Best tip night so far!

Yesterday ended up being very uneventful. When I got back to my room from doing all the stuff in town, I went and laid down for a nap. Within a few minutes, someone knocked at my door, and it was the drummer of the showband asking if he could switch me in for Port Manning for a couple hours so he could go into town. I agreed, and went back to sleep. I got a phone call at 3, and it was Colleen. I informed her that I couldn’t get off the boat for the movie. I apologized and went back to sleep. At around 7ish, I went up and made a phone call and went back to my room, and watched movies. At about 11ish, I wrote a song which I hope to record in the coming days.
I went to bed, and slept until 9. I got up and watched another movie, showered, put laundry in the washer, and saw Amanda in there. So me and her went and got Leighton and went and ate lunch. After chatting and eating for about a half hour, we went back to the laundry and waited. At one point, Nunik came in (the bartender at the piano bar for the next week and a half.) We talked for a bit... Then I went back to my room and practiced some new songs like “On the Road Again,” “American Pie”, “Sitting at a bar”, and “Imagine.”
Got my clothes out of the dryer afterwards, put them away, and practiced more. Then watched “Click.” Afterwards, got dressed in my tux, and went and played a set in the atrium. It went by fairly quick and was a decent crowd. Dropped my stuff off at the piano bar and then went and ate some dinner. Decided to go back to the guest services desk and talk with Colleen and apologize for not going to the movie. She didn’t go, and said there’s always next time. Roxanne, another girl that I’ve seen before hanging with Colleen (she was also the girl to tell me to say hi to her in the crew party a few days ago,) is being moved to the Pride on Wednesday. Her and I haven’t had much of a conversation before but she said the next few days are going to be “party hard” days.
Amanda walked down and asked if I had dinner, and though I said I did, I went with her just to give her company. We talked and joked about lots of stuff. Leighton leaves in under two weeks, and I said “Are you trying to get me in the picture now so that when Leighton leaves, I just fill the void he’d be leaving and you have a replacement boyfriend?” She said yes jokingly...
After dinner, I went back to the room and took a nap. Got up and went to the piano bar, and started getting set up. Within a few minutes of nine, the bar was packed, and it became the busiest it has ever been with me in there. I made 96 dollars in tips. I spoke with a gentleman who said he was so impressed with my playing, especially the Piano Man on guitar. He told me he had a custom Les Paul from ’68, and that he might send it to me because he thinks I could make good use out of it. I hope that’s true!
Rachel, a passenger who worked for myspace, that had been to see me a couple times before was hanging around tonight. After my gig, her and I had a chat about lots of stuff. Her job, the lay off, her dad, boyfriend, my songwriting and such. Then we went and got pizza. I got Salmon pizza. Pretty damned good. And we went out on the back of the ship. It was FREEZING and raining. The boat was rocking a lot!
I told her I’d hang out tomorrow night after the gig if she wanted too. It has been a really great cruise this round. I was told again tonight I was hands down the best entertainer on the ship. So.. all good stuff. Tomorrow is Ketchikan. I think I’m going to see Walmart. It’s 3:34... gotta sleep!

Sitka and the Crew Party (cool movie title)

After 4 hours of sleep, my alarm woke me up at 8 am. Took the shower, and went to the safety class. It was pretty much what I’ve been learning all along. It was about 2 and a half hours. But it was pretty cool. Joanne and Simon taught it well and it was fun, so it wasn’t bad.

Afterwards, I went to my room, and gave Colleen a call about going to Sitka. When we got to the line to get on the lifeboat to ride to town, it was HUGE! And they were taking their sweet ass time letting us off. We sat in line for 20 minutes before they let anyone of the crew on there. Passengers had been allowed to get on since early that morning... Soo.. After 45 minutes of waiting, we finally managed to get on and ride to town.

We went to the electronic store to get Family Guy, Volume 7... But OF COURSE.. they didn’t have it.. Or Madden 10 for psp.. But I guess that’s expected in Alaska.. I’m sure they get stuff later than the other states.

