I can’t even begin to pretend that I can cover all that’s what happened to me in the last few weeks in one post. Everything I know has been turned on top of itself. Some things are good, many others are bad. I’m happy, and I’m sad. These are the fates and destinies that govern us all. I’m ok, but more importantly I’m moving forward, trying to be strong as always, and trying to have faith that this is what is and meant to be for an overall positive outcome in the end.
Sometimes I like to think of this experience for me, this “Life at Sea,” as a television show. I can sum up each contract as a season of some bizarre serial. Maybe like 12-18 episodes. In Season 1, Coleman starts off on his fantastic journey. Lost in the dismal working jungle of the Chicago landscape, a young man strives for something new. Whisked away to fabulous Detroit, Michigan, he begins a career with the world’s largest art gallery where he learns about art, sales, and the promise of travel. Training is interrupted by the company’s week long 40 year anniversary gala. Meeting famous artists and successful auctioneers at the Ritz Carlton, along with the president Al, and his foreshadowing of the FAR, an attack against the company and our pirate shenanigans at sea, something that would always permeate the entire show. Training continues and there is a great shocker when Coleman is placed on one of only two Disney ships out there (of all places!) Training in the Disney Parks follows with a free ride to all, along with a surprise friend from way back when (Dan Longman). Moving onto the ship is a totally new world, training for emergencies, learning the layout, and selling 2 Dali’s in his first week! Chris and Amy join the cast as Coleman’s first auctioneers, and they get along well, meeting bizarre guest artists that join for special cruises, and of course discovering new islands in the Caribbean. Certain cast members emerge as stars to join Coleman on his travels, and sadly some leave as well (Jana is fired!). Chris and Amy go on vacation and are replaced by two new characters Mike and Bethany. Hilarity ensues. Upsets a plenty. Love, loss, life, and art. Hurricanes! Castaway Cay! Diamonds! All sorts of good episodes, and all building up to the finale…Chris and Amy come back, a promotion and finally home. Monica is surprised! Vacation is enjoyed.
Season 2 starts out with a shocker. Coleman isn’t promoted…yet. First he’s going to one of the biggest ships in the world in…Mexico! Rebecca (the sister) joins the cast once a day because the ship is out of LA. Royal Caribbean is a very different place than Disney, and Tim and Lisa join the cast as the auctioneers. Mexico is incredibly beautiful...and haunting. Coleman almost misses the ship! Lots of new friends and lots of things to do on the Mariner of the Seas where every day is a fancy day! Mexico is struck by the Swine Flu and rerouted to San Francisco…Amazing! Finally, Coleman is promoted and must bid ado to Big Eddie and all the rest of the gang on the Mariner as he sets out on a new and distant land of adventure…Alaska! The Rhapsody of the Seas sails forward as the main stage for Season two and a wonderful plethora of characters emerge from the crew. Julie the M & R manager, Roger the art steward, the new cast, and the wonderful girls from crew staff. Enter Tarun, a shady associate from the start. Things go well until Tarun and Roger have a mysterious fight and both are nearly fired. Huge upset, but they stay! Then a wonderful surprise for season 2, Jana (port and shopping from Disney) comes back to the show!!! Adventures to glaciers, helicopter rides, whales, and train adventures ensue. Mom and Dad make an appearance immediately followed by Monica when they come to cruise. The drama lulls until the grand jewel heist…and Tarun is accused, but unable to be proven guilty. Crazy! Finally they leave arctic Alaska, the land of midnight sunshine, and head for Hawaii!!! Beautiful…Tarun is fired!!! Yay!! And then the excitement builds to the finale…Bora Bora…Coleman’s best crusie ever…and finally sign off morning in…Australia!
Season 3 begins with flashbacks to the vacation in Sydney, the 10 day advanced training in Miami, and Christmas at home with a special visit to the secluded winter retreat in Wisconsin. Coleman is promoted again to a bigger ship, the Celebrity Summit. Things start of well. Susan and Pete join the cast…and the new main stage cast along with some of the musicians produces one of the strongest supporting casts ever, with parties and dancing and Gaga galore. Coleman has his best cruise ever, andddd things take a terrible nose dive. The 6 port day 1 sea day run proves extremely challenging in the mid season cruise slump. Lots of disappointments on board in the world of sales, but Coleman grows stronger as an auctioneer, and lots of fun ensue otherwise. The islands the ship visits are some of the most exotic the show has seen to date, most notably the waterfalls of Dominica and the beaches of Antigua. Adventures galore. Then a new character is added to the pot, Shawn, who does in deed help turn some numbers around (not single handedly), but proves to be a mixed bag emotionally. Cruises get stronger… and the buildup to the mid-season hiatus finale begins
So, recap. How things left off:
Shawn was going to quit, Susan wanted to quit, and Pete was heading for vaca. Susan did not quit, I was able to keep her only because I made Shawn let the company know that he was going to resign. They were going to move Susan, and then Shawn would have quit anyway, and I would have been up shit’s creek. So, he put in a notice, and I prepared for our next episode, “The Transition Cruise.” How things have transitioned, my friends…and oh how the winds have changed.
