Captain Cook’s Piano Lounge

Walking past a piano lounge, Bach Invention No. 13, with A minor melodies and harmonies chasing after each other, catches my attention.

I stop to marvel at that piece in which I was a young piano award winner a decade ago.

Beethoven’s Fur Elise follows, and so I grab a chair and sit down among the senior vacationers aboard the Norwegian Sky cruise.

Figuring that it was the right thing to do, I flipped through the drinks menu, scanning through the Bahama Mamas and Johnnie Walkers. I was by far the youngest lad in the room full of whitened hair, polo khaki fashion, and forceful breathing, so I put the menu down. Already feeling old enough being in a piano lounge while those within 30 years of my age were upstairs rocking out to “Sexy and I Know It” , I didn’t need that scotch on the rocks to enhance the experience.

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One of my favorite moments of my final spring break (among many in the Bahamian high seas). Life really slowed down during Chopin’s Turkish March and pensiveness really took over when Andrea Boccelli worked himself into a classical piano adaptation.

Perhaps it was me knowing that this would be the final hurrah of a spring break before my professional life begins, where my 70 days of vacation as a student atrophies into a meer 10 days per year. Or was it the self realization that 4 years of swagging around without any responsibility but to learn and grow at Berkeley was coming to a close?

I’m still not sure… but what is set in stone is that upon returning to the Bay, I’ve found a couple music lounges to re-create similar elderly adventures. That I’ll have a new life to attempt to “swag” myself through as a young professional. And that I’ll have 10 days a year to re-capture the magic of Captain Cook’s Piano Lounge aboard the Norwegian Sky cruise.

… may my blog life begin.