sea day

had to get up early for one more training i had to sign off on for health, environmental and safety issues….at 8 am!  yikes!  if i work til 1, i will be up at least ‘til 3 just winding down, so i had to get up to get some coffee first… turns out the guy in the café was one of my favorite piano bar waiters ever from another ship!  i keep running into more folks i have already met elsewhere…

i had called my boss in seattle on embarkation day and left a msg asking him to email the purser to make it a smooth process to get my reimbursement for luggage, lunch and dinner on the road, etc.  since it is the wknd, i didn’t think he’d be in on saturday to do it, which is when the purser can see me, and i didn’t want to wait ‘til monday to get the money i had planned to use for phone and internet cards, and that went super smoothly also.  thanks, boss!  on some ships, things just work well, and on some they don’t, and i feel so grateful that things here run quite smoothly!  i am having a very non-hassled transition here, and i am feeling lucky.  i’ve only been on one ship of all that i have been on where things were just crazy, and i am now gun shy when going n a new ship… i think that must have just been an aberration… lucky me!

last night i had so much fun… it feels so good to feel that way about working!  and while the ship gig for me is always fairly fun, last night was a standout night for me… i had a group of lively canadian gals from the first night come back (those canucks know how to party!), and then at 11:30 or so, about 25 gay guys showed up and we were rocking out and singing ‘til about 2am!  (they were good tippers, too!)  both groups made friends, and we had a blast… i think the highlight was “these boots were made for walking” and the guys cheered on the canadians doing some interpretive dance… you had to be there, i guess… what was especially nice was that there were also several other couples in the bar, and i held my breath wondering if there would be a clash of ideology and a fox-news- watching-contingency exodus, but everybody was just having fun and getting along… it’s like the piano bar gets it’s own little community in there, and it’s a democracy – everybody gets a turn and can choose songs, and people are a little more tolerant to wait their turn than perhaps in some other areas of life… my own personal peace movement!  save the world through piano bar unity!  it’s a pleasant break for everyone from the news and from their problems, anyway, so as time goes on, i realize that my job actually does serve a little bit of a higher purpose and i believe can be considered, in the buddhist way of thinking, “right work.”  so cool…

my 9 o’clock themed set was “piano bar legends,” the music of sir elton john, billy joel and ray charles… my bar staff was wonderful and they had to add another server in there last night… i think we will have a pretty packed room!  more soon… it was a sea day, cloudy and gray (my favorite!) and lovely…

on the road again!

so, i am back at work again!  the good news is, my son’s dad is doing great, my son is doing great, so great to spend extra time with him! sadly i couldn’t return to the ship i was on with bob, however… but at least my boss found a gig for me so i could get some work in, so for that and my family’s health and well-being, i am grateful!  instead of asia and australia, i have reframed my picture, and will be doing caribbean and panama canal cuising for 6 weeks out of ft. lauderdale… a few highlights from the way to florida… i was fortunate enough to get a direct flight to miami on a red-eye, however, there was an obnoxious child screaming and having tantrums the entire way – no, i am not being a big meanie, it wasn’t the plugged- up-ear-thing, it was a spoiled-kid-playing-her-dad-like-a-fiddle-thing and being loud and objectionable (what a scream!) to absolutely everything while her moron dad tried to placate and reason with her –  i was like, “who’s in charge here?”  man, when she is a teenager, she will be running the show…. that 2-4 yr old stage is like the first adolescence, and if you can’t get a kid to have an indoor and an outdoor voice and some respect for others (at least the parent, right?!) at that age, you are gonna be pretty much screwed for the entire journey… it took everything i had to bite my tongue and not say anything on my way out… prob’ly a good thing - that family’s clearly already got it hard enough…

