5 days of Hawaii: Skydiving, playing, Pearl Harbor, and 2nd month Impressions.

I’ve had quite an eventful last few days, and haven’t had much time to update, so I thought I would take this day to do so.
The day after the Volcanic Sunrise, I really just took it easy on the ship, got some sleep, watched some movies, and did my gig. Rick, a person who was there 9 out of the 12 nights, and is from Australia, hung out and I let him know the whole run of what I went through. He’s a real nice guy. He told me his sister was a musician and recently won a 50k dollar contest on Sellaband.com.
After the gig, two guys who were probably just a few years older than me told me my music was great and I was the best musician on the ship. They were both from Canada, but they were out to see me every night I played, so it was cool to meet them. After that meeting, I went to bed and took it easy.

The following day was Kona, and I didn’t feel like taking the lifeboat to land, so I just called some friends and family from the ship. It was during this time I found out from my dad that my song “Words You Bleed” was played on a Allentown, PA radio, and Josie was in Marshalls. Pretty exciting stuff. I had my regular meals and talked with Glen about all the stuff we’d gone through and talked about skydiving. At that point we both weren’t really nervous about it. We still had two days...
Earlier in the week, Pat was telling me about his new vocal harmonizer which adds two harmonies to your voice when you sing. It sounds really good, and I thought it would be a good addition to my set, and add another layer to what I’m doing and make it interesting.
I played my gig, and talked with Rick and showed my pictures of the sunset on my computer to everyone that was around. I got some real gorgeous pictures.
I checked my account to see if I was paid, but for some reason my account was 200 dollars shorter than it normally is after payday. I was a bit concerned.
Afterwards, I went to bed.

Saturday was Nawilliwilli, and I managed to get off the ship by 9:30. It was beautifully sunny. I stood around for a bit searching the iphone for a local music store that might have the harmonizer. After about 25 minutes I found one, and I walked over to the taxi line, and got a taxi, which drove me the 20 minutes too and from there. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive. Mountains were amazing, the beaches were luscious, and the weather stood beautifully strong.
We got to the Bounty music store, and I picked up the harmonizer, and we drove back. I had him drop me off at an internet cafe. I hooked up there and downloaded the string program I bought a month ago... and couldn’t get the internet speed to download it in time.. This time, it flew, and I got it in under an hour. I also got the update for my iphone. I uploaded almost 700 pictures to facebook and checked my regular stuff.
Afterwards, I went to a little hut next door and got a tuna melts (I haven’t had tuna once since I’ve been working for Carnival,) so it was really good.
After that, I took the free trolley back to the ship, and I ran to my room to set up the pedal and try it out. I spent about three hours figuring out which settings worked for which songs. But it definitely got me excited about playing that night. I went to dinner, and saw Peter. I asked him about the pay decrease, and he said he didn’t know anything about it and said I should ask the paymaster in the morning. I left and got ready, and went to my gig a half hour early to rearrange and set up everything on stage. The Casino was the busiest it had ever been during this particular cruise.
The harmonizer definitely added another dimension to everything, and made people turn their heads. Everyone that I noticed through out the cruise watching at some point was there and watching. So that was a really cool thing. I put out a tip jar, and made 40 bucks. I hadn’t had a tip jar out at all during this cruise, so this Cruise and everyone from here on out, I will put one. I’m also going to get some CDs to sell on here.
During my break I went and talked with James and Val at Val’s desk. I tried to figure out when we were supposed to leave which both of us didn’t know. So I waited until I found Glen to find out.
After the show, I went back to my room and couldn’t fall asleep until 3 am.

I woke up to a phone call and it was Val letting me know to meet outside the port at 10:20. I checked the time, and it said 9:30.. I wanted to wake up at 8... but my alarm on my phone was on silent even though it went off. I got ready, showered quickly and ran to go outside with the group.
A lot of dancers and some musicians were there. Casino people came out too, and there was a group of about 30. Glen and I rode in the back of the shuttles that picked us up. We got to see a lot of Honolulu as we drove. It also is a gorgeous place. When we reached the skydiving place, it looked like your typical Hawaiian looking place, and there were a lot of Bikers there for some reason.
We got out and went inside, to see contracts to sign. The contracts stated that this is a voluntary, and you can die, or the plane can crash, or someone can pack the parachutes wrong, or your instructor could die of a heart attack, and we accept those risks and can’t sue the company. Seemed reasonable to me. If I died, I don’t get any of that money, so why would I care to sue them?
Glen put a lot of our stuff in a rickity locker.. brownish yellow looking. Rusty looking. We waited until our names were called and we got dressed up in harnesses. My dvd guy walked around and introduced himself and he recorded a bit of stuff going on around before we left. His name was Jeff. I met the person I’d be jumping with. His name was Brendan. He went through the explanation of what I had to do when I jumped. I had to crouch down, put my head back and hold onto my harness. And release when he told me so.
Around that time, I saw parachutes falling from the sky. First to land was Jeff. Me and a few ran over to ask how it was and he said it was incredible. An unforgettable experience. Everybody landed safely. Which meant the odds were against us! For every person who survived that was one less person in the odds of surviving! I wasn’t really worried about that though.
Val gave me here picture camera to record her landing. Unfortunately after she left, they called for me to leave, so I gave her camera to a casino girl, and ran off. I boarded the relatively small plane, and sat on the bench with my legs separated. Glen was at the front of the line. As the plane took off, it was really amazing, and yet a little scary, because the door we jump out of was slightly open. And I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if someone slipped and fell out. Seemed easy enough.
As we got higher, we could see the edge of the coast and the bright blue water. Such a beautiful sight. It took about 10 minutes to get to the altitude where we were jumping. Glen was first to go. I could tell he was a bit nervous. His instructor locked him in and the door went completely open. Glen’s photographer got out and stood against the side of the plane. Glen pulled himself up to the bar. His instructor told him twice to let go and to hold his straps. He did. And in a matter of two seconds they leaped from the plane. At that particular moment, I was thinking... I’m insane... Another person went up to the side and jumped in a matter of seconds. Then it was my turn. My photographer got out first and my instructor and I edged our way to the door. He pulled my head back a little, and told me to look at the camera and smile, and then we leaped.
The free fall sensation was there for about a second, and then there was no queasiness. My arms came up and my face seemed to morph little by little with the wind. When my mouth was open wind, just went in and filled it up like a parachute. So I tried to close it as ofter as I could. My photographer was right in front of me falling with us, keep his head looking at me (since his camera was on his helmet). Everything was just so clear and beautiful. Clouds were creeping up closer and closer and in an instant, we slow down, my photographer keeps falling fast, my crouch hurts, and my ears go into a clogged feeling. And painful. All I could hear was the wind blowing beside us. It was very peaceful. My crouch was definitely in pain. Brendan told me to give him a second and he’d try to make it like a seat for me. He had me put my feet on his feet and pick myself up. He loosened my harness, and just like that, everything felt better. Except for my ears. He told me to plug my nose and push gently. My ears opened right up and felt a lot better. He let me hold onto the turning mechanism and turn the parachute a bit. We went into crazy turns. Like an insane roller coaster. He told me about the mountains as were were passing by them. I could see the airport we took off from, and were heading in that direction. He took control of the turning after a bit, and maneuvered us down towards the land. Everybody looked like ants that were getting larger by the second. For that last 10 seconds of the fall, I kind felt like I was flying, or knew what it would be like to have the ability to fly and see what they see when they do so. We landed easy, and I detached from the chute.
I saw Glen and he said he loved it a lot. He said if we had a paycheck before we left Hawaii he would have done it again. It truly was an amazing time. Eye opening for sure. But I credit that to the forceful winds.
I walked for a bit and waited for the DVD to be finished. I watched it, and video just doesn’t do the jump justice. You don’t know what it’s like until you do it.
We got back in the shuttles after a bit and rode back. Glen wanted to get his laptop and go get something to eat, so we went back to the ship for about 5 minutes to get our stuff and we walked into the city. We walked for about 2 miles before coming up on a Starbucks. He and I were pretty tired. For some reason, skydiving wears you out. I got a vanilla latte, iced. He got a coffee. They had the Beatles Remastered Abby Road there, so I got it, since Alan, my producer said it was an absolute must.
We walked looking for a Walmart, and after about another half hour, and help from my iphone we found it. I got a couple more Beatles remastered albums, and Glen got a shaving kit. When we left we walked another mile before stumbling on a Japanese restaurant. We went in and got our food. I got fried oysters, rice, salad, and soup. He got Teriyaki Chicken. I loved the oysters. Haven’t had any since late May.
Afterwards, we made our way back to the ship because it was starting to get dark. Glen told me lots of stories of his life when he was a bit younger. He’s definitely had a lot happen in it. Cool to learn about it.
When we got back, I put my card in port manning, and took it easy. I worked on remixing my song “Ricochet” and am deciding if I want to rewrite the lyrics and melody, and make it a stronger song. I really love the music. And I don’t want it to go to waste. It sounds a lot better now that I’ve mixed it on these speakers. I cleaned up all the low end problems.
I also fooled around with my logo and worked on that until 3 am.