We went to Subway again and got two philly cheese steaks this time, and um.. orange juice. Then we headed back to the ship, and we parted to take naps. I slept until 4:30, went and got a coffee to wake up, then went to play my 5-6 gig. It was busy.. took a few songs to really warm up.. Then I was feeling good.

When I finished up, I came back to watch “Me, Myself, and Irene.” I took another hour nap, and went to play at the piano bar, which only had a few people up until 11:20, then people showed up, but I had to break down at 11:30 , and run to the crew bar.

James had set up the speaker and stuff for me. The cruise director, Chris was there, as was a lot of the crew... Already drinking and ready to go. I got off to a great start with all the upbeat popular songs I knew. It was VERY hot. Two people got me two liter bottles of water. After a few songs, Chris (the bass player) came up and played with me, and then Gabe came in on the guitar. We jammed on many songs and it really was a great time. The most fun I’ve had performing yet. Gabe, Chris and I talked about possibly putting together a little band. I brought it up to Gerhard (though he’s leaving in a few days) but he thought it’d be a great idea to do an hour set a couple times a cruise. So I’ll talk to the guys and the new MD and see if we can pull that off.

AFTER all of that, I helped James broke down, and I went to my room and slept.

I woke up this morning at around 10:20... I did NOT want to wake up. I checked my account and my first paycheck was in. 1436 dollars. Slightly more than the 700 a day.

I grabbed a hot and a raincoat, and ran into town. I had Mcdonalds for lunch since I haven’t had it in over 3 and a half weeks. It was good.. but it wasn’t as great as everyone seemed to make it out to be.

I came to the internet cafe afterwards, and am just looking around online. I walked through the electronic store here.. Everything’s about 5% over what it is in the continental US. Lots of used PCs and Macs, video games, Bose speakers, car stereos and ipods. Nothing of value to me.

Got Gerhard’s email and number while I was sitting here and chatted with him, and that’s about it right now.

As of yesterday I was supposed to go see G.I Joe with Colleen.. but as of now I haven’t really talked with her about it, so I might just hang in my room tonight and some some good needed rest. I played until about 3 AM last night..

So.. until then!

Movies, BUSY night, with a little Disco

9:30... I woke up, and went out to do the boat drill. It sure was FREEZING... God... was it cold. Had to be in the lower 40s. But it went by real fast. Then I headed to my room, and got showered up and went to lunch. Afterwards, I went to my room, watched “Pleasantville’, worked on a experimental song.... then watched part of “Simon Birch.” Before I left to play my gig in the Atrium, I almost forgot to put on my TUX. So... I did that quickly, and went and played. It was a really good group watching today. One woman that saw me yesterday asked for “Grounded,” so I got to playing that. Warm reception. After I finished up, I went to dinner, and managed to catch a few minutes of the 4th quarter in the Steelers preseason game. They won 20-10! Cool stuff..

Finished up “Simon” and looked through some of my footage from the movie we never finished. Really funny stuff. Made me really miss all my friends from college, like Nick, Drew, Paul, Jake and Caibel. It’s a shame that the chances of getting us all together are real slim.

I went to my gig at the Shanghai bar... and as I was setting up, I realized my microphone was missing. I ran back to the atrium, and Jim had already set up his stuff, and he wasn’t around... I saw Colleen at the guest services desk, so I said my hellos to her. She told me she was working until 12:30 so I told her to come see me, and I’d play her the Killers song I learned for her. I ran back to my room and grabbed my spare mic, and went back to get started. I started playing around for a few minutes, and within a half hour, the whole bar was full of people singing along and having a great time. The gig flew so fast. Amanda came by, and I asked her if she could ask Jim if he had my mic. She asked if I wanted to go to Disco... I wasn’t really feeling it.. so I told her “We’ll see.”