i did finally smile when i was in the shuttle on the way to the hotel, tho, and here’s why: my driver’s idea of how to whistle along to a song on the radio was to pick one pitch and then repeat it rhythmically along with the song whether the pitch actually matched or not… my fave was “don’t go breakin my heart” by elton john and kiki dee… i recommend you try this technique in your car next time you hear a song you know, and i think you will find it amusing… i gave him a nice tip…

when i got to the hotel, which was thoroughly adequate, the weather was like stepping into a steam room after my beautiful, gloomy seattle, so i chose to linger in my air conditioned hotel room.  when i realized i had forgotten my hairdryer, i ventured out to make the trek to the kmart down the way – i got to the corner (no hat, no sunscreen) and i was like, “no freakin’ way!  i will just wear a headband, or go with the wet look!” and i returned to my room to watch movies and chill… i crossed my fingers my ship cabin might have a hairdryer wall unit…

i had a ride to take me to the ship at 7 am, so i was up for the free deluxe continental breakfast and in the lobby by 7… there were several crew members there going to two of our ships… miami to ft. lauderdale is about a 40 minute ride, so i snoozed on the way, peering our intermittently to look at the scenery, the palm trees, marshy areas, the miami skyline in the distance… very pretty.  embarking is always the same scene – you scan your luggage at security, fill out a form stating whether you have had any funky illnesses or flu like symptoms prior to boarding, turn in your passport, seaman’s book (yes, i am a dutch sailor, officially!) and employment letter, then you awkwardly lug all your stuff up the crew gangway which will inevitably always have stairs (glad i packed light – meaning one enormous bag and two small instead of two enormous and two small), making rolling luggage useless… whew!  then you all go to the crew mess for an orientation and safety meeting… you get your safety assignment (i am a traffic director – this means in an emergency i tell people where find the lifeboat deck from my post at a passenger stairwell), listen to company policies and sign off, and if you are new (i am not) tour the vessel...  you get your room key, and you can then settle in.

i was so excited to find that i had some pretty swanky digs by crew standards… they have re-done the berthing assignments fleet-wide, and i am now in a guest entertainer cabin on upper decks as opposed to living below decks in crew quarters.  i am psyched to have windows, and even a full bath… super swell!  my cabin stewards (yes, two!) are awesome and whipped my place into ship shape so i could unpack and settle in… i really wish i had cabin stewards at home!

saw a few familiar faces of crew i have worked with on other ships, and am glad to know some folks out here… it becomes like a large artificially extended family of sorts, all sharing some common stuff… my first night was great!  i found that the crappy electric piano in a shell that was here two years ago, has been replaced by a fairly decent real grand with adequate sound reinforcement and monitoring and everything… sweet!  for those of you who followed my world voyage, you may remember i was getting the crap scared out of me by people coming up from behind grabbing me or clapping me on the shoulder while i was playing, eliciting more than one small coronary… well, on the larger ships, the piano is surrounded with (hooray!) an actual WALL behind me (i swear, i almost kissed it!), and a bar surrounding the piano with bar stools all around – the player’s area can be accessed by a lift-up ‘gate’ in the countertop by the wall, so there is a psychic moat of sorts all around my area, so no more jumping out of my skin on the gig!  yay!!!!!!

last night’s theme was “getting to know you,” which is just me asking people their names, where they are from, what kind of music they like, and going around the room to take requests… i throw in the occasional sing along or clap along type of number, and the crowd, for a first night, was quite lucid and ready to party!  i didn’t end til after 1, so we did a great night in the bar… i have an awesome bar staff, and we are going to rock it out this cruise and have some fun!  i have to get a memory card and some batteries for my camera or get a new camera as this one has been really acting up (won’t turn on half the time, especially if there is a good shot!)… we are at sea and it’s grey, so there’s a visual for you!   more soon!   cheers!

a short pause...

