A typical day on a cruise ship is a hard thing to turn into anything of literary interest. Today, for example, began with a technical rehearsal for the evening's production show. It is a tedious process often decried by many performers – especially singers as many rarely are in their best form in the morning. It is never full-out, usually it is at a level called 'strong mark' – that's about 70-80% in layman's terms. No costumes, no spotlights, just blocking for everybody and an equipment check for all that need it.
That leaves the rest of the day before the show. We're moored up off an island in the Bahamas, sounds nice, no? Well it is nice, I've seen a few islands by now though, so summoning up the motivation to brave the tender boat to get there is beyond me – as a crew member there are more than a few rules I'd have to observe and to be honest I wouldn't mind seeing out the rest of my day without feeling like a schoolchild. Instead I opt to take care of a few of my wardrobe supervisor responsibilities – there's always laundry to be done and my team is spectacularly adept at destroying their costumes: if there wasn't a shoe to glue there would be a clasp to re-stitch or a hem to be fixed – sometimes I even find myself sticking diamanté studs back on to a variety of garments – something I highly recommend if you have hours of your day with nothing else to fill them. It's boring, it's monotonous but I genuinely feel like I'm contributing – I'm not sure anyone notices what I do too much though.
I'll leave out any details of the food here onboard – it's a big grievance for the cast as it makes a decent level of nutrition almost impossible to maintain, enough said. Suffice to say, a trip to the gym is essential. I started the P90X program about a month ago and it's going well. The spring break crowds make the spa area of the ship pretty obnoxious but I suppose as they're paying for me to be here I can't complain too much. I miss having a pull-up bar.
Showtime! We had great audiences; enthusiastic at the beginning, vocal throughout and two standing O's to round things off – you can't feel too bad after that. I find myself getting frustrated with performers who take themselves very lightly: specifically those who feel it appropriate to laugh when they make mistakes onstage. I don't. I'm hard on myself if I screw up, I always saw it as an attitude I had to have when surrounded by very talented people when I myself am not, I just worked hard. I also get angry with people who walk into work and declare that they 'can't really be bothered' so they're going to take it easy with the shows that night. It happens a lot, which is sad, I lose a lot of respect for anyone who lets those kinds of sentiments out of their mouth. I guess it comes from taking what we have for granted, I hope I never do that.
Now I'm back in my cabin writing this, there's not much space but it's home. I'm a little tired but I'm satisfied I did my best all day, although that might just be the painkillers talking – a big, heavy door closed on my foot a couple of days ago and split the nail of my big toe right across the middle. Tell you one thing, Americans do make good painkillers...
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