I woke up at 8:30 yesterday and got ready and met Eric and 9. He, Claire, Thomas and I were going to go to Pearl Harbor. Eric and I met outside of the gangway and walked outside. We figured they’d be a few minutes so we decided to look for breakfast. After about a half hour, we found a Mcdonalds. As Eric began to eat, we got a phone call saying Thomas was ready to pick us up. So, we got a couple Egg Mcmuffins, and scarfed them down pretty quick. When Thomas and Claire arrived, they decided they were hungry too so they came in and got something.
Afterwards we headed towards Pearl Harbor. Took us about a half hour due to misplacement of signs and such. When we parked, were were met by a security officer who said the USS Arizona were out of tickets for the day. That kind of blew because we were all looking forward to that the most. But they had tickets for other things, so we all got tickets for USS Missouri and The Pacific Aviation Museum. At the ticket place, there were lots of unused Missiles, and torpedoes set up on display. There were also a bunch of plaques that were there as memorials for sunken ships and submarines. Lots of sad stories. The USS Bowin was beside the ticket place and it looked pretty cool. We didn’t really want to go on it.
We rode a shuttle to the USS Missouri. The ship was being restored on some parts, but we got to go through most of it. It was crazy seeing some of the rooms people lived in. The chief engineer’s room was about that size of my room... and I’m a SOLOIST! I have no real responsibilities. Regardless... We saw lots of pictures, newspapers, and all that about the war, and what the ship went through. It was very interesting. Took us about 3 hours to go through it at a fast pace.
We made our way to the shuttle to take us to the Aviation center. When we got there, we caught a movie that explained the Pearl Harbor attack. The first explosion took place 200 yards from where we sat. Pretty nuts.
The museum was a hangar, and had lots of real planes from that era of time (WW2). We only spent about a half hour in there, but there wasn’t too much to see.
As we rode out with the shuttle, we passed a couple hangars with broken glass. The driver said that was caused from the explosion from the USS Arizona. There was another ship we passed that was submerged underwater. It was the USS Utah. It has 53 bodies still stuck within the ship.
When we got back to the car, we decided we wanted to get some food so we went to find chinatown. After about 35 minutes we found it, and searched for parking. We came into a china restaurant, which was very white and very plain.. Not Americanized like your typical all you eat buffet kind of places. We sat down at the table and let the women know we’d be on two separate checks. But weirdly enough, we had two different waitresses. Who spoke very little English. Thomas and I ordered Seafood on Fried Noodles, and egg drop soup. I ordered in addition fried oysters. My waitress brought out Egg Drop soup... which was a HUGE bowl that could easily feed 4 people. Thomas and I assumed they just put both our orders in one bowl. So we ate that up.. and we realized they were going to bring us another one. He told them we didn’t want two, and the waitresses kind of got pissy about it. Luckily I had gotten my food before that event so I didn’t have to worry about poison or anything.
Eric and I got our food about 15 minutes before Thomas and Claire did. It was really good though. It tasted like the legit stuff.. Not americanized. The fried oysters were AMAZING! They were soooo meaty too. I kind of wished I just got two orders of those. That would have filled me up easy.
Thomas and Claire got their food. The broccoli stems they gave her weren’t easily cuttable so she asked for a knife... which they didn’t have.. So they brought her out some heavy duty scissors. Classic. I think that made my day.
The food was reasonably priced, and the waitresses didn’t seem angry by the end (they probably did something to the other’s food and felt justified.)
Thomas and Claire dropped Eric and I at the ship, and we walked looking for a tip jar for me. Everything in the area was handcrafted and about 1000% more expensive than I wanted to spend for something I wanted to collect tips in. We got some ice cream thought. Shared some stories of stuff that’s happened in our lives.
We got back to the ship and started messing with more demos. I got online and got tabs to a few more songs to add to my setlist this time around. Glen called and asked if I wanted to go to a club in town with him, Gabe and a few girls. He said he’d call me a little later when we were going. I decided to take a nap while I waited. I passed right out. At some point, I know I woke up and was coughing pretty hard, and I was worried I was getting a chest cold. I fell back asleep, and I didn’t wake up until 10:30 this morning. I saw that he called, but I guess I didn’t hear it. I don’t have a cough this morning and I feel better, so that’s a bonus.
I did get up and get some lunch, and now I’m just taking it easy today. I’m worn out from the last couple days. I play tonight and tomorrow, and then I have off again on Thursday. Blows... because I have port manning all day. But I will have gotten 4 days off against 5 days of work.. so 4 days off in 9 days. Pretty cool if you ask me. I also found out this is the only ship in the Carnival Fleet that comes to Hawaii... for only 4 weeks a year no less... So I found I’ve been very fortunate to come here.
I’ve also been here for over 2 months. My thoughts after two months are still about the same, I love the job, just miss my friends. But time it flying real fast here. I can see where life would become a blur after awhile. But still a great job. I find myself looking around and laughing... because I’m in Hawaii... a place I never thought I would visit without thousands of dollars. I’m very fortunate. Anyways, I’m out!

