At Disney.

This goes all around the hotel rooms at the Disneyland hotel. Once we finally got here, Erica surprised me with a 12-pack of beer. Now it truly will be the happiest place on Earth.

Hope your family's not from the East coast...

Santa Monica.

Driving around town trying to find an apartment, and thought I'd take a detour down to Santa Monica so Erica can see it.

Back in California.

Looking for me?

Where have you been, you're asking me constantly. I know, I know dear nobody, I have been blogging somewhere else. Don't be mad, just head over there to check it out. I just wanted to give another site a try. But you're always going to be my number 1. Don't worry.

♫ http://fulanodetal.wordpress.com/

That's what I've been up to. Read every entry before you come back here.

Great, now I really have killed any readership I might have had.

Fourth Annual Goodbye (Again) to Erica and Ryan

It's time to leave on a boat, so we decided to have another get-together. We almost didn't, but at the last minute sent this out to all our Chicago peeps:

Hey! What're you doing Friday? Why not join Ryan and Erica as they officially leave Chicago to do another boat and then move to LA! This is the Fourth and possibly final goodbye so don't miss it! This Friday, venture over to Sheffield's Bar, 3258 N Sheffield Ave at School, from 9pm onwards to drink and say goodbye to two people you've barely seen over the past two years.

See you there! Otherwise, see you at the Fifth Annual!

Thanks to all who came out, several times over! I can't wait for number 5!

Rain, Sleet, Snow and Cold.

We finally have finished packing. The conditions have been a little less than ideal. The first day it was freezing cold and we had to take breaks to get inside and warm up a little. The next day, snow had fallen, but it rained all day and today it snowed, so we kept the door partly closed and kept brushing snow off our stuff as we deliberated our packing.

We're done. California, here we come.

In five months.

It followed us!

We drove away from the snow in Chicago, but it found us in Lawrenceburg.

We're not in San Diego anymore.

Snow fell all day today, and while it makes walking and driving difficult, I do miss how snow makes a city look, hanging onto the branches of trees, and covering the city like a blanket.

My Kind of Town

I've been pretty melancholy lately, thinking about our move from Chicago to Los Angeles after the next ship contract. I miss Chicago and have wanted to get back there and work with my friends and it's the first time I've wanted to return to a city after moving from there. I miss performing with the improv teams I was on, so when I got the email that Otis was going to celebrate the annual "Gandy Gras", a Mardi Gras celebration put on by Jeff Gandy every year, and we would be in town, I was so excited to attend. I guess the team wasn't sure I would show, so when we walked in, we got a huge reception. It was so great to see everyone, most of whom I had not see since we left for the Honeymoon.

I miss performing with this team, but even more, I miss the camaraderie. While Otis does not perform in Chicago anymore, besides occasionally shooting short movies, the team still celebrates holidays together every year. We're family.

A slow drive.

We drove up to Chicago, and could barely see as we got closer to the city. Is it crazy that I miss this city so much?

A night at the Casbah

Got to see Black Heart Procession at the Casbah, and opening for them was Darryl, a Neil Hamburger-like comedian with really bad jokes about getting laid, smoking weed, etc. ( My favorite: "If I was a dinosaur, you know what my scientific name would be? Snack-a-lot-a-pus")

We went with Andy and Black Heart's violinist Matt. When we went to pick up Matt at his apartment, Andy went to introduce Erica and said, "And this is Ryan's wife...Stacey?" We had just hung out with Andy in his house the night before.

Then we did a very Californian thing. Though Matt lived right by the Casbah, we still drove to the venue and subsequently all over the neighborhood looking for parking.

Erica remarked on it later: "Why didn't we just walk? We would've been there in a shorter amount of time."

Me: "That's California for you."

Trains, Ribs and Nativity

For a month, Erica's Mom has been telling Erica that "we have to take Ryan to see the trains." She was obsessed with it and mentioned it at every phone call leading up to our arrival in Indiana. Erica could not tell me what exactly she meant, but it didn't stop me from getting excited to see whatever these trains.

Tonight, we drove to downtown Cincinnati with Erica's parents and grandparents to the Duke Energy building to see the train display that Linda said has been there since she was a girl, a real Cincinnati institution. And looking at the display, it did seem to have an older aesthetic.


Mammy!


Afterwards we out to Montgomery Inn to eat ribs and more ribs. We then went to an outdoor nativity scene with live sheep and a cow that is right outside the Conservatory. In fact, right by the street. It shocked me that this nativity was left out in the open at night, no security, for ANYONE to fuck with. In no city I have ever lived in would this have lasted for longer than one hour. The cow would end up with a dress on, the sheep would be died black, baby Jesus would be gone, HISTORY, until it ended up somewhere it where it would make the front page of the news, like a gay bar or the ivy at Wrigley Field. I'm calling you out, pranksters of Cincinnati!

Later, I was granted a visit to Erica's grandparents house. Her grandfather, put me in charge of figuring out how his new "fireplace display" DVD worked on his TV. He LOVED this DVD, and talked about it as if it was dipped in gold. He wanted to see all the fireplace choices, and the different music options.

Erica was busy reading an essay her cousin had written about her grandfather. The closing quote reminded me again of the train display: "If I had to paint a picture of my life, it would be full of fun and bright colors--no blacks."

