Acapulco... and confinement..

Another couple days have gone by, and since I’m contained to my room for 24 hours (ate some bad food in Mexico, and they want to make sure I don’t have something contagious,) I have time to get caught up!
So, the 28th, or Wednesday, was a pretty laid back day. It started off with class at 9 AM, which really didn’t start to nearly 9:30 because no one seems to understand that the quicker we get started, the quicker we can leave. I got showered and ready for it, but I was definitely feeling tired. The class went over more stuff that most of us should know off hand. It went by pretty painlessly.
I went lunch afterwards, and ended up only having some soup to eat. I drank some tea, and talked with Anton (One of the casino managers) Ruxandra (Dealer) and a couple other guys from there. Afterwards, I went to my room, and laid down and ended up falling asleep for a couple hours. In middle of some of the strangest dreams I’ve had in awhile, a loud knock came at the door, which sent my flying out of my bed in panic to go open the door. It was some orange shirt guys. I thought it was security doing cabin inspections again, (which didn’t make sense, because we just had them last week,) but it turned out they were having a lot of problems with some piping of hot and cold water, which I knew because all of last week, every time I went to take a shower it was FREAKING FREEZING... But some people have it completely opposite.. like scolding hot...
They told me I could go back to sleep while they worked on it. They were in there for about a half hour. Then they left, and I slept more. I woke up at 5, and went to the bathroom to see I had a completely new set up of how to turn on my water. Made a lot more sense to me than the last system.
I went to dinner, and then practiced more spanish until I had to go to work upstairs. I ran up and did my set until 12:30, where I then had to go to rehearse with the Christian band I agreed to help. Afterwards, Eric wanted to get some food, but we realized it was too late for the mess, so we went up to the pizza shop on lido deck. When we got there, Eric thought he saw the guy who threatened him, so he told me to keep walking. I was about to be mad because I walked all that way for nothing, but we passed the back door of the pizzeria, and we leaned in and told them our situation and asked if they could make us a mushroom with goat cheese pizza. They said come back in ten minutes, and they’ll have it for us. So we went outside and sat at the fantail bar and chatted for the 10 minutes.
We then went back to get our pizza, and at first Eric didn’t seem too keen on eating it (which would-a been fine because I wanted all to myself!) but after he took a bite, he agreed it was delicious. So we finished our pizza as we talked about random things, and then I was feeling hungry again, so we checked to see if the coast was clear in front of the pizzeria, which it was, and we got another slice each of pepperoni pizza.
We sat near security just in case, and talked for more. I told him about my stalker experiences, and some of my background which I credit for giving me the ability to write the way I do. He grew up a lot different from me. His parents rarely drank, and he didn’t have cable, was always a good kid. Until he came out to ships. Ha, but regardless, he didn’t have the experiences I’ve had.
Afterwards, I brought him back to my room and showed him a couple Weird Al Songs he hadn’t heard of. He loved them, of course, and then he left, and I went to bed.

The 29th, I woke up at 8:45, and threw a shirt and hat on and went to class. Same deal as the day before.. We waited nearly a half hour to start, but LUCKILY it’s a busy port day, so class only lasted ‘till 10. At 10:30, I went to rehearsal with the band and we practiced for about 40 minutes, before being interrupted by some higher up people, who said they needed the room for immigration. So we left, and I went to my room and got my rain coat, ID and wallet, and met up with Eric, Claire and Thomas to go out for lunch in Acapulco.
As we made our way of the ship, I understood exactly what Eric meant... We were bombarded by taxi drivers, Tour Guides, and children asking us if we wanted to go to the market, go see the cliff divers, if we wanted gum, do we need a taxi and other questions. But the thing was, we were asked about 15 THOUSAND TIMES! Some of these people were determined.. They would get up next to you and walk for a minute and just keep asking, which really got irritating. I understand it’s their job, but when you see 80 other people doing the same thing... Saying the same thing.... and getting refused, DON’T ASK!
So we walked a different direction from what the other passengers were going. Though it was a cloudy day, it was hot as hell, and I was really wishing I didn’t have my raincoat.
As we walked, we stopped across the street from three restaurants. We stood in place debating what we wanted, until a man named Miguel stepped over and told us the best restaurant in town was the little shack between the two larger restaurants. He walked us over there and got us set up with a table. We found out he’s a tour guide but he doesn’t get money from us.. We came to the conclusion he gets a percentage of sales from the people he recommends there. Which was fine by us.
The restaurant was pretty dirty.. But most of the town had that feel. But from looking around, they did make good food. So I ordered a pineapple juice drink. Everybody got their stuff. I was really trying my spanish out. Rosetta Stone has been a great review for me, because I could say a lot more today than I could in all the years of taking it.
I ordered 3 steak tacos, with some black-beans (which I don’t eat) and a Tamale. Eventually I got a banana milkshake too.. Which was GOD DELICIOUS! All the food was very good, and very filling. I must say I was impressed. But through out the meal, people from OUTSIDE, would come to our table and ask us if we wanted to by necklaces, gum, candy, hammocks, and then go all over again. The sad part was seeing the children do it. Because it was Thursday... why the hell weren’t they in school? We said no a lot.. We tried to discuss how Americans would act in America if people did that. I think they would freak out...
Thomas told us of stories of his run ins with the law, which was all a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Eric told his... Claire and I didn’t really have any.
We paid our bill which ended up not being more than 36 dollars for all of us. We then just went for a walk. We walked through out the towns and saw the dirty shops.. Most of which were just open front buildings, with cardboard as a water-mat. Claire and Thomas wanted burnable DVDs, so we set out. We passed many stores. One had action figures, and I saw BATMAN... God... I wanted him... but my friends kept walking, and I didn’t want to get left behind. So I just ran on. We passed another store and a pretty mexican woman said “Hola” and I said it back, and we continued walking until she said “I love you.” Then I stopped and turned around. She smiled at me, and I said “Gracias” and kept walking.. I didn’t know how to react to that.
We into one store which was a like a mexican version of a small business Staples. They had everything.. but Burnable DVDs. The main store guy kept telling us to buy paper.. pens, pencils, and more. I think that was the only English he knew.
We walked a little further down and finally found a shop with some. Thomas and Claire got them, and we continued walking... Then it got to a point where were lost, and we just started making turns in hopes of finding the ship. We passed a dog that was lying on the side walk.. He looked dead... then he moved.. that freaked us out. I think more because we came to terms with his death as were about to pass him, but then his movement changed all that.
We walked by a prostitute house, which had 8 girls standing outside in slutty clothes. A few of them were actually pretty. I’m sure they were more expensive. It was kind of funny to us though. The town just grew dirtier and dirtier the more we went in. I mentioned to Eric, this is probably what America will turn into in 40 years when we’re not a super power anymore (God, I hope that isn’t the case.)
Eventually we found the ship, and we boarded. We went our separate ways for an hour, because had a rehearsal then. I just went to my room and practiced more spanish. Then I headed up and jammed out with the band. Then I went to dinner, and sat with Aaron and watched some of The Office on TV. Then went and recorded some of my new song. Then passed out until 11. I started to have some bad cramps in my stomach area. Diarrhea cramps....
I went to the Christian show and played. It was rather funny because the water tight doors were closed, forcing people that wanted to go to the crew bard to cut through the Versatile lounge where we were playing. So we had a good amount of people see us.
When we were done, we sang Mar, the bass player, happy birthday, then we went to the crew mess to get a bite to eat.
I got Frosted Flakes. Afterwards, I went to my room to try to sleep, which didn’t happen until 4 am.

