Last Vancouver... and many sea days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last Vancouver... and many sea days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My last Skagway and Ketchikan

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

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

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

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

I went to bed to get up in Ketchikan.

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

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

My day for today :)

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

Last Juneau

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

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

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

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

Crazy Nightmare

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

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

Last Alaska Cruise begins.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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