Going Home

September 4th-?
Going Home

Well, I guess I waited too long to write this entry, I barely remember anything 7 weeks later. Following Athen’s, the ship sailed into Civitavecchia where I’d be leaving out of Rome’s airport. The last couple days (I have no idea how many) were pretty standard. I spent a lot of time hanging out with my friends and getting stuff together for my departure. We stopped in Messina Sicily, I do remember that. I bought some wine and cheese for a final farewell party the night before I left. For whatever reason I had a very short time in Messina and barely had enough time to get off the ship for some simple shopping.
The highlight of my final days on the Victoria had to have been the last farewell show. At the end of every cruise we put on a farewell show, just like every ship I’ve been on. This show has me playing a big solo where I use a wireless microphone, walk to the front of the stage and get a big feature. It’s actually one of the nicest solos I’ve ever had on ships, and even though it’s really cheesy, I always have a great time with it. Well, for the last farewell show on my last night on the ship, I decided to play my solo with sunglasses and a black fedora…you know, for added visual effect. I didn’t tell anyone but Ben and Igor (Igor got me the hat), and I went forward as usual, trying to keep a straight face, and played the solo. I have the whole thing on video so if I see you and you want proof, I have it. I thought it was hilarious, my friends loved it, and the music director who the band has spent my entire contract despising was furious – nice. But hey, I was going home the next day and it was too late for him to do anything about it, so it didn’t matter and I was able to leave that ship with a bang!
I left the next morning and drove to the airport in some shuttle sitting next to one of the guest performers who’d just done a show on the ship. It was a nice ride to the airport talking to this guy about what he does and guest artists in general, we’ll just say it was enlightening and leave it at that.
I flew from Rome to Frankfurt and then to O’hare with no complications to speak of. End of contract number three!