Another night of Motown

Royal Caribbean really loves its Motown tribute bands, and since joining the Voyager last year I've played for my fair share of them. Its always the same songs, sometimes arranged by the same guys back in the states. This week we backed up Spectrum, a motown band with 4 guys (the average). They are really one of the better groups: entertaining, professional, and singing in tune (this doesn't always happen). They are also really easy to work with, and their charts make sense as far as we're concerned as horn players. The trick in writing for our size of band is to neither over nor underuse the horn section, a balance they've figured out pretty well. Another trick is not to write for the brass as if we were string players, with whole charts of long sustained whole notes that only serve to wear us out and don't use our punch capacity effectively. Treat us like a brass section please, and thank you! This motown show also goes by really quickly since Spectrum don't leave much downtime between charts, there are a lot of segues, and we are always on our toes. If you have to play a motown show, Spectrum is a good one to do. Tomorrow the rest of the band will back up an entertainer known as Bowzer, about whom I've heard all sorts of horror stories. Lucky for me, he doesn't use the trombone, so I only have to play the late big band set at the end of the night after the show. Another week in the life!

3,2,1, Hawaii!

Today I started a new workout regemin with the production cast. My friends in the cast have been on my case to start doing it with them, and now that I've just about kicked this cold I've had, I felt my excuses had run out. The workout routine is called Insanity. I think it needs no further explanation. Keeping up with professional dancers is pretty much impossible, but it is also hugely motivating. You don't want to be the one who gives up an exercise first, so you push yourself....needless to say, I'm exhausted. But I am looking forward to really getting into shape alongside them.

Yesterday I had a great day in Victoria. First, I saw "Hubble", an educational IMAX film. It was so incredible - I highly recommend it. If you was a refresher on just how inconceivably huge and beautiful God's universe is, this is a great film to see. The IMAX experience of a six-story screen doesn't hurt either, and was very appropriate to the subject matter. Second, I tried a new waffle place, and had a delicious savory waffle with brie, sliced pear, and bacon on it. Wow. Third, I got a hair cut. My hair is once again shorter than its ever been. It was a little terrifying to feel so much of my hair being cut off, but I'm really loving it. Maybe I've discovered my "true" hairstyle?? Or maybe this sleek new me will eventually want to return to the comfort and time honored tradition of the long hair I always used to have....I may yet grow it back out. But new is definitely fun.

My roommate Monica and the rest of the new cast have now finished all of their safety training, and today were assigned their new emergency numbers and emergency duties. Most of them are in Muster stations, as I am. Or should I say, was. Since today marked a lot of changes in the numbers, and there are a few allocated "entertainment/musician" emergency numbers that aren't required to participate in the guest drill, we were able to switch things around a bit. Thanks to my friend Beau (tenor sax) who is dating the dance captain and was able to reassign a few of our numbers through her (including his own), I now no longer have to do the guest boat drill. I cannot tell you how happy a day this is for me. Passenger boat drill is usually one of the necessary evils of my job, and thanks to some harmless meddling on Beau's part I no longer have to do it! Hooray! I told him I would love him forever. The neatest thing about it was that it didn't occur to me to ask for this, he was proactive and surprised a few of us with this unexpected release from a tedious job. Thanks, Beau! My embarkation days are so much nicer now....

Birthday Week!

Mom and Dad joined me on the Rhapsody this week for my birthday, and we kept very busy!! We hiked out to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau for some more ice cave photos, and still had time afterwards to see some salmon running in a little place called Sheep Creek just outside of town, and to eat some of said salmon at the Thane Ore House. In Skagway I took my parents to the sled dog summer camp in the morning, and then we took a train ride on the White Pass railway in the afternoon. After that we still had a little time to shop for souvenirs. I ate dinner in the dining room with them all week, as a result of which I've probably gained 5 pounds....but it was worth it. :-) In Victoria we met up with some friends from back home in Lake Arrowhead, and all drove out to the Butchart Gardens for a lovely day of photo-taking. We had barely enough time to have some fish and chips at my favorite place in town before heading back to the ship. My parents are great - it was so nice to have them on board and to get to know they were there watching every time I performed, being proud and supportive as always. I checked my email a grand total of once the entire week, and still have a bit of catching up to do. It was a wonderful week, we celebrated my birthday as they were leaving in Seattle, and they brought me some wonderful gifts that I'll get to enjoy here. I got some little gifts and cards from a couple of my friends here on board, which was really nice, too. I'm still getting over a little bit of a cold, but I've been trying to rest and take it easy as much as possible, Luckily thats pretty easy to do on board the Rhapsody. :-)

In other news, I've officially requested my extension, and should have the final confirmation in the next couple of days, though I already heard back from the Miami office with their OK. So it looks like I'll be here until March 24th.....yikes!!! I am so glad to be able to get to do the circumnavigation of Australia, though, which this extension will allow me to do. Very exciting!!