My alarm went off several times, and I managed to get up for 8:52. I ran down to my class, tired as can be. Untalkative. Initially. Ruxandra said she didn’t like me in the mornings because I didn’t talk to her much. The class went on for an hour, and then we went up on deck to see the difference between the Tender boats and the Lifeboats. Tenders had navigation equipment on them, and radar... Makes me wonder why they don’t just put that on ALL life boats... but that’s just me.
Zophia and I talked in the back since we couldn’t really hear the instructor. I asked her how her bar was going (piano bar) she says that she hasn’t really cared, because she works so late and has to be up so early. She’ll get a new piano bar guy in a couple weeks though.
Afterwards, I came back to my room and definitely had diarrhea, (sorry to those who don’t care to know.) After that episode I laid down and fell asleep for 4 hours... Then I got up and had another episode. At that point I felt it was necessary for me to go to the infirmary to get something for my stomach.. I didn’t want to be playing tonight and had bathroom breaks every 30 minutes.
When I got there, they gave me a GI form... It’s a stomach virus that gives you diarrhea and vomiting spells for a couple days, and is highly contagious. The form required me to fill in what I ate, and drank and where for the last 4 days. I honestly think it was just the food in Acapulco. So the doctor gave me some pills, and told me I was to stay in my room until 5 pm tomorrow. He told me to call room service for food.
So, I went back to my room and took my pills, and again had another terrible episode. So it’s probably for the best I went. I don’t typically go to the infirmary unless it’s a real problem.. But I could have something, and I don’t want to be THAT GUY who gave the whole ship it.
Since I hadn’t eaten all day, I called room service. Turns out the GI menu is pretty limited. They sent over 4 pieces of toast, two bananas and two cups of apple juice. I ate the two pieces of toast, and then got an idea, and cut up the bananas and put it on the other two slices of toast like a sandwich and had a banana sandwich.
It was good enough for what it had to be. Now I’m just in my room... I can’t work tonight, so I guess I’ll just watch a movie, or work on music or something. Until tomorrow!

Days of hoping and a new class

Went a couple days with out writing, but not due to laziness, I assure you. Sunday was quite a rough day because the night before I couldn’t sleep well at all. It was a slow day, but I went to the Supper club with Eric, and got some good food. My last night of playing went over well. Sold a couple CDs, so I was happy. I really couldn’t wait to finish and go to bed, because the next day would be the day I’d get my robot guitar.
Due to troubles of sleeping, I asked Val if she would give me a couple Tylenol PMs so I could fall asleep. Which she did. I managed to fall asleep around 2 am, but man was I mad I was getting up at 8:30. My body wanted to sleep for many more hours, but stubbornly I denied it.
I got up and did my usual throw a shirt on, put on my hat, and go to the gangway, where there was a line. So I got in line and waited. Cleo got behind me and we talked a little. Then a hostess from the Supper Club started talking to us.
Eventually I managed to get out. First thing I did was call the guy with the guitar. He let me know that his guitar tech, Derick would drop off the guitar around noon. Since I was out and about early, I decided to find the closest music store so I could get some strap locks and straps for the new guitars. I found Center City Music, which unfortunately was closed until 11 am. But fortunately it was only two blocks further than the mall.
So I walked back to the mall. I bumped into the security guard, Mark from the ship. I made a little “Hey, you do security for the mall too?!” joke. I got a white mocha iced coffee from starbucks and saw a Rossetta Stone booth. So I went and checked that out, since I was curious about it. The guy was real cool and showed me the demo of it, and went on to say Spanish has 5 levels in the box, versus most of the other languages which only have 3 (though they were planning to expand soon.) They had a little payment plan where I could pay it off over time, and the spanish level would get me to almost language fluency, unlike the other languages where you can do enough basic conversational levels. So, I got that.
Afterwards, I went back to the music store. Turns out it was a big Gibson dealer, so they had lots of Gibsons all around the place. I saw the Es-335 I had bought, and God was it beautiful. Looking forward to getting mine next week. Saw the ES-137... another guitar I have a fetish for. And they were all reasonably priced. Almost to the point where maybe I should have just waited to come to town to get the ES-335 (But I didn’t this store was here at the time... soo..)
I got my straps and strap locks, and headed back towards the ship. I bumped into Eric on the way there and we talked for a bit, and then I walked to outside of the ship, and waited for the call from Derrick. He called and we set up a place to meet, and he drove up in a black jeep wrangler. He pulled out the guitar and showed it too me, and went on about what a great guitar it was. It truly was gorgeous. I was very much satisfied.
I took it back to the ship, where I tried the “robot” capabilities. It worked great. Then I tried Rosetta Stone out. It was a great review for my spanish. I was really kicking it’s ass.
I had boat drill, and then I went to get showered and ready for my job.. which was at 5:30-6:30, and 7:30 - 10:30.
During my 6:30- 7:30 break, I ate dinner, and stopped by the CTC to talk with Simon. Told him about Rosetta, and then ran to get my guitar to show him. He nearly crapped himself by how amazed he was. His favorite color is purple, so the guitar was that much more appealing to him. I met his corporate boss who was on the ship this week looking over some stuff. Real pretty lady, and real funny. Can’t remember her name though..
Went and finished my set, and went back to my room to learn more spanish. Peter knocked on my door to let me know I had my training class starting the next day at 9 am in the crew bar. Then I went to rehearsal (I agreed to play acoustic guitar for this christian concert a few of the phillipino band members.)
That all went well. Eric was supposed to practice with us, but some drunk guy hassled him while he was working and threatened to stab him and punch him and the guy pushed him while he was playing. So he was pretty angry about all that.
We all went to the crew mess and talked about it and ate our food. Then I went back to my room and went to sleep.

GOT UP AT 8:45... which sucked sooo bad, but I went to the class. Aaron was there, and we talked for a bit, until most of the other people came. A couple were missing, so we had to wait for them. 50 MINUTES... And it was Sasima that was holding us up. I was a little aggravated. We went over some basic safety stuff and introduced ourselves.
Afterwards, I went to lunch. Sat with Ruxandra and Virginia (dealers at the casino) and talked for a bit, then went to my room, worked on more spanish, and complete and passed the first Unit! So hell yeah!
Then I started working on a new song. Getting new guitars always brings new songs out of me. I tracked some of it, and then I showered up and got ready for Formal night and playing in the casino from 5-6,7-8, 9:30-12:30. The reason being for the earlier hours because there’s a cruise critic on the ship, and we needed to fill some dead spots with nothing going on,
I played my stuff. Met some cool people, sold a CD, and now I’m in my room debating sleep, because I got class at 9 tomorrow. Getting up at 8 to shower. I’m going to get my sleeping schedule back to normal. I work at 8 tomorrow (YES!) so, should be a good day!

