Post Office, Halloween, Captain Beware

We went to St. Thomas, which is a US Virgin Island. I took the time to mail home some books and stuff to lighten the load, so I went into the post office, where 2 of the friendliest postal workers are working. A guy came in and asked about international shipping, they calmly explained that it is basically America in the US Virgin Islands, he then proudly explained that he worked for the postal service for 30 years. Then he left and the woman behind him made fun of him for not knowing a postal fact. This woman then bought one stamp for her postcard. She peeled the back off of the stamp, licked the stamp and made a face. The postal worker said “those are peel-off.” The woman indignantly said “I know” and put it on the postcard and left. This made my week.

We rode the elevator after lounging on the beach. A guy I have seen twice on the ship got in with us. I would describe him as a longshoreman from 1915 who has killed 3 people last month and drinks gasoline 3 times a day and can lift a safe. He had very white little hair on his head, was so tan he looked like stained wood, and was covered in body hair that was all white and wirey. He was covered in very faded blue tattoos. He had a very large booze-nez and was probably about 5’4”. A guy who looked just like him, only with less tattoos and a booze-nez that pointed out more than down, got on the elevator and rode with us for like 3 floors. They didn’t look at each other, even though they looked like brothers. We were talking for a little bit amongst ourselves about “wasn’t that beach beautiful.” He said with a very thick Brooklyn accent “yous are crew.” We said yes, then he said “yeah, I thought so. They don’t pay you very much,” and we said “ah—uh, haha.” He said “they should pay you more. They’re makin’ money over here. You want me to talk to the captain.” We said “haha,” even though he was not smiling. He said “I’ll talk to the captain. I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.” So if the captain is dead soon, I will know why.

We had a costume party last night with the dancers. We all got incredibly into it and hung out in the singers’ rooms and the hallway in front of their room. This is how those parties go, I guess, you stand around under fluorescent lights and on singer yells to the other singer “NO SINGING!!!” I had the amazing experience of witnessing someone entering a party and saying “yeah, we weren’t invited” and then continue to hang around the party. Then the host of the party said “get out!” and said person went away and came back. Fascinating. Out of the costumes, there were a lot of things that were “slutty” and a bunch of guys dressed as girls. I think there were 5 pairs of thigh highs. I bought individual pieces which accidentally came together to look like the wife of the magician on board, down to her black-tip fingernails. But in a very unflattering “insane woman, no really, no call the police, no I think she took my wallet” way. Also, I got the Scarecrow brand cartoon teeth, which makes you look like a horse, which is fun, but definitely not slutty. We left after parading through the crewbar for some reason (I think so the crew could lose their minds about the slutty looking people) I met a junior bartender from Grenada by the elevators who was confused and disgusted and described the situation as “I’m already in hell” because there was one guy dressed in a Speedo as Michael Phelps, an insane woman with horse teeth, a guy with a puzzle on his face, and a Julie your Cruise Director, from the Loveboat. Then he said we had too look out for ourselves because “no one cares about you here—no one” so I wonder what month he is on his contract.