ft. lauderdale 2

wow... i am still sort of recovering!!! i can't begin to even describe what a singular cruise this has been for me... it is so hard to explain, but let's just say a whole lot of wonderful people have really eased the pain of being apart from bob and bean right now by giving so much energy in the piano bar this cruise - it was truly unlike any other!! and i now have a whole bunch of new friends, and tho you may think it unlikely to get real friends out of a brief vacation situation, then you weren't in my piano bar this past week!  wow!  what a lot of great folks from all walks of life, and how much they really brightened me up!  thank you to all my piano bar regulars!!!

i got a camera today and signed up for some tour escort positions - we'll see if i get any of them, but i am hopeful... a big hug and kiss to all the folks who made this last cruise so cool... i will attach the lyrics of my version of piano man from this cruise and you can read about them...

"piano broad" (to the tune of billy joel's "piano man")

Well it’s __ o’clock on whatever day it is – the regular crowd shuffles in

& I plug in my mic & get a beverage, another piano bar evening begins

they said hey girl can you play us a melody & if you’re not sure how it goes

you can add that one to your to-do list & download the lyrics I s’pose

now david at the bar is a friend of mine, he gets my ice water for free

he keeps us all socially lubricated while you party in the piano bar with me

And rhodora has been your charming server, and roland helps out sometimes, too

w/o them there’d be no refreshments, so w/o them what would we all do?!

*la la la

 sing us a song, you’re the piano broad here on the old zuiderdam

well we’re all in the mood for a melody, so sing us a song, won’t you ma’am

We had lots of fun folks from all over, from england to the U S of A

And places like holland and Canada & Australia where they say g’day!

we played piano bar games like American pie; name that tune the other night was pretty tough

the competition was fierce tho the prizes were not but it’s still cool to get some free stuff

and I won’t forget my late night hangers on, I appreciate your nightly support

thanks for all of your awesome additions to my book this cruise really seemed way too short

you all make this gig really so much fun, i hope that’s apparent to see

watching our little piano bar community evolve is especially rewarding for me

*la la la... etc.

there are folks who love to sit round the piano, like pat and bob who come here each night

and anna and sandy from Idaho, and peter who usually sits to my right

yes, peter, who’s also known as steven, by day is a high tech kind of guy

but at night he becomes a great lounge singer… he can hit all the notes that are high

and george and Marylou and miss sandy like to sit around the piano it’s true

and george he can hit all those low notes, so i’m glad that he sings along too!

and sander and frauke come late nights, and my stewardesses from twa

and to all my hard partying Canadian people, i’d like to say, how’s it goin, eh?

*la la la... etc.

and let’s not forget our new yorkers like joan and jack and maureen and sal

and mary and dave and john and Carmen, they’ve all been such great piano bar pals

and all of our florida people, like Helen, connie and caroline,

and betsy and bruce down in boca, all you florida folks sure are real fine

there’s been lots of cool people from the great white north, like stereo Karen they’re so cute

and Susie and all of her sisters, or i guess we should now call her “boots”

we had an awesome guest open mic night with ellen who sang us some blues

and bernie with his guitar and his kilt on singing scots and irish songs about booze

and ann from grenada sang us island tunes and scott threw a fun coffee song down

and peter graced us all with many a swell tune and dan and i with a tv song clowned around

and you know that i would be quite remiss if i didn’t take very special care

to mention a quite singular multiple group, oh, god, how i love me some bears!

from the very first night that you came here, and took over each night after eleven

i knew that this cruise would be special, then, and it has been kind of like piano bar heaven

i know that my beverage manager loves you all, but certainly not as much as me

we had so much fun one night we even got shut down, i will always remember it fondly

you sang along with vigor and we laughed a lot, and tho i didn’t know all your requests

you brought a lot of color to my piano bar, and i think you guys are simply the best

i grew up in the wilds of alaska, and i thought i had seen plenty of bears before

but who knew there were so damn many in the Caribbean, you never seen wildlife like this before!

*la la la... etc.

and everyone in the piano bar has been so darn swell…like Natalie and gur,

 Lloyd and Melanie, jane and judy, john and Kathy, 

beth and david, Susie and bill, judy and prentiss, 

mel and Irene, pat and jack, ray and gladys, mack and danny and dana, lori and ed, 

jim and judy, Irwin and bill, mary and mike, Barbara, bob and Kathy, coreen, 

Christine and tom, mel and judy, mark and amy, Samantha and liz, Scotty, 

wanda and dick, jack and pat, sally and marvin, dan and joe, dave and ted,

 tom, dan, laz, randy, rene, vinnie, mark, charles, rob, pat and marilyn, Sylvia and patricia and 

mike and john, Dorothy, donna, lorraine, michelle, Cyndi, ken and Elaine, joe and Florence, 

fred and lee, larry and Kathy, ben and Sandra, and 

oh! i know i still didn’t get all of you, but if i keep going, we’ll be here all night!

yes, I wish I could write a verse for every person and include it in this tribute song

But this is already as long as billy joel’s version & his version’s way too damn long

Tomorrow our cruise will be over, and I’ll miss you all more than I can say

And if it could happen, I’d stash you all in my cabin, and we’d all go sailing away!

I was blown away by this crowd’s singalong talent, your backup vox really were a hit

Without all your crowd participation my songs would have just sounded like… 

sha la la la... etc....