Employee of The Month Dinner

As I watched the Watchmen, I got a phone call in the middle. I quickly got up to answer. It was Stu. He asked if he woke me, which he hadn’t, and I replied no. He then told me to remember the dinner tonight with the captain. He told me to make sure I’m dressed up nice, no elbows on the table, and to finish my vegetables (a little joke.) I told him no worries, and I went back to watching my movie.
When the movie finished, I went to take a shower. Then I played some spore. At around 7 I got dressed into my suit, and hung out at the CTC as I waited for us to leave (Simon, one of the CTC people.) He took me up to the bar outside the empire room. The deco lounge. Jim was playing guitar and singing some Bob Dylan. He had a nice little group of older people watching. He leaves in a couple cruises sadly enough, but I watched him play away. The Hotel Director was there, whose name is Keith. He’s a nice guy from what I’ve gathered meeting him in the past.
Soon, the Captain, the chief engineer, and head navigator arrived. Keith asked if I wanted a drink and to order it since it was free. So I ordered a virgin Bloody Mary. Very delicious! No need for alcohol! Keith asked how it was playing on Lido and I told him about my little experience with the interruptions. He said he had a meeting with Peter and Stu about not having people play during that time up there since it’s dead, and the possibilities of those interruptions.
We then made our way into the Empire dining room. I saw Svetlana and waved, as we, the group, walked down to our table on the floor below us. I was always under the impression that the food in the dining room wouldn’t be that delicious but that myth was definitely proven wrong. As we all sat, we were handed a menu. My eyes were set on fried oysters, shrimp cocktail, Steak and what ever dessert. Keith and I had the most dialogue. He’s originally from New Mexico, but lives in Hawaii now. I filled him in on my college, and music and all that good stuff. He told me he had a relative that was a disk jockey for radio in Arizona, and he would send my CD on over. So that’s cool!
The dinner was very delicious. I told everyone about my guitar purchases and such. The Captain said he had a friend who collected guitars. Had 13 gibsons, and fenders and other big names.
As we were finishing up our meal, over the intercom they asked everyone to congratulate the employee of the month for it’s because of their comment cards that we get voted to be it. Everyone clapped and all that stuff.
The waiter then came over and asked what I wanted for desert. I was stuck between this almond chocolate cake and this warm cake with ice cream. The waiter suggested the latter, but he brought out both. His suggestion was really REALLY good. I was so surprised.
By the end of the dinner, I shook hands with everyone and said my goodbyes, and headed down to the CTC, where I would hang before going to see the Big Easy show. An hour passed and I made my way down there and sat in the top row. Very good looking show until the middle where there was a technical difficulty and they had to stop the show. Due to lack of sleep I decided to leave, and try to get to bed around 12... Maybe it will put my sleeping pattern back in order!
I’ve been on the ship for 3 months and two days, and like the months before, I still love the job VERY much. The homesickness feeling has definitely died a lot in the last three weeks. Now I’m just falling into my patterns out here. It’s a great job and I’m really glad I was able to get set up in this! Hawaii was so worth it, and I loved Alaska, and now I’m in a country where I can use the 4 semesters of Spanish I had. Such a great job. Well, I’m off to bed!

Insomnia

Well sleeping was a pretty hard thing to do last night. Because I didn’t fall asleep until 10 this morning. I watched The Longest Yard, and browsed the internet, looking through craigslist and San Diego for some cool guitars. Wanted to see if there were any deals. I did come across a robot Les Paul guitar. It was purple, but it was less than 1300 dollars. Only used 10 times and not at shows. Considering the guitar is a limited collectors item, and brand new would typically start at 2400 dollars, it was very much a steal so I contacted the seller. I had some money saved from my songwriting funds, and another Gibson guitar wouldn’t hurt to have. Aside from the fact that it’s one of the 5 guitars every guitarist should have, now I’ll have 3/5 (My Strat, Les Paul, and Es-335).
The guitar is called a robot guitar because it has mechanisms in the tuners, and some hardware built in, that lets it tune itself. I push a button and the winders wind the strings until it is in perfect tune. Not only can it do that, but you can program 6 other tunings into it and it will tune to it immediately. What’s different about this guitar from my variax (which changes tuning at the change of a switch) is that the variax uses some kind of synth technology to give it it’s tuning. Though it sounds great for live purposes, it isn’t very usable while recording in the studio. You also have to tune it by hand (not that that’s a problem.. just naming the differences.) On the Robot guitar, you simply push a button and it starts winding away. It strings itself, and if helps you fix intonation if it goes off. Minimizes the the trips to the music store to get that fixed. So, it seemed like a cool buy. The guitar is purple (not my favorite color in the world) but it is more limited than the blue ones, and that just gives me a reason to cover it up in stickers and make it look like a rock guitar.
After making the purchase, the guy told me he would drop it off (no shipping required) at the dock on Monday since he lived three blocks away. This was all done through paypal and ebay, and I have buyers protection, and he has a perfect rating, so it seemed safe enough.
After that, it was 7 am, so I made my way to breakfast. I figured the food would help make me tired. I have eggs, bacon and oatmeal. No one was in there but me and the waiters. I didn’t expect to see any of the entertainment people. Especially after the party last night.
I traveled back to my room and got online to tell a few friends from home. I called Nick and told him, and Felicia.. but the satellite cut out. I managed to get in a e-mail conversation with Nick’s real mom. She was really nice, and went on about how important I was to Nick. She asked if I wanted to come to the wedding, or if I could arrange it. Unfortunately it was so close and soon, I couldn’t make that happen on the ship in such short notice. But I’ll think of something to do!
I managed to fall asleep, but I was having dreams of the guitars and that woke me up in excitement. Now I fear I’ll never fall asleep. So I’m gonna put on The Watchmen and watch that until 5ish, where I’ll get cleaned up for my dinner tonight!

Early Morning, 1st day late, and outside crew party.

Today, I woke up at 8 am. Got online and checked some stuff. Marina was pretty upset so I talked her for a bit. I had a safety meeting at 9:30, which I went too. On the way up through the elevator, I saw and talked with Pat. Then Glenn, and Peter. The meeting was something I’ve been too probably once a month since I’ve been here. So, it was nothing new.
When I got back to my room, Eric called and said he heard I wanted to go into town. That wasn’t really the case. I don’t want to go into Mexico alone. He and I talked about his new job and the pros and cons. And then how fast life goes by.
After the conversation, I went to eat cereal in the staff mess. I quickly ate it up, and went back to my room to watch Bicentennial Man. After about 15 minutes, I just felt very tired, so I went to sleep.
I woke up at 5 pm. I pushed play on the movie and watched it for about 15 minutes. Then I got a phone call. It was Peter. He said I was supposed to be playing on Lido Deck right then. Very confused, I picked up the caper. It said “Derek in the Casino, 9- late.” I told him, and he said “Are you looking at the right caper?” I looked again, and sure enough at the top of the list, it said “Derek on Lido 5-6”. I freaked, and apologized. I quickly got dressed, and ran to the casino, and got my guitar and wires, and ran as quickly as I could to Lido Deck.
When I got there, a married couple asked why the music hadn’t started at 5. I apologized and let them know the deal, though they seemed a little irritated, they lightened up after I played a couple songs. Unfortunately, every single song, Guest Services interrupted my songs looking for passengers. When they come over the intercoms, it disconnects my mic and guitar. So every song for a half hour, they cut it. Then at 6, Stu came on the intercom. Then the captain, saying two people were late getting to the ship, and we were waiting just a little longer. Then I played a couple more songs, and broke the b string, but since I ran up in such a hurry I didn’t have any replacement strings, so I just played with out it.
At 6:30 I finished up, since I wanted to make sure I played my full hour. I dropped my stuff off in the Casino, and went to dinner. I ordered a cheeseburger, and got a glass of tea and sat down. Stu came over and sat with me. I told him about the situation but he told me not to worry. It was his fault for separating my times away from each other. He also said he knew I would intentionally miss a set, and we all make mistakes. He told me then he wanted to try to figure something out where he showcases musicians on the ship like me and Claire, and Eric by having us play with the spirit orchestra. I told him I’d be very open to that idea. He said let him know any crazy ideas I may have, because he’ll make anything realistic work.
Afterwards, I sat with Peter and Aaron and apologized to Peter again. He said he set up a meeting with me and the captain (joking of course, because tomorrow I have the Employee of the Month dinner.)
I came back to my room, to finish Bicentennial Man, shower and then prepare for my 9-1 set.
I went up to the stage around 8:20, and started restringing my guitar, and getting set up. My voice was doing great and hitting all the songs with ease. I’m still dropping a lot of songs at least a half a step. It’s really making it less of a struggle for me. I played and got a good group going. On a break, I talked with a group that had been to see me every night, and talked about the CD and where it’s going.
After the gig, I went up to lido deck to get some of that mushroom pizza I had the other night. But they were really busy and couldn’t make it for me. I saw a party going on on the back deck. Turns out it was a crew party. Everyone was outside, but it was more desirable than the disco, because of all the fresh air, and not 80% smoke. As I looked around for Eric, or someone I knew, I passed Colleen but she didn’t seem very interested in talking with me. Probably because I haven’t made an attempt to hang out and all. And I’ve kinda stood her up a couple disco nights.. But it’s whatever. Svetlana stopped me and told me she hasn’t seen me in awhile.
Her and I got to talking. She asked me why she never sees me in the crew bar. And I told her because I don’t feel like drinking and all that. Then she wanted to know when she could get a cd. She asked where I was from. As most girls from Russia, she had no idea where Delaware was or that it was a state. So I informed her it’s the first state and she better remember. She told me she wants me to go with the disco with her one night before she leaves (which is in three weeks sadly.) I told her what I wanted to do for halloween which involved shaving my beard. She told me she liked my beard and I should keep it. I told her, if I shaved it I’d look younger. I pulled out my laptop and showed her a picture with me without the beard. She said she liked it even more. So, I’m thinking of shaving... just to feel it out. If I don’t like it, or if people don’t like it, I’ll just grow it back in a week.
So after a few minutes of talking, her boyfriend came over and put his arm around her to show me she was his property kind of thing, which was whatever, and I went to my room afterwards, since there was no one there I knew or cared to talk too.
I gotta fall asleep soon, but I have the day off tomorrow, which is great. Got my special dinner tomorrow with the captain! 7:45. So here I go!

