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!