Monday, May 14th

The first grey hair on the head of a twenty-something woman. A slight shaking on the streets of a major city above a fault line