At the end of the gig, I managed to pull in 49 dollars in tips, and have a lot of people tell me they’d be back tomorrow. Though at one point during the night my age came up, and I asked the crowd how old they thought I was. Someone told me 34... then someone else said 27. Pretty insulting for the 34.. But they all said my sound and the way I interacted didn’t seem like that of a 22 year old so they were all shocked. As I was breaking down, Amanda and Leighton came by and told me to meet them at the crew bar. So I broke down, and before I left, Colleen stopped in... but she was too late. She told me she was going to crew bar and that I should come along... And I did the whole “eh... I really don’t want to.” but she said “You’re coming! I’ll see you there” and she walked off. So I took my stuff to my room, got out of my tux, and into a dress shirt and tie, and went to the crew bar. I saw Amanda immediately and she instructed me to get a drink. So I got a corona. I went back and she was talking to someone else so I just drank my beer and looked at the tv. One of Colleen’s friends was sitting by Amanda, and she yelled my name and said “Colleen is over there! Go say hi to her!” I turned and saw her walking from the bar with two large water bottles. I said Hi, but she said she had to take those to her room, and she quickly walked off. So... alone... I went back to where Amanda was, and I saw that jim was sitting down. So I sat and had a talk with him about the job. He’s a real cool guy. He told me Doug is making 1000 a week, and he’s been at the company 5 years. And another friend of his makes 1200 a week, and he’s been 7. Pretty promising pay for the work that we do, if I had nothing else going on. Definitely something to keep in mind.

Colleen had come in by then and was sitting with a bunch of the guest services girl, and Simon. So I went over to say hello to Simon, and told him that I had a class tomorrow morning at 9. Turns out he’s teaching it. He said he would get it done as fast as possible so we could all go into town. Colleen mentioned she was going into town around twelve, and I asked if I could tag along. After a bit of talking, Simon said he was going to crash since he had to be up two hours before me. Soon after, Colleen said she was going to bed, so I walked her to her room, and told her I’d call her around 11:45 about going out.

Then I headed to disco because I told Amanda I would. When I got there, the place was dead... SO I turned around and went back to my room. Now the disco is on the complete opposite side of the ship. So It’s a good 7 minute walk. When I opened my door, my phone was ringing. I was sure it was Amanda calling to ask where I was and why the hell I wasn’t at the disco. But it was a softer voice, and it turned out to be Colleen. She asked if I wanted to go to Disco. I agreed, and she said she’d meet me there. So... I walked back, and there were a bit more people. I saw Debbie, and she said hi and introduced me to her roommate. Gabe was there, so I said my hellos to him. Two gentleman that had seen me play the last two nights came and complimented me on my set and asked if I was there to party. I saw some of Colleen’s friends and informed them she was on her way. They didn’t believe me.. But eventually she showed up. Me, Colleen and two of her friends went out on the dance floor and danced for awhile. Gabe was dancing dirty with this one girl. He had some moves on him. Colleen asked if I wanted to see a movie in Juneau with her on Saturday since she gets a day off.. her first in like two months. So, I said of course, and I asked if she wanted to go to supper club since going alone was kind of boring, and she said she would for sure.

After dancing the night away, we all went to our cabins, and here I am... ready to get 4 hours sleep... before this class, Sitka with Colleen, an early gig, a piano bar gig, and the crew bar gig... Then my day off on Saturday! So... here I go!

Wed. August 12th

Today, I slept in until 11 am. I didn’t set any alarms, so that I could get all the sleep my body wanted. Showered up, and went to lunch. They didn’t have much that I liked so I ordered a cheeseburger.

Afterwards I went up to get a Caper from the atrium, and I saw that Colleen was working. So I went over and said hello, and chatted for a few minutes, since we didn’t talk yesterday. I got her some goldfish from the bar, since she hadn’t eaten and wasn’t going to be able to until 5. As she got a customer, I backed off and saw an entertainment girl wearing a “just ask” shirt. These are the people that passengers ask questions when in doubt. So I took it upon myself to be a smartass and walked over to her and asked “How many fish are in the ocean?” She guessed a billion, but then I had to bring her my reasoning how that couldn’t be true, because there are 6 billion people on the planet.. and a lot of us eat fish... And a billion.. well.. I just think we’d eat through that in a day. I suggested she ups her guess to the trillions.

