Scc training... Back spasms, and "To The Echo"

Wow... 7 days have passed pretty quick. And surprisingly there’s not a lot to talk about. The first three days were very good gigs. Except that my voice was terribly squeaky. I met a couple couples. One of which had been to a lot of concerts, and they loved all the 90’s stuff I did. We talked about a lot of career stuff, and all that. On the 2nd sea day, Another couple came to see me play, but at that point my voice was gone, so I just did instrumentals. I ended up talking to them for a bit. They were scientists for pharmaceuticals. They lived in San Diego. They were really cool.
Acapulco day, I got up pretty late for I had class at 2 for SCC. That day we were going to inflate a life raft in the pool. I got to lido deck about a half hour early, and got a cheeseburger, then saw Nina and the other spa girls so went over and chatted with them. Marco, the instructor showed up with the safety officer, and after a few moments of standing around, we all took off our shirts and put on our lifejackets. Every commented on how white I was. Lots of comments like “get a tan” were heard.
We got in the shallow part of the pool and Marco instructed what would be done. He asked me to help another person lift the life raft shell and put it in the deep end of the pool. As I lifted, I felt my lower back muscle strain. Luckily it was only a second I had the thing, before it was dropped in the pool. Marco called Noochie over to pull the painter line, which inflates the life raft. She tugged it hard, and the shells popped off and the life raft inflated. It was a lot smaller than I pictured. Noochie nudged my shoulder and pointed at the max capacity saying 12 persons. The ship has 35 person life rafts... being why it was a lot smaller.
We all got in the water, and marco capsized the life raft, and he called on me to right it. In the instructions, it tells you to stand on the CO2 tank and use your weight to flip it over. But because the life raft was so small, that wasn’t the case. I tried anyways, and the CO2 tank almost broke off... So... I just backed up, and three other guys just pulled some cables over. Then they got in and had to practice pulling people in. I was # 2 in line. As they pulled me, one got my arm, and the other grabbed my lifejacket... which was really choking me. So I just got myself in.. I sat in the back and we went through all the discussions of the life raft.
We got a group picture, and then said our goodbyes.
Before I left, I asked Aaron about the supper club, and if we were still going. Apparently, the Supper Club won’t open if they only have reservations for crew members... So I didn’t get to have that meal. As the day went on, my back started to hurt horribly. Sitting in the chair was painful, laying down in one position was comfortable, but everything else hurt. I had no desire to want to go to the bathroom. I tried to get up and walk, but the pain almost made me pass out. So I just went to sleep.
The next morning, I got up early and went to the infirmary. Turns out I got back spasms.. The doctor signed me off, gave me IBUPROFEN and tylenol. I went to my room and really just laid down all day. Got up to eat and suffered the walk. Towards the end of the day I started feeling a bit better. I went to sleep pretty late, since I kept taking naps all day.
The next day, I got up and went again, and found the pain was worse than the day before, so the doctor signed me off again. Which meant I couldn’t drive the lifeboat... which blows because that was the whole reason I signed up for the class. So I stayed in my room all day... But instead of feeling useless, I picked up my guitar and wrote a new song called “To the Echo (Here I Am)”. Then I took it easy.
The next day, I went again to the doctor, and I was signed off again. I didn’t want to miss another SCC class since I only had two classes left, so I went. It was a mere review. At some point I was having a conversation with Noochie, and I was joking about writing songs for girls, but a lot of them don’t like it, and she said she did, and asked me to write her a song. So I took her up on her dare.
I went to lunch and met up with Glenn to discuss our show. He wants to shorten it to a few minutes just to see if we can do it. If people like it, we’ll make more.
I went back to my room, and pulled out the ES-335 and started hacking away at Noochie’s song. Within a half hour, I had written it, and then I went and demoed it which took about three hours. Once I was satisfied, I started a new project in logic, and started on “To The Echo”. The song was originally a driving electric guitar song, but I experimented with electric pianos, and various effects, and came up with a cool idea. So, that became my mission and I recorded and mixed it until it was done. At about midnight, I took a muscle relaxer.. but got hungry so I went to get a quick bite to eat. Noochie was working behind the buffet. I told her her song was done, and she wanted to hear it, but I said I’d show her in the morning.
I went back to my room, and the medicine kicked in and I got very tired and dizzy. So I went to bed. At some point in the middle of the night, I remember being confused and I threw my shirt across the room in a fit of anger... But I don’t know why..

I woke up at 7:30 and got dressed and went to the doctor. She gave me the option to take the day off but in doing so, I wouldn’t be able to get off in San Diego. So I said I was ready to go back to work. I wasn’t 100% if that was true, but I didn’t want to be stuck.
I went to my last day of class, and of course the first person there was Noochie, waiting for her song. So I gave her the CD, and moments later class started. We went over our practice test. I got an 87%. Afterwards, we were given a break, so I took Noochie back to my room to show her her song on my speakers. Before I started it, the phone rang, and it was Stu checkin in on me. He told me I wasn’t in the Capper because they weren’t sure if I was playing. He told me not to worry about taking it easy, or not play as long.
So I showed Noochie her song and she laughed a lot and really enjoyed it. Then we went back to class.
After class, I went to my room and then lunch. Came back to room and checked my email to find I had two template orders, so I did those up real quick and sent them in for a quick 80 bucks. Afterwards, I watched some of The Office until dinner, which I went too. And it was a thanksgiving feast! Turkey, Lamb chops, shrimp, salmon, beef, desserts of all sorts. So I ate a bunch of good food.
Afterwards, I got my computer, and went to get set up in the Casino. A lot of people seemed excited I was back. My large crowd came back to listen to me, and I ended up playing most of the night, with one break in the middle. A lot of people told me they missed me a lot because I was the only one who doesn’t play Country on the account the most of the soloists do country. So, I had a great time, made some good tips and sold some CDs. I had a great time, and my back didn’t give me any problems.
Now I’m in my room, getting ready to sleep, and then have my SCC test tomorrow... then SAN DIEGO!!!!! I can’t wait! Black Friday.. which means nothing to me... because I have everything I could want. So.. yep! And on another note, I was talking to Kelly, the girl from the last cruise on Facebook, and it turns out she got another cruise to come back out on the spirit during Christmas. She asked if would be weird, because she didn’t want to look like a stalker. I told her she has to worry about that social host more than me.. Sooo.. yeah.