Back to work

I managed to drift off last night at 9:30... And woke up at 1. I listened to the song some more, and a completely different melody came about, and different ideas for lyrics. So I wrote down a few verses. After an hour or so, I wanted to lay down to sleep but unfortunately, I was too awake. As I was searching through my backup harddrive and found a bunch of itunes movies I didn’t know I had with me, I found Forgetting Sarah Marshall. So I put that on and watched that until 5 am. I really wanted to see it again since I’ve been to Hawaii. Watching it made me miss Hawaii a ton.
I managed to fall asleep around 5:30. I had a very bizarre dream. I was running with a couple people from some kind of bad organization. They were trying to kill us from what I gathered. We were caught, and they put machine stuff in us. When I awoke from the surgery, they asked me to walk to the side of the building (which we were probably 20 stories high) and jump. I was reluctant too, but they said the machines would save me. So I leaped and as I fell towards the ground, i became very nervous, but as I hit the ground, I bounced back up. I landed again, and over radio, the people told me I could jump high altitudes with just a little thinking. So I tried jumping and sure enough I jumped high into the air, and landed and did it again. Until I fell in between canyons in a mountain forest area. When I landed I was afraid there might be something I don’t want to face in there, so I tried to leap. But I didn’t jump high. I tried and tried. I heard one of the guys captured with me call out, and then I lifted into the air over the mountain back to the street to my counter part. Then I woke up.
It was 2:15. So I missed lunch. I got up and started working on the song again. I was really stumped on the chorus, until I realized I wrote something earlier yesterday that fit perfectly in the chorus spot. So most of the song is written. I fooled around with recording the vocals, but I’m not getting the right sound out of myself. So, after a bit I took a break.
I put on Pirates of the Caribbean. Showered up, went and got dinner, then came back to finish my movie. Peter called me asking me if I wanted to take a safety class that would show me how to drive the lifeboats. It’s a month long course, but if I came back to ships, it’d be a cool thing to know, so I said I’d do it. 10 minutes later he called letting me know that the captains dinner will be the next formal night (two days) at 7:45. So I get that night off. Which is pretty awesome.
I went to do my gig, and my voice seemed pretty normal. No squeaking, but I did start lowering the keys to a lot of the song, so I’m not over pushing myself. I’m becoming to notice that most people can’t tell the difference anyway. I don’t need to be able to prove I can hit these hard songs every night.
The night went over well. Wasn’t that crazy of a group. Pretty laid back.
At the end of the gig, I made my way to my room, and put on POTC : Dead Man’s Chest and watched it. Now it’s 3:57 and I have safety training tomorrow at 9:30. Best I go to sleep!

A much needed day off!

Today was definitely a day I needed. It was nice to not really have anything to do. I got up at 12:40, and got lunch, and then played Beatles Rockband. And beat it.
Eric came knocking on the door at 3 o clock, to give me his ID so I could get off, but he said lots of pimps were trying to hook him up with prostitutes, and children would run over tugging at him to give them money. So I decided to just stay put. We talked for a bit, and he told me a couple funny stories of his past. Let’s just say it involved a special cocktail. And no.. not drugged.
We both decided we wanted to eat up in the supper club, so we ran up to try to get a reservation. Unlike last time, they were pretty mean and pushy and told us they wouldn’t hold anything unless our boss emailed them. Unfortunately Peter was off the ship, so I guess that wasn’t happening.
After Eric left, I started working on a new song. It’s real digital like, kind of like “Day Dreaming” but it’s a lot more involved with digital instruments and it has a real cool feeling to it. Reminds me of something the killer would do, except a lot darker.
Went to take a break from it, and ate lunch in the staff mess. Food looked pretty gross but I gave the sweet and sour chicken a try, and I’m really glad I did. It was really good.
Afterwards, I came back to the room to continue working on the song. At some point my program was giving me problems, so I had to move some stuff around on the computer to get it back to normal.
I took a little break and checked my email and shipping status on the guitar. It said the expected delivery date was Tuesday... One day after I leave San Diego. So I emailed Don (sweetwater salesman) and asked if he could call them and see if they’ll expedite it. I don’t really want it to sit in a hot warehouse for 8 days, with the chance that someone could steal it. And the whole reason they held on the guitar an extra day was so it would arrive on Monday. So, I’m going to fight to get it here, so I can have it then. It’s not a matter of patience.. it’s a matter of the thing being safe.
Now I’m working on melody and lyrics for this song.I have two different directions I’m working on, but neither really intrigue me. So... this will take awhile!
I work tomorrow at 8, so I’ll taking it easy. Maybe working on this song. Try some guitar on it maybe.

voice problems...

I woke up today around 9:30. All on my own! No alarms, and I felt pretty good. My voice felt good. I really felt I was going to have a good day. The ship was bouncing around a bit so I figured we were in a storm, so I switched on the TV to make sure. Sure enough, it was raining and windy with choppy seas.
I watched a movie called “InkFelt”(I think that’s the name.) It was pretty cool. Brendan Frasier, and the guy who played smiegal from LOTR was in it. I had lunch, which consisted of lucky charms. Then I showered to get ready for my lido gig. I assumed from the rain, it would be cancelled, so I called Peter to ask, and he said just play the extra hours later on in the casino. He made it my call to start at 8 or 9. So I decided 9.
I then watched “That Thing You Do” and played some Beatles Rockband. Went to dinner, and had eggs... Sunny side up. I was kinda full from the cheetoes I got from the upstairs store earlier.
After dinner, I took an hour long nap. Then made my way up to the stage around 8 to restring my guitar. I made the right choice to start at 9, because the bar was dead at 8. After restringing, I got an iced mocha to wake me up. I talked with a couple dealers, and then went up to play my first set. A couple was watching, and I managed to play a couple songs off the album, and they bought the album right after. Then more people showed up and I was playing hard for 2 long hours.
I took a half hour break, and went and chatted with Michelle the dealer, Rezalee, and then met the new dealer Mariya. She was very nice. She was 28 and from Russia. It was her 1st contract on Carnival.
My voice was feeling good through the two hours, but then it started to squeak again, which really was frustrating for me. I think it pissed me off more than normal tonight, because I’m getting sick of easy songs becoming a hassle for me.
When I finished my gig, I went to my room, and researched vocal nodes. Maybe that was the problem, but nodes would constrict me from singing all the time, not for 5 days off and on. So I posted a question online to ask, and we’ll see what kind of answers I’ll get. I’m going to go to the infirmary tomorrow and see what they think.
Eric called me to talk about a hook up he had, and we talked for about an hour. He told me he wanted me to be his wingman for when he was in the disco. There were two sisters hanging out there, but I had work. I just would have helped distract one anyways. Not really looking to get myself in trouble with passengers.
After talking with him, I started writing this! Tomorrow is my day off, so I’m going to try to take it easy!

Got my CDs, and... the hurricane died a little!