i am sorry to say i will have to take temporary leave of my blog, and, indeed, of this voyage with bob to go home and tend to an unforeseen family emergency and that bob will remain here to continue working.  i have faith that everyone will ultimately be ok, though your well wishes and prayers are appreciated for my son’s dad in his recovery.  i will know more about when and where my journey will again proceed soon, so stay tuned, and i will keep you all posted.  for the next few weeks however, i will be focusing my attention on being home with nino and being a supportive presence for him and for johnny.  i am choosing to take the unexpected bonus of a few weeks at home with nino as a surprise gift since he will soon be off to college and time at home with him is a precious and dwindling thing… thank you for understanding and for your kind thoughts for johnny and our entire family at this time.  i will be back! 

hello from icy strait point!

greetings from icy strait point.  this is an area about 40 mile out of juneau where the ancient peoples of glacier bay went when the ice advanced and forced them from their homes and includes the little nearby village of hoonah as well.  today bob and i both had IPM (in-port manning) which we have decided to call IPS (in-port snuggling).  way to transmute an obligation into a reward!  so, tho we didn’t get to leave the ship, bob did get a few snaps off the deck, and we took some as we sailed away in the early evening… even with a few good pics now and again, to me, they always pale in comparison to the actual place and being there.  i think that’s why i never took too many pics in my life as i always preferred the version in my mind to the actual photos…  still, on the world voyage this year, i did begin to enjoy taking pics with the idea in mind of letting others see what we were seeing, and i get that… i guess i am just missing the inborn chipset that my mom and sister have, whipping out the camera at every occasion – bob is a good photographer and is more interested in it, tho i have recently become more grabby with the camera, wanting to get my own framing of something, so i think my photog muscles are developing a little. 

my theme tonight was ‘come rain or come shine,’ and i was surprised with two busy port days in a row and swoopy seas last night that i kept a bar full of people til after 11… we ended up doing another round of american pie by demand, and that lasted at leat 40 minutes… lots of nice people on this cruise so far!

pics coming tomorrow when i am in anchorage with free and speedy internet!  ciao!

hello from juneau!

here we are in the the capitol city of juneau… another beautiful gray day, and we walked around and enjoyed it.  i have been trying to pick up the little cruiser freebies here and there, the freshwater pearl earrings, the free gemstone pendant (super teeny…), the free polished rocks, i always forget these are out there.  you do usually have to let them show you the $6,000 rings and stuff for the trouble, but it’s fun to look! 

my theme was ‘showtime!’ which includes songs from the big screen, the broadway stage and television themes, even a few commercials… we then have requests til the night is over… i have been lucky enough the last couple of nights to have a few friends drop by and sit in – the guitar player, our friend, dan, from seattle, who is great, a french Canadian sax player named kevan, who is also great, and last night two of the singers from the showroom singers and dancers dropped a few tunes… lots of fun!  the guests really enjoy those impromptu moments, and i am grateful our entertainment leadership allows this – i have been with others who don’t, and i feel they rob the guests of some singular moments that will not happen again… good stuff!

i will be putting my alaskan port song lyrics together on one blog entry at the end of the alaska season with pictures… it has taken me a couple of alaskan summers to get together all the best stuff for each place we go, and i think i have enough now to do an alaskan- themed cruise ship cd to bring with me next time i do the alaska season.  the cd i have now is down to the last few copies, so i will be making a couple of new cd’s when i get home over the holidays to take out with me for the 2012 season.  new stuff is good!  original new stuff is better!  i think bob and i will also throw a duo cd down as well to have when we play together on the home front…

pics of juneau i will have to upload in anchorage - bandwidth out here is tiny, slow, and expensive...  ciao for now!

hello from tracy arm!

tracy arm from promenade deck

yesterday we traveled up the beautiful alaskan fjord of tracy arm.  frequently, we won’t always get really far because of ice or fog, but we made it all the way back in today which was lovely.  bob and i took a few pictures outside and then another few from our window so you could see what a sweet view we have from our room in the sky.

pretty!

from our room

one half of the window... nice!

