Cayamo 2013 - San Juan, Antigua, Tortola, & a whole lotta music!

The Norwegian Pearl was our home on the seas last week. I finally went on the Cayamo music cruise with my girlfriends who've been insisting I join them for the past five years. I've never been so ill-prepared for a trip in my life, but things were so hectic leading up to my departure that I literally threw some clothes into a suitcase and joined them in Miami.

I knew almost nothing about the ports we were scheduled to visit or the bands we were meant to see, and in a way, that was a good thing. Everything felt fresh and amazing, and it was fun to talk to people and learn about their music and the sights we were seeing. I'm still recovering from all the sensory overload and the boat moving feeling hasn't quite dissipated yet, but each swoosh is a reminder of how fabulous my trip was!

This little guy greeted us the second night in our cabin. My roommate Alana & I are still debating the type of animal - my vote is that it's an elephant. (As it should be.) 

I didn't take a whole lot of pics on the boat. I was too busy taking it all in. To quote my friend Patty, it was a marathon, not a sprint. There was so much music, and so little time, and I was so very tired going into this adventure. But I am glad to say that I am catching up on sleep this week, and I powered through every night on the boat last week!

Highlights for me were: Lyle Lovett (*swoon*, 'nuff said), Dawes (my mind is officially blown by these Jackson Brown-esque rockers), Shovels & Rope (Cary Ann was channelling Dolly Parton and she and Mike rocked the house down, y'all), Liz Longley (adorable singer-songwriter from Nashville), Teddy Thompson (hilarious Brit singer-songwriter and son of legend Richard Thompson who we also saw), Brandi Carlile (holy rock 'n' roll!), and Joan Osborne (she kicks a$& live - so glad I finally got to see her perform on stage.)

First stop in San Juan. We are SUCH Americans. (But the coffee on the boat was pretty wretched.)

Here are some other pics from the trip - my friends took more photos, and when I get some pics from them, I'll post. I didn't have a waterproof camera, and I figured they would get better shots than I could. I also didn't carry my iPhone around too much this week. It was glorious being completely unplugged for an entire week. I should get a waterproof watch for next time, though. It was kind of stressful not knowing what time it was b/c there was almost always another concert to attend. This vacation was a lot of work, y'all!

This is the view from one of the forts in San Juan. 

Tuesday - We walked off the boat in San Juan and wandered into town (after our coffee fix, of course.) We visited two beautiful forts that were used to protect the island and got a very nice view of the town and its shores from the top of both. We also did a little shopping before heading back to the ship. It was a really nice, relaxing day.

Another view from the fort in San Juan. 

Wednesday - Antigua was kind of a weird place to hang out. The port area itself is not in the best part of town, so we wandered around in a sketchy 'hood a bit before discovering the duty-free shopping center nearby. We had some fruity drinks, did some shopping, and then decided we should try to do some actual sightseeing before heading back to the Pearl. We walked up to an old Catholic church in town that was unfortunately closed and kind of a wreck. Then we went back on the boat for more music... after indulging in another round of fruity drinks, of course.

Antigua - we were looking for a place to have fruity drinks.  No fruity drinks here - just pizza. And an anatomically correct banana. 

Coasters in Antigua - If I tell you what it means, will you buy me a drink? 

Thursday - in Tortola, our group split up. Patty and her bf went on a catamaran excursion with the Sixthman crew and some of the artists. They got to hang out at a bar called Soggy Dollar, and everyone seemed to have had a really good time. Alana and I decided to take a tour of Virgin Gorda, which was a cool trek through some beautiful rock formations that finally ended in a beautiful lagoon called Devil's Bay. We had a wonderful time taking in the sun and swimming in the turquoise water. (She has all the pics from that day b/c she was smart and brought a waterproof camera bag.)

Everglades National Park

On Sunday I had some time to kill in Miami before heading back to NYC, so I did an excursion of the Everglades. Everyone on my tour was recovering from Cayamo, and it was kind of hilarious how tired everyone was. The puzzled tour guide even commented that he usually has more enthusiastic post-cruise crowds. But we rallied and saw the crocs, rode the airboat, and walked around the native hut before being deposited at our respective airports.

