From our private oasis

Matty and I are sitting at an almost empty resort in Ensenada, Mexico. It’s a getaway for crew members who know about it. After three days of being sick following a week of Matty being sick, we felt up to finding our oasis. It’s a gorgeous courtyard of outdated pool furniture and Mexican stucco artwork. The pool has a simple waterfall coming off one end that mimics the sound of our fan that we sleep to. I would be asleep if it were not for the father and daughter just now using the one innertube that has been slowly drifting back and forth in the pool for the last hour with no inhabitant.

This is a very rare peaceful moment for Matty and I since our arrival on the Carnival Paradise in April.

Matty is reading a Rolling Stone magazine and I’m quickly writing an update at the request of Stephen Sharkey as our computer battery dies with no outlet in sight.

I just watched a video of Chloe opening an inflatable cruise ship replica that we mailed her to give her a tangible idea of what and where her uncle and aunt were on and doing. She just said over and over, “it’s a boat” as Jenn did her best attempts to get a “thank you kris and matt” said into the camera.

I’m wondering daily what my life is “supposed” to look like amidst that choices I’ve made and what it actually looks like.

How random this last year has been with all of it’s “adventures” and adversaries. My hope is that in the still moments between calling Bingo sessions, hosting trivia games and running the ping pong tournaments that God will speak some wisdom into my life. How is God speaking to me through this experience? And what am I to learn and grow into when it’s all over.

My fellow crew members come from 57 different countries and at most times it feels like an international college where getting wasted at night makes up for super long shifts cleaning state rooms and washing ship stairwells. It is normal for strangers to find comfort in several nights meaningless sex with other workers and go back to service with a smile to the 2600 guests the next day who mostly come from Southern California. Matty and I make up 2 of about 15 Americans working on board the ship and although we are well liked, it’s incredible to watch the American guests through their eyes.

Where do Matty and I fit amongst these fellow entertainers who are at an average age of 24. We are the “nice” married people who everyone seems a little boggled by. But in its funny way, “boggled” is good. It’s a sign that we’ve stuck with who we are in the midst of one of the stranger environments we’ve yet found ourselves in.

Looking forward to a wonderful week with our folks on board. If nothing else, it will be a chance for us to show members of our family exactly what things are like here for us.

ONE DAY on the PARADISE

1am- done with hosting the comedy show
2am- finally asleep (matty gets into bed at 2:45am

8am- wake up for temperature, matty leaves to practice.
9:15- matty comes back to bed.
9:30- I get up, dressed.
10- run ping pong tournament on the verandah deck
10:30- pick up cruise staff pay
10:45- sit down in the crew mess to eat a snack
11- co-host game show mania in the normandie show lounge
11:45- wake up matty back in the room, crawl back into bed to cuddle
12:15- eat lunch in the staff mess
1pm- host the hairy chest competition on the lido deck (dj oversleeps and I’m left with no background music, use improv skills to entertain the crowd)
2- watch general hospital back in the room
3- host famous faces and brain strain trivia in the café on the promenade deck
5- liars club in the normandie. I along with two other co-hosts on the panel
6- work out (weigh 183)
7- quick shower
7:15- eat dinner with matt in the staff mess
8- snuggle with matt and talk about life
9:25- start laundry
10- sell bingo cards in the normandie
11- finish laundry, talk with the dancers about life and love (they are 19 & 20!)
11:30- talk with Cruise Director about matty’s shitty boss
1am- go to bed.

Restlessness.

Restlessness. It is such an interesting word. It’s easy to think of it in a sense of being anxious, ungrateful for the present, unhappy in our current states. But honestly, I think there is not only validity in it but it is something that can even be given to us as a gift.

Here Kris and I are, on the Paradise, in the midst of fulfilling a goal we had from the beginning, working on a cruise line and experiencing what comes with that. And there are days we are restless. Now, I think some of that is fairly situation specific. We work on a contract that does shorter trips to fewer places and have to deal with people (at least in my case) that are anything but easy to work with. However, I think Kris and I are at a stage in life that lends itself to those feelings, in a good way. This boat allows us a chance to live in a present lifestyle that is anything but ordinary and push us to examine where we are headed and what this experience is showing about who we are as individuals and a team. To live in the present but with our eyes ever forward. We joke that we haven’t lived in one place more then 5 months since our marriage but that’s ok. Like an appetizer of life, giving ourselves a chance to explore who we are can only lead to better things in my opinion.

So here we are, glad to be working for Carnival and enjoying its present benefits but also reaping the inevitable benefit to look forward as most everybody who works on boats do. We may not have a 5 year plan at this point but we are embracing the restless wanderers we are right now as it continues to define who we are and who we’ll become.

More fun facts:
-With a one hour bus ride we can easily become Hollywood tourists
-I’ve played Tequila at least 150 times more then you have.
-We’re back to Ensenada! Woohoo! I know, it’s just Ensenada, but it beats a seaday!
-Thankfully, creepy Italian officer has ceased his pursuit of Kris
-I am learning choice French phrases from our trumpet player. Thanks Pascal!