Barrie Abroad: Cabin 1503

I. AM. HERE!

proof!

I am sitting on my bed, in my little cabin on the 5^th deck, port side of the beautiful Seabourn Odyssey, with the early New Zealand sunshine filtering through my porthole, and simply feeling blessed. People in my profession have a tendency to overuse or misuse that word, but I truly cannot think of any other adjective to describe the sense of fullness and relief I have been waking up with for the past two days.

Or maybe it's the jet lag.

We are in the midst of the installation of our five shows, and I am feeling very confident about this cast and our amazing crew. We are in the very capable and seasoned hands of Judy “Judes” Cheesman, who is essentially ou production manager for this process. She has been installing shows for BK for many moons, and she knows these shows, this ship, and this crew like the back of her hand. For the past two days, we've been teching through our first show, BRAVO (which we perform TONIGHT!!), and it has been a shockingly smooth process. Judes is efficient, professional, calm, and just everything you could possibly want in someone who is handling all the logistics of our existence on this ship. We had our first dress run of BRAVO last night, and we received high praise from both Judes and Jeff, our audio master/lead tech. And more importantly, we were done at 5pm!! After my experiences with Holland America ships, the concept of not having to do midnight rehearsals is just baffling.

After tech yesterday, I went out on Deck 11 aft, which is the reserved crew area, to do a bit of sunbathing. I only made it for a few minutes because the wind got a bit chill, but it was worth it to feel the warm sun on my back after being inside almost all day and—more severely—in the English winter, where daylight was a thing that happened to other people. I'm still feeling a little dream-like, what with the summer heat and the sunshine til late evening...I'm convinced I'm going to wake up some morning and discover that I'm actually still in Northampton, or New York, or Upland! But then the G-force of the ship rocking on the ocean waves reminds me that, no, this is real, and I am indeed in the Southern Hemisphere. On purpose, even! That same G-force put me to sleep at around 7 last night, and I didn't wake up til about 6:30 this morning. This whole crossing the International Date Line and being 13 hours ahead of GMT is a liiiiiiiiiiiiiittle disorienting!