Day 70 – At Sea; Africa Day

We were woken up at 8:15 for a muster drill. I don’t know why they didn’t warn us in advance. Or why they needed to do it so early in the morning. But that was all irrelevant, because I was now awake.

So I grabbed my iPod and made my way to my muster station. Very sadly, it was out of battery. This was the second time in the last few days that it was unexpectedly out of charge. Of course, it’s quite possible that I just left it on, but I fear that my beloved Nano has battery problems.

Anyhow, once the muster drill finished I had my staged reading. It went well. Then I locked myself in my room and worked on my journal. I was able to finish writing my reactions to Indian culture before lunch. The entire post was about 15 pages. I’m usually not such a long-winded writer, but I guess I’m just doing a bunch of cool shit and have a lot to say about it.

At lunch, there was a particularly delicious chicken dish, and I ate a lot of it. Belly full o’ chicken, I headed up to the top deck to hang out. I was planning on only spending fifteen minutes or so up there and then getting back to writing. My goal was to be up to Mauritius by the day’s end, which would mean editing the India post and writing about six days at sea. However, the sun was shining and pretty girls were in bikinis, and a group of them wanted me to play Taboo, one of my most favoritest games. So, obviously, I stayed up there far longer than I planned to.

I went straight from Taboo to spiritual dance, which was one of the best yet. The energy level was real high, as was my sweat level. But as we went into the cool-down section, I began scratching my head. And I couldn’t stop scratching. Then my face started feeling oddly uncomfortable. And my hands were itching. I went straight back to my room and looked into the mirror to see my face red and swollen. It was clear I was having some sort of allergic reaction. Which was inexplicable; I’m only allergic to peanuts and I’d eaten hours ago.

I took three Benadryl (one or two is recommended) and got a cold shower. But that did not stop the itching, so I called the doctor. They were befuddled, entirely clueless as to what set me off. Since I did not bring an Epipen, I was forced to buy one. For $84. And it expires this coming September. Thanks for ripping me off, SAS.

Anyway, after a while the Benadryl kicked in, and my face began to un-swell and the itching stopped. And of course, with the Benadryl kicking in to stop my allergies, it also began to stop my consciousness. It completely knocked me out.

I awoke in a daze shortly before dinner service ended, and headed up to fill my stomach. I felt too out of it to talk to anyone, so I sat by myself and watched the ocean. I was soon joined by my friend Amy, who is a real cute girl and a spiritual dance regular. She was kind enough to join me sitting by my lonesome, but I’m afraid I wasn’t great conversation. My head was still cloudy from the Benadryl.

So I went back to my room to work on my journal, but it was a slow process with a fuzzy head. I did edit half my India post, but reading through those 7 and a half pages took about an hour and a half.

At around 9:30 Tolan wanted to practice, so I went over to his room and we tested Epiphany to a small audience. They all really enjoyed it, which is always a nice confidence boost. The jokes lose their punch with so much practice, so it’s great to be reminded that the song is funny.

I closed out the night by watching In Treatment with Nick before bed. Goddamn that show’s addictive.