"Me and her Ring"

And so goes the Alaskan summer. Now in July the weather is as warm as it will ever be. Who would have thought? 80 degrees in the Alaskan wilderness. I rented a bicycle and went up the mountain road to the Canadian border. It was uphill, but worth the ride back. It was just the sort of lonely experience to refresh my soul. Just me and the mountains and trees, water and ice. In my journey I find a constantly renewed sense of insignificance. It doesn’t make me feel good necessarily, but it calms me in ways. I know, no matter what, there is the larger world. A world, outside of what we see now, that could take you away in an instant. Imagine the perfect summer, and then imagine the verso, the treacherous winter. Without the dark cold, you wouldn’t appreciate that sunny day. Without the fog, there is no mystery, or the anticipation for the clear sky. Alaska is a land of deadly beauty. I get to experience the pinnacle of its goodness, yet I must remind myself that this beautiful scenery, in such a short time, will turn to the land of misery. And the seasons change. My time up North is running out. Already the ship is preparing for the Pacific crossing. 60 days…then off to Hawaii, Tahiti, and the land down under. I wonder what we might find there.

I dream of owning a sailboat someday, to go back and cruise the Caribbean on my own time. I was looking at some old pictures from the Magic, and remembering what a different paradise it is. It’s almost perfect…beautiful islands in the stream. I would like to take my sailboat there with someone, and I’ll name it “Me and Her Ring.” Boats are female after all. I thought of that name in Wisconsin on the lake with the loons.

Business has been usual, up and down. I’m pretty sure I’m pretty good at my job? Yeah. I’m brand new compared to the others. We had a couple of rough weeks, and rough seas. Waves kill the crowd, that’s for damn sure. We had the roughest sea day of my ship life, and there was practically no one around. Only the lucky few of us are immune to the sea sickness. I guess there were earthquakes underneath the sea, but that was just a rumour. Anyways, I don’t get it. Yeah, the ships moving, but why must everyone vomit? Seriously? It’s a boat. Just stop vomiting…why wont they stop vomiting…VOMIT. Just do what I do, as in don’t be sick. It’s like a virus that is transmitted through the rocking of the boat, and some of us are just programmed genetically to not catch it. One person, moving with the motion, smiling, “how you doing today?” “Oh, a bit rocky isn’t it?” “Sure.” The next person…is in a coma. Anyways, that day was not a successful auction day.

I got a call at 4 in the morning before one auction, my 2 employees were being breathalyzed after having a fight in the hallway. They both blew over the limit. I had to go down to medical to tell them that they’re idiots and that they’re probably going to be fired. We had a master’s hearing with the captain and the ship’s top officers to plead a case. Despite the zero tolerance policy on both alchohol and violence, I managed to keep both of them alive. My company had never heard of such a thing, they even bought them tickets back to India. I was thinking my reasoning was pretty sound, and maybe I might even make a pretty good lawyer. Afterwards, people around the ship were telling me they’ve never seen anything like that before, what did I say? Well, its simple logic. J Here on out, though, I make my guys call me Mr. Boss Man. Dum Dums…but I love em.

So that’s the business part of my life, which is more substantial than people probably realize. Lots of business, but its spaced out in a way that doesn’t make me want to embrace the icy waters for all eternity. Not like it was working back in Chicago…not like Medix. I do miss home sometimes. I think about Dodo, and having late nights in the city with friends. Summer night city… something I think about, what everyone’s doing tonight. They tell us that it comes in waves, and they actually have a chart to show you. You miss home for couple weeks, then you don’t, and then it comes back, and then I just don’t know. It’s nice to think about people there at home, and I look forward to my holiday with them again. But, on the other hand, I know they are still there, and more than anything I yearn to be free, to see the world, to see the ends of the Earth. I have no doubts come September, after crossing the Pacific Ocean by sea, I might find something worthwhile. It takes one full month to sail the Pacific. I’ve always thought it was a lovely idea to cross the ocean by way of ship, and I think that it might be one of those times you never forget. I think of the song “Southern Cross” and I have Bora Bora set on the horizon. Then, only then, will I return home again.

I have been reading again, which is nice. I finished a book about the zombie war and so I have started reading The Sea Wolf by Jack London. I just love it. It starts on a ship in the mists of San Francisco harbor on a ship from Victoria (coincidence). “And romantic it certainly it was-the fog, like the grey shadow of infinite mystery, brooding over the whirling speck of earth; and men, mere motes of light and sparkle, cursed with an insane relish for work, riding their steeds of wood and steal through the heart of the mystery, groping their way through the Unseen, and clamoring and clanging in confident speech the while their hearts are heavy with incertitude and fear.” I guess this sums up how I feel at sea sometimes, and certainly in that fog. Oh, the classic themes of the mariner. Its something I will always relate to my person, and I look forward to finishing the story.

Adventures in Alaska have been stellar. Still doing some good hiking, but I’ve also been dog sledding, which I’ll get to. A group of handsome young crew men and I decided to go on a hike to the Mendenhall Glacier. What we found there, was another world. The helicopter glacier experience was great, but the Mendenhall glacier trumps it totally. Finding your own way across that expanse of ice is an experience like no other, alien to anywhere I’ve ever been. We discovered ice caves going into the glacier, frozen walls glowing crystal blue from the filtered sun. Caves that glow blue from the inside out…one of the most amazing things I could have ever imagined. Glacier blue is my new favorite color. It’s the same color as skylite snow cones in Maryland. Skylite is not a berry flavor, rather it’s the flavor of the sky…or the Mendenhall glacier. I couldn’t help but imagine myself, Dodo and the doctor landing on that icy world only to find these primordial elements…no life…simply ice, rock, and wind…maybe fit for life one day, but we’ll just have to come back then to find it, until then we must enjoy the beauty of the natural world…what the fates have carved in the ice. Watch your step.

Phil, the sports supervisor, who went with me to the glacier, also went with me on a dog sledding excursion, or rather a dog cart pulling excursion. Either way, it was interesting...in a non engaging way. I learned a lot about the Iditarod (whoa) and got to see puppies. And it was in a lovely forest camp, but the highlight of the experience came when one of the younger dog sledders was telling us about growing up with Sarah Palin’s son, and how he’s more of just an average kid than you would expect. Like any average kid with “a bit of dip under his lip and a cigarette in his pocket”. Really? Like any average kid? Where did this average kid grow up? Oh yes…Alaska.

And finally…a trick of destiny. The Art Auctioneer usually has a verso, the Port and Shopping guide. I work sea days, she works port days. She sells diamonds and I sell fine art. We’re usually pretty similar, and oh so different. I signed on my ship the same day as the Rhapsody’s Port and Shopping guide. For whatever reason, it wasn’t a good fit. Business did not click. We had a celebratory dinner to bid her farewell, which was a bittersweet occasion. Sometimes the Art Auctionner does not mesh well with Port and Shoping, but I always make a point of doing so (Case in point: Jana from the Disney Magic). When I solemnly asked who was replacing this guide, she told me some girl named Jana, and I couldn’t help but scream at her. My long lost friend Jana, who was let go by a silly standard of Mickey (I wrote about it long ago in my blog), was being returned to me. Out of all the ships we might be placed upon, we chanced to meet again…the dynamic duo…Jana and Coleman. Port and Shopping guide & Fine Art Auctioneer. It makes me so happy to have my friend back again, and I thank the fates as they’d have it. Jana and I will always be business colleagues who will remember way back when in our ship days…those days...at sea…how they changed us so.

VIP “crusie” this week, I’m nervous.