Day 100!
Today was an action packed filled day.
What to talk about first…
Day 100? Molly's birthday? Specialty dining? Or the auction?
Well, day 100 comes with a lot of mixed feelings. Molly's Birthday was exciting. Specialty dining was delicious. And the auction was…well… it was interesting.
I had to force Molly out of bed. I went down and knocked on her door when I got out of class and she did not answer. So I went back up to my room to call her and it woke her up. I made her get out of bed, she could not sleep in on her birthday.
We spent the majority of the day tanning. That was Molly's birthday choice. But we could only tan until she went to work.
We walked through all of the silent auction items a few times. The silent auction started at 12:30 and went until 7. Then the live auction was at 8. There was some pretty good stuff in both auctions. My Disney tour was in the silent auction with a starting bid of 50 and Molly's donation of doing someones makeup for the alumni ball was also in the silent auction with a starting bid of 5 dollars.
Some more notable items were a wine bottle in the shape of table mountain, breakfast in bed brought by the RD of your choice, a guitar that has sailed on several voyages and so was covered in a lot of stuff, reserved seats at the crew talent show, last off the ship, John Boyer recording your voicemail, staying with the Youngs in Myrtle Beach, stickers from every country, Ashley Epting bringing you breakfast in bed, video editing by some students, SASopoly, and specially made Fall 2013 voyage TOMs.
The only thing that I thought was awesome enough was John Boyer recording your voicemail. That is really random but you don't understand, he is really funny. That would be the best voicemail ever. When we walked by it there werent any bids so I started it off at the minimum of 15. That was the only thing that I bid on.
We had specialty dining reservations in the evening for Molly's birthday and we knew that it would go right through the end of the auction. My plan was to leave.
This was the first time I had done specialty dining. It was awesome, I can not wait until the alumni ball when we all get it. You get so much food you end up rolling out of there. They start with tiny hors d'oeuvres that are very fancy: shrimp and salmon and brie. Then you choose an appetizer – I chose wontons. You automatically get soup and salad, and then you choose a main course and dessert – steak and cherries jubilee. So much food. Oh, and you get a glass of champagne.
Jessi and I left for the end of the auction at ten of seven. Right after the appetizer course. Amanda told us to check on the personal training session that she had bid on. She didn’t want to go over 45 dollars. Her bid of 35 was still the top one. Bid of 30 was still the top one on John Boyer recording your voicemail. Sweet! I just had to hover for a few minutes. Jessi went and looked at the beanie hat she wanted but it was up to 90 dollars and that was too much. She came to where I was and I asked her if there was anything else good over there. She reminded me of the breakfast in bed served by Ashley and said that it was only at 30, so I had her put a bid for me at 35.
As we waited for 7 o'clock to hit I chatted with Stefon who was hovering over the video editing thing right next to where I was. Awesomely, there wasn’t anyone else fighting for our items. Except that Dylan wanted the voicemail, but when I told him to go away he did. Guess he didn’t want it that much. Jessi says that I was really scary. But I meant business. Fight for it man, flight. This is war.
Tymitz square was completely basting with people. It was craziness. The way that they were doing the closing was, if you were fighting over an item you got a sticky note to write your final bid on. Whoever had the highest would obviously win it.
Right near the end Jessi yelled across the balcony to me that someone else outbid me on the breakfast and asked what my limit was. I said I would bump it to 50. And I won it! Woo!
I walked away with John Boyer recording my voicemail and Ashley Epting serving me breakfast in bed. Plus Amanda got the personal training. So much success.
The rest of specialty dining was celebratory and delicious. We left in enough time to get terrible seats in the back of the Union for the live auction. Here is everything that was in the live auction:
4 night stay in Lake Tahoe Cabin
Desmond Tutu's used margarita glass
Small vials of Alaskan gold nuggets (4)
Weekend at Alaskan gold mine
NASA patches (3)
New York Yankees tickets
Plaid Avenger package
Day sailing on San Francisco Bay
Featured post in the SAS blog News from the Helm
Outdoor water adventure package
TED headquarters tour
2 night ski trip for two on the mountains of Vermont
Be captain for a day – steer the ship!