Hawaii Day 1 and 2

My first day of Hawaii started off at 8:30 AM. I quickly got up, got my hat, got in shorts, and went outside of the warehouse which was beside the ship. I sat and checked out the internet on the iphone, checked email. Then I called Nick. We got caught up on what’s going on on the ship, since we hadn’t spoken in 6 days due to sea days.
Afterwards, I got on a free trolley which would take me to Walmart. The difference of ports in Hawaii and in Alaska, is most towns in Alaska are built around the port, but in Hawaii, everything is very spread out and far away. So your best bet is to rent a car, if you want to see the islands the best.
The trolley, which was a huge tour bus, drove us through the town for 10 minutes. First things I noticed was that the island looked too dip and rise in the distance, so the island wasn’t flat in the slightest.
When we got to Walmart, I took a look around inside, and it looked like every other Walmart I’ve been in in the last couple years. I walked out across the street and saw a mall. I took a walk inside and looked around. It had a Radio Shack, which so far I’ve seen one in every town we’ve been too in America. I took a look around Gamestop, and decided I would trade in my PSP and games for some extra money. Which I would have to get later.
I saw an Ihop in the mall, which I haven’t seen before (in a mall.) So I was craving Pancakes, and an omelet. So I went and got some. It was absolutely delicious. I called Felicia while I was waiting for the food and got caught up with her.
After I got my fill, I went back to the bus and rode to the ship to get my psp. I decided to call Mary and Dick since I haven’t spoken with them since I left. I filled them in on what I’ve been doing, and I wished Dick a happy birthday.
I got my PSP, got on the bus, and rode back to the mall, traded it in, and the games and got a couple hundred dollars worth. I got a smoothie from DQ, called my dad, and filled him in on the 6 days. Then I went to walmart, got The Office Season 5, and went outside and waited for the bus. As I waited, Greg sat and talked with me a bit about skydiving.
As we rode back, he told me we had a drill the next morning... Which kind of sucked... but regardless. When I got back to the ship, I messaged Kamille on AIM, and caught up with her for a bit. Afterwards, I went to my room and just watched some of The Office, The Haunting in Connecticut, then I went and did my gig for the night. It was a quiet gig, and a lot of people weren’t around, probably because everyone was worn out from the day on land.
At the end of the gig, I heard there was a huge party on the deck... but I didn’t feel like going. So I went back to my room, watched some more of the Office, and fell asleep.

The next morning, I woke up at 8:30, made a couple phone calls to friends, and was interrupted by the drill. I went down to my room and waited for them to call for the general emergency... Which took a long time to happen. After 30 minutes, we got called up to the deck, and we, as in the crew, were up there for another half hour.
When we finished, I went down to my room, got my bag, which had a camera, towel, bathing suit and sunscreen in it. I went to breakfast. Glenn came in and informed me he and Val were going to go get the van we’d be driving in. So as he walked off, Claire and Thomas (A couple who play piano and Saxophone) came in and got some breakfast, then we all walked out of the ship and met up with Glenn and Val. Enterprise hadn’t been by to pick them up at that point. So we waited another 15 minutes or so, then the enterprise van picked us up. At that point, Natalia joined the group. The guy who was the driver, explained that he moved here 12 years ago. He had a job in Alaska and saved 13 grand. He came to Hawaii for a vacation. By the end of the vacation, he called his parents, said he wasn’t moving back, bought a year lease, bought a car, and has been there ever since.
We went tot he Enterprise building, and Glenn filled out some stuff. We in the car waited, and eventually he came out, we were given a ride to a satellite parking lot, and we got a Chevy SUV.
Funny enough, instead of getting Hawaiian food, we got Mcdonalds to talk about what we would do for the day. During us eating, we decided we were going to go to a Biontical Gardens, go to the Luau, check out the clubs, and see the sun rise on the top of a volcano.
After we finished eating, we went and picked up the Shopping Specialist, Cleo. She’s a pretty cool girl and lots of fun. We rode to the gardens, which took a little over a half hour. I took tons of pictures of the mountains and ocean around us. It was a beautiful and scenic drive. We took many U-turns and such. I helped navigate with my iphone google maps. It was very helpful.
We eventually got to the Gardens. There was a dark storm cloud over it, but we could overlook the whole island from where we were which was absolutely stunning. We walked through the gardens, and there were many beautiful flowers, birds and other little objects. We all took lots of pictures.
After about an hour and a half, we got going to the Luau. It took about an hour and a half to get there. It was an even more scenic route. When we got to the hotel, we got out and got our tickets and got in line. There were a lot of people from the ship waiting. When we got in, there were a bunch of rows of tables, a stage, and lines for food. You could overlook the beach and see the sunset.
I had a couple drinks since it was an open bar, but nothing severe. I took TONS of pictures of the sunset. It was amazing. I saw the pig they were cooking. For food I had pork, Banana Salad, noodles, turkey, some coconut pudding and cake. Then dancers came on stage, and musicians and we heard Hawaiian music. It was definitely a cool show. Something cool to see.
When we were done with the Luau, we added another girl named Claire to the van. She’s Australian and works in Club 02. We went for a walk on the beach. The stars were gorgeous. The tides were a little crazy. Every once in awhile water would just shot for the top of the beach. At one point I noticed the water coming, and I ran and everyone else got soaked. I was dry.
We went to Safeway and got some drinks for the sunrise, and I got some green tea, and Starbucks drinks to keep me awake over night,
After we got done purchasing everything, we went to Lulu’s, which was a Salsa dancing bar. We all sat down and talked with each other for awhile, and everyone at some point got up to dance. But me.. I wasn’t really feeling it. I got to talk with Cleo about her job, and Val and I had a conversation. Val’s a cool girl. She’s 34 and sells the Credit Cards on the ship. Real pretty and such. Talking to her though reminds me of talking with someone my age. Maybe because I’m just getting to a point in my life where everyone at every age just kinda blends together.
After a few hours of me drinking water and them drinking and dancing, we decided to get going. Glenn and Val went back to Safeway to get something. Cleo and I walked out side and talked for a bit. She was pretty tired and wanted to go to sleep. So we all got in the car and drove an hour to drop off Cleo.
There were no parking spaces to park, so we parked in a no parking zone, since most of us would be staying with the car. Glenn, Val, Thomas and his girlfriend Claire went inside to drop some stuff off. The other Claire, Natalia, and I sat by the car and waited. The security guard, who was a complete asshole, said he was calling the tow truck to tow us since we wouldn’t move. So we drove down the street, and waited near a warehouse for a half hour, awaiting a call. Eventually I drove us over to check to see if they had gotten off the ship. Luckily Claire and Thomas were coming off, so they joined the car, and we waited another 10 minutes before Val and Glenn came.
They were late because Val forgot her room key in the car and room service took their sweet time going to let her in.
We drove an hour and a half to the top of the 10000 ft. volcano. Val fell asleep against my shoulder. She’s about 5 foot tall, so her head came right to my shoulder. As we were on our way up we looked off the mountain and you could see the lights of the city, which looked like they were floating in the clouds. Quite breathtaking. We saw fire in the distance which we assumed was a volcano letting out lava. Because after a little bit it stopped. Quite beautiful to see though.
We stopped for a bathroom break at a visitor center. I’ve never seen so many stars before. The over look of the city was just great. The temperature dropped rapidly as we got higher. It went from 73 to 40 in a matter of a few minutes.
When we got to the top, we were there about an hour and a half before sunrise, so we all parked and took a nap. At about 5:30, I could see the light coming from the horizon... Dimly but quite beautiful. Glenn, Claire, Thomas and I went to the top, and my GOD it was FREEZING. There were a lot of people up there. James showed up, and Jennifer, and Melody, and lots more! I took over 100 pictures as the sun rose and it was so beautiful. At one point, a random girl asked me to take a picture of her with my camera... I did... but not sure why... As the sun came above the horizon, Glenn, Claire, Thomas and I ran to the car to get a leg up on the drive down, since traffic would be terrible, and Glenn had to be back by 7:30 for Port Manning.
I managed to get a ton of pictures on the drive down. The way the mountain shadows over the island, and the sunlight against the rocks and the next highest mountains in the distance.
After an hour and a half of driving winding roads, we finally made it... and when I got to my room... I passed out... Slept for 4 hours... Called a couple friends, and came to my room and watched the Office. Probably going to catch one more nap, then play tonight at 8.

