back from busy... for a minute!

so… last cruise was very different from the one before – i still had late nights and a good party crowd and nice folks and all, but i did miss my bears – so friendly and fun!  florida was a flurry – we had a full coast guard inspection and couldn’t get off til 11:00… when we finished, i went straight out to take the crew shuttle into town to run errands and make phone calls only to discover i had left my phone on board – frantic, knowing bob was trying to call me from halfway round the planet, i turned right around and went back to the ship only completing one errand for a friend who was stuck on board, and not getting to do any of my own errands, but i knew i would be crazy if i didn’t get to talk to bob, since we only speak every 10 or 11 days… yikes!  we have tried the skype thing, but the latency is terrible and the voices turn robot-y and indecipherable, so we sometimes have the picture on but just type msgs to each other.. being apart this way has been brutal this time… each day lasts about a year and a half, and i am feverish about getting home in a few weeks and preparing for his arrival… i probably will cling to him like a marsupial for days… at least i get to speak to nino almost daily, and that is about my only real relief…

i have a few pals out here, people i have met on other ships and we keep crossing paths, but i am fairly solitary out here a good deal of the time… not that i am not charming company for myself, i do enjoy some solitude now and then, but i am burning to get home and get back on the schedule bob and i had planned… we had one small monkey wrench in our new year, but it has a silver lining – bob will have to go out a few weeks ahead of me on our 1^st contract of the year, but at least instead of both of us not gigging in january (which is typically a very dry month for most musicians) at least bob will have a full slate and then i’ll join him beginning of february… and i’ll be honest - i think i am also a little freaked out that when i do finally get home, my folks won’t be there anymore… i know how much they have been excited to get back to their roots in colorado, but i don’t think they know how much i have been dreading them not being around… and as much as i am a sea level kind of gal, i can see that i will have plan to spend a little more time at higher latitudes on my breaks…

this 3^rd cruise has been strange in that we had the 1^st nite, typically quiet as people are tired from traveling, 1^st day in an all day port, so people were tired, 2^nd day was great, 3^rd day was a late night port in aruba til 11, so people were tired, and we’ll see how tonite after a day in curacao goes…

i have been determined to find something to enjoy in the caribbean since i am not a huge fan so far, and i had a pretty nice tour today in curacao; we went to an botanical herb garden where we were led around by the son of the owner, a 73 year-old woman who knows all the ‘old ways’ with herbs and plants… at the end, i was the last one (since i am the escort, i let all the guests go first) and i hung back in the shop while people were taking pictures outside, and i got to talk to her and take a picture with her… i told her about my nana and her work with music and plants, and she was excited to talk about it – she sings the old songs to all of her plants to help them grow… very cool!  we then went to an art gallery where the artist works with homeless women to paint the statues she makes and they were really wonderful… a nice day and good to get away and drive throught the country a little – so many cacti in curacao!  who knew!  will work on doing new picture format bob told me about so i can post some visuals for you...