The 8 day transition cruise out of the Caribbean took us one last time to St. Thomas and St. Maarten with a stop in Tortola (a new island for me), a sea day in the middle of the cruise (CRAZY) then an overnight in Bermuda, followed by a last sea day and finally New York. Very exciting stuff. Combine that with the fact that I’m coming off of my best cruise ever (and the fact that this transition cruise would end as my second best cruise on record), and you’ve got some extra exciting stuff. Then throw in the fact that Lauren and Haeley are coming to visit (FACES FROM HOME!!!) and you’ve got a very special episode of the “Life at Sea.”
And it was a good episode too. I took Lauren and Haeley on a tour on the Summit before we headed to Castille San Castobar in Puerto Rico, a very old fortress. We found a huge piece of human feces in one of my favorite parks overlooking the bay, and then finally set sail from San Juan for the very last time. In St Thomas we headed to Maegen’s Bay, voted one of the best beaches in the world (whateves), and ended the day with a stop at the dairy farm named “Udder Delite.” I bought short shorts. We signed up for an exciting zip line adventure in St Maarten where I meet one of my biggest clients over a glass (and a few) of complimentary rum punch. My biggest client of all time (and one of the drunkest) is still onboard from last week and so I must be at her beck and call to serve her champagne whenever she wants. We had a martini party with her on the night before. Later in the afternoon we catch a taxi over to the French side of St. Maarten to enjoy airport beach. The airplanes land right over your head and we all got blown into the ocean. It was freaking Awesome. The next day we head to Tortola (B.V.I.) and try to enjoy the beautiful beaches there despite the weather. Pleasant enough. Later we enjoy some shopping and I find the CRAZIEST book I’ve ever seen (About victorious Christian living for children and thought control), and I get enfuriated when I order crab cakes at an ocean side café and I’m served imitation crab (AKA polluk {more like Poll-yuck!}). I insist it be taken back, and spot a black cat sleeping on the roof. The next day we cross the Bermuda triangle, and I have my first of three auctions, and things go splendidly.
Finally we’ve hit Bermuda, a new land to discover, and it’s a gorgeous island. Extravagant homes with white roofs dot the wind swept landscape on the isolated island of Bermuda. Smack dap in the middle of nowhere in the Atlantic Ocean. It simply doesn’t make sense. I wonder how many lost ships set their eyes on Bermuda as a beacon of hope in the middle of that sea...and how many might have missed it as well. For me it was a beacon of hope as well. Going from 6 port days and one sea day to 3 sea days and two overnights on the Bermuda run would be quite the difference for business. It’s an ideal cruise layout with a mid-week week-end built right it. Things would never be better. Lauren, Haeley and I adventured around the island, got some ice cream and then explored the beautiful Crystal Cave. Fantastic! I have such a soft spot for spelunking. That evening I met an auctioneer from the NCL Dawn from my training in Miami. An old friend, but he had been transferred to make way for another auctioneer unfortunately. But he introduced me to one of the spa workers who promised me that our summer in Bermuda would be worthwhile together. And so along with Lauren, Haeley, and the gang we enjoyed our first overnight in Bermuda, partying on the beach with bonfires at Snorkel Park. The moon shone bright and hopeful on all of us until the wee hours of the morning, offering the summer of promise.
The last two auctions went well despite the fact that Shawn called in sick on his last two days before signing off, and taking a hiatus with PW. Infuriating and definitely not a professional move. We ended the cruise with my 2nd best figure ever, closing the month with my best numbers on record, clearly a massive improvement, and I said goodbye to my two lady friends from home. Definitely a worthwhile adventure, but I have to admit after 8 days with two crazy girls, it was nice to have some peace and quiet. I will never forget crusiing with Haeley and Lauren, that’s for sure. Going outside for the first time on turn around day, I laid my eyes on the Statue of Liberty. A symbol of hope…of love…of the possibility of a better tomorrow (quoted directly from my Peter Max speech). This was an image that had been recurring in my life since I started this crazy show, and here she was in the real…with the endless possibilities that Manhattan Island had to offer looming out of the distant fog. It was a terrible day, but one that heralded the change to come, no more Caribbean, no more 6 port days in a row, no more anything I ever knew…and onto the Finale.