Yesterday in Juneau I did my final shopping with my friend Blanche, in preparation for the rest of my contract, and the crossing in particular. I've planned ahead a lot and done what I suppose could be called "preventative shopping", so if I'm careful I should need to do any more shopping for sundries for the rest of my contract. It will be much cheaper in the long run, thanks to Walmart and buying in bulk at Costco. I hear things are much more expensive and harder to find once we reach the South Pacific. So now I'm ready! after this week, 3 more weeks of Alaska before the crossing! Bring it on!

Hiking

In Skagway my friend Blanche and I went hiking. The trail starts near the ship, and we took it up to Upper Dewey Lake, which is a 3100 foot change in elevation. It was a hard hike! It took us about 3 hours each way, but was so worth it. The scenery at the lake was amazing. I broke in my new hiking shoes on the mud and rocks. When we got to the top we jumped in the lake, and it was freezing!!! Glacial lakes don't make the best swimming holes. We were in the water for about 3 seconds before we scrambled back out. Days later, I am still sore from that hike, but Blanche and I are both really proud of ourselves for conquering that mountain. It was a real adventure!

Souvenirs

People collect all sorts of souvenirs as they travel. I've always saved pins, that I used to put on a hat until they became too many. Now they are all in a cork board in my room at home. I sometimes collect stickers from different places to put on my trombone case, though they eventually get scratched or ripped and come off. Any popular tourist destination will have its souvenir shops, where every tourist can find their item of choice, be it T-shirt or magnent, backpack or hat, shot glass or teaspoon, key chain or pen. I like souvenirs that are more real....like a rock I picked up on a trail, or a flower petal I saved and pressed into a book, something that actually reminds me of time I spent somewhere, or experiences I had there. One of my favorite souvenirs is a scar I still have on my left little toe from when I scraped it snorkeling in Bermuda. But all this time, I never knew my laptop was collecting its own souvenirs. Every time my little MacBook accessed a wireless network, it remembered the name of that network and the password, just in case it should ever need to join it again. Looking through this list of networks on my computer gives a unique recounting of my travels throughout the world. I can look at each one and remember when and where I was at the time I used it. Here's a few favorites from that list:

apuwifi: from my university days

Vino100: from when I worked next door at In the Woods

the laundry network: from a movie studio in Hong Kong where I hung out with an awesome Christian Chinese-Australian guy until the wee hours of the morning

London Bridge Resort 5: family vacation in Arizona

Wifi, The Green Turtle: internet cafe in Civitavecchia, Italy

Hotel Welcome: Villefranche, France

Gibraltar Arms Free Wireless: a pub in Gibraltar with awesome fries.

Helsinging kaupungin WLAN: a coffee shop in Helsinki Finland, on a rainy day

RCCL-CR-ITRF: the ship wifi. Expensive.

Caviar and Bananas: coffee shop in Charleston

The Fluffy Bunny Brigade: no idea where this network was, but it was so funny I had to post it.

I hope my laptop and I will both be collecting souvenirs for a long time yet.

Making up for free time

Well, I did sign up for some tours this week as mentioned before, to fill up some of the free time afforded me this cruise. In Juneau I finally went whale watching, which was really neat. It was kindof like living the discovery channel. The highlight was seeing a group of about a dozen humpback whales bubble-net feeding, where the whales coordinate with each other to creat a ring of bubbles, then chase the fish trapped inside it up the center and up to the surfaces, where they come up with mouthfuls of fish. It was truly incredible to see all the whales break the surface at once - I actually stopped breathing a couple of times.

In Skagway I went on a hiking trip on the Chilkoot trail that ended with a rafting trip back down to the trailhead. It was very similar rafting to what I did last week in Skagway, but this time my tour guide let me row the raft for part of it. Awesome!!! I did pretty good, too, considering I had to control a raft with 8 people in it. It was so fun....It was nice to have something more like an adventure than just sitting in the raft.

My side jobs have been keeping me busy, which is great. Unfortunately I only have one more week of art auction before the gallery leaves the ship. We still don't know if they will be replaced right away or ever with another gallery, and if so if that gallery would hire assistants in the same way, so I'm not counting on anything. I have 6 more weeks of Port and Shopping (that jobs finishes at the crossing), and I'm not sure if shore-ex will still need help after we do the crossing, or when we get a new manager, so that is up in the air as well. But my philosophy is just to ride the wave while I can, so to speak, and do as much work as I can while its still available.