Teenagers

A few random notes on delightful passengers:

A group of 3 almost identical 3 year old girls—clearly from fertility treatments. But to deny that idea or something, the mom had them all dressed identically and with identical haircuts. The best was overhearing them have this conversation, standing in a circle, all facing each other while waiting for the elevators:
“Sometimes my stomach hurts.”
“Me too! Sometimes MY tummy hurts!”
“My tummy hurts!!!”

Apparently these triplettes are a huge pain and have no discipline at all according to the youth counselors. Their parents have been in the casino, very intoxicated, for the main part of the cruise. The magician said he was in the internet lab and the three of them came in—one walked up to him and said “you’re the magician!” and poked him on the nose.

Also, there is a large contingent of teenagers on the ship, which must be paradise for them on several thousand levels (unlimited soda, unlimited food, apparently sex? in the disco? apparently? if they get away with it? which is very upsetting for the counselors). It is classic people watching, to see them in groups pretending they don’t care that every breathing human is staring at them. Here are 3 group highlights:

1. a group of about 10, out at night, sauntering around in aggressively trendy clothes with flat ironed hair (the dudes). My favorite was the boombox on the shoulder, which is now: a very lightweight neoprene ipod travel speaker box with an ipod plugged in. So that he is holding it open, but not changing his posture at all for the weight. I mean it is on his shoulder for no reason. He could hold it in his palm, outstretched, and have no problem. It’s like 3 ounces.

2. A very nervous boy, probably like 14 or something, that came in to hear jazz in the atrium. This is Kenny G type jazz. He was probably like 6’3” and all gawky bone with long emo hair, complete with a Muse tshirt. He was there for about 20 minutes by himself with his arms folded across his bird chest. Then a girl came in, with very carefully chosen “I Don’t CARE! I am ALTERNATIVE! None of this really MATCHES!” clothes and makeup that I know took like 30 minutes at least. They watched the Kenny G type jazz for about a half an hour and then walked around together, clearly terrified.

3. A girl with tiny shorts on that exposed the area under her bellybutton and 3 hilariously gawky boys who clearly were losing their minds around her. She would walk somewhere and they would all talk to her and only to her, and sometimes stop to punch each other. She’s meander and they’d be like “HAHAHA! HEY look at THIS! HAHAHA!”

I also met the girl later who was on the emo date. She was sitting on a bench in a hallway, right by the pool, with a foot outstretched. She was sitting close to her friend who looked paralyzed and terrified that I stopped to talk to them. Like she froze in an open mouth braces-having frown and just stared. The emo girl said this: “Hi you’re Second City, you guys were amazing, really really amazing.” I said she should come to the other shows and she said “yeah, well, I probably can’t because I broke my foot. I’m probably going to die. Please tell my parents that I’m going to die and that you were amazing." They are transparent and hilarious.