More seadays

The last couple days have been pretty laid back. Saturday, I woke up at 10:30 to take a shower, eat a quick breakfast and go play on the lido deck. It was a pretty big stage and the weather was beautiful. It was the warmest i've felt since I've been the ship. Defi etly in the 90s. The crowd was pretty cool and my sinuses seemed to clear up (which I credit for the squeaky noises in my singing). I got to eat on The lido deck. Cheeseburger and fries and some japanese food. The gig was pretty laid back and got to chat with some people. One gentleman was a touring country guitarist who got to play with George jones, Willie Nelson and others of that caliber. After we finished talking I dropped my stuff off in my room and went back to the deck for sunset. It was utterly amazing. Loomed like fire burning in the horizon and rain was in the distance around it. I took 60 pictures worth of it, some of which turned out great.
After that I went an saw the blues brothers show I've been meaning to see for a long time. It was really goood. The band on the ship is really great. Glenn and Chris are very tight as drummer and bassist. Horns sound great and Gabe is a real good guitar player. Very good soloist.
After that I went back to my room and just hung out for the night.

Yesterday, Sunday, started off with a LOUD ALARM which woke me up in a hurry. I rushed to get my pants on, looking for my life jacket and my flaming green hat. Then I heard the alarm ask for the alpha team. Which is the fire team for those who don't know. In that situation, you have to wait until further instructions. After about a minute the captain came on over the PA system and told everyone that was an accident and he appologised and that everything was fine. I went to lunch and talked with Pat for awhile about what he uses for his backing tracks and such. Then I went back to my room and tried writing a song, watched tv, showered, ate dinner, and went to my gig in the casino. By the end of the night I knew there was a crew party in the disco, and I needed to find Greg to pay him for the skydiving. So I went down to enter a room full of smoke and tons of people. It was the busiest I have seen it. Colleen stopped me and said "I thought you weren't coming" I explained the situation, and bumped into Aaron and Eric. We all talked for a bit. Eric and I are going to see pearl harbor on Monday. The actual place, not the movie..... Aaron asked me if there was a hazer in the room or if it was just all the smoke In The room. I told him it was the latter. Nunik came and talked for a bit. After awhile the smoke was kind of wearing on me. So I wanted to leave. Colleen tried to get me to stay but I told her she'd have to be my girlfriend. And even if she was I'd still probably leave because I'm a free spirit like that. Joking with her of course. 
So I left and went to my room and fell asleep rather quickly. I set my alarm for 8 am so I could eat breakfast.
Sadly I woke up at 12 pm. I think I turned the alarm off in sleep and when I managed to wake for a few seconds at a time I just assumes the alarm hadn't gone off so I went back to sleep.
At 12:15ish I went to lunch. I saw Greg there and gave him the 50 dollar deposit. I went up on the second deck and Checked some Internet stuff. Glenn came over and invited me to a night out on the town with him and six other people in a van he's renting. We both have the night off so I agreed and we're going to do that. He might tag along for pearl harbor later on in the week. Now I'm listening to the jazzband and waiting to play my last seaday for 2 weeks. Tomorrow, we hit land in Hilo. I'm going to go for a long walk tomorrow. And enjoy land. I'll update soon!  

Last Vancouver... and many sea days

It’s been a crazy few days, and now that I have some time during this day, our second sea day, I figured I’d write up to speed!

So, last I wrote, I had gotten an iphone in Ketchikan. The rest of the evening consisted of me calling Nick and saying the good byes for the week since, we wouldn’t be able to talk until at least Tuesday of next week. I went and did my gig. During which I spoke to the couple from Vancouver again, whose names were Ralph and Diane. We talked about how they met and all the such. Really nice couple.

The following day, Tuesday, was a sea day and I just played around with my guitar, and did my gig and had my last little chat with Ralph and Diane. The night finished out well. I went back to my room and just kinda played games for awhile. I fell asleep, to wake up at about 9:30.