Falling asleep was such a hard thing to do last night. I tossed and turned for over an hour with senseless thoughts running through my mind. By senseless, I mean, they had in no way in an affect on my life. They were alteration thoughts of reality that had no busy keeping me up.
I managed to to sleep until 2:30. And I wanted to sleep more. The ship was bouncing a bit, and very much thought we were in a storm. I turned on the television to see it was a cloudless gorgeous day outside. I knew I had to play at 5-8 and 9:30 to 11:30, so I took it easy. My voice was still hurting. So I just relaxed until 4, where I took a shower. Got dressed in my suit, went down to the MSA to see if my CDs had come in and they did! So now I have 120 CDs!
I came down to the VERY dead Casino, and player some upbeat songs.. for no one. Played until 6. Then I went to dinner. There Glenn told me I should go to the infirmary about my voice, because maybe if enough people go there, the company will realize that pushing musicians to work longer hours actually hurts performances. 4 hours was always tolerable for me. 5 is pushing it.
I sing hard as it is, so, I’m really going to have to learn more quiet songs to take it easy. I will go to the infirmary tomorrow if it still hurts.
I came back to play at 6:30. At 6:40, Peter told me to break ‘til 7. He asked if it was busy at all. I informed him, that it really wasn’t that busy.
I bumped into Stu, and he asked me how it was going and I filled him in on the voice bit, and the dead crowd. He told me simply not to sing if no one is there. So I went outside and got some fresh air. I noticed the huge swells in the ocean. That hurricane was sending quite a rift. Luckily though, the hurricane has died to a Category 3. It was expected to die to a 1 in a couple more days. And we are expected to do our regular itinerary. Acapulco, well get to a little late but, we’ll manage to go. I have port manning, so it’s whatever. Hopefully I’ll get the day off, because I REALLY need it!
I’m on break now.. and then I have work 9:30 to 11:30. I’ll have to sing then. But it will be cool.
Amanda emailed me and told me she stuffed 75 envelopes with my pictures and she needs another 100 pictures. So I’ll do that. Should all be nice!
Alrighty, I’m going on!

2 hours of land, and heading towards Category 5 Hurricane Rick!

I woke up at 11 this morning, and I really regretted it, but I needed to make some phone calls. I called Nick first and talked to him for a bit. Then I talked with my dad for awhile. Then I called Amanda and talked about the music business stuff, and we filled each other in on some things.
After the phone conversations, I went down to my room, and called up Eric (whom I saw return while I was talking on the phone) and asked for his room key. I then made my way into town, towards the mall. I only had 2 hours to be out. So I moved fast. As I walked into the outside mall, I was stopped by a lady selling lotions... She talked me into buying a couple.But I gotta hand it to her, I feel a lot smoother :)
Then I went to lunch at a Japanese place, and had Teriyaki chicken and Sushi. All awesome.
As I was leaving the mall, I saw Val, and then Glenn.. and then Cleo. So we all walked back together.
When I got to my room in the ship, not five minutes went by before we were called to do boat drill. So, I ran up to do so. On my way up, I found out we may take the ship around Hurricane Rick. Which seems a little crazy to me. I think we should go the opposite direction, versus going towards it.
After boat drill, we had a meeting. Stu introduced himself as the new cruise director, and he introduced the new dance team, and did a run down of things.
I made my way to my room, and showered up and prepared for dinner. They had the good steak at dinner, so I ate a couple things of that. Talked with Glenn, Cleo and Val. Then I went to my room, and got ready to go to work.
I was feeling the tiredness... My voice still hurt, and there wasn’t much of a crowd. So I just took it easy and played a lot of slower songs. I left at 12, due to lack of audience, and now I’m going to get some REAL sleep. So, until tomorrow!

Last night of the 1st Mexican Rivera cruise... more goodbyes.

Woke up at 12 o’clock. Voice was horse. I got up and checked my email and stuff, and I went to eat lunch. I came back to my room and practiced “Michelle” by the Beatles, “Meet Virginia” by Train, and a couple others. Afterwards, I played some Madden ’10. Gave Felicia a call and talked with her about ship life and stuff going on in her life. She was spreading herself thin so she decided to drop out of Dance Ensemble, and SGA.
I sold my 12 string, and turned around and bought the Gibson ES-335. Black. I talked with Don, the salesman of Sweetwater, and filled him in on the cruise. He’s a real nice guy. Real personable. He told me the guitar I was getting was a great buy. He knocked off a couple hundred dollars .
At dinner, I sat with Jeff and Aaron. Jeff’s last day was today. Sad. He’s a nice guy. I helped him out with his songwriting and just stressed that he can’t be afraid to write a song. He has to write stuff until something good comes out. He managed to finish a song I stressed he should finish and he thanked me for doing so. I told him to stop by my room around 7:15 so I could give him my album (digitally).
I gave it to him, and I got ready for work. Went up to the stage around 7:30 and restrung my guitar. I got playing at 8, and everything started to build from there. It got real busy, and it was a great night. Everyone was so cool. Made 140 dollars in tips. Everyone told me they left great remarks on their comment cards about me. And the cop (Greg) said anytime I need anything in San Diego, give him a call. another husband and wife offered the same.
When I finished up, Sasima told me she had to do the “Just ask” 1-4, so I said we could go out in Acapulco.
I came down to the crew bar to say goodbye to Jeff. He thanked me for everything, and I wished him luck. Found out Alex was leaving too.. Which I had no idea. We had just spoken yesterday, and I don’t recall him telling me that. So I said my goodbyes to him.
I noticed Nunik crying really hard in the corner of the bar. Turns out her boyfriend broke up with her. He didn’t really take it seriously, but she did. Everyone seemed to know but her. I remember when we worked together in the piano bar, she told me she hadn’t dated in over a year. They started dating the last whittier.
I went back up to the bar where I play, and Alex was there and Sasima was still working. We just kinda hung and chatted for a bit. Sasima and I went out on the bow deck and listened to some music and she filled me in on some of her life stuff.
Now, I guess I’m just going to go to bed, and get ready to go into town tomorrow.

Good night

Well, after updating my blog I went to eat dinner, at what I thought was 6 o clock. Turns out it was actually 5. The clocks went back an hour. I found that out after confusion of the staff mess being closed. So I went and ate dinner in the crew mess. I ate with Alex, and had a cool conversation about russia, women, his life and all that. At 6, I went back and got cleaned up and dressed in my suit. Before going to my gig, I went outside and took a little bit of air in. Then I went to my gig. It quickly picked up and got busy. Just in time for my boss Stu to come in. He hung out for over an hour talking with different customers. Part of the huge group called out to him to tell him they were there for me, and they loved me. He said he knew, and he gave me thumbs up. It was nice to see him check it out.
I talked with a couple that had been to see me since the beginning of the cruise. The husband was a cop, and they were from San Diego. He used to be in the marine corp. and has a disability with his voice. He was a drill sergeant, and messed his voice up. Was a real nice guy. He told me I was awesome, and he he usually isn't into the whole bar scene, but he could come see me every night.
On my last set, my voice gave out a lot, but everyone sang along with all the songs, so I made it through. I talked with Sasima about getting together for thai food in San Diego. Dewa Ayu talked with me, and asked how old I was. She was shocked. She's 27. She asked me if I had a girlfriend on the ship, which I don't. I said I wasn't really looking, but she went to Sasima and mentioned that. Sasima said "and why do you think I need to know" and Dewa Ayu giggled and went back to work. I hung out with both of them until late. I went and got some pizza since I had only one meal today. It was great. Then I bumped into Dewa Ayu again and talked with her as she vacuumed and mopped the floors in the casino.

Now I'm debating going to my room and sleeping. Since it's 4:25. We'll see!

Most of my first Mexican Rivera Cruise!

It’s been almost an entire cruise since I’ve updated. I need to break this long extended habit and get down to at least once every other day! But I’ll write for each day!

