{"id":1768,"date":"2012-11-15T19:01:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T08:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=1768"},"modified":"2012-11-15T19:01:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T08:01:30","slug":"the-day-the-circus-came-back-at-sea-11152012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=1768","title":{"rendered":"The Day the Circus Came Back \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [11\/15\/2012]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Baby cried the day the circus came to town
’cause she didn’t want parades just passing by her<\/em>
So she painted on a smile and took up with some clown<\/em>
While she danced without a net upon a wire<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve said before that this job provides you with some amazing and unusual opportunities.\u00a0 The thing is, sometimes those opportunities land in your lap, and sometimes you have to have the nerve to reach out and grab them. There\u2019s always the risk that they may evaporate into thin air, but sometimes they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I think what happened today is a prime example of that.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned earlier, Melissa Manchester returned the flagship this season. It\u2019s unusual to have the same headliner for both the Grand World and the Grand Asia, but somehow it worked out that way. While her show was basically the same (what else would you expect her to do other than her biggest hits), this time she agreed to do a Q&A session the next day. I, sadly, wasn\u2019t scheduled to work it (there are always two event staff that run around with microphones in the audience for the Q&A sessions, so that the questions can actually be heard<\/i> by the people on the stage), but I popped my head in every now and then to listen. After all, no one was in the library \u2013 everyone was in the showroom.<\/p>\n

One of the things that I always regretted when Melissa was onboard last season was that I never actually got to speak to her. Not beyond saying \u2018excuse me, may I take your picture\u2019. I thought<\/i> \u2018thank you so much for one of the songs that changed the way I look at life\u2019 but I never was actually able to say it. This omission was partially because she was thronged with guests wanting her attention (and no matter how sincere our intentions, crew always comes after guests), and because when it comes to speaking to anyone \u2018important\u2019 I develop something of a Willow complex:<\/p>\n

I find it kinda hard to say anything smart or funny or witty or\u2026at all. I can usually manage a few vowel sounds and then I have to go away.<\/i><\/p>\n

Yeah, I\u2019m not really good with celebrity types.<\/p>\n

So I never talked to her. But I still really wanted to say \u2018thank you\u2019, it seemed really important somehow. Since I was apparently only going to get the one chance, I zipped back to my computer and typed out a really brief note instead. Basically saying that the song meant a lot to me, and why it meant a lot to me, and that I just wanted to take a second to say thank you. I scrawled her name on the front (almost misspelling it in the process d\u2019oh!) and handed it over to the front office for eventual delivery. I wasn\u2019t really expecting a response, in fact I wasn\u2019t even sure when it was going to get delivered.\u00a0 About twenty minutes later I was standing chatting with a guest by the best sellers and I hear the internet manager call me from his station across the room. I turned around to say \u2018I\u2019ll be there in a second\u2026\u2019 and my voice kind of trailed off into nothingness\u2026<\/p>\n

Excuse me, I\u2019ll\u2026I\u2019ll be right back.<\/i><\/p>\n

The guest I had been chatting with looked at me like I had suddenly grown a second head, which is understandable because I must have looked like I\u2019d been hit on the nose with a post.<\/p>\n

Melissa Manchester was standing in the middle of my library.<\/p>\n

*BLINK*<\/p>\n

I felt incredibly sheepish as I walked across the room to meet her.<\/p>\n

Shaughnessy?<\/i><\/p>\n

I nodded. And she holds out her hand to me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Melissa Manchester.<\/i><\/p>\n

Er. Yes, yes I know.<\/i><\/p>\n

I just had to come and tell you thank you. That was very very sweet, and I was very touched.<\/i><\/p>\n

No, thank you!\u00a0 I mean, it was\u2026it was true. And now I\u2019m going to cry!<\/i><\/p>\n

Crying\u2019s okay you know. S\u2019what we do.<\/i><\/p>\n

And she suddenly gives me this big warm hug! We chatted for a few minutes about ship-life and touring and family and such and I felt like a deer caught in the headlights because despite knowing that this is just a person like any other how do you have a normal conversation with a celebrity who has just randomly shown up in your office?? And she gave me another big hug, told me to take good care of myself and went on her way.<\/p>\n

BLINK<\/p>\n

Did I mention lately, that I have the coolest job ever<\/i>?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baby cried the day the circus came to town’cause she didn’t want parades just passing by her So she painted on a smile and took up with some clown While she danced without a net upon a wire I\u2019ve said … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainers","category-grand-asiaaustralia-2012"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-sw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}