Friday night

Last night was an easy night. I only was scheduled for 90 minutes. When I arrived the room was empty but within 5 minutes there was not an empty seat in the house. That felt nice. I recognized most of the people from previous nights. Tonight will the last night of the cruise and I’m told I must wind it down by midnight or before so that everyone has time to get proper sleep before disembarking tomorrow. Tomorrow night is my night off.

After my short shift last night I watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show on the big screen located outside on the top deck with some of the gay boys I met on this trip. I never really liked that movie and indeed after about an hour I had to leave. I then went to the crew bar for the first time since I’ve been here, now that the red alert has been lifted. It was mellow, and I had a long chat with the Senior Activities director who is third in charge below the Cruise Director, and thus an immediate supervisor of sorts. His boyfriend is a Mexican national and one of the dancers in the production show—the only gay dancer on the ship, I might ad, as I’ve met the other three and they are all straight. Who knew? But anyway, he was said that everyone was very happy with my work and suggested that I let the Cruise Director know that I would be available for future work. Cool.

Finally, in my cabin, I read until I fell asleep. This morning I woke up in St. Thomas. I called on room service for the first time (another thing I couldn’t do during red alert) and got a pot of coffee delivered to my room. Sweet! I have been in my room now all morning drinking coffee and finishing my current book. It’s called Perfume by Patrick Suskind, and it’s a highly original story about a wunderkind perfumer who, as the story progresses, attempts to capture the scent of a virgin pubescent girl. In addition to a brilliant and original plot, the writer through words alone brings the world of scents and smells alive for the reader, rather like describing the concept of color to a blind man. Just as brilliantly, he exposes the twisted thinking and inner workings of the mind of the protagonist. I understand it’s a movie, but I can’t imagine the movie being able to accomplish what the book has done.