I took a shower and went into town in Vancouver. I went straight into Tom Lee Music for my last time. I looked at some guitars and came across a 12 string Takamine. I played it and I was immediately drawn. I played with it for a for a half hour, and then saw another model and played with it. After about an hour, I decided to get the Takamine. I bought 12 more boxes of strings for the long trip, and some bridge pins.

I went and got some sushi, and saw Simon right afterwards. So we walked back together. When we about got on board, Colleen poked us from behind, and talked with us for a little bit. Then when we got on the ship, I pulled out the guitar and jammed for awhile. I ate some dinner later on, and went and had my first gig in the Casino.

It’s a pretty laid back gig. Most of the time, you feel like background music, but there was a group that watched and expressed that they liked me a lot. After the gig, we “ the staff” had a meeting. Which consisted of food and drinks. There I saw Anna, one of the staff mess waitresses. She was talking with Gabe. We all went to the crew bar, and just chatted.

At the end, I went back to my room and slept. Miserably. The ship moved a lot. At 6 am, I got up, and took some sea sickness pills JUST IN CASE. I went back to sleep, woke up around 11:30 and got lunch. Then I went and did some laundry. And napped.. and napped... and napped. The medicine wore me out.... I slept most of the day. Another little problem I was having was when singing the last few days, certain notes that I usually hit with ease, have started to squeak. I don’t know if the voice is just exhausted or what, but it’s happened a lot.

Anyways, I got up around 5, ate dinner, and then worked on some new music. I went and got to playing around 8, and Did my gig until 12:20. Gabe came by, and I let him come up and sing a few tunes.Which attracted a girl named Malaya. She came over and talked with us for a little bit.

Gabe and I went to the crew bar for a little bit, and hung around. It wasn’t very busy. But the ship was moving all over the place. It was crazy. I went to bed soon after, and woke up at 10. Turned on the tv, and saw the end of X-MEN ORIGINS was on. So I checked the caper to see when it was playing next, which was 12, and I went to lunch. Anna was working and she talked with me while I ate.

I came back and watched the movie, and here I am. Also, I found out I’ll be playing on the Lido deck tomorrow because the Hawaiian band is needed in the Atrium, so I get a night off which is cool.

Last Vancouver... and many sea days

It’s been a crazy few days, and now that I have some time during this day, our second sea day, I figured I’d write up to speed!

So, last I wrote, I had gotten an iphone in Ketchikan. The rest of the evening consisted of me calling Nick and saying the good byes for the week since, we wouldn’t be able to talk until at least Tuesday of next week. I went and did my gig. During which I spoke to the couple from Vancouver again, whose names were Ralph and Diane. We talked about how they met and all the such. Really nice couple.

The following day, Tuesday, was a sea day and I just played around with my guitar, and did my gig and had my last little chat with Ralph and Diane. The night finished out well. I went back to my room and just kinda played games for awhile. I fell asleep, to wake up at about 9:30.

I took a shower and went into town in Vancouver. I went straight into Tom Lee Music for my last time. I looked at some guitars and came across a 12 string Takamine. I played it and I was immediately drawn. I played with it for a for a half hour, and then saw another model and played with it. After about an hour, I decided to get the Takamine. I bought 12 more boxes of strings for the long trip, and some bridge pins.

I went and got some sushi, and saw Simon right afterwards. So we walked back together. When we about got on board, Colleen poked us from behind, and talked with us for a little bit. Then when we got on the ship, I pulled out the guitar and jammed for awhile. I ate some dinner later on, and went and had my first gig in the Casino.

It’s a pretty laid back gig. Most of the time, you feel like background music, but there was a group that watched and expressed that they liked me a lot. After the gig, we “ the staff” had a meeting. Which consisted of food and drinks. There I saw Anna, one of the staff mess waitresses. She was talking with Gabe. We all went to the crew bar, and just chatted.

At the end, I went back to my room and slept. Miserably. The ship moved a lot. At 6 am, I got up, and took some sea sickness pills JUST IN CASE. I went back to sleep, woke up around 11:30 and got lunch. Then I went and did some laundry. And napped.. and napped... and napped. The medicine wore me out.... I slept most of the day. Another little problem I was having was when singing the last few days, certain notes that I usually hit with ease, have started to squeak. I don’t know if the voice is just exhausted or what, but it’s happened a lot.

Anyways, I got up around 5, ate dinner, and then worked on some new music. I went and got to playing around 8, and Did my gig until 12:20. Gabe came by, and I let him come up and sing a few tunes.Which attracted a girl named Malaya. She came over and talked with us for a little bit.

Gabe and I went to the crew bar for a little bit, and hung around. It wasn’t very busy. But the ship was moving all over the place. It was crazy. I went to bed soon after, and woke up at 10. Turned on the tv, and saw the end of X-MEN ORIGINS was on. So I checked the caper to see when it was playing next, which was 12, and I went to lunch. Anna was working and she talked with me while I ate.

I came back and watched the movie, and here I am. Also, I found out I’ll be playing on the Lido deck tomorrow because the Hawaiian band is needed in the Atrium, so I get a night off which is cool.

My last Skagway and Ketchikan

Yesterday, I had to make my way out into town to get a couple nine volt batteries because my guitar cut out for a moment last night.. which made me think, dead battery. Before I left the ship, I stopped for a quick breakfast, and Megan walked in, and she went on about how we hadn't seen each other in over a week. She was going into town as well, so we went together.

We talked about lots of stuff, from Jeff wanting to talk to me about songwriting, and she showed me a song she wrote. I gave her my opinion and critiques. Which she said was useful.

We walked around town, and I took lots of pictures. We stopped into a grocery store, and I got some granola bars and stuff to stock up for the 5 sea days. Then her and I went to a pizza place and I got some king crab legs, and cheese fries. We took some more pictures, and headed back to the ship. I made a couple phone calls, and went and played. It was a good night of playing. Good people listening.

Afterwards, I finished breaking down stuff, spoke and took pictures with some of the people. One couple was from Vancouver, and the husband was an engineer. He had built guitars before. Nice couple. One man told me he went to school for Opera and classical music and he said I had it, and I have nothing to worry about in the music world.

I went to bed to get up in Ketchikan.

I got up, and got ready and went out to get an Iphone. With the amount of money I pay to use the slow internet on the ship, I could save money by just getting an iphone and using the unlimited data plan. So I went and got a 32 gb Iphone, and a small 450 minute plan with unlimited data. No texts.. My verizon phone will be for talking with family and friends at home, since all of them have Verizon. I took some pictures with it, and it puts down the exact location on a map where they were taken. It's a cool little gizmo.

