{"id":2072,"date":"2013-04-19T15:10:45","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T15:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2013-04-19T15:10:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-19T15:10:45","slug":"on-the-home-stretch-jamestown-st-helena-ascension-islands-04152013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2072","title":{"rendered":"On The Home Stretch \u2013 Jamestown, St Helena, Ascension Islands \u2013 [04\/15\/2013]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"winged<\/a>The race is long, and in the end it is better to race within oneself and finish behind the others than to race too hard and crash ~ The Art of Racing in the Rain<\/i><\/p>\n

This last month it\u2019s been a long race, and there have been times I\u2019ve nearly crashed off the track and into the barriers. But I\u2019ve always somehow eased my way back into some semblance of \u2018normal\u2019.<\/p>\n

The World Cruise is drawing into its final stretch. With only a handful of days left until we dock in Florida, the word \u201cfinal\u201d is starting to once again creep into everyone\u2019s vocabulary. People are starting to think about things like contract extensions and final evaluations, of flights home and whether or not you can afford to buy that last souvenir and still have space in your suitcase for your hairdryer. For my part I\u2019m suddenly wondering if I\u2019ll ever find that fairy stud earring that mysteriously seems to have disappeared. I remain convinced that I fell asleep with it in and it\u2019s somewhere in my counterpane, but turning the bed upside down looking for it is not something I\u2019ve had time to do.<\/p>\n

My co-librarian and I are both busy prepping the library for the Alaska season and waiting on pins and needles to hear the latest about our upcoming contract schedule. We\u2019ve both been requested back to the flagship for next season and so our contracts are somewhat intertwined with each other; that makes it a little difficult for Head Office to figure a schedule that makes sure we both get a reasonable amount of time off. \u00a0So while the others are enjoying the last few ports on the itinerary, I\u2019m busy trying to finish my spring cataloging of the collection, pulling books out that are out of date or worn out, rescuing the occasional paperback, putting together my wish list for next season (I am trying desperately to bring the collection up to date, as most of our titles are from nearly ten years ago), and prepping all my scheduling and paperwork for the upcoming relocation cruise. It\u2019s busy work, but it sounds worse than it actually is. I could be lazy and not do any of it, but I actually like admin. I\u2019m weird that way.<\/p>\n

Last night (well the wee hours of this morning really), we had our ship-side version of \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d during which a large portion of the crew piled into the crew mess and belted out their favourite karaoke number for our \u2018esteemed panel of UK judges\u2019 (our onboard cast is from the UK). I ended up going first, which is something I usually attempt to avoid as it tends to mean others don\u2019t want to sing after me (and no that\u2019s not me being a diva), but I will admit as I stood up there and slithered my way through \u2018Black Velvet\u2019 it did<\/i> feel damn good. The expression on one cast member\u2019s face was particularly priceless. Then there were the comments from the judges<\/p>\n

Shaughnessy is what I call a dirty dark horse\u2026you see her during the day and she\u2019s all quiet and reserved and then she comes out with something like that<\/span>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Not really knowing how to take compliments (still), I just stood there and grinned and tried very hard not to blush.<\/p>\n

I placed 5th<\/sup> in the contest. Which at first was a bit of a blow to my professional pride (5th<\/sup> in an amateur contest? Had I fallen that<\/i> badly out of practice?) but then I remembered that they would have taken into account that I was trained and no one else (aside from the judges) was, one of the few cases where my training likely worked against me. But it was nice to just flex my vocal chords again.<\/p>\n

On another note\u2026<\/p>\n

Some of you may have wondered why I\u2019ve been so silent as of late. My only answer without putting a big dramatic point on it is that it\u2019s not been an easy month. \u00a0If I didn\u2019t know any better I\u2019d say that mercury had gone retrograde again without my noticing it (wouldn\u2019t be the first time).<\/p>\n

There are a lot of reasons I wear a dragon around my neck. First and foremost \u2013 he is a reminder, that dragons can be beaten. They can be tamed; they can be harnessed and ridden on the wind. The view from up there is amazing. They can be your protector or your enemy; it all depends on your interpretation, and on your will to look them in the eye.<\/p>\n

This has been a season of dragons for me. A few that I thought long tamed have unexpectedly reared their heads and bared their teeth again, slashing and threatening at the edges of my life until I was forced to turn around and stare them down again. Eventually, as they always do, they slunk back into the shadows, taking up a defensive growling position in the twilight while the rest of my life slides back into the sunshine, but the retreat takes a while, so\u2026well\u2026me with a quote for every occasion:<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m deep inside of me, don\u2019t be too concerned, I won\u2019t ask for nothin\u2019 while I\u2019m gone ~ Billy Joel<\/i><\/p>\n

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

The race is long, and in the end it is better to race within oneself and finish behind the others than to race too hard and crash ~ The Art of Racing in the Rain This last month it\u2019s been … 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":[4,11,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-grand-world-voyage-2013","category-reflections-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-xq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","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=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}