Pete had gone on vacation too, leaving just Susan and I on the art team. We started off right away with two sea days, and so I did a day of seminars and then an auction. It was refreshing in a way, but definitely a challenge. We had to do set ups together, and the art movers lied to us about pay, pissing me off royally. It didn’t help that all the guests were now New Yorkers. Now nothing against anyone from New York but when you have a 50+ crowd from one of the grizzliest cities in world starting a cruise off with heavy rain and rocking seas, you’re not going to be dealing with a sea of smiles. Its spring time in the Atlantic folks, not summer yet. People think they’re going to step onto the ship and find immediate sunshine, failing to realize that Bermuda is akin to the climate of South Carolina in April. So we worked through it, Susan and I. We’d been through a lot together. Getting her chest X-rayd in Tobago, getting her to not quit, trying to make it a happy life for both of us together. Simply by nature we spend the most time together, and as a decent human being, I try to be fair. I got along with Susan alright, and here we were…in Bermuda, the place we had worked so hard to acquire. And there we were on the eve of our first Bermuda overnight of the cruise, and Natasha walks in furious, asking why I’m keeping secrets from her. ??? Why didn’t I tell her I was being transferred? Again: ??? I hadn’t checked my emails…but there it was, not from my managers, not from my new ship, but from the auctioneer who was going to replace me…Kris English. The company’s million dollar man. That’s how I found out I was leaving the Summit. Gone right after my very best month on record, one of the top auctioneers with the company …Just like that…three days notice. And that’s where the story gets worse…I was being transferred to the Brilliance of the Seas, back to Royal, on a 12 day Mediteranean run…but not as auctioneer, as an associate, as a step back, as a Susan. It was the Lawsuit. The FAR (Fine Art Reguritary). We’d lost 7 ships from the fleet, and most unexpected was from Royal Caribbean. The company was sending back all of its younger auctioneers as associates with the top guys eventually, and because Kris got bumped, he picked his ship, and I was bumped and realigned with one of the best auctioneers on what would hopefully be one of the ships of the high summer cruise season. The expensive 12 day Mediterranean cruises on the Brilliance.
It makes sense I suppose, but to me it sounds like there was tinge of worry. They said they wanted to focus all their best people on Royal for now. To make sure all the strongest people are on these ships to solidify our standing. And anyway, I have no choice. I move down as associate and head to Europe or I go home. I’ll be associate level three, the highest, and will still retain a portion of the overall commission. If the ship does as well as forecasted, I’ll be making more money than an auctioneer on a shit run. And sure there’s a relief of stress. I don’t have to be the big brass and boots anymore, it doesn’t fall on my shoulders, and I’m no longer in charge. But I also kind of liked being in charge. I liked being ridiculous when I told Susan that she has to agree with every silly idea that runs off the top of my head. Forcing her to listen to my every little meaningless bit of randomness. And honestly, I know I was just hitting my real stride with the upcoming summer season. And I know its part of the business, getting moved around happens, but then there’s the hard part. Saying goodbye. You make your friends and you make your life in one place, and in three days you leave it behind. I told Dani and Kate at the bar in Bermuda that evening and they didn’t believe me…and then they cried…and then I cried. I told all my loves, and I said goodbye. I told the sea and felt it laughing, and I told myself again, and couldn’t understand it either. I don’t know what to feel. The promise that these new places hold is strong. Barcelona, the French Riviera, Florence, Rome, Venice, Athens, Turkey, Santorini, Corfu, and Capri. You don’t get a better itinerary than that. And I had been thinking to myself. How do I break that ceiling of 100k? How do I pop those big boys? Maybe in Europe I will learn that, maybe I’ll come out the other end better than ever. Maybe, I’ll find some love too.
But then again, there’s leaving the life I worked so hard to hold onto. 7 days Bermuda, New York, my gallery, my friends…Instantly taken away. You can’t help but feel like you’re leaving a piece of your heart too. My last day in Bermuda, I rented a scooter and drove off on my own to explore this enigmatic island one last time. I sat by the sea and I stared and I listened to the music from my life. I looked up to the sky and wondered about God, if there were any thoughts there. I promised I wouldn’t give up, that I’d be strong, and that’s what I intend to do. I walked to my ship one last time, knowing the next time I stepped off again would be the last. And that’s where our episode ends. Leaving everything I know behind, everything about to change. Every character in the “Life at Sea” will be new, save the principal, and Coleman will be off to new adventures in distant lands, never to be the same again.
Next episode:
Europe: Through a Glass Darkly (Europa~Sasom Ei En Spiegel)
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