Now I'm gonna work on some music for tonight, and call some people up!

My day for today :)

Last night, I went back to my room, and went to play my Batman Game. I ended up beating it. Great game though. I then put in “Hannibal” and watched that until 3 something. Then I went to sleep... to have dreams about Hannibal Lector and other stuff.
I woke up this morning at 11 am, and I checked my email to find I had a song order. They wanted it in the style of Elvis, and all the stuff they had for me to write was pretty much making fun of the guy. So, I listened to two Elvis songs, and I picked up my guitar, and wrote a blues chord progression in the Key of F, which took a total of 21 seconds. The lyrics came really fast. I had the song written in a half hour. I sang it like Elvis, and had a lot of fun with it.
I went to lunch and ate quickly, and ran back to my room to record the song. I finished recording it after a couple hours. Had a good funny sound too it. I made the guitars sound like the 50’s sound, and all that. I was real happy with it. I showered up and prepared for my gig.
I arrived at the Artist lounge, and got to setting up. I was feeling very social so I tried to converse with the Audience which went over very well. In fact most of my sets went over great. I had a great audience and I had a lot of fun. I went to dinner inbetween there, and had yogurt. Chatted with Doug, Glenn and Chris, the bassist. Glenn’s been calling me Matt Damon since I got my haircut. He asked me about my new movie.
After dinner, I went back up and talked with Agnes about my music, boys that have asked her out lately (most of which are phillipinos,) and her signing off in a month and a half. I went up to play again. I had an even greater crowd, and had a wonderful time. I got an apple strudel when I went on break. Eric, the piano player, came to the bar and we ended up talking for about an hour. Talked about music, recording, his career with cruise ships, touring with his brother, being at every state except for Delaware. Talked about girls, and dating passengers, and how to get away with it. All kinds of stuff! He hung around and requested a few songs, which he picked all songs that were on my list. He and I have the same kind of setlist. We both have a majority of the music from the 90’s.
I finished up my set, and spoke with Alex, the bar waiter. We talked about some music, and having my own room and how he hated me for that. Eric showed back up, and we talked about lots of guy stuff.
Eric and I went down to my room and we talked more about ship life, our bad experiences with passengers and all that. He’s a real cool guy. Cool to meet someone with the same interests and stuff. Sometimes you gotta just guy out.
I went to the crew bar to socialize... but there wasn’t anyone there... that I knew, or felt the need to meet. So I came back to my room. Now I’m going to bed!

Last Juneau

I finished up the gig last night. My voice hurt a bit. I went to my room and finished up "Super Bad" and I went to sleep and continued to have weirder dreams. I woke up at 12 pm, which was fine because we wouldn't be into Juneau until 2. So I got up, and ate breakfast...or rather lunch, and then showered up. I called friends, and got caught up with them and their lives.

The line of people wrapped 4 rooms. It was huge. SO I just went back to my room and get my stuff together, like my computer, my camera, and all that. This will be the last time I lay my eyes on Juneau... at least for a while, so might as well take some pictures.

I got to the coffee shop, and got right to downloading this program that closed in the middle of my last try... so I'm trying again, and ALREADY it closed once and I had to restart. GOD I PRAY it doesn't stop again.

Otherwise, I'm just talking to friends, and hanging on my own!

Crazy Nightmare

The gig went over pretty well. I was essentially background music until the end. Then Boat Drill went underway, and I got my lifejacket, and hat and went to my position. On my way there, Peter stopped me and said I had a liferaft thing tomorrow AT 10:30 AM.
After drill, I went to the meeting, which was short, but I did find that there were over 300 australians onboard, most of which were staying from now until the end of the first Hawaiian cruise. That’s 19 DAYS! They’re going to be so sick of us by then. We were told traveling agents try to package it as a 19 day cruise of new stuff.. But it’s really just two cruises.
I went to break down my stuff afterwards, and ate dinner. Then I got online to talk with some friends.
After awhile, I went back to my room and decided to watch a movie. I had bought “Meet Joe Black” from the 5$ section in walmart, and I hadn’t seen it yet, so I put it in. It was a very good movie. I enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately it took until 2 am to finish it. After which, I went to bed immediately.

I woke up at 9:50 and got ready quick, and went up to the drill. Once again, I couldn’t hear anything because of the large fan above us. It was rather quick, and I went back to my room and napped until 11:30. Jeff came over and we talked about songwriting, lyrics, and all that. Then I went to lunch.
Came back to my room after and put in “Super Bad.” I paused it midway through and fell asleep.
In my dream, I remember images of me going crazy and destroying everything in my room and bathroom. Then I broke something on my electric guitar. I got off the ship and it was terribly late. I saw a passenger in this music store right off of the ship. Strangely enough, the music store was the one I won the gift certificate for. I was very confused by it. It was merged with a gas station, but the whole building was made out of logs and wood. Lots of Star Wars Toys and Batman stuff in it. The passenger said she wanted to buy me a gift so she bought my strings for me. As we were coming back to the ship, the whole place outside was covered in snow, and I decided to go for a drive. I saw some car, and got in it. But then I noticed the road started to look like Plantations road. The car spun out of control, but by then I realized it was a dream. So I wasn’t worried if I crashed, which I did. I woke up, and looked at the clock, and saw that it was 8:02... which meant it was 9:02 PM, which meant I was 4 hours late for my gig! No messages were left, but I jumped up quickly, very disarranged from the dream, and looked around for my suit, and opened the bathroom door, The bathroom was completely destroyed. The handles were busted off, the mirrors were smashed, and then I started to question if I had done all that stuff while I was awake. I started to panic. I tried to think of how I could explain it to my boss. THEN I woke up again. In a cold sweat, and it was only 3:38... It was all only a dream. But it freaked me out.
So I got my stuff together, showered, got my suit. The ship was in a storm and I think that’s what simulated the car driving feeling in the dream. I got my suit on, and got some sea sickness meds, just in case. I took them and went and set up. It’s been a rather quiet night. I’m feeling pretty tired, but looking forward to my day off tomorrow. Plus, tonight the clocks go back an hour, so I’ll get that extra hour of sleep. Plus the Steelers won today!! 13-10 to the Titans. A first in a long time.
Anyways, gotta go play!

Last Alaska Cruise begins.

I was a little vague for last night, just due to wanting to sleep. Working on a song will do that to ya. At one point last night, an older gentleman, probably in his 70s came up to me and told me I was the best music on the whole ship. He didn’t necessarily like all the songs I was playing (though he liked a bunch.. I think he was referring more to the new stuff), he said I had “the beat” that made people want to get up an dance. A lot of people through pout the week danced, so I guess I know what he was talking about. Ever yesterday, another 80 year old gentleman told me I played the only music worth dancing too on the whole ship.