Be the first of the ship in Fr. Lauderdale
6 seats at the Captains table for the Alumni ball – including unlimited alcohol
Chance to say goodbye over the intercom on the last day
Be the voice for lunch – give the noon announcement over the intercom
4 lounge chairs reserved on pool deck for remainder of the voyage
Private dining in deck 7 cabin for 2
Private dining in deck 7 cabin for 6
Captain hat signed by Captain Jeremy
Chance to blow the ship's horn
Night of celestial navigation and cookies with Pinky Nelson
In the middle of the auction they added three things as people donated them:
Demitru's security name tag
Boat trip and barbecue on Hawaii
Dinner date with Adler (the youngest and most adorable kid on the ship)
Apparently when they told Adler they would be auctioning off a date with him he thought that meant that they were giving him to a new family so he was walking around the ship telling everyone that he was not doing it. Adoreable.
They were not auctioned off in the above order. It was random.
The first thing that really got up there was be captain for the day. It ended up going for 600 dollars to Mr. Galloway. The man with the deepest pockets on the ship. And he told us that he is going to give it away. He is the coolest person ever.
The one that went for the most was the captains table for 6 at the alumni ball, including unlimited alcohol. It sold for 1,900. Holy moly.
I spontaneously decided to go for the featured story on the blog and almost got it for 80 but then the other person decided to keep going. I stopped at $130. It ended up going for $250.
When getting off the ship first came up we were told that the most it ever went for was 1,600 dollars. That is absurd.
Molly decided that that was the item she was going to go for and she wasn’t going to go over 150 dollars. It was at 130 and she was about to offer 140 when she hesitated and Ashley closed it to the other person. Molly was sad to the extent that she felt like she was never getting off the ship.
Amanda said that she wanted to bid on the celestial navigation with Pinky and would go up to 150 for it. It could have been for up to 6 people so I said that I would put in some money and then we would have more to work with. Molly and Jessi said that they would chip in too. We decided we wouldn’t go over 350. But I had a secret plan to go up to 400 that Amanda didn’t know about. It was for 6 people and there was only 4 of us. It wouldn’t be too hard to find someone else to go in on it.
When it came up Amanda was in charge. It quickly jumped to $250. We bumped it to $300, then $350, and I took it to $400 before I noticed who we were bidding against. It was Chris and Dylan with a few other people. Oh hell no. I told Jessi and she got angry. She was determined to out bid him. She went back and forth with them all the way to $750 before Ashley closed it to them without even looking our way. Jessi was angry, she would have taken it to $1000 just to outbid Dylan.
We were not happy.
Not at all.
Very, very angry.
I don’t really know why now. The point of the auction was to make money so I am glad that it went so high. It was just the principle of the thing.
Oh well, I still had a successful day. John Boyer is going to record my voicemail and it will be the greatest thing ever. I have already had multiple people tell me that they will be calling my phone just to hear it. Guess I can never pick up the phone again.
You guys probably think it is super weird. But trust me… it is awesome.
Also, when Henry found out that I won breakfast in bed served by Ashley he practically begged me to let him join. I told him he could if he could come up with someway to pay me back for it. We will see what happens. I am really excited for both.
Actually I am really excited for everything that will be happening in the next 15 days. I guess this means that I have to talk about the fact that today is day 100, right?
Day 100….hmm.
I remember day 10 like it was yesterday and thinking about everything that was ahead of me. The other day I was looking back at my blogs and found the first time that I mentioned Molly. I referred to her as "this girl in my travel writing class" on day 11.
Oh how she has become so much more than that.
There are only 15 days left but there is still so much going on. There is the crew talent show tomorrow night, the showing of the films for the film festival, cuba, finals, the alumni ball, and the bahamas. Plus a bunch of little things all thrown in the middle. In two nights there is Harry Potter trivia. And my group in International Management still has a presentation. And I have to write my integrative paper. And the last few journals for Bio. And a media critique for psychology.
It will be a struggle. This doesn't feel like school. It feels like school even less than it did before. I just have to push through it but I would rather spend time with the people that I have only 15 days left with.
I have been in a real funk. A horrible funk. I just feel terrible basically all the time. I can't shake it and I can't figure out why it is there.
I have always struggled with living in four month chunks. It was one of the reasons I didn’t make any really good friends during my college program, because I knew I would be leaving them. I have made such good friends on this voyage. People that have become a part of my every day and that I love so much. I could imagine walking around and not seeing Molly, Jessi, Cody, Chris, Lillian, Amanda, Colin, Shaleen, Emily, and many, many more. I am so sad. They all live in so many different places, the likelihood of seeing them again is so slim.
I am trying to not let my funk take over the next 15 days but it will be really hard. I really just need to live in the moment. And not let Molly and I spend all of our time in her room. We have been successful the past few days. Bring on the next 15.
Oh! One final note: We crossed the equator again today. We are in the same hemisphere again!
