6 Weeks in...

Matty and I have been here about 6 weeks now! We are having a blast adapting to ship life. In order to update the blog more frequently i'm going to send you lists. much like my update was.

10 random thoughts for 6 weeks in...

1. we spent our anniversary (first year) on the boat and attended the "anything but clothes party". very chic! (a chance for most girls to legitimately show up half naked)

















2. we get paid in CASH. see below (last posts)
3. ping pong tournaments are SERIOUS to these people!
4. Matt has already played "In the Mood" at least 70 times.
5. people come and go so fast on this ship it's hard to say goodbye to coworkers and you have to get to know the new ones quickly. (sad to say by to george!)













6. we have spent $100 this month on internet usage! yikes!
7. i can't ever sneak up on anyone in my windpants
8. apparently swine flu stops spreading june 20 (that's when we can go back to ensenada, mexico)













9. the three day cruise (fri-mon) is our official booze cruise as tickets are as cheap as $100. grr.
10. someone makes our bed every day. that makes up for the windpants!

Some PROFESSIONAL portraits!

These are the clothes we wear 90% of the time!!

We are only paid in CASH! yikes!

Good Girl Piper

Just when i thought i was a big girl being away from home i found out today that Piper, quite possibly the coolest dog in the world died yesterday... and i bawled my eyes out. it might sound ridiculous to fall apart over a dog but Piper was (and it's hard to write "was") the best dog! My sister jenn and her husband charley got Piper 10 years ago and i've never seen a dog with so much personality. She really was part of the family.
I'm getting teared up just thinking about never seeing her again.
i miss home. i miss piper. i just want to hug jenn and charley and chloe and cry with them.

i don't think i can ever own a pet. matty disagrees but i'm not sure i can handle it. chloe is probably handling it better than me.

bummed.

LIFE ON PARADISE Pt. 2

Ok, ok, I received word from a couple people wondering just what these “grizzly moments” I spoke of were, so allow me to be frank with you.

Honestly, my first week here was something of a bit of a nightmare. Lets just say if Kris weren’t here I probably would have poked my drumstick through one of the windows during a Promenade set and jumped out ☺ What made it so hard? Well the minute I got on I was handed four LARGE folders full of music to look at and learn. Of course most of it I didn’t really get a chance to look at because I had the task of listening and learning two full shows, each of which were roughly an hour each. So I rarely left my room in the first 72 hours, save to play the first of the two shows. After scraping my way on those I had a slew of sets to play with the crew around the ship. This incorporated the seemingly endless pile of songs of which to choose from, many of which I had never heard. To compound things more, I realized I was playing with a group of absolute professionals which made me feel VERY small about my own playing in the midst of trying to learn everything and also a pretty unforgiving boss who made sure I knew every time something wasn’t right (which was a lot). He’s the kind of guy that will only give you news if its bad. Not high on the encouragement…SO alas I began going into each set with a pit in my stomach, nervous to even sit behind the set and the time I wasn’t playing I was thinking about playing next so being able to relax was right out. It was not a fun place to start.

But nevertheless, the first week DID end and I began to feel more confident in the songs (we repeat a lot of stuff) and I began to get to know the other guys in the group and many of the other wonderful people on board here. It is true I still find moments to mess something up and I still deal with a boss who I’d rather not, but beyond that its beginning to feel manageable and EVERY once in a while fun and I’m also finding the ability to separate work from play and enjoy my down time, which has consisted of three great afternoons in Catalina with ocean kayaking (with seals!), awesome french toast and a beautiful boardwalk and some needed errand running and a showing of “Star Trek” in Long Beach.

But honestly, thank God, more then ever, for Tina. She has been the one constant (beyond God of course) and has been everything a terrific wife dealing with a stressed out and depressed husband can be. She’s amazing. And now I finally feel like I can join her in a place of soaking this adventure up for all the good things it brings. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement. More soon!

-M

LIFE ON PARADISE

It’s hard to believe it’s been three weeks since I came to the Paradise.
It feels like a lifetime already full of adjustment to ship life – including the rocking of the boat this evening that forced me to down another two seasickness tablets.
The people who work on this boat total 900 or so and Matty and I are two of about 15 Americans total. Most people are named Made, Santiago, Kienel, Duangjai, Danilo, Ante, Liliya, Fnu, Joaquim, Varoon, Hasim, Claudio, Khalipe, Ernesto & Macelin.

My day sometimes begins at 8am and ends as late as 1am. I might have 4 hour breaks in between activities or I could end up working a pretty long day if I’m Host on Duty. Most days I wear a pair of royal blue wind pants that swish when I walk and a red white and blue polo shirt that Matty says is way too big on me. At night I either wear our “reds” which is a red blazer over white dress pants or an elegant dress of which I have my five options almost all purchased at Deb or Rave.

My team consists of 6 people, the Cruise Director, Felipe, from Brazil, the Assistant Cruise Director, George (who is only 20) from England, and three other social hosts who are from Britain (Rob & Laura) and Orlando (Alex) Most of the people on board in the entertainment department are from England, South Africa or Canada. No one is from Chicago.

The activities I host are: trivias, bingos, game shows, tournaments for ping pong, bean bags, water balloons, scavenger hunts, scattergories, hairy chest competition, and something we call Fun Patrol which is where we get a drink compliments of the cruise director and “schmooze” on the promenade deck with the guests. Tonight we lead the showband (this includes Matty) in a Mardi Gras parade through the promenade. Matty straps on a snare drum and plays about 10 choruses of “oh when the saints go marching in” before he ends that night at 1:30am!!!

Tomorrow we get off the ship for a few hours in Long Beach; tomorrow we’ll get off in Catalina and maybe go for a hike. We aren’t porting in Mexico until the swine flu gets cleared by the CDC… so that means more sea days. No biggie.

I promise to write more interesting stories on this blog but for the first one we just needed the basics I think!

I’m hoping in the next few weeks I can start singing with the showband when they do promenade sets!!! We’ll see… stay tuned!

Lamb before the Lion

Folks,
I am here in a Long Beach coffeehouse, trying to separate my mind from the ship for a few hours. This is an FYI that a good, long detailed blog post will be coming soon from my wife as she is the one with the cunning ability for writing, describing and engaging. It promises to give all the juicy details and, for yours truly at least, the suprisingly grizzly moments :( But we are here, on the boat and very interested to see what comes of all of this. Till then,

Matthew