Saturday November 13th, 2010 - Cozumel, Mexico My world is shrinking, and I like it. I’m finally starting to enjoy the benefits of life on a cruise ship, and it’s about time. I’ve taken my lumps for months, but for some reason this was the day I finally started to feel comfortable with the lifestyle. I’m no longer a rookie. Seeing friendly faces and being back to familiar places helps a lot. This week I’m on the Carnival Destiny, and I was just here two weeks ago and it went well. I happen to like the staff here a whole lot, even though I don’t dislike any of the others. I just feel like this one and I hit it off particularly well. The comedy club manager James and I have met before. We worked a few months ago on the Carnival Legend, another ship I really like, and I’ll be back there again very soon too. James is a distinguished Brit who does a splendiferous job hosting the shows and just sets a positive tone all around. I love working with the guy, and we were both pleasantly surprised to cross paths again out here on a brand new ship. That was two weeks ago. Now it’s like we’re old time sea vets. I’m also working with a really super comedian named Will Marfori. We’ve also worked together before and had a very good week hanging out. He also has a Late Late Show with Craig Fergsuon credit to his name and is very smart and funny on stage and off. I was glad to see him again also. We had a night off from performing and our port today was Cozumel, Mexico. I’ve now been to Cozumel at least a half dozen times, and am getting to know my way around quite well. Before this year, I couldn’t have found it on a map. I’d heard of it, but just barely. Now I feel like it’s just another town. I even find myself saying “Gracias senor” without thinking twice. For a cheese head from Milwaukee, that’s a big step. I suppose I could try to get by with “Ya hey dere,” but it would probably take a lot longer to get what I want. Will and I had a blast hanging out today. We took a cab downtown and ate a spectacular authentic Mexican lunch at a place he knew of. The name escapes me, but I will definitely be back again. We had Azteca soup which I’d never had before, and I had a lobster kabob which I would have committed at least a misdemeanor to sample. It was world class grub. Then, we walked our meals off and eventually stopped at a cantina with multiple TVs to watch some college football. We took our seats at the bar and I couldn’t help noticing the green and gold decoration motif behind it. It was a Packer bar! I knew we’d chosen well. The whole day’s experience was really fun. The weather was perfect, with a little bit of cloud cover to keep the sun from being too hot. It wasn’t crowded either, and we felt like we had the town to ourselves. In a way we did, and we both enjoyed our day off of work. There’s an upside and downside to everything, and I’m not saying I won’t experience a lot more negatives, but for at least a day it felt like I knew what I was doing, where I was going, and who I was going there with. We had great food and perfect weather as well. I’m glad I was able to last at least this long out here so I’d have a few positive stories to tell. The negative ones are probably funnier to those who hear them, but for me I can now have a couple of positive memories to balance this whole experience out in my psyche. Losing my luggage for a week was a real pisser. That whole experience made me think very seriously about quitting, but today’s experience made me glad I didn’t. At least at the end of everything, I’ll be able to look back and say I stayed with comedy and gave my all. If you’d have told me even a year ago I’d be hanging out in Cozumel, Mexico for a day and feeling comfortable about it, I’d have thought you were crazy. It sounds like an exotic far away place I’d never have a reason to go to, but now I look forward to returning soon. My world has always been shrinking, all the way back to childhood. I remember hearing my grandparents tell me I wasn’t supposed to ride my bike any farther than our side of the block. That was all I needed to hear. I couldn’t wait to ride around the block just to see all the adventurous things that were out there. It was only houses, but I had to see for myself. Then, I was only allowed to stay on our block. Sorry. Couldn’t do that either. It kept on growing through my whole life. I took a city bus to school in sixth grade, and I remember being told to “Only take the route you know.” Were they kidding? I couldn’t do that, even if I wanted to. There’s just something in me that has always needed to go out and explore. When I started doing comedy in Milwaukee, it wasn’t long before I had to check out the scene in Chicago. It was only 90 miles away, but to me seemed like a new world. I didn’t have a reliable car (what’s new) so I remember hitch hiking at times, taking a bus several others, and however else I could get myself down there. I had to get out and experience it. Then, I started going on the road as a comedian and I always made it a point to take gigs as far away from Milwaukee as I could get. I wanted to see the country, and that I did. It’s been a lifetime obsession, but in recent years I’ve found myself losing that burning desire to have to always be gone. Traveling also takes a toll. It’s WORK, and requires energy. I made it a point to see as much of North America as humanly possible, but it took a full quarter century to do it. There are scant few places in the lower 48 United States that I’ve not seen with my own eyes, and it’s been both an adventure and an education. I know that most people never get the chance to do what I did, mainly because they didn’t choose to. I’d love to visit every nation on Earth if I could, just to see it all with my own eyes. I’ve still got the spark of that little kid on the bike that wasn’t supposed to leave my block. If I get the chance to see the world, I know I’ll take it. Today was Cozumel. So far, so good. Eventually, I want cities and states to become nations and continents. After that, planets and galaxies would be fantastic. If there is life after death, I hope this is my last stop here on Earth. I’ll see as much of it as I can on this trip, but I want to get out there and soak up the real hotspots. Alpha Centauri? Zeta Reticuli? I hope the mother ship has a seat for me.
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