Sun, August 9th

What a weird day!! I got up at about 10 this morning, and showered up in time for lunch. As I almost finished, Colleen came in, and sat with me and we ate. Last night, I did my whole “You jerk” spiel (which is when someone does something slightly un-nice, I say that, jokingly of course... but she isn’t used to that part of my personality yet.) She was like “You’re mean!” So, I told her I would buy her skittles if she’d forgive me (which is her favorite candy.) So when she was sitting with me, I asked if the town was large at all. She said it’s pretty small and not much to do, though some nice resturaunts. I asked if there were any convience stores where I could possibly get skittles. She went on about how I didn’t have to get her any, but I insisted.
After lunch, I walked her to work (which just so happened to be where the gangway entrance is) and I went out into the town. The town Skagway was about 1/4th a mile away from the ship. There was a train outside waiting to pick people up, I walked by a little river with fish trying to jump upstream, which I thought was pretty neat looking. When I managed to reach town.. it looked like an old western town.. Except in Alaska... But it followed the pattern of the other Alaskan towns... Lots of fur and diamond shops. So I walked and searched for skittles. The mountains surrounding the town were quite amazing looking. It was raining slightly.
After one walk around the town, I stopped at Starbucks and got a iced mocha. It tasted about the same as the coffee on the ship, and was 3X more expensive! (On the boat, we get a discount, so an iced mocha is like 2.20 dollars, and on land it was $6.75.)
I did another loop to make sure I didn’t miss any places.. WHICH I DID!
I saw a candy/ice cream/ treat shop. I thought to myself, YES... they MUST have skittles. So I walked over and took a small step inside and looked around. They had the jelly bean dispensers and all that, and I was about to look away until I saw that one of the dispensers said peanut M&Ms. If they had that, they MUST have SKITTLES! And sure enough... 2 dispensers over, I saw in lower case letters, skittles.
So, I just filled a little bag of skittles and bought them. I think I over estimated the amount of skittles that come in a normal bag.This was close to a two pound bag. Woops.. Kind of expensive...
I hurried back to the ship, so that I could practice all the new songs I added to my setlist. When I got on the ship, I saw that Colleen was at the main desk, and wasn’t on the phone or with passengers, so I walked over and dropped the bag on the counter, which made kind of a loud sound. She said “Wow.. Someone isn’t happy.” I denied any angry intentions and gave her her skittles, which she said made her day and should last her her whole contract.
I walked to my room and practiced... A lot... and managed to do laundry (took three tries with dryers before one actually did its job.) I got dressed in my tux, and went to go play in the deco lounge... But when I got there, there was a projection screen, and a man explaining what to look for in paintings and such. I sat down and expected him to be done at 5 (the time I started playing.) But.. he didn’t stop. He just kept going... So after another half hour, I just took my stuff to the piano bar, and found the assistant cruise director, and let him know the area was double booked and I wasn’t slacking on the job. He said no problems and that he would let my boss know.
I hung around the atrium and talked with friends for a bit, and then went down to the crew mess and ate some dinner. Steak and this spinach stuff with corn and cheese. SOOOO freaking good. My God.. I look forward to eating that again soon!
After dinner, I found myself to be pretty bored, so I just went and set up my computer and stuff in the piano bar, and practiced a little with the “Viva La Vida” track I made. I did that up until 8, and then a few people came in and I played ‘til 10:30ish without any breaks. “Viva La Vida” went over VERY well, and it got people very excited. I played lots of the new tunes I learned, and they were all recieved very well. Managed to meet a couple from Charlotte, NC and we got to talking about my college and radio and the town and stuff. Real nice folks. I played “VLV” three times by request, and “Hotel California” twice. Katrina, the bar waitress, asked for it. She’s from Russia. ALL the guys have a crush on her. She is very pretty. She’s almost 30, and she doesn’t look a day over 21. She has a very friendly way about her, but I think that sends the wrong messages to all the men, because they all tend to come to visit her... She thanked me a lot for playing the song for her and she kissed my cheek (which really isn’t a big deal, because a girl from Russia stayed with me at my home 5 years ago, and she kissed both my cheeks and thanked me and went on to tell me that that was just what they do.) All the passengers that saw went “OOooo” but it’s all just friends.
Katrina told me Agnes was looking forward to being the bar waitress next week. Agnes was working in the atrium when I first started and she loved my music. Apparently she told Katrina, she doesn’t care if she makes any money, she just wants to watch me play. Katrina thinks she likes me for more than my music. But who knows. Agnes is a cool friend. She just had her 25th birthday a few days ago. It’s cool to know I’ll get to work with her again. She’s a cool girl.
So I finished up my sets with a couple piano tunes, “A Long December” by the Counting Crows, and “Hallellujah” by Jeff Buckley. I packed up my stuff, talked with Rich, Neil and Dean for a bit. Katrina asked me to go to the crew bar and have a drink with her and Edwuardo. I agreed for one drink, so I ran to my room, got on some shorts, a polo shirt and my sneakers. I noticed I had a message on my phone, so I checked it, thinking it was probably my boss letting me know about the private party I was playing (he left me a note on my door.) It was actually Colleen, saying “I know you’re in the middle of your set, but I wanted to see if you wanted to come into town with me tomorrow around 11. Give me a call in the morning and let me know! Hope you had a great set tonight!”. After listening, I headed to the bar... Katrina and Edwuardo weren’t there yet, so I went and got a drink and talked with Gabe, Jeff and Megan. After hanging for 15 minutes, I kinda figured they weren’t coming, and Gabe invited me to come along to the crew mess to get a bite to eat. So we went on over, and I ate some salmon. While I was getting my food I saw Katrina there eating with Agnes. I waved and said my hellos and went to eating.
Talked with Gabe about recording, God, and women for a bit. After we finished up, I came to my room and here I am. Tomorrow, I guess I’ll be going into town with Colleen and playing 5:15 for a private party... So.. ‘til then!