Ocean Rock

I'm writing this from the MV Explorer's stellar FREE internet station! I can't believe that I'm here. Things went so smoothly and uneventfully for me to get here. Besides being gouged out of 40$ at the ticket counter for American Airline's baggage fee, I "sailed" through everything it took to get here, forgive the pun.

I'm not going to be super boring and catalogue every little move I made to get here, but I will log some higlights. The cab driver on from the airport turned out to be a spunky Cuban guy named Danny. I knew that I was in good hands when he told me "if don't want to think, just become Republican!" We spent the drive chatting about the system, the man, an extortionist veterenarian he was taking his dog to see, and the ridiculousness of blind patriotism. Please note that these were his choice of topics. This cab ride comes in 2nd only to the midnight Jack in the Box Run in Hawaii where the Chinese driver told us the entire saga of Bruce Lee's confrontation with his master that led to his death, complete with sound effects and random spates of Chinese.

The lifeboat drill today was another high point. It's the first time I felt again the familiar community that SAS builds and fosters in people. The friends that I am with are cool, but the new people I meet are just as exciting. I'll never forget the "lifeboat shuffle" and the ex-navy safety officer charging up and down the line mean-mugging everyone with a stern "Be quiet, please!" I had to suppress every juvenile high school instinct in me not to make faces at his back.

Lastly, there was the opening presentation tonight, where the steel drum band kicked off the ceremony (and I danced and shook on stage -- I was pulled up, it was out of my hands!), Les McCabe made nice remarks, Dean Lewan (yay) made some more, and a guy (whose name I didn't catch) put on the slideshow of a lifetime! I learned so much about the history of the program. What a story.

Well, that's it for tonight. I feel like I haven't done a thing to capture all that's taken place in my heart and in my head, but there is a life to be led. More going on tonight, thinking of rising with the sun tomorrow to watch it happen over the water....