No time to say ‘hello’ ‘goodbye’ I’m late, I’m late, I’M LATE
Anyone who says my job is a walk in the park (and there are, believe it or not, still a few who do so), I challenge you to take over from me during a crossing. More specifically during the first sea day of a crossing.
It’s not so much that the days are bad – they’re not – they’re just insanely busy. I start at eight in the morning, and if I’m fortunate my morning shift is uneventful ,that’s pretty much my rest period, because once my afternoon shift kicks off at one, I don’t stop until considerably later that night. Especially since last night they had me host a formal table in the dining room (which is still work, despite the fact that the food is good and if you get a nice table the conversation can be pleasant, because you are still on and sparkly for those two hours) – during what would normally have been my only proper break.
I started running at one in the afternoon, and I didn’t stop until I collapsed into bed at 11:00. At which point Amras called to see if I was alright, and I’m surprised I even had enough energy to pick up the phone.
I tired…I’m on hour 13 of a 12 hour day…
Yeah, your schedule today is…I can’t really believe it…
It won’t always be this bad of course. Normally my sea days on a crossing are only 10 hours, and while that sounds like a lot I’m actually quite used to it by this point. It was the extra two hours of formal hosting that slaughtered me because I didn’t have a chance to grab my normal power nap. As I said to Amras last night, when I used to clock 12 hour days I was a) a lot younger (and it galls me to say that) and b) it was usually in the course of a show. Rehearsal and performance are exhausting but they feed your energy banks, so I could plow through 10 hours and still have enough energy left afterwards to go out for drinks with the cast. I remember doing exactly that on tech day (and tech days ALWAYS run 12 hours, half of which are spent sitting around being unable to leave the theatre but also not really doing anything…always pack a lunch and a book for tech day).
I’m digressing again…
Like the title says…I’m mad, you’re mad we’re ALL mad here…