{"id":996,"date":"2012-03-23T16:42:32","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T09:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=996"},"modified":"2013-06-17T18:51:56","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:51:56","slug":"jam-packed-phuket-thailand-03212012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=996","title":{"rendered":"Jam-packed \u2013 Phuket, Thailand \u2013 [03\/21\/2012]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There comes a point in every contract where you must face the inevitable terror that you would do anything to avoid. The longer the contract, the more terrifying the beast is, and the more you strive to avoid it, to put it off, to not think about it.<\/p>\n

But when you stare at the calendar on the wall of the cabin that you have been living in since September (and those few of you who read this who have seen my cabin on the flagship know precisely what\u2019s coming here), and see the small red \u201937 to go\u2019 glowering up at you and you think of just how busy<\/em> those 37 days are going to be…you realize you have no choice.<\/p>\n

You. Have. To. Pack.<\/p>\n

The horror!!!! Nooooo!!<\/p>\n

I hate packing, can you tell?<\/p>\n

Packing is the only part of traveling I detest. On both sides of the journey. Going out I\u2019m always worrying that I\u2019ll forget something, coming back I\u2019m always worrying that I\u2019ll forget something AND that I will run out of room.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t even get me started on the weight limits.<\/p>\n

One would think that with over a month left I wouldn\u2019t need to start this horrific process so early. The thing is I have done that in the past, and it usually leads to last minute panic. I have since found that if I start early enough I am able to proceed with packing up my life in a relatively calm fashion. There is, at this point, a surprising amount of theme wear that I will no longer have use for in the next 37 days, there are clothes that need mending that can\u2019t be done on the ship (I\u2019m simply not good at fixing zippers and my pink 50s dress is in need of just that), there are outside-of-work clothes that no longer fit the climates we\u2019ll be traveling to, and there are about a dozen books that can be returned to my office\u2019s paperback exchange. There are the various gifts for people which are currently just taking up room in my closet and getting in the way. All of this can be taken care of now. If I start to take care of it now, I don\u2019t have to take care of it later.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s at times like these that I really envy my guest entertainer friends. Most of them hate packing as much as I do, but because of their short contracts they\u2019ve mostly mastered the art of traveling light. I remember watching Rachelle pack in under four hours, a master stroke for someone who has to carry as many instruments and show gowns as she does. A place for everything and everything in its place and bang she\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

Me? I\u2019ve been living on this ship since September. I have one drawer in my cabin that contains only shoes. Matching ones for each formal, plus my dance shoes, plus my work shoes. I have at least 10 formal gowns (two of which have full crinolines), at least 7 theme night outfits and four uniforms. Plus the various nick-nacks you pick up after 10 months away, and the various things I carry with me every<\/em> contract. Some of which are very very precious and very fragile, especially the shells, of which there are only two, but go with me everywhere. Plus the sheets, the fleece throw, and the small menagerie of souvenir stuffed animals I have somehow acquired (curse my ship-side \u2018mother\u2019 for informing me that I must<\/em> have a miniature penguin from the Falkland Islands!)<\/p>\n

And, unlike those who are full-fledged officers, I am not entitled to a ship-board storage trunk.<\/p>\n

Ugh.<\/p>\n

With all that in mind? Starting about 20 days early? Not such a bad idea…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There comes a point in every contract where you must face the inevitable terror that you would do anything to avoid. The longer the contract, the more terrifying the beast is, and the more you strive to avoid it, to … 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":[4,40,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-grand-world-voyage-2012","category-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-g4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996","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=996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2261,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions\/2261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}