We started talking, and found out she’s from Idaho. Once again, I was a smart ass. I asked “where are you from?” and she said “Idaho.” I said “Ummm.. That’s neat but that doesn’t answer my question.” I think she rolled her eyes, and I said “Yeah.. I’m sure you’ve heard that a million times.” Her name is Jenn. She was valedictorian at her college of Boise State University... So I’m guessing she’s a brain. What she’s doing on a ship, I haven’t a clue. But we talked about the ship, her home, and her plans. I asked a lot more questions than she did. She probably wasn’t interested... and was bored with my info. So I left her alone after a bit. (Sometimes I can be a little forward with knowing people.. and it tends to bug smart people... From experience.)

I went back to my room, and practiced some music. I walked back to the atrium and saw a blonde spa girl sitting at a table. I went over and introduced myself since I was feeling social. Her name was Debbie. She was from England and she gave massages. We talked about her job, and I found out it’s all commission.... Which kind of sucks because this particular cruise isn’t the most popular of things to do on board... But she was real cool. She’ll be around for 2 and a half more months. I told her I’d come get a massage sometime.

Then made a couple phone calls to a couple friends. Jenn at some point sat down near me and made a phone call as well. I gave a little hello, but now I gotta play the whole “yeah I see ya, but I’m not going to start the convo,” attitude. If she wants to talk, then she will, and all my other accusations will be proven wrong!

I got playing at 5 in the Atrium, and had a.. quiet time. A lot of people around, not too many paying attention.. But then I managed to fill the bar up. Afterwards, I took my stuff to the piano bar, and saw that the jazz band was playing, so I watched them for the rest of their set.

Then went to dinner with them. Hung out at the mess for over an hour. Then went to my room, listened to music until 8:30, went to the shanghai bar, got set up. I saw Nunik there. We both predicted it would be a dead night, because.. well the first night is usually the worst. But within a couple hours it was really busy and I had a lot of traffic inside. I had a lot of fun.

Amanda got off work at 11, so she came by and requested song after song. She was very bossy, which made all the passengers again think we were dating. She even went and got dressed up real nice and came back. Today I found out she had an interview with CNN over the phone and passed the first interview. She has a follow up Friday.

I came back to my room and I think I’m going to go to sleep. Drill at 9:30 tomorrow... Gross...

Saying Goodbye

What a sad night this has become. My day started with a 5 minute drill... Afterwards, went to lunch and ate a cheeseburger with my boss. After that, I went to my room, and watched the movie “Live Free or Die Hard.” Really cool movie. I’ve seen it multiple times. Afterwards, I took a game up to Edwuardo at the Atrium. He just got a new PSP with no games.. so I thought I’d let him borrow one. I saw Colleen at the help desk. I waved, since she looked busy. Then I went to my room and napped until my gig at 5. I played in the deco lounge. It was a moderate crowd. They were quite but clapped after each song.
After that, I took my stuff to the piano bar, went to dinner, then went back to my room to burn some CDs to sell. Went up to the bar, and started fooling around with some songs while no one was in watching. At about 8:25, a woman came in and started listening. She asked for 90’s music for the most part. Then she went on to tell me that her and her husband were fighting and are probably going to divorce after this cruise. She said this was their last real try at making things right but it just didn’t work. Then he walked in the room.. talk about awkward.
She said she’d be back later, so I took my break until 9:30. Neil showed up around 10, and then I had a nice moderate crowd throughout the evening. Mel came by to buy a CD. I managed to sell 13 of them. I met a woman named Kelley, who was a very gorgeous woman, and singer. Turns out she was 43... I wouldn’t have guessed anything over 29. She sang along a lot, and was real cool. She performs for a living as well.
By the end of the night, it was Dean, Rich, Neil, and Hilary (the girl I thought was Neil’s girlfriend.) Hilary was goodbye to everyone, and gave us all a hug. The guys wanted me to go to disco with them, so I went to my room to drop off my stuff, and on my way there, they were all walking back. They said it was closed, so we all went up to the lido deck to talk and eat pizza. We had some great talks about girls, work, life and all that stuff. Then it came to the goodbyes. It was really weird, because I really felt like I got to know these guys well. Like enough to be friends I’d hang with on a daily basis. So it was sad to say goodbye. It was like highschool or college graduation. They all complimented me many times and said they would help promote me, and they know I’ll make it soon. Hopefully I’ll run into all of them sometime in the future. They made this cruise a blast.
Well, It’s late. I’m going to sleep IN tomorrow!! No alarm will wake me!

