Don't Miss the Boat

So I stroll over to the karaoke bar, just to watch.

Under normal circumstances I'd be happy to just go to my room and read. I've brought four books and am looking forward to each of them. But something was said at dinner tonight that made me feel I should reach beyond my mundane old-fogy desires.

I had sat down at the table figuring I'd connect with someone, as I usually do when traveling alone. The middle-aged woman treating her parents to a 50th-wedding-anniversary trip didn't seem a likely prospect for companionship. I liked the woman from Argentina traveling alone, but her speaking no English and my limited Spanish were problematic.

The only part of my Spanish that isn't rusty is the part I've recently reviewed while helping my ninth-grade daughter study for tests. If the subject of school supplies or objects in a classroom happen to come up, I'm ready to chat. Otherwise, once the Argentine and I exchanged information about our children, our origins and our jobs -- she's been working as a maid in a Miami hotel for five years -- we were pretty much done.

That left at my table three Houston women traveling together to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of them, Kathy. Soon after the appetizers arrived, Kathy's friend Di said, "I'll party with anyone who's fun" -- and she didn't look my way.

It was then I realized I probably don't seem like a fun person at all. Kathy pretty much clinched my impression an hour later, during dessert, when she said a bit resentfully, "We never meet anyone interesting on these cruises."

So tonight, even though I'm alone and no one's watching, I'm determined to prove I can be fun, and fun in the way outlined in the ship's events calendar. In fact, now that I'm at the karaoke bar, I'm going to sign up to perform.

For that, I'll need probably two margaritas. But since I don't drink often, it turns out one is enough. When my name is called, I walk right up and belt out the Beatles' "When I'm 64." Not a great song choice, as Paula Abdul would say, but it's the only one among thousands that I'm sure about how the tune goes.

People actually clap. One woman stands to cheer and yells that I was terrific, which makes me feel great until I realize she's really drunk.

But no matter; I think I've showed enough capacity for fun that I've earned the right to rush to my room to catch Larry King's interview with former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey on CNN.

A Cutthroat Market

Key West's old town, despite being overrun with tourists, remains a charming place that has kept the same small-town ambience and beauty that brought Ernest Hemingway here in 1928 for some of his most productive years.

I'd thought about signing up for a cruise excursion, but I like the idea of being on my own after so much togetherness on board; plus, strolling is free. Actually, I do let go of a few musty dollars seeing Hemingway's house and the typewriter where he worked on, among other things, "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "To Have and Have Not" and short stories such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro."