Day One
Sunday September 4th, 2011:
Fuck. My alarm went off at 3a and I rolled out of bed after it went off 10 minutes later. Not that I really needed the 10 extra minutes, I hadn’t slept that much anyway the night before. Gee… wonder why. ;)
Mom, Dad and I had gone through all my stuff and downsized before everything was packed up again. I was going to be taking with me:
1 large duffel
1 over shoulder duffel
1 tool box with tools
1 orange rolling backpack (my carryon)
We were thinking that I’d be able to check both duffels and the tool kit, but when we go to the airport it was going to cost an outrageous amount to check all three…so I grabbed my over shoulder bag to instead go with me.
Mom, Dad and I took some quick pictures and then I queued up to go into the Gates. Went through security fine…but when they were x-raying my bags…I’d forgotten that I’d packed by shampoo, conditioner and body wash in the bag…so those had to be pulled and sent back to mom and pop. Shit. Oh well. I grabbed my bags, put my flip flops back on and then walked to my gate.
~~~
My flights were very standard, slept and listened to my music from OKC to DFW. And then from DFW to Tampa, I slept and listened to more music, woke up for the last hour or so and worked on my knitting, (which, Megan, it’s looking really good!)
The …”fun” part was getting off the plane and going through the Tampa Airport…which is COMPLETELY disorganized; their baggage claim is not only in another building…it’s in another building down a floor and has a color association as well…Blue 6?! WTF MATE!! Got my bags and then had to find Super Shuttle for Tampa so I could get a ride to the ship.
I got my ride, and it dropped me off at the ship…but at the wrong location; he’d dropped me off with the passengers and then left before I could ask him to take me to the other side. So I had to haul all my bags and tool kit to the other side of the building…which was long and arduous. I have bruises on my shoulders from carrying the bags.
Finally got on the ship and met with my manager, George and the man I’ll be replacing, Marco “The Battleship”. No joke, that’s what my fellow crew members call him, “The Battleship”. And as we could probably guess, I’m the only girl on the crew! My other crew members are Dan (Automation), Jim (Sound) and Devon (Lights).
There’s 2 full shows that I facilitate and 2 “mini” shows, one is a “Welcome Aboard” 15 minute song and dance routine. My 2 full shows are called “Jazz Hot” and “The Big Easy”. From watching Marco work, what I do is just kind of…keep order back stage…basically I’m my own ASM. I don’t call anything; just go from one side to the other helping dancers quick change, running down stairs to get dancers into position on the automated orchestra pit.
But sadly…day one on board I got sea sick…I was ok when I busy and talking with people, but as soon as I was sitting there and watching I could feel EVERY bump and rock…and I was not a happy camper. By the end of the night I was sick as a dog. Tossed my cookies! The guys, wanting to make me better invited me to join them at the crew bar for some drinks, I said no drinks for me tonight but they insisted, so I joined them and they bought me a ginger ale which helped. I drank that and then went to bed.
