in the mornin', in the evenin'

...ain't we got fun?

my last big gig was on a - yup - carnival cruise line. the FASCINATION, to be exact, sailing from Miami to Key West to the Bahamas and back. i'd never been on a cruise before, and i was eager to see how my ol' sea legs would fare.

now, for those of you that wondered if i replaced someone at SC for a bit on a boat, no. i didn't. i was offered a boat a while back but for a barrage of reasons, didn't think it was a good fit for me right now, though - what a cool gig. anyway, that said, i like sailing, and i like performing, so even though i know four months on a SC boat seemed long, i used this as sorta a testing ground to see if in a different world i'd like it.

the carnival ship was completely rented out by a company for a corporate reward to their service stars. i went with dave and co, namely dave, cayne, and old dog but new to DCo mike shreeman. it was a stressful week, full of 13 hour days of tech and rehearsals with executives, but we still managed to squeeze in some fun.

when i stepped onboard ye olde Fascination, i felt the ship immediately. like, right away. i have never been motion sick in my life so i believed it was a fluke, but um... we were docked. whatever i felt routinely subsided as i looked at a horizon, so it was all just fine if i could get to a deck (see: my tan).

for the active part: on this cruise, we played in sketches, custom scenes and breakout meeting as very specific characters. in just a wee bit of time, i was a pirate captain, a drag-queeny pit boss, a cowgirl, and (gulp) barbara walters. (bwalts - regrettably not pictured, but you see some others here.) somehow, by the grace of G, all these went ridiculously well, got lots of corporate laughs ("isn't working here CRAZY?"/ boomboomClap!, boomboomClap!), and the execs who joined us in nearly every scene did their jobs well too. Yes.

as we reached the final night on the ship, we hit our worst weather and sailing. cayne, mike and i went to the toppest deck to feel the wind, and within minutes were told the decks were being roped off due to dangerous clipping and throttling (that's what it's called, right?). still, after a very long, long week, we were all ready to relax and wind down a bit, so we decided to drink. this was dumb and smart. it's a paradox, see. it was dumb, because drinking when you're already a little rocky is risky; it was smart because carnival decided to turn off the stabilizers (whoooOOOOoooa!) and gun it back to miami overnight on our last night, which lead to a lot of stumbling that just looked like sheer stumbling.
as i went to bed in my glorious twin and my mini bar slid back and forth across my desk, i just pretended i was in a hammock in the bahamas i didn't really see. it helped. a little. there's no place like home.

i'll try anything twice.