Saturday, October 10th was an interesting day. I got up around 11:30 and ate lunch, and then got cleaned up with the intentions to play 2 to 4 on the Lido deck. I went and sat on the 2nd deck and checked my internet on my phone since it was in service. But what I noticed was we were quite a ways from the port. I didn’t think it’d be possible to have people on the ship by 2 at the rate we were going. When I got upstairs and got to setting up, a huge table was in the middle of the stage, but I didn’t want to mess with it incase it was something important. I set up around it and then Peter, my boss, came up and said we wouldn’t be in port until 2:30 and people won’t be on ‘til around 3.
He helped set up the sound and all that and said I could just wait ‘til 3. So I called up Felicia. Our conversation was cut short by loss of service? Not on my end, I had full bars! Then I called Nick and talked with him for a bit about the radio push. I filled him in on the pictures I ordered, and the cds and all that. I definitely had to give a lot of credit to Amanda for really getting this going. She’s quite a determined girl.
After I got off the phone with him, it was about 3, so I got on stage to play. No one was there except workers. And the ship had JUST parked. So, I played for the workers. They requested songs and I played. Svetlana, a girl I met at the last jam, was there and she requested “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt. I think that made her day. Agnes asked for “Last Kiss”, and then I just warmed up my voice. My voice was seemingly back to normal after five days of crap.
My connection to my voice and being outside is, that every time I go outside to play, my voice clears up after a couple of hours and feels fine. So I’m going to need to make a note to go outside at least for a half hour a day and just breathe.
At about 3:40 the first passengers walked by, and seemed into the music. I noticed a lot more kids walking around than I’ve seen on all my cruises combined. Good sign for me and the crew, because we were going to have real shows and make some good money!
At 4, I finished up and ran downstairs to get my ID, and headed for the gangway. As I was about to get off, our new cruise director, Stu, was getting on. I asked how he was doing since a couple weeks ago, he got the mumps. He said he felt a bit better, but he did have a loss of color from the last time I saw him. When getting outside a woman was there and she asked if I wanted to go to crew services, or out into town. I asked what the first was, and she said it’s a little center with free internet, phone and all that for the crew. I truly just wanted to get the hell out of the area, so I went into town. I called my dad and filled him in on everything. I walked around San Diego for awhile looking for some type of mall with food and all that. After walking a long circle and ending the conversation, I finally saw it. But I gotta say, from the walk around town, I was very surprised to see how many homeless people live on sidewalks, in tents and all that.
When I got to the mall, it was a complete outside mall. It was 3-4 stories high, with all the ships lined up going back and forth. All exposed to the weather. Very neat looking. I looked around for a bit, browsing through shops. Eventually I got real hungry so I started looking through the food court, which was all in a line on the top floor. I walked by the mexican food place, and I saw Val, Cleo and Glenn there. So I went in and sat with them. I ordered nachos. Haven’t had those in a while!
After dinner, we walked into a Sam Goody, and everyone got movies and stuff. I walked back with Glenn and we talked about more music and stuff like that. When I got back to the ship, I went to my room and wasted time playing video games until 9:30. There was a little group just hanging out at the bar. The ship hadn’t left yet.. and it was supposed to over an hour before that. The casino can’t open until it’s 3 miles from port. So people waited patiently. But I got them all riled up and they bought drinks and hung around, tipping well, and just loving all the song selections.
Aft 12:10, the ship was finally out of port and the Casino opened. My crowd dissipated to gamble, and I got off at 12:30. I met, or rather, got the names of a couple people that will be working with me for a couple weeks. One is Sasima. She’s a waitress, and from Thailand. The other was Dewa Ayu. She’s from the Philippines.

Sunday, October 11th, was our first sea day. We lost an hour. So in a weeks time, we lost 4 hours of sleep. BLOWS. I just kind of hung to myself for the day, Playing games and the such. Anticipating playing at 8 pm. I had my meals and it really was an uneventful day. Sea days are just those kind of days. You don’t feel bad for wasting them because there really is nothing to do. Amanda emailed me and told me a promoter was very interested in me, and she’ll talk with Mike about it. It’s kinda nice to not have to worry about the business part of everything. I really would like to focus more on performance and writing. Alan said he sent my CDs, so I should have them for the next cruise and I plan on promoting the crap out of it.
At 8 PM, The bar was very busy. The busiest I had ever seen it. I went and I played, and the place was crazy. During breaks people stopped me to tell me how good I was. Some said I was the best on the ship. I knew a lot of the songs requested. It was nice, because it seemed most of the people watching me have listen to the radio for the last 30 years, versus turning it off 30 years ago, and never listening to another thing. So all my new music has definitely paid off this cruise. A couple people asked for “Unwell” by Matchbox 20, and “Mad World” by tears for fears but made famous by Gary Juals*( check spelling..) I made promises to learn both.
Mark, the passenger I promised to learn “Mad World” for came up on my little bar stage and checked out my setlist on my computer.
Sasima and I had little conversations in between, and I noticed all the guys flirting with Katerina the bar tender. In fact, this week, two people have facebooked me ONLY to get info from her so they can stay in touch. She is a gorgeous girl and sweet as pie, but she has a boyfriend and a son. It’s quite amazing how everyone goes after her.
By the end of the night, I saw Dewa Ayu and asked what song she liked, and he favorite was “One Last Breath” by Creed. Though very challenging I said I’d try to learn it for her.
After my set, these two gentleman that were sitting and watching me called me over. They were the Auditors that were inspecting the ship that week. The main chief told me he wasn’t a big fan of lots of music but he liked the way I performed. He also told me not to let anyone on the stage, because if they fall, it’s Carnival’s fault. So that would be my excuse to tell people who want to sing, that they can’t (because believe me, a lot of people ask if they can come up and sing. There’s a karaoke around the corner. They can go there.)
I got to bed that night pretty late, and was having trouble sleeping. The hours have been throwing me off. My new sleep time is between 3 and 4. 11 Is the earliest I get up anymore.

Monday, October 12th, was a rough day at sea. Apparently we were going through a tropical storm. I felt the movement early on, so I took seasickness pills and I didn’t feel sick for the whole day. Most of the ship, I think it was opposite. There wasn’t a lot of people running around. Even my gig was a lot less energetic than the night before, but the people that were there were the people there from the night before. So it seems I had another group to follow me. I played “Unwell” and “Mad World” and they were receipted well. I asked Sasima if there were any songs she really liked that she wanted me to learn, and she said “One” by U2. Ironically a safety officer a month ago asked for the same song and I had bought it and had the tabs in my computer already, so I made a note to learn it by the next time I played.
On one of my breaks I checked the capper for the next day and it turned out I had the day off! So that was very exciting for me!
At about 12, my medicine started to wear off and I started to get tired. Really tired. It looked dead enough where I could leave by 12:30. But not 2 minutes later, did a huge group of people come just to see me. So I stayed ‘til 1. I knew we had a boat drill, so I got to bed early.