I also have had people through out the week come in and listen to me do my 90’s thing and they love that, so it’s just a nice mix of music for everyone, and anyone can dance to it.

I was sad however, that I didn’t get to see Greg or Jill the last couple days. Not even to say goodbye. Hopefully they e-mail me, because they definitely made my job all the more enjoyable.

Last night was pretty dead towards the end. Most people were heading to the dancin’ disco. Kind of odd, because usually no one is in there, but the older crowd were eating it up. So for my last hour, I played for one woman, and eventually just broke into a dialog about her working for a newspaper in Houston, Texas. We talked about music, her website, and stuff like that, and I managed to finish 15 minute early. I went to my room and immediately got to work on the song. I worked on it straight until 3 am.

I passed out pretty quick, but had nightmares I woke up late and didn’t get to my gig on time, so of course I woke up a few times in worries.

Over my room intercom, Colleen made an announcement from guest services. I decided to just get up, which was about 9:40. I listened to the song, went and showered, and went out and got a caper. Hung out and chatted with the girls at guest services for a bit, then ate lunch. I had raisin bran, and yogurt.

For all those who don’t know, I LOVE Yogurt. I have a cup at every meal. It’s good too! A good brand. I think that will be one of the biggest things I’ll miss.

Also, last night I was talking with Peter about when I would be leaving the ship. I guess I’ll be going January 6th. His reasoning made sense. It would be pretty hard to get someone to come out here on the ship right before Christmas. So I said I’d stay until then. I’ll just have to rush a bit when I get home. I’ll get like a day to see family and friends, and then I’ll have to pack, and go to NC, and get moved in and start classes soon after. I hate to rush, but I could use the extra 2000 dollars.. so no complaining there.

Well, gotta go do my 12:30 to boatdrill gig. It’s like a day off to me, because I get the night off. Which is the time I like to do stuff. So... yep.

Finished the song

Within an hour I wrote a new song called “The Other Side.” I went and played my shows for the night, and at one point mentioned the song, and writing it, and someone asked me to play it. So, I did, and it was receipted very well.
After the gigs, I hung out with Milan for a bit, since he leaves Wednesday, and we get a replacement piano player. We talked about recording, Macs, Music, school and other stuff.
Afterwards, I went back to my room, and went to bed.

The haircut came out good. A lot of people said I looked a lot younger.. which is good. I’m tired of people thinking I’m 30.

I woke up this morning at about 10, and I began recording my song. I got some cool ideas down. I managed to eat lunch, and do my laundry, but I got the song down about 60%. There’s a little bit more I want to do with it. I’ll try to do what I can tonight. Tomorrow, I play 12:30 to 5, so it will be full week since I’ve stepped foot on land. Which is fine.. I’m getting used to being on the ship, where it doesn’t bother me so much. I have a lot of work to do on my new music, and my website.
I have a killer headache tonight, which keeps coming back, and the crowd has been pretty cool. I managed to bump into Jeff, the piano player, and he wants me to run him through the process of what I do when I write songs. He says he has no problem writing music, it’s just the lyrics. I told him it takes a lot of practice, but we could go over it otherwise. Probably on our first sea day. Well, now I gotta go run and finish up my gig. Got two more hours to go, and then my room to finish up my song.

After the gig, I went to my room and I finished my song for the most part. I might go back and fix little things as I learn how to do them in logic. But.. it’s 3 am.. time to sleep!!

Songs, coffee, website back up, and more songs.

Two nights ago, I went through my gigs. It was a rather quiet night. After I finished up, I visited Yulia, (because she was on the way to my room). I went to my room, and paid to get my website up. I’m going to work hard on it to get it up to date, and maybe offer some songwriting services for bands, artists, producers, and possibly gifts.

I went to bed, but tossed and turned and had a lot of weird stuff on my mind. From people at school, to people I just met; what I’ll be doing after school and other things like that. I finally fell asleep after about an hour.

Yesterday morning, I woke up, and got started on writing the dd 31 song. After about an hour, I finished writing it. I went up and called my dad, and texted a few friends, then went downstairs and started tracking my song. After a few hours, I took a break from it, and showered up, and talked with some friends on facebook. Then I went back to working on the song, and finished it, then I got dressed in my suit, not my tux this time. Got up to go play.

When I got to my stage, a photographer was set up to take pictures at it. And he was going to be there until the end of the night. So I searched out someone with the approval to tell me what to do. I bumped into Marc, and I let him know the situation. He said he’d let Chris know, and so I went and dropped my stuff off in my room and went to eat dinner. I met a new girl named Anna from Belarus. I hadn’t seen her before, and the reason being because she joined the ship two day ago. So we chatted a bit, and I ate my sandwich. Eventually Peter showed up in a hurry. He asked if I could play in the Deco instead (because he knows how much I hate that particular room) which was fine. In the end, he’s the boss, and I’d do it anyway. But I agreed. So I only had to play 3 hours today. I listened to George Carlin, and wrote the blog as I wait to go to my gig at 7:30.

The deco wasn’t too bad. Greg and Jill hung out which made the transition easy. I went to see Eric, the piano player with Greg and Jill. Chatted with Eric a bit, and went back to finish out the night. Got to play over an hour of original music for a couple. Then, I got a mocha, got my computer, and continued work on my website. I got paid for the third song, so I’m all caught up. I went back to my room afterwards, and watched some of king kong. I fell asleep, and woke up at 10, showered, and continued more work on the website. I called in an appointment for a haircut, and now I’m about to write a new song for myself. So... here I go!

www.derekdaisey.com

Moving Along

After the gig that night, I met up with Colleen and went to see the comedian, who was pretty funny. Then she went to bed, and I went back to my room and played games! THEN, I went to sleep. I woke up at 12:30.... Pretty late... but there wasn't much to do because we weren't docked at Juneau until 2. So, I ate lunch, signed up for skydiving, then played more games. At 2:30, I checked my phone messages and saw that Nick had called three times. So, I caught up with him, and found out what's going on in his life. Lots of stuff. He's moving out of NC. But, due to the circumstances I won't say where he's going. But he's doing good, which was nice to hear.

Then Colleen and I went to see The Final Destination... which was the same premise of a movie as the first two.. They relied heavily on computer effects which kinda becomes fake for me. Afterwards, she went off with her friends, and I came back and called Felicia from school, and talked for a long while. Then, I got a banana split from the coffee shop, and chatted with Yulia for a bit. Then I decided to be productive, so I went back to my room and tracked and recorded the acoustic song in 3 hours. Most of the time was just me fooling around trying to get cool acoustic riffs going.