i have met a few characters on board… one lady (not a piano bar patron) i met in the lido commented wryly how cheerful i was while standing in line at lunch.  she is from, well, a warmer state, and when i asked how she was enjoying her cruise, she kind of harrumphed and said, “all these trees… hmph! you can shove ‘em all!  and it’s cold!”  i reminded her it was alaska, and coming on fall… she harrumphed again and mumbled away.  i was left wondering why she hadn’t stayed in her warm, dry, presumably treeless environment.  i hope when i get older, i will not look for things to be wrong in the day… if i do turn out like that, nino, you can stick me on an iceberg somewhere…

like this one, bean...

my theme last night was moon and stars, not that you could see any… i did robert service’s “ballad of the ice worm cocktail” behind which i throw in some music.  i love the grey weather, and have decided that grey (in all it’s variety, especially the dark stuff) might actually be my favorite color.  i tried to tell my piano bar patrons that the clouds make the ice more blue, so they shouldn’t fret if it’s overcast on glacier days… i’m not sure they were convinced, and even my pictures don’t quite capture the depth of blue in the ice we saw today… lovely!  

ooooooh!

aaaaaaaaaaaah!

more soon... cheers!

greeting from ketchikan!

cruise ships lined up like sentries in ketchikan

so i got my bob back on friday in seattle!  that morning i was able to have a happy 50^th anniversary celebration with my folks while bob got re-situated – we had a really nice visit and got to catch up on each other’s situations before they get ready to move while we are away… (when i was younger my pop always said that someday when i left they would move and leave no forwarding address… hee hee)

it was a whirl getting bob in the door and catching up on some lost time this year… we are now comfortably settled in in our new digs (swanky!) and we will be settling into our comfortable, tho busy, at sea routine.  everything is far easier and happier when he is here!

our first day was at sea going through the inside passage.  quite lovely… my first night’s theme in the piano bar was ‘getting to know you,’ which is where i just chat with people, getting their names, asking where they are from, what kind of music they like, and is pretty much an all request night.  people are often tired from traveling, so they will either not want to sing or clap along, or they draw a blank when it is their turn to request a song.  this is when we fall back on the artist request, so they don’t have to come up with a particular song… i don’t make them work too hard on their first night!  the second night was the genre-stump-the band game ‘american pie’, and was a formal night.  on these shorter cruises, i am usually working 9-close, so my themed set is from 9-10, happy hour is from 10-11, and after that we might go til anywhere from 11:30 til 1, depending on how much activity, how many port days in a row, etc. the guest have had.   

yesterday was ketchikan day, and my theme was ‘let’s be frank!’ featuring the music of frank sinatra.  it was fairly well attended, and i had a good, steady crowd for the rest of the evening, tapering at 12:15… nice folks, and i think with my wits back around me, i am doing better this cruise in terms of getting people’s names down, etc.  i have a few guests who i have met on other cruises, and one gal who even said she booked this particular run because i am on it.  that felt good!  i’m never too aware of what day of the week it is, only whether it is a sea day or which port we are in.  i am firmly fixed in knowing that anchorage and seattle are both on fridays, tho…

nino has started his senior year (hard to believe!) and has some great senior pics (which he hates) coming soon… our summer boarder, uncle larry, moved out, and with me and bob taking off, the mascorella boys and the dog are bachelors in a quieter home… we will be back in time for christmas holidays taking december and january off, and we may take a little family trip out to the winter-stormy coast.  that would be fun!

in ketchikan, bob and i went out to walk and get some good coffee… we took the married man’s trail through the woods ( back when, the fellows could visit the fancy houses on creek street this way without being seen…)… lovely day!  hope everyone is well, and here are a few pics to get current… cheers!

sasquatch in downtown ketchikan

dogs of creek street

historic and colorful creek street

view from funicula going up deer mountain

many real totem poles in parks of ketchikan

high bush cranberries

ginormous slug atop forest fungus on married man's trail

view of dolly's house through the forest on married man's trail