616. Wanda's Four "Tens"
Yet another (gasp) "personal traveler" about our last "DWTS at Sea" cruise

Yup, I thought long and hard about this one… do I really need yet another personal traveler? Do I really need to tell anyone this particular story, even if it really meant a lot to me? Would anyone in the "letterboxing world" even give a hoot? Isn't it a bit narcissistic to think that anyone at all would actually be happy for me or care anyway other than as just a chance to get another stamp? But, then I realized that that is precisely what most personal travelers are all about - people want others to know something about themselves, whether it be the names of their kids, their pets, their jobs, hobbies, favorite foods, music, TV shows or whatever, so it seems there's some sort of "narcissistic mirroring" going on in most personal travelers by their very nature anyway, or maybe they're just a way to share a stamp and a little life story!

Anyway, here's probably the "last bright shining light" of something that happened to me on our last of the "Dancing with the Stars"- themed Caribbean cruises in January of 2016. We had been on one of those Holland America cruises previously to the Canadian Maritimes in June of 2015, and I had gotten chosen to dance the samba with a pro in the finals, where I was thrilled to get one "9" and two "10"'s from the three judges (even though I almost slipped in my slick old red Capezios!) This time, however, I didn't think that I would have any chance to get picked for anything, since there were so many great dancers on the ship, including professional mirrorball winners like Kym Johnson and Tony Dovolani, who ended up being judges, along with celebrities like Carson Cressley and Florence Henderson. So, Pete and I just went out on the dance floor along with hundreds of others to have a good time and learn a little waltz routine, and - lo and behold - I got picked to dance on stage with a pro yet again! (Apparently, Kym was impressed by my "develope" , "porte de bras", "ronde de jambe", and such, because, with my fractured spine from that near fatal car accident years ago, I certainly couldn't shine in a "round the world" back bend!) With the quality of the four people chosen this time from each of the four dances taught, I didn't think I could possibly get a very high score, so imagine my elation when each of the four judges gave me a "!0", and said such nice things about my dancing! So, naturally I had to save one of the "10" paddles we were given at one of the costume shows (and gave another signed by Kym Johnson to our friend Hope with whom we watch DWTS whenever we are back home in RI), and decided to add a little "10" stamp paddle to its handle to share with any letterboxers who might have taken the time to read this story and might care to stamp it!

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