Hurricanes

I just experienced the one of the most incredible lightening storms of my life.

We were on Castaway Cay today and, to the cruisers' dismay, the morning was consumed by one big rain fall. That sounds weird, a rain fall, but I can't really say shower because it lasted three hours and I can't call it a storm either since there was no wind or lightening or thunder or anything really. Just big fat rain drops that just kept coming and coming. Finally it cleared up and the people were able to enjoy their bike rides and snorkel swims, and sting ray feedings and pina coladas. I was lucky enough to get an hour break in the middle of the day and took one of those glorious naps that felt like it went on forever when it was actually only 30 minutes long. After another bunch of hours of running around and losing my voice (again) I finally go off at 2130 (early). During my now traditional stroll on the walking deck on my way down to my room, I caught a few glimpses of lightening. I went down to my room to change into my workout clothes and headed to the bow of the ship toward the gym. The gym is located right next to Deck 5 forward which is the deck especially reserved for crew members. I took two steps into the gym, said "screw this" and turned right back around. I had to see what the outside looked like and deck 5 is perfect for that. Since it's right below the bridge, no kind of light is allowed out there after dark. Ok, think of Titanic, the part where Leo becomes the king of the world. Remember that place? Where he later asks Kate if she trusts him and they hold hands? That's Deck 5 Forward. "I trust you, Jack!". Haha. Anywho. At first it was all dark, but oh my goodness, as soon as I sat down and actually looked out over the ocean, the light show began. It was incredible. There wasn't any rain because we were still a ways away from the actual storm. The sky was pitch black but every time it lit up you could see the silhuettes of massive clouds all across the horizon. Those clouds that look like whipped cream on top of an ice cream sundae. Huge and imposing. They looked like they were moving but you know that they're far too large and far away for that to be true. Still, the feeling that I got was of this huge monster that was getting closer and closer. Light left and right and EVERYWHERE. Then it would go black again. The creepy thing was that there was no wind and no rain and no thunder, yet it seemed eerily close. After sitting there a while, the light started becoming brighter and brighter. There were a few lightenings (lightenings? what do you call a single flash of light in the sky? hmm) that went all across the sky. I was looking up and literally turned my head from the left to the right to follow the flash of electricity all the way to it's end. It even lingered for a second before slowly fizzing out. If anyone has ever heard Vivaldi's Four Seasons, this is where Summer-Allegro started playing in my brain then slowly escalated to the Adagio and finally to the Tempo. If you haven't heard it, download it and listen, you'll know exactly what this storm looked like. After about an hour, the wind started picking up considerably, it started raining and I started freezing, so I came inside. I had been sitting by myself watching the spectacle and enjoyed the feeling of being alone in my brain. At the same time though, I wish I could've shared it with the people close to me. That seems to happen a lot to me whenever I'm traveling alone. I really like the silence, but at the same time wish that I could look over and say "wow, did you see that?" whenever is was a particularly beautiful "lightening". But I guess that's why I decided to skip the workout, come straight back to my room and finally type out a blog entry. I'm usually so wiped out that I only barely have enough energy to write out one email and that usually goes to Woods :)

I'd like you all to know that I miss you and hope you're all doing well.
I'll write more soon and catch you up on more of the day to day stuff.
Laters.