The world cruise as a whole comes with a high level of stress, but right smack in the middle of it is one week that’s more high-strung than all the others. Now granted, that week comes with an amazing party (last year it was Mardis Gras), but the headaches that come with having the CEO of the entire company on board are…massive.
For a week now I have been trying frantically to set the office to rights, I’ve done everything save going around with a ruler to line all the books up; but with a full complement of over 1000 passengers on board the shelves do not stay full, nothing stays in order and it takes me two days per section to set things right again. Since my co-librarian has his hands full just handling the returns (and I suspect a lot of other things going in his life that are preying on his mind ), it seems that the moment I set a shelf to the way it should be I come back for my next shift to find I have to start all over.
No offense at all meant to my roomie (who is lovely), but it’s this week more than ever that I deeply wish I had my own room. Sharing my space when I’m under pressure sometimes causes me to snap like a dry twig, because all I really want is to be able to go home, turn on my movie without worrying about disturbing anyone or anything and sew until I fall asleep. That’s a difficult routine to indulge in when one is living on a bunk bed in a shared room. I always knew that having my own space was a privilege, but I’d forgotten just how much I had relied on it until it was taken away from me.
I’m not unhappy, I’m just exhausted.
If I could drink coffee, I’d have an IV of it hooked up to my arm right about now. But we all know what caffeine does to me (and if you don’t trust me ya don’t want to), so I’m making do with hot cocoa and as much sleep as I can manage.
The overriding thing that’s getting me through it all is that in a few days it will all be over. His stay is shorter this year than normal, in fact it’s less than week long, and the sense of relief when he departs will be nearly palable.
Until then, we break out the spare uniforms that have been kept in their plastic until now, we press pleats into place and curl hair and wake up early enough in the morning to put on that splash of extra make up, and we work those small glamours that anyone can do if they put enough effort into it.