Afterwards, I did some research on band logos, because I really need to get one, and get my website back up. So, I emailed a site that specializes in both website design and logo creation. Then I headed off to bed.

This morning I woke myself up at 10, and took a shower, went to eat lunch. Colleen and a co-worker walked in and asked me to sit with them. Looking out the window the glacier in Glacier bay was right beside the ship. Absolutely beautiful. SO I ran up to take some pictures. Afterwards, came down to my room to check to see if I got paid for the song, and I found I pronounced a couple cities names wrong. So I rerecorded those, and sent them off. Got a reply from the website about the logos, and said they could do it by the 14th, which I gave them the thumbs up, and now I'm going to start writing the next song. I play 5-6, 7:15 to 8:15 and 9:30- 11:30. So.. here I go!

Off to a good start

Well after I blogged, I found the muse in me to writer another of the three songs. It turned out really cool. I went to bed, and woke up, and immediately got started on recording the Christian School song. I got to test out my speakers,my new mic, my porta-booth, and logic. After about 5 hours, I got it tracked and mixed, and just sent it off. A lot of it sounds great on my speakers. I was told they translate well to other speakers, so hopefully that's true! I got to play a spotted schedule tonight, which leaves me being done at 11:30. Not too bad. And tomorrow's my day off.. a day early! We'll be in Juneau, so I'll check my internet stuff, do my usual runs and then record the next song I wrote.

I might try to write the other one tonight, just to have in case I want to record back to back. The 1st one I'm doing will be pretty simple on the account it will just be acoustic. The other one will probably be a band song, which takes longer,obviously. Well I'm gonna go string up my guitar! Write soon!

4 days apart!

Wow! It’s been quite a few days since I’ve updated! The last few days have been pretty crazy. To finish up what went down on Saturday, I ended up riding to Walmart alone, due to not finding Gabe. I ended up getting a temporary replacement speakers until I could get my monitor traded. I also got a bunch of 5 dollar movies.
When I got back to the ship, I showed Colleen, who was at Guest services, and she liked a couple of the movies. She said there was a party that night for the crew and her friends were making her go, and in turn she was making me go. I went back to my room and started working on a new song. Has a cool rock feel to it. After fooling with it for a few hours, I had dinner, and just watched movies, until Colleen called and said she didn’t want to go to the party and asked if I wanted t do a movie night. So she came over and we watched “The Dark Knight”.
Afterwards, we put “Big Daddy” in but she fell asleep, and suddenly woke up, so she left, and I finished the movie and fell asleep.

On Sunday, it was Skagway, so I didn’t get off the boat. I really didn’t do too much. Practiced some new songs, and had my meals. Did laundry.. Did my gig... It was pretty bland for a day.

Monday, it was Ketchikan, and I had gotten a couple song orders, and I saw the price of the ps3 went down, so I picked one of those up and the batman game with Colleen (Who managed to catch me as I was leaving the ship.)
When I got back to my room, I set everything up, and got playing. She called me about 30 minutes into it, and said the cleaning steward wanted to clean her room, so she asked if she could come over and watch. So, she did, and napped through out some of it. Then she ran off the work. I didn’t have to work until 9:30. So I just played games. I was pretty unproductive.
I did my gig, which I had some good people hanging out. I finished at 12:40, which was cool, and I got to go to bed .

Yesterday, it was a sea day. I made myself get up at 9, so I could continue the Batman saga! I went to lunch at 11:30, and sat with Glenn and Aaron, another instrumentalist. I then found out the clocks went forward an hour.. so it was really 12:30... Woops. So I continued playing games for a bit after, then set up my guitar, to go play in the Atrium at 5. I played all soft old songs. It got a lot of old people hanging out at the bar.
I saw Greg and Jill, the Australian couple so I ran and talked with them for a bit, and then I went to eat dinner, played my game! AND then went to my gig, and played 9-1. My last night in the Shanghai bar, because the new piano player was boarding today. His name is Eric from what I saw on the Caper. After the gig, I went to the Crew bar to say goodbye to leighton who was signing off. James let me know I would be playing the artist lounge for the next two weeks. Lame... I saw Colleen with her friends, so I just waved, and hung out with the guys.
Afterwards, I went to get a little bite to eat, and a production singer sat with me (forgot to ask for his name). He mentioned that some of the production people were curious if I’d be a production singer. I said if I didn’t get a pay decrease, and had all the same benefits I’d be open, but with the casino job coming up, I’m not going to have time to do it.
When I got to my room, I checked my internet, and saw I had another song order. And a lot of emails from confused friends why I haven’t been on to talk. Colleen called and asked why I didn’t come over and talk.. I just figured she was having a “girls night”. After that, I went to sleep!

I woke up at 10, quickly got dressed. Packed my busted speaker, and went up to leave. I had to wait with Gabe, because we had items we were going to return. After waiting a bit, MSA walked us into the terminal. We were quickly allowed to leave, since we had receipts. We walked to Tom Lee Music, and split up. I went upstairs, and explained the situation, and they swapped it out for me. I picked up a condensor mic, and a porta-booth kind of thing, where it deadens the sound around the mic, so I get a more crisp sound, and it gives more more room control in the computer. I picked up Apple Snow-Leopard, and rode a taxi back to the ship. It was worth it.
Came back to my room, reorganized my room so I could fit the speakers, TV, ps3, and other various items on my desk, I set up the porta-booth, and tested everything out and it sounds great! Tomorrow, I’ll get to tackle a song order, and try to finish it. I play in the artist lounge from 5:30 to 6:30, and then 7:30-10. Least I finish up at a decent hour. We start the Glacier Bay run this week, which means We start, and end in Vancouver, but we still see Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. All in a different order. Juneau is first... Not sure if my day off changes or not... But I assume it will since Saturday is now a sea day.
Two weeks until Hawaii!!! I’m going skydiving!! Okie, gotta get to work!

I went and played. It’s a nice little place. I liked it more than I thought. Greg and Jill watched me, so I played all originals. Then went to dinner, then went back, and had a lot of people there so I rocked out and had a great time. People were dancing, singing along, and all that great stuff. When I finished, I checked out the new piano guy. Real good piano player. He looks to be between 22-28.. I’ll have to ask.
I got a milkshake and talked with Iulyia, who served me the drink. Then I came back to my room. And here I am writing a song for a christian school. One of the three song orders. I’m one line from being done writing it, and I’ll spend tomorrow recording it. Good night though... I was done at 10.. great stuff!