had more than likely deactivated my key because I kept it too close to my camera. That seemed reasonable, so I made sure to keep it no where near my camera.
And since Melissa kept her key in her camera bag, I volunteered to hold her key for her as well.

Interestingly enough, the next day, neither of our keys worked. So, once again, I found myself in line at the purser's desk, along with Melissa.

Here we are. We had just left the pool to go shower and change.



Only to find out that neither of our keys worked.



So, they issued us new keys. Melissa went straight to the room to shower and change, but I had to go down to the infirmary first for my kidney infection issues (but again, that is for another post).

I returned from the infirmary, only to discover that my key did not work again. Melissa's, however, worked just fine.

Sigh.

So, I showered and changed and went down for the third time to the purser's desk to get another key. They looked at me rather strangely. They asked me if I was keeping it near my camera. I said no. They asked me if it was in my purse with my cell phone. I said no. (I didn't have a purse or a cell phone, but that is also for another post.)

I politely informed them that I had only been to the infirmary and straight to my cabin. The key had been in my hand the entire time.

So they gave me the third key.

The next day I was back at the purser's desk for my fourth key.

The day after that, as I was crying at the purser's desk for the fifth time, I asked the sweet lady who was on duty that morning, "Am I deactivating my room key? Is it my skin that is messing it up?"

She looked at me very sweetly and said in her gentlest voice, "It's very rare, but it does happen."

Sigh.

So, she went to a drawer behind her desk, and pulled out this envelope.



She took my fifth new room key and slid it into the envelope.



Then she gently said trying not to humiliate me any further, "Let's try this. Carry it in the envelope so that you don't have to touch it as much, and maybe it will continue working for you."

Sigh.

Bless her sweet heart. It sounded good in theory. And it did work. For two more days. But I looked at Melissa and said in my best Scarlet O'Hara voice , "As God and you as my witnesses, I am not going to the purser's desk for a sixth key!"

As Murphy's Law states, "Smile... tomorrow will be worse."

Sigh.

Bad Hair Tag (And An Award!)

Dianne, my peep at the Deez Dayz blog, has tagged me for a new meme.
It's called the "Bad Hair Tag."

Dianne's post made Shannon and me laugh out loud. You have got to take a peek at this post for yourself. Dianne is hysterical! Click here to see Dianne's series of hair "mishaps."

Here are Dianne's rules for the "Bad Hair Tag."

Basically, you select 5 photos of yourself in which you think you have bad hair. You know, the ones that you look back at and wonder, "WHAT WAS I THINKING!" Yeah, those ones; come one now, I know you all have them.

Well, I have definitely had my share of "bad hair," so I am totally prepared to humiliate myself in front of tens of people on the World Wide Web. The hardest part of doing this tag for me was narrowing the choices down to just five. The 80s were very cruel to me and my hair.

I hope that those of you who read this blog will still want to come back occasionally once you have seen all of these ridiculous pictures of my tragic teenage years.

And I feel like I should just say in advance, Melissa had nothing to do with any of these unfortunate decisions that I made regarding my hair. She is a complete professional who would never send me out in public with such ridiculous pitiful hair dos.

Okay, here goes...I hope that you are all ready, and I would just like to apologize in advance.

1. The mullet. I feel certain that once I made my public debut with this hair do, the mullet craze ended. If I remember correctly the only other person that continued to sport this look after me was Billy Ray Cyrus. But in his defense, he probably never had the opportunity to see me out in public.



(Please just ignore the Colonel Sanders style bow ties that my mom and I are both sporting. We were not only hair victims of the 80s, we were also fashion victims. The 80s were just cruel.)

2. Height and wings. This next picture was taken when I had just learned to tease my hair to abnormal heights, and somehow I still managed to feather it at the same time. And remarkably, it only took one full can of Aqua Net hairspray to hold this ridiculous look in place.



(When this school picture was made, I was so excited to be wearing my Add-a-Bead necklace. Unfortunately though, due to the height of my hair, the photographer had to lower the stool I was sitting on to fit me and my hair into the picture. So, you can only see a small piece of one of my beads on the necklace.) Sigh.

3. Bangs (and nails). This next look is when I first discovered "bangs." Also at this time in my life, I had discovered that I could grow my fingernails to disgusting great lengths.



(It's hard to know what to look at in that picture, isn't it? You are probably having trouble deciding whether or not to stare at my bangs, my hideously long fingernails, or the gold rings on every single finger.)

4. Sun In (the aftermath). Like a million other girls in the late 80s, I was so proud to have discovered the hair lightening product called "Sun In." Unfortunately, what I didn't know at the beginning of my love affair with this product, was that it continues to lighten your hair every single time heat is applied to it. That being said, my senior year was spent in this "two toned" phase. I had to let the "Sun In" grow out....Very gradually.



(All of my senior year was spent sporting these "dark bangs" while the rest of my hair continued to get lighter and lighter and lighter.)

I would love to tell you that once I graduated from high school that my "hair dos" improved, but that would simply not be true.

Once in college, I had one career ambition and only one. I wanted to have hair like Tawny Kitaen in all of the Whitesnake videos. (Don't laugh; I'm baring my soul to you right now.)



I was obsessed. I was a girl on a mission. I desperately wanted to be able to flip my gorgeous long locks all over the place. (I, of course, knew I would never be able to do a cartwheel across two Jaguars, but I could definitely flip my hair with the best of them.) So the last hair do I have to show you is my attempt at having Tawny Kitaen style hair.

5. The Tawny Kitaen wannabe Hair Do. This last picture was obviously taken at a time in my life that was spent in deep denial. I was in a phase of growing out my perm (another unfortunate look for me) and getting my bangs to unbelievable heights.



(Obviously this hair was also during a time in my life when I had yet to discover the miracle of conditioner.)

Needless to say, I never achieved my career goals of obtaining Tawny Kitaen style hair. Also, needless to say, eye glasses were in my very near future, because no one with any kind of clear vision would have ever left the house looking like that.

Pitiful.

Okay, people now it's your turn. If you have bad hair in your past (and just so you know, you probably did), I am tagging you now.

All you have to do is find five bad hair photos and be willing to humiliate yourself by letting tens of people see them on the World Wide Web.

So, if you're willing, play along, and let me know if you do this tag, because I want to share with you in your time of public humiliation.;)

Just one more thing before you go, I received an award from Michele at the fabulous My Blessings From Above blog. Here it is in all of its glory!



Sigh.

Michele, I cannot thank you enough; after humiliating myself in front of tens of people on the internet, this award was just what I needed. :)

I can let you people in on a little secret about Michele too, she is going to be my special guest on an upcoming episode of "Inside The Actor's Blogger's Studio." But remember, you didn't hear that from me.;)

If you haven't been there already, Michele's blog is awesome. Michele is the mother of two beautiful little boys. She always shares some of the most creative homeschool, cooking, and gift giving ideas, and she has the ability to save money and stretch dollars, like no one I have ever seen before. She's a very special lady, so stop by and show her some bloggy love!

The rules for the "I Love Your Blog" award are:
1. Link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Include the award on your blog.
3. Pass it on to 7 worthy bloggers with links to their blogs on yours.
4. Notify your recipients.

I don't know how to even begin picking "just" seven, because I LOVE all of the blogs I read. So, at risk of bending the rules a lot a little bit, I want to pass this award on to all of my bloggy buddies. So, if I am a regular reader of your blog, please accept this award from me.

And one more thing, let's just keep this "Bad Hair Tag" between us, Mmmmkay? Thanks!;)