Tuesday, October 13th, we arrived at Manzinillo*, and I was woken up by the boat drill. The last time we had one it took over a half hour for the alpha team to get set up, so I took my time getting ready. It wasn’t more than 5 minutes before they called for us to be up there, so I rushed to get my stuff together.
When I got outside, a humid heat hit me, and it was like unbreathable hot. I haven’t felt it this way since I lived in florida in the hottest part of the year. As I lined up in my spot I was over looking the port. It didn’t look like much was going on in this particular place. The mountains were a lot smaller and had a a lot of different vegetation from what I’m used too. Claire, the piano player lined up next to me, and it was her day off as well. I asked if she wanted to go into town with me and get some food and if her boyfriend Thomas wanted to come along. Thomas had port manning, so I called Eric, and asked if he wanted to join Claire and I.
At 11:30, we met outside of the infirmary, and we made our way off the ship. Immediately as we were leaving we were bombarded by taxi drivers and tour guides. One taxi guy said he would drive, the three of us to the other side of town where the good food was and back for 60 bucks. Seemed pretty steep to us, so we thought we’d play our chances in the immediate town.
Unfortunately after minutes of walking, we found that finding good food was going to be hard to come by in the area. So we flagged down a taxi. He only spoke spanish, and lucky for me I remember a lot of vocabulary from class, and ways of making sentences to ask him to take us to the other side of town where the good food was. He knew exactly what we wanted and he took us there. He dropped us off at this nice indoor/outdoor bar like restaurant. It was only 20 bucks (which was a lot better from the 30 we would of spent just to cut the trip in half from the other guy.) So we sat and ordered drinks. I got Coke. It tasted... a tad different from regular coke. It wasn’t as sweet. Still good. Unfortunately for Claire they didn’t have any vegetarian food.. except a bean taco. She order two of those, I got steak, and Eric got Shrimp. It was pretty good for the price. Eric and I started doing the “that’s what she said” jokes, and Claire didn’t understand some of them, so we decided to corrupt her mind, and by the end of the trip she was doing it as much as we were.
When we left the restaurant, we just walked and talked. We passed a lot of rundown looking places for about an hour. Claire and Eric talked about his upcoming job with Holland America, starting in January. He leaves in November. Blows. 3 cruises actually.
We came across a bank, with an ATM, and Claire wanted to withdraw some money, so we went and did that, and then shot across the street and went into a 7/11 kind of store. First thing I noticed inside, was that they had single beer cans available in the drink freezer in the front near the cash register. Like any regular beverage. I was thirsty as hell so I went looking for something, and i found my favorite drink. In spanish, no less. Arizona Green tea.. with HONEY. I got two cans and a pack of gum. Normally in America those three things would run me 3 dollars and some cents. But here, 1.99! It’s 1.98 for two Arizona cans without tax in America, but I got a pack a gum with that! Crazy stuff.
So we walked a ways more, until we realized we may be going the wrong way. We flagged down another taxi, and he picked us up and took us to the ship. Strangely enough, he only charged 10 dollars. I think that taxi guys just charge what they want. But we still saved 30 dollars from the guy we met at first. So we made the right choice.
We got on the ship, and I had dinner and stuff, and just watched movies all night, and took it easy for my voice. I gave it a real break. Though I did manage to write a song for a customer.

Wednesday, October 14th, we had a tender port, but I didn’t really feel like getting off. In fact I slept until 11:30. Had lunch, recorded the song for the customer, and just played around, dinner, until 9. It was a very awesome crowd, and it went over really well all through out the night. I played up to 2 am. Hit the sack, and that was really the end of that day.

Thursday, October 15th, which was yesterday for me, was filled of interesting dreams, in the morning. I had a bizarre dream of seeing my mom and step dad, and my little brother but at the age of 8, and Courtney, but she was old enough to drive. At some point I realized I had missed the time due back on the ship, and started freaking out, because no one really cared if I made it back. Then time fast forwarded to me in my room on the ship except it was huge and looked like it was made of wood, and I had a roommate. On the computer, there was a recording of the conversation I had with Mila Kunis. It was me breaking up with her and her getting angry. Then I woke up to the phone ringing. It was Colleen. She was surprised I was still sleeping and asked if I was going out. I told her no, since we had to be on the ship by 3 pm. She apologized for waking me up and hung up. I went back to sleep for another half hour and then I received another phone call. I answered and it was a girl with an accent asking for Derilich. I thought she meant me so I said this is Derek. She asked for Derilich again, and I told her wrong number. I got up at that point and went and ate lunch.
Afterwards, I tried tracking a new song I’m writing. I was doing laundry also between takes. I was 100 percent out of clothes.
I played a couple games, and worked on a new song for my set. After a bit, I went to dinner. I ended up being there for an hour, talking with Eric about various topics. Then came to my room, got showered and ready, and went to go restring my guitar upstairs. When I got up there it was SLAMMED full with everyone. Really really loud. Katerina told me they were all there for me. So I restrung my guitar. An engineer on the ship named Gyssepie* asked me if he could buy my 12 string. He said it was gorgeous and loved it. I let him play it for a bit, and he was sold. I told him that’d be fine, because I would just put that money back into another guitar. The ES-335 I’ve had my eye on for over a year.
At about 5 to 9, a drunk man asked when I was starting because everyone was waiting for me. So, I got up and started off immediately with upbeat stuff, and got everyone going. Lots of energy. On breaks, I talked with Sasima, a couple of the dealers and all that. Over the last days, I’ve played “Viva la Vida” for Ruxandra, one of the dealers. She was thankful. Sasima asked me to play her song, and I did and she liked it.
On one break, a waiter brought down some dips and desserts from the mexican buffet upstairs (I can have some, but because I was working I didn’t have the time to go up and eat). I tried the dips, and it was all very delicious.
So I played through out the night, until 2. I was going to shut down, but everybody screamed and begged me to stay, and they all said they would tip me. So I waited until I was tipped something to wean me over. 25 went in right then. So, I played for 20 minutes. Then they begged for more, so I said tip, and I’ll go. I got another 16 bucks, so I played another ten minutes. At that point I needed to stop, my voice needed the break, so I stopped and broke down. As I was leaving, Sasima asked me if I could sync her iphone with my itunes, and take some of my music. I said that’d be fine. She then asked if I wanted to go for some Thai food in San Diego. I told her that’d be cool. I love thai food, so I’ll to find out where they serve it.
I came to room and got online and saw Felicia was on, so I talked with her for over an hour, and then I got real tired and went to sleep, to wake up at 2:30. I checked some internet stuff, and started writing this! Got work at 9 tonight! Should be fun!

It's sad to see people go.

Crazy how time flies. Especially when you’re sleeping a lot. My days have consisted of random times online, playing with a raw voice all week, making good tips, filling out the casino bar (which I didn’t think was possible), and other stuff in the like.
Eric (the piano bar guy) came over on Wednesday and listened to some of my music, and saw some of my movie clips from the independent film I was doing. He loved the music, and was very entertained by what I had shot. We talked about a lot of the music business, some things he’s been trying to accomplish, and all that stuff. At the end of it all, he and I decided to reserve a spot to go to the supper club and eat a fancy dinner for the following day. Afterwards, I just played that night, and entertained the group that had been coming to see me every night.
Every day, I had been sleeping A LOT to try to heal my voice. Thursday, I slept until 2:30. Voice was still rough. Eric and I went to the supper club, much to the assumptions that he and I were gay, which was not the case in the least. I just wanted really good damn food, and I didn’t want to go alone, and he had never had it. So... We talked about him trying out for American idol, girls, ship life, future plans, and all that stuff. I had the crab cake and surf and turf again. It was so delicious. He had a 24 oz steak. And surprisingly he ate the whole thing.
I went to my gig last night, and EVERYONE was there. It was slammed, and the bar was doing great. My voice was still crap. I can sing about 60% of the songs in my list. It’s the mid-high range songs that squeak when reaching for them. There were three groups of newly weds that had been there to see me every night, and I played all their wedding songs,”Iris” by the goo goo dolls, “If You could only see” by Tonic and “Colorful” by The Verve Pipe. I made over a 100 dollars that night in tips. Overall, I’ve made about 250 in tips. A lot better than the 40 I had made last cruise. But I was sporting a tip jar then.
Chris, the cruise director, had his going away party last night. He’s my head boss. He’s been out here for 12 years, and he’s retiring. No more ships for him. I couldn’t go to his party, because I was working. Sad...
Today, I woke up at 2, and went to help Trevor with some audio stuff.. but due to usage of the venue, we couldn’t work, so I went back to bed until 5, and showered up and went and got some promo pics taken for my press kits.
Then I went to have my first meal of the day, which was a cheeseburger and fries. I went and hung out in the CTC for a bit with Simon and Natalia. Then went and restrung my guitar.
I started playing with the confidence that my voice was back to normal, but “I’m A Believer” gave me trouble and I was squeaking again. Everyone was really great though, and I made 80 dollars in tips, so It was a good end. The casino closed at 12. So I went down to the crew bar, and said good bye to a lot of my friends that were leaving. 100 people were signing off tomorrow, and 110 new people start up. Chris Roberts (CD) was there, and James, the sound tech, was leaving as well, and casino dealers, and a ton more. The Blues Brothers dvd was playing through the television and everyone was drinking and watching it. I saw Eric and went and hung out with him for a bit. Marina, the supper club girl came over and told me to get a beer in my hand. I said I didn’t want any, and she seemed shocked that I wasn’t much of a drinker.
Sara, a casino dealer, came and talked with me for a bit about learning a song for her. I told her I sang “Hey there, Delilah” today and replaced the name with Sara, but she didn’t notice. After awhile of chit chatting, I decided to head back to my room. Due to the water tight doors being closed, I had to go the long way. As I was walking through the Versatile lounge, I saw Chris Roberts waiting for de-embarkation. I went over and told him it had been great working for him. He told me I will be very successful out here and he wished he got me and Eric a lot sooner. He thanked me for everything, and I wished him luck in the real world.
Then I came back to my room and here I am. Tomorrow, we enter San Diego... I can't get off until 4 o clock.. Because I work 2 to 4... then 9:30 to 12:30

