Thursday, December 27, 2007

2 weeks .. 14 days .. 336 hours v.. WOW!

However you count it out, it is not a very long time. I will be on a flight from Miami to Brazil 2 weeks from right now. I still can't believe how different things have become for me; not that I am complaining, but it is still mind blowing that I am going to be doing this!

I have a half day of work tomorrow and then on Saturday I will be taking my dog, Mugsy, over to my Mother-in-Law's house around noon. He will be living with her while I am gone. I am going to miss him terribly, but he will be in a great home and she just loves him to pieces, as does he to her.

Saturday night is my Going Away Party at a local club, where my fave cover band is playing. It is going to be a ton of fun. Not all that many people are going, but that is better since I won't have to worry about making sure I hang out with everyone. About 6 girls are all staying over my apt, so Sunday we will all go to breakfast to soak up the alcohol :)

I am working my last day at RBC on Monday; its a full day but it will mostly consist of getting things organized and cleaning out my desk and my area. As well as saying goodbye to everone.

Off to finish my cleaning ..

Friday, December 21, 2007

Oh, the packing!

Who knew ONE person could have so much stuff? And to decide what to bring with me to the ship, and what to leave behind; my brain is going crazy!! I woke up this morning stressing at 5am, that I wasn't going to have enough room for everything I want to take, that I won't have everything I want with me, I will forget something and worse even, that I won't have enough comforts of "home" and will be sad. Yikes, this is hard!

I have a lot of clothes; day work clothes, night work clothes, formal clothes and clothes for time off and being a tourist. PJ's, a windbreaker, bathing suit, sweatshirt, jeans; not to mention sneakers, flip flops and dress shoes. That doesn't include a single toiletry (and we all know how I LOVE toiletries!!) and I still have my laptop, digital photo frame, portable dvd player, camera, video camera .. the list just keeps going. I am trying to keep those things to a minimum, but it is hard.

2 weeks from yesterday I will be out of my apartment and "moving" back to NY; 2 weeks from Monday I leave for FL; and 3 weeks from today I will have flown from FL to Recife, Brazil the day before to meet the ship !!!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Cruise Ship Tracker

This is a really cool site I found over the summer, once my family and I had gotten off the Mariner of the Seas and there was a hurricane so I wanted to make sure my friends that were on it were ok :)

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/cruiseships.phtml

I will be on the MS Artemis; owned and operated by P & O Cruise Lines

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Links to my ship, itinerary, pictures

Here are some links to various areas of the P & O Cruise Line website that will pertain to me


The main page for the Artemis:
http://www.pocruises.com/artemis/index.aspx

This is the itinerary the ship will be on when I go out to meet it on Jan 11th
http://www.pocruises.com/Artemis/Cruises-P718-2007-Itinerary.aspx

After that run is over in March, the next itinerary is this one:
http://www.pocruises.com/Artemis/Cruises-P801-2008-Itinerary.aspx

*Then* after that one, this one will start in Mid April:
http://www.pocruises.com/Artemis/Cruises-P802-2008-Itinerary.aspx


Not to bad for a first contract, huh?? :)

Friday, December 14, 2007

Here we go

Its already getting closer .. I have my training dates (Jan 8th and 9th) and my date of travel to meet the ship! I will fly to FL on Jan 7th, train at MTN's HQ on the 8th and 9th and then on the 10th I will leave to fly out to meet the ship. According to the web, the ship will be in a few ports in Brazil at that time, so it looks to me like that is where I will be heading ~ WOW!

I was checking the weather .. so much for 80 degree days all week .. since we travel down to the bottom of S America, it looks like it can get quite cold for a few days. So I will be packing my windbreaker, a sweatshirt and jeans. Tho mainly I will still be packing for warm weather.

How am I going to get everything I want and need into a suitcase or two? I am stressing about that ... I need work clothes, casual clothes, dress clothes .. shoes to go with each, not to mention my bathing suit, some gym clothes and PJ's!! Combined with some luxuries from home like my iPod, the speakers and my laptop .. I am going to have a LOT of stuff!

However I am soo very excited .. what an amazing experience this is going to be!!!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Reassigned!

Well, in all my excitement for Hawaii ~ I kind of forgot there was always a chance I could be assigned elsewhere, and well, I have been.

Now instead of Hawaii, I am going to be going to a ship that sails from England to the Eastern Caribbean, down the east coast of S. America around the tip, up the west coast, mexican riviera, through the Panama Canal, then the Western Caribbean before sailing back to England. According to some info on the web, the ship sails next week from England, so I will meet up with it once I am cleared to go. Right now my date is Jan 11th to go out to the ship. I will have to go to a few days of training in FL at the Headquarters of my company, which should be a few days before I go to meet the ship.

So as of now, that's where I am headed. I will keep you all posted

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Getting the job

Well I got the job of my dreams! I can't believe I am packing it all up and moving to a 10x10 cabin on the Pride of Aloha, but I am!!!

I'm so very excited about this new chapter in my life. Not to mention my location of Honolulu Hawaii; isn't a bad for a first gig, right?

Work was sad when I gave them notice, but they appreciated the extra time and everyone was happy for me from a personal level. I am glad, because I think I would have serious doubts if anyone, and I mean anyone, said anything negative. This is a huge move for me; not from a "stuff" standpoint, but as in I will be 6000 miles from home; I will be picking up and quitting my job that I have had for 4 yrs, as well as with my partner for almost 10 yrs.

Yet, as scary as all that sounds, I am relaxed .. not sure why. Maybe this is the right thing.

Testing


Just testing this out; want to get this set up and rolling so I can use this when I am away