A Picture every 15 seconds

Our second trip to Marina Cay, we decided to take a photo near the red phone booth where a sign said "We take a picture every 15 seconds". John, Erica and I posed like jerks for 5 minutes, thinking we would have a variety of photos to choose from, until guys on a boat nearby started talking to us, wondering what we were doing. The next day, Erica found our only photo online.

Hello Puerto Vallarta, my old friend.

Back again in PV. Took the new kids over to Krystal. We played volleyball against Hugo, Darren, Ruth and her husband Nicholas--USA vs. Canada--with our team involving Fred, Erica, myself, and a couple crew members from a Princess ship who were equally great and horrible at volleyball. We were winning for a while until a Krystal employee came over to officiate with what she called "Mexican Rules". Here's how Mexican rules work: there are no rules. Canada was victorious. USA took game 2, but that game was pure Mexican rules so it was hard to feel the thrill of pool volleyball victory. So we retreated to more cervezas and guacamole.

Today is also the beginning of the Assassination Game, a crew game that all of us joined in on. We were told to keep the names of our victims to ourselves, and while Erica and I did confess, Katie kept mum.

I got Joe, who was not really into playing anyway, so it was a lackluster event when I “stabbed” him with a sticky note when he came downstairs to get the Pearlbusters key from me.

Erica has someone we don’t know, and therefore has no idea how she’s going to pull this off. She’s pretty pissed because she’s really into playing this game.

Katie revealed hers anyway. As Dominic, one of the gym instructors, was walking down the hall, Katie ran after him. He ducked and went towards her and got away. Erica was busy watching the hallway, as one of the spa girls has been stalking her in the hallways and waiting for Katie to come out of her room.

Katie got a second chance after dinner, even trapping him near some crew rooms with nowhere to go, but he still managed to escape. He ran down the hallway and Katie gave chase, flip-flopping after him with her sticky-note dagger. A security officer walked out of into the hallway to see what the noise was about. He saw us.

“Assassination?” he said with his Nepalese accent.

“Yes. In Progress.” We replied.

He smiled and went back into the office.

The game is on.

Please Meet Your Friends in the Hydro Pool Area

As company manager, I am privy to emails that are sent internally in NCL. Most are boring and perfunctory. Some aren’t.

Good Morning,

We hope that all of you who participate in using the Spa Thermal Suites each evening are enjoying this experience. However, we do need to remind everyone that this is a special privilege and that certain rules should be followed.

All participants are reminded that the Female area is for FEMALE Crew ONLY and Likewise the Male Area is for MALES ONLY! The Unisex area (Where the Hydro Therapy Pool is) is the place to meet your friends.!!

Kindly respect this rule and Ensure your departments are made aware of this.

Thank You.

Pretty naughty, Pearl crew.

Lower Dewey Lake hike

Met up with the Star cast and hiked to Lower Dewey Lake. Erica is not feeling well, so she did not last long. But she gave it quite an effort.

That night, we went out to Bar City, where we sat right by a older, pony-tailed passenger who was passed out and sleeping. At one point, a woman came up and looked at the man and said: "That's my ex-husband," and walked off. We laughed, wondering if he was indeed her ex, or just an example of what her ex-husband was like.

Later, she came back, took a picture of him, shook her head disapprovingly, and left again, as quickly as before.

This should clear things up.

Please read the sign:

Port Hole View #1

On the Star, we did not have any windows. The room was pitch dark, which made sleeping all day real easy, since you never knew what time it was outside. I used to leave the ShipCam channel on the TV at night, so I had some kind of "window", but Erica hated having it on when we tried to go to sleep, so that didn't last.

On the Pearl, we have a port hole. and I love it. It adds a sense of normality that I am loving. So I am starting a photo series from the porthole, starting here with Glacier Bay.

Bullwinkle's

My good friend Jeff Hedges is from Juneau and just happens to be in town this week. Amazing. First week in and we already got to see someone from home. I would have killed to see someone from home on the Star.

Jeff was on my very first improv team in Chicago and is a hell of a funny guy. We could only meet up for a few hours, so Jeff fulfilled our request for a local haunt of his and took us to Bullwinkle’s, the pizza place he always went to in high school after football games to enjoy pitchers of Alaskan Amber and BBQ Chicken pizza.

He told me that playing high school football in Alaska often meant flying with the team to different towns and staying overnight with players from the opposing teams.

“Man, I bet it’s pretty weird when you lose,” I said.

“Actually it’s more awkward when you win.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, because when you win you then have to go back and hang at some guy’s house, and be like, ‘So what’s for dinner?’ And you’ve won the game that night, so yeah, it’s pretty awkward.”

Deja Vu.

It’s weird to be somewhere new that feels like a place you’ve been. The Pearl is a newer ship, so while it’s similar to the Star there are differences. Yet, it’s like moving into a new apartment that is almost identical to the old one, so you kinda know where everything is without having to explore the ship much. It’s very surreal.

It was a tiring day, and Erica and I didn’t get to fully move into our room until evening. After an our of putting things away, we got a knock on our door. It turned out to be Hugo, our new neighbor, whose business card on his door says “aerialist” beneath his name.

We introduced ourselves, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then he got to business, French-Canadian-style: “Could you please keep it down. You are slamming a lot of doors.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize we were making noise.”

“Yes, well, it has been an hour, so you know, it is very annoying?”

"Right. No problem."

Then he did a dance that Matt Craig, Laurel, Ed and I all did back when we were working on an improv group called Falderal.

As quickly as he did the dance, he said:"I was supposed to do this dance, yes?" Then, he left.

I laughed out loud.