More Everglades

The folks that live in the Everglades are my kind of people. They like to sleep in the sun, eat, and do little else. 

That's all I've got for now. I'm heading off to Park City, UT tomorrow for Sundance. Guys, I can't even believe my life right now. I really can't. I think reality is going to be tough when I have to start working for a living again in Feb... but in the words of Scarlett O'Hara, I'll worry about that tomorrow.

2013 is going to rule!

(Photo courtesy of Prospect Park. I spent NYE in Brooklyn, inside a warm apartment, not outside in the park, though.) 

Happy New Year! It's been a whirlwind these past few months, and I have no photos to accompany this post. Big news to share: I quit my job at the end of last year, and I couldn't be happier right now. I was very lucky and picked up a few freelance gigs right away, and I've been doing a seasonal job at a cooking store on top of my early-morning shifts. Oddly enough, I like the retail job so much that it was one of the reasons I decided to quit my full-time gig.

There were several reasons actually. It started with a TV writing course I took in mid-October. I felt so inspired and enthusiastic just sitting in that classroom talking about all things TV with the instructor that I started actively thinking about ways I could get away from my "day job." Then Hurricane Sandy happened, and it was horribly mismanaged by my bosses, which I was tangibly able to compare to the superior tactics of the cooking store managers. And then the hospital visit happened.

In the hospital, my roommate was a feisty, elderly woman who had stage four cancer. She'd lived in New York her whole life and was a maven in the fashion industry back in the '80s. She had been a model, and then she managed to shift into the business side when her looks "faded." She was still a beautiful woman, who was clearly in a lot of chronic pain when I met her. In between complaining about the nurses, she would throw me a morsel of serious wisdom every couple of hours. One of those nuggets was to make sure I didn't throw away my 30s chasing my career. *gulp* How did she know?!

Basically my takeaway from that experience was that I really wasn't doing anything to build up my own life at that moment. I was slaving away at a job that I absolutely loathed. And I'd been doing that for four years fooling myself into believing it would get better if I worked harder. Truth is, it never did. It just kept getting worse. I'd tried to like it for four long years, and while I liked living in New York City, it wasn't enough to spend most of my time at a job that literally made me dread going to bed at night b/c waking up meant I had to go to work. At some point, a person has to call the game and move on. And the universe was clearly sending me some strong signals to get out fast.

So I set a deadline. I was going to resign on Dec. 3 no matter what. I wanted to have the holidays to relax a bit and then start 2013 fresh. I had been interviewing for other jobs off and on over the past couple of years, but things never seemed to work out quite right. At the advice of a career counselor, I started asking around about freelance projects, and the Tuesday before my deadline, two projects landed in my lap. I felt freedom was near, and I suddenly had the confidence to hand in my resignation on my scheduled date!

Things never work out exactly as planned, and my bosses convinced me to stay on through the holidays (which resulted in one freelance gig completely disappearing, much to my horror.) But working the holidays at my old gig is usually low-key and not entirely unpleasant, so I stuck it out till the end of 2012. As one freelance gig disappeared, another one materialized just before Christmas (let's call it a Saturnalia miracle!), and I am happy to say that I start training over there on Monday.

Unfortunately, I didn't have very many days off to relax as this week was full of running to different offices all over Manhattan to fill out paperwork, etc, but I did manage to do a lot of organizing. I bought and sold some furniture, I cleaned out my closets and drawers, and I gave a crap ton of stuff away to Goodwill. I even spent some quality time with my mother who's been visiting for the holidays. I celebrated both the start of 2013 and leaving my job with some close friends from grad school. I spend New Years Day night at a Joseph Arthur concert without the worry that I would have to wake up the next morning at 4am to go to work!

As 2013 begins, I feel hopeful and happy for the first time in many years. I am training at a new place this week, and then I head off on a seven-day cruise to Tortola, Antigua, and San Juan with two of my favorite girlfriends. I come back to NYC for a few days, and then I am heading out to Park City, Utah for Sundance (and I am also doing some consulting work while I am out there.) So it's going to be a busy month, and I pray that some work for Feb lines up while all this is going on. I can't imagine it won't. I've not felt this secure in a very long time. Wish me luck guys! And may 2013 be amazing for all of us!