Fun stuff

This morning, I woke up at about 9 o’clock. Took a shower, shaved and all the stuff that comes with that. I figured I’d call Colleen after 10, incase she was sleeping in. So when I did call, she sounded like she just woke up, but she said she’d call and we’d meet at 11.

So, at 11 we met up and boarded the lifeboat that took us to shore. She’d never been in the town so I was her tour guide per say. We walked around and talked about lots of random stuff. Went into a electronic store. I found that the 7th season of Family Guy is out, which I was not aware of... Sooo.. Now I really want it. Found out she likes Family Guy a lot.. and CSI.

After that we looked around a diamond shop... Lots of things were 25% off.. but I had nothing to compare that too since they don’t show the prices. We walked a little further just to see some of the town, and then we came across a Subway!! So we went there. It was the craziest thing though. They make such a deal about the 5 dollar foot longs at home. Well... they had the same advertisement paper up.. except instead of the 5, it was the 7 dollar footlong... We decided to get two footlong subs and we’d just split them, so we could try them both out. I got philly cheese steak, and she got the tuscan chicken sub. They were both delicious, but the philly cheesesteak was definitely awesome. I had hollipinos put on it... Bad mistake... SOOO HOT. But we chatted about lots of stuff, and then we headed back to board the ship since she had to be at work by 2.

I walked her to room, and came to notice I locked myself out of my room (left my card key inside.) So I went up to guest services, and they told me to call room services. As I was walking back from there, I bumped into Colleen again, as she was on her way to work there. Explained the situation, then went down and called room services. They sent a person over, and I got in. I restrung my guitar, and just decided to take an hour and a half nap since I was supposed to play a private party at 5:15.

At 5, I walked to go get set up. In the middle of setting up, Gerhard came to me, and said I was double booked, but he wanted me to play in the Deco lounge instead. So I moved all my stuff over to the deco lounge to play in front of 2 people up until the last 2 songs.. Then I got the whole room filled.

Afterwards, I dropped the stuff off in the piano bar, and bumped into the jazz band. I ended up going to dinner with Jeff and Gabe. Gabe dissappeared after a few seconds, but I sat with Jeff, and then Milan joined us, as well as Megan. Apparently Megan missed work this morning, because she didn’t hear her three alarm clocks, the two phone calls or the two visits by security knocking. She partied kind of hard last night. She came to the realization that she has a problem. She could possibly be fired. Sad news.. Keeping my fingers crossed that that isn’t true.

After dinner, I worked on my poster for the piano bar with Gerhard. Then went, got set up, and played a long night. But I managed to fill the bar up tonight. It was a lot of fun. During my one and only break, and I went and visited Colleen at work. Just said hi.. haha.. Wasn’t much to it. Then talked with Milan about him getting a new mac.

So I played until 1 (totaling up the time I played, I managed 5 and a half hours, not including breaks. Made 32 dollars in tips. It was a good night. Neil was definitely hyping me up tonight. Gotta give him a lot of credit for helping me out. He said it’s a shame he’s leaving ‘cause we’d be good friends. He also said he’d hype me up to everyone at home.

After the gig, I’m just coming home to pass out. Got life raft drill tomorrow.. 10:15... oh joy.

Sun, August 9th

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