Janie's Big Rip

Dining on a cruise ship is one of the main events, so I guess it’s not surprising that there were lots of options on how and when you wanted to eat. With traditional dining, you dress up and eat at the same time and with the same people each night. We selected the “anytime dining” option when we booked the cruise. This means you still have to dress up (mostly), but you select what restaurant you want to eat at each night, and go when you want. Usually you’re seated with other “anytime” diners who just happened to arrive at the same time you did. That was the case for our first dinner on the ship.
We looked good. I couldn’t even remember the last time I wore a suit coat and tie to dinner, but it still fit. We were seated with three other couples, introduced ourselves and ordered drinks. Conversation was easy and we were both enjoying ourselves. Just like it was supposed to be. Then Janie had to sneeze. Of course, she knows the current best way to sneeze: you sneeze into your arm so you don’t contaminate your hands or your immediate surroundings. Works even better if you wearing long sleeves, but Janie wasn’t that lucky. So she sneezed into her bare arm and ripped off a classic arm fart. It was sweet. No twelve year old could’ve done it better. It was also a great conversation stopper. I think we were all in awe, but after a brief silent tribute to a great performance, we just picked it up as if nothing had happened. Probably another advantage to not dining with the same people each night.