Employee of The Month

It has been quite an uneventful last few days since the skydiving stuff. Our last day of Honolulu, I stayed on board and just worked on learning songs, and catching up on sleep. We had boat drill at about 5 o’clock and it was very warm. Nice weather. A lot of people were already out on the deck waiting 20 minutes before the drill was to begin. Usually there will be a small group but over half the people that were supposed to be there, were there. I played my gig, and was trying out the harmonizer more. It sounded great, and I love having it in my act. Definitely fills up the dead spots, and gives the songs with harmonies a kick.
The following day was Nawiliwili. I got up around 10, and went to the internet cafe, and uploaded my skydiving video and more pictures I had taken of Pearl Harbor. i was there for a couple hours just doing little things I needed to do.
I took the trolley back to the ship, and got on a shuttle to go to Kmart. I went inside, and got a box of cheese-its, and had some little ceaser’s pizza. Amanda and I were texting back and forth and I told her about Words You Bleed and Josie being on the radio, and Marshalls. She said she she had down time, she wanted to help me get together a “blitz” kind of push for Words You Bleed and get it on the radio in more places.
As we were texting back and forth, I searched online for a Gamestop, to get a cheap game. It said it was 2 miles south. So, I started walking near the highway in that direction texting back and forth with Amanda. We decided on singles, she got me websites for radio stations, and all that. She said she’d burn some CDs for the press kits, and I’d get Nick to write a new bio, and we would start preparing to get all my friends and family and fans to help push this. After about a 2 mile walk I realized.. there wasn’t a gamestop in sight... No where NEAR me. So, I turned around and walked back to miles to find the gamestop was actually right around the corner from K-mart in a shopping center. A little aggravating, but got exercise, so I guess I can’t complain.
I made my way back to the ship, and called Nick and let him know his task, and I started on mine. After a few moments, there was a knock at my door, and I went to answer, and it was my boss Peter. He told me I got employee of the month. I get a bonus 100 dollar check, a nice dinner with the captain (with that night off) and my picture out where everyone can see. I also have to go to a few end of cruise shows and stand on stage when they explain how comment cards can get us this privilege and stuff. Very exciting none the least. I’ve only been here a little over two months, so I felt very accomplished.
I played my show that night and it went over well, and I met two ladies who are now known as Cruise Mom Chris, and Aunt Bev. They were both really nice and we talked for a few hours. Cruise Mom Chris (CMC) does a lot of traveling. She had been on the spirit 4 times. She asked me where Doug was, and I told her he had just gotten off 2 cruises ago. Aunt Bev, well this was her first cruise. She has done the whole waitress, bartending kind of lifestyle. 135 jobs. Pretty crazy!
They both insisted in buying me a drink, but I didn’t want anything, so CMC said she would try to find me some good fried chicken out in Hawaii.

The following day was my day off and it was in Maui. Unfortunately I had port manning so I just stayed in, ate my bland meals, surfed the internet on my phone, and just hung around. The following day, I also stayed on the ship, and just prepared to play.
I played and I was starting to see people coming back to see me personally which was nice. I played for a while, taking my breaks and spoke with CMC and Aunt Bev. CMC said she couldn’t find any fried chicken but asked what other things I liked, so I went down my list. I went to bed soon after.

The next day was Hilo. I got off at about 11, and went to Walmart, and got a bunch of movies for the 5 sea days. Most of them were bargain deals. Then I went to the mall, which had Ihop, and I ate there. Kamille was on aim on the iphone, so I spoke with her for a little bit. After I finished my meal, Thomas and Claire had arrived and asked if I wanted to sit with them. I did so, and we talked about various things. Claire has never been to an Ihop (she’s from England, so makes sense). She told me she’s been doing ships a long time and not once had she seen another musician get employee of the month. That made it seem even more cool I suppose.
I walked around Borders, but couldn’t find any books I wanted to read. I came back to the ship and bumped into Eric. He asked if it was freezing in the ship, in which I replied it was cold... but not 30 degrees. He said he thought he might be coming down with something.
I went to my room, and put in Cast Away, and watched that. An hour later, Eric called and he said he’d been throwing up and such. I told him to go to the infirmary. Better he takes the night off than risk getting everyone sick. Especially before 5 sea days.
At dinner, I saw Peter and mentioned Eric being sick, but he didn’t know anything about it.
Worked more on emailing radio stations, and emailed my lawyer about the push.
Two songs into my gig, Peter came and asked me to go play the Piano Bar at 9:30. So I broke down at 9 and moved over. There was a good crowd there, and the bartender was a real sweet girl. I got to play a lot of my songs, which was nice, because everyone was really into them. “Words You Bleed” and “How I Roll” got receipted well from the younger crowd. “Grounded”, “Fixated” and “Where to Begin” were really enjoyed by the more moderate aged.
I played tons of 90s too and ended the night around 12:30. I went to my room,and watched some of Saving Private Ryan. Fell asleep not too long later.

Yesterday, I woke up at 10, called Nick, and talked to him about the bio. He said he talked with Mike, and he was all for the radio push. He gave Nick some tips for the presskits, and he said I need to be pushing this cd hard on the ship, so of course, next week I’ll be getting some CDs from my producers to sell out here. I emailed a bunch more people, texted some friends, talked to Felicia on the phone, and other stuff.
I started finishing up SPR and Trevor called me about meeting him at the Pharaoh's Palace for the Blues Brother’s show, and recording it. I brought my interface, but Trevor didn’t have a program on his computer to record to, I was rendered useless. Peter was there, and he told me I could collect my 100 dollar bonus in the morning at 10 am at the pay master.
After that, I went to dinner, had a cheeseburger and fries. Peter called and asked if I could play in the piano bar again, He said Eric should be fine the next day. So I got my stuff and went back over and set up early. For the first two hours, I had gay couples just shmoozing around. When they went to dinner, I had one more little burst of people, then the place was empty for an hour and a half. So I broke down at 11:45. No one else came. I went down to my room, and started watching Family guy and fell asleep.

This morning I woke up feeling a little sick. I got dressed, and collected my money. Came back, and took some sea sickness pills. I felt better within the hour. I went to lunch, and just had rice krispies and tea. My voice is kind of raw today. Hurts a little. Not liking it too much. I watched Wizard of Oz on blu ray. Though it looks great, it doesn’t fill up the whole screen which was a little disappointing. I tried to compose a little, but nothing really flowed out of me, and now I’m debating a nap before dinner, and I have to play at 8! So, that’s it for now! Internet black out for a couple days, then I’ll be back to work on radio stations.