Kennedy Space Center, exploding nuts and it’s all about thrust…

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

NASA was amazing! Amazing!
Jeremy and Dave are into space, so I could ask them questions about the stuff I should already know about, and they’d answer my questions without me feeling dumb.

My favorite part was the rocket garden. Just all these old rockets from the Gemini program, Apollo and other missions. Also, that the #2 section of the parking lot was named #2 for the Democratic Senator from the great state of Ohio, Mr. John Glenn.

At one point on the tour, we heard about the threat that exploding nuts pose in the space program.

We came back and tried to find an astronaut movie to watch, but the only thing in the crew dvd library was Starship Troopers and Armageddon. They also had Virgin Suicides and Jarhead, neither of which I’ve seen, but I opted not to check those out.

Just another day at the daily grind

Monday, May 14, 2007
Sea day oh Sea day.
Today represented a very typical sea day on the Spirit. I woke up at 11, worked out to Judging Amy (Amy is having trouble with her teen daughter Lauren, but her mom, Tyne Daly, provides wise council just in the nick of time to prevent Amy from making a big parenting mistake).

Then, I ate at the Bier Garten with Jeremy, and attended a lecture entitled “Mysteries of the Deep”. A professor debunked the myth of the Bermuda triangle and other legends of the deep. I like debunking, but I always have a compulsion to debunk their bedunking, just to keep it balanced. In this case, I questioned one of his slides that referred to “A Lake in Africa”. He couldn’t recall the name of the lake or the nation, but did say he had read it in National Geographic, turning to the audience of the Clipper conference room. Now, who’s the debunker and who debunked?

Next, I snuck into the boardroom, a fancy, seldom used conference room with wi-fi, and really comfy chairs. I stayed there writing until 5, when the Friends of Bill W came in for their meeting.

I wandered over to the main lobby, and caught the tail end of the taping of “Live at Five”, as I wrote the running order for our “Scriptless” or improv show on Thursday. Live at Five is the Cruise Director’s live tv show where they promote events and shops on board, give out NCL-themed merchandise as prizes and inject lots of cruise-style zaniness when possible.

Next, I chatted with a friend or 2, and then headed up to check in with Carly in our room. She wasn’t there, so I decided to go sit outside and read on deck 11. Jeremy joined me, and then we spotted a tiny boat off the port side. We watched it for a while, and then read some more. There was a really nice sunset, so we watched that for a while. Jeremy doesn’t like sunsets as much as I do, but will tolerate watching them.

Then, we decided to eat at Raffles, and ran into Carly and Brian. We all sat outside, watching the Cavs game (Cavs won!) I came back to the room to read some more, and catch up on the blog.

Tonight, we’ll go to crew bar around 11pm and hang out for a bit with our friends from the NCL production team, Crew Excursions and Cruise Staff.

Tomorrow, we are going to see the Kennedy Space Center.

This is a really great job.

Please proceed with less caution

Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Carly, Amy and I headed out to Virgin Gorda, a gorgeous gorgeous beach in the British Virgin Islands. We hung out at the first beach, and then hiked through some caves and coves to a second beach. We floated on our backs, soaked in the sun and just chilled out. Then we hiked back to the parking lot to catch “Speedy’s” shuttle to the ferry back to the main island where we port. There’s a lot of taking a bus to a boat to a bus down here in the Caribbean. And it’s always on open-air trucks and ferries with noxious fumes. If one was worried about safety standards, you could easily get freaked out. But, that stuff doesn’t bother me, so I’m usually just fine.

Brother

Monday, May 7, 2007
Jeremy’s brother Ben is also on board. At different points, we were calling him a cousin, and I thought his name was Sam for a bit. In the end, I just called him brother. He took to that and embraced it fully.

Today, Amy, Brother, Jeremy and I walked around Bermuda. It felt like one of those days when you are backpacking, and meet up with another set of travelers and just go out and about exploring. Part of you knows that the easy travel camaraderie is only for that day, and that you probably won’t keep in touch beyond this day. But, it’s fun while it lasts. Plus, we had bloody marys at noon, so that makes for a nice vacation day for both Amy and brother.

Dave, new guy, good guy

Sunday, May 6, 2007
Sea day! We had rehearsal for our new guy, Dave. And then I played Scrabble with Homer and Carly. Amy snacked nearby but didn’t join us in Scrabble.

We had our Stardust show with our new guy, Dave. He did really well.

That is all.

Amy Day

Saturday, May 5, 2007
Amy day!
Amy came on board today…and it’s been a rocking fun time. I walked her around and showed her the highlights, including the multiple bags of baked cheetos and yummy cans of pop I bought for us to snack on. Oh, and the pool, too.

Bye old D, Hi new D

Thursday, May 3, 2007
This cruise is always pretty tame. We go to Cape Canaveral and go to the mall and see a movie. Then we go to Nassau, and go to Starbucks. Then we have our show. Then we go to the private island and get tropical drinks and hang out. Don’t get me wrong; it’s nice, but just not as exciting as the other cruise.

It’s been a busy week—we are working in a new actor, so an extra rehearsal, plus, saying goodbye to Darryl and welcoming the new guy.

I’ve barely had time to nap!