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Published: February 22nd 2008
It's a monumentous, exciting and bittersweet day. It's my birthday, but it's also my last day on the Destiny. Jody's too. Neither of us care to have a crazy party on our last night on the ship when we have immigration at 6am and a long day of travel the next day, so a party tonight just isn't really an option.
Last night we had a big party in the crew bar - a combo birthday / goodbye party. There were tons of people in the crew bar. People there to say goodbye. Though many people seemed surprised to realize that I'm leaving; I think because so much focus was being put on my birthday and Jody is so vocal about leaving, focus was just lost there.
The night before, I'd made a huge stash of jello and gummi shooters. We spread them out on a bunch of tables. At midnight, when it was officially my birthday, they were all passed around, everyone did a birthday "cheers" and starting downing the shooters. Tasty! A few minutes later, Jody said "Can we do the song?" and started singing Happy Birthday. This turned into a giant circle of people singing to
me . . . absolutely everyone I hang out with, tons of the entertainment staff and then just bunches of others. I could just feel my cheeks burning! It was quite the reception. Looking around, I thought how much I like all of these people. And how touched - and embarassed! - I was to have them all like me and make such a big show.
My signatures notebook was being passed around all night with people writing messages. I haven't read it yet. I'll save that for when I'm sitting in the hotel in Fort Lauderdale next week.
It was a lovely time. Just lots of great people chatting and laughing and sharing drinks. I kept passing around the jello/gummis - I had a whole "secret stash" in addition to the ones spread out on the tables. People loved them!
Jody and I had originally planned to stay on the ship, but it seemed everyone else was going to be getting off and going to Club Onno's (the nightclub we always go to when we're overnighting in the Dominican Republic). It was our last chance to be out with everyone, so we changed out minds and
headed off with a group.
While in theory this was a good idea (and ultimately everyone else had a good time), I was so tired. Of course, this hits me in the taxi on the way to the club. The club was also packed, but not every really with crew. There seemed to be so many other people there which was unusual - normally the place is dead until all the crew members show up. I wasn't into the music that night. I mostly ended up nursing my bottle of water and standing around. There was some dancing - I do love the dance floor - but eventually I was just so tired I just sat on one of the bar stools on the edge of the dance floor and waited for everyone else.
Eventually, our group decided it was time to go. And so we returned to our not-so-little floating home.
Today there's a crew tour planned so the celebrations will be continuing soon . . .
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