Friday, January 14, 2011

When you can't ignore the signs . . .

The week of Christmas was an unbelievably busy week for me - I had a trial, had to finish my Christmas shopping, had to shop and pack for the cruise, and had to get all my presents wrapped. I really felt like I was operating on adrenaline alone and I was WORN OUT. So when we got on the cruise ship on Christmas Day, I was so excited that all the running around and taking care of business was officially behind me and that I was finally going to have a chance to relax. I wasn't going to be able to make or receive phone calls and I wasn't going to have access to the internet so I had no responsibilities, no work to do - nothing. I was going to have NO choice but to just enjoy my vacation. In theory, it was the perfect escape - all I had to do was breathe in the ocean air and relax.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand then I saw this sign:


You know, I'm not sure if they knew what "incovenience" they were apologizing to me for at that point. I mean, here I was ready to relax and throw away my cares for the next five days and then BAM! my inner editor gets called to duty. For a moment, I thought about going up to the top deck and just giving myself up to the strong winds. But I soon realized that was an irrational response to a minor spelling error. I just needed to take a deep breath and give the cruise people a break. I mean, surely, that was just anomaly - an unfortunate oversight that I could forgive. I'm sure there would be no others . . .

Then I saw a pretty cool gingerbread replica of the terminal in Galveston that had been built and was on display on the main deck:


And then I made the mistake of looking a little closer:


I cussed silently and shook my fists to the sky. But then I reminded myself that most of the crew members on our ship are from different countries so maybe the problem is that the people who are having to write these signs are not writing in their native languages. That's when I decided to cut them a little slack. I mean, it's not like these signs are coming from Carnival's corporate office or anything. Because I'm sure THOSE would be correctly spelled.

So you can understand my disappointment when we got off the boat in Mexico and I saw:

Curse you, Carnival Cruises Lines. Curse you.

But how could I be upset for long? I mean, I was finally in Mexico! It was time for me to speak some Spanish and find a Mexican man to bring home in my backpack to make Gustavo jealous so that he would finally break down and declare is love for me. You know - the normal stuff you do in Mexico. So I told my little inner editor to give it a rest and go to sleep for a while. I assured her that we were in Mexico and that most of the signs would be in Spanish anyway so she didn't have to worry about any gross abuse of the English language. Once I had convinced her sufficiently, I boarded our bus to Progreso, Mexico. I looked around, excited for our first adventure.

Aaaaaaaaaand then I saw this:

Why, God? Why?

I just closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing for a few minutes and then I was over it. I told myself that no one asked me to be the designated proof-reader so stop it. And somehow that worked. I let it go and enjoyed seeing and exploring the market in Progreso, some Mayan ruins, and Merida, the capital city of the Yucatan. And then the next day, I hung out on the beach in Cozumel, shopped the little shops, and never once thought about any signs posted around me. It was so liberating. And I was so sad when we had to wrap up our time in Cozumel and head back to the ship. Luckily, there was a HUGE line that we had to wait in to get back onto the pier so it helped up postpone our departure from this wonderful world of Gustavos. I stood in the line, creeping along an inch at a time toward the pier, listening to the little band that was playing Cielito Lindo for us as we all headed back toward the ship. They really had a great sound and I kept thinking how it was the perfect way to end our time in Mexico. And as we moved forward in the line, we got closer and closer to the little band until we were right next to them.

And their sign:


Son of a . . .

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That last "son of a" line cracked me up!!

Phyllis Eddings said...

It's almost as if they whole world has developed a phobia of having an "s" at the end of the word touch the rest of the word.

I would be a lot more understanding if people were chronically leaving out apostrophes, however the effort it takes to add one, inappropriately, baffles me.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like we are headed on the same cruise you guys were on a few weeks ago... I'll let you know if any of those signs have changed...heh heh heh. So has Gustavo declared "IS" love for you yet? Or were just trying to add an accent in your sentence? ;)

Catherine said...

Oh my gosh - that's hilarious . . . it DOES sound like an accent! I'm just gonna say that I did that on purpose! :)

Jenny said...

These pictures cracked me up, as did your hilarious reactions!