{"id":756,"date":"2011-12-28T23:53:11","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T03:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=756"},"modified":"2013-06-17T18:25:24","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:25:24","slug":"lift-off-fort-lauderdale-12272011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=756","title":{"rendered":"Lift Off \u2013 Fort Lauderdale \u2013 [12\/27\/2011]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>And so begins the last cruise of the year…<\/p>\n

Embarkation day, as usual, is organized chaos. On my last ship, my friends used to tease me that I was like the Wicked Witch of the West on Embark day, they knew<\/em> when to get the heck out of my way (which was most times). With at least 200 in-transit guests on board, our hours shift so that we open early and close late, which means I\u2019m back to the days of charging past the bandstand, having only time to flash the \u2018Cats singer a smile and keep power walking past. If Hunt ever happens to stumble upon this entry, that will make him laugh in recollection of the same thing happening on my last ship (\u201cget out of her way! Woman on a mission!\u201d)<\/p>\n

By 9:20 in the evening I\u2019m finally able to sit down and motor through any returns I have left and continue work on the ongoing inventory project (three sections down 5 to go, 11 days before the start of the GWV, when my new partner arrives, I can do this!).<\/p>\n

I have a roommate now, which isn\u2019t a bad thing, but I will say that it\u2019s very strange to have someone sharing my space when I\u2019ve become used to being a lone wolf since June. I had a roommate on my last ship for all of two weeks, before and after that I was on my own. Thing is, when you live in the same room for long periods of time, it becomes a mini-apartment, the first thing the new girl commented on when she walked in the door was that it felt very home-like. Well, that may not have been the first thing, the first thing was probably \u201cwhoever lives here is in for the long haul\u201d, which I am of course.<\/p>\n

Chief in my mind of course is the fact that Bas \u2013 the cruise director for the GWV \u2013 also joins the ship today. Cue me, in a panic in the crew laundry in the wee small hours of the morning last night waiting for one of the two functioning dryers so that I could get my uniformed ready for this morning. Holiday is over for those us who are staying on, once Bas boards, nylons start getting checked for runs, make-up must be applied every morning and you don\u2019t dare walk out of your cabin looking like you\u2019ve had anything less than a good night\u2019s rest. No matter if you only got to sleep five hours before. I was relieved when the first thing he said to me after \u2018hello\u2019 was;<\/p>\n

You are staying right?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes sir.<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s good, that\u2019s good news..<\/em><\/p>\n

I was terrified that he was the major player who thought that I couldn\u2019t<\/em> handle this long a stretch, I knew he\u2019d been expressing concerns, it\u2019s beyond a relief to know he\u2019s \u2013 at the moment at least \u2013 happy to still have me on his team.<\/p>\n

11 days till start time. Hard to believe really.<\/p>\n

Even more hard to believe that there\u2019s less than a week left of 2011. If I look back at everything that\u2019s happened to me over the past year it makes my head spin. It\u2019s amazing what you can fit into 365 days.<\/p>\n

It also reminds me that I\u2019ve been keeping this blog for almost a year. Not too bad for something I never really thought would last more than a month or so, let alone gain any kind of loyal following beyond my direct family. A lot of people have gotten in touch with me to compliment me on my writing, and I have to say thank you…and offer in response the same exchange I\u2019ve had with many people (including my parents, and each one of my Siblings)<\/p>\n

People always say I\u2019m a good writer, but they don\u2019t realize that I don\u2019t write at all…<\/em><\/p>\n

How so?<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t write…I just write down<\/em><\/p>\n

I count myself fortunate that I happen to have a life that\u2019s worth<\/em> writing down.<\/p>\n

Bright Blessings,<\/p>\n

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

And so begins the last cruise of the year… Embarkation day, as usual, is organized chaos. On my last ship, my friends used to tease me that I was like the Wicked Witch of the West on Embark day, they … 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":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holiday-cruises-2011"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-cc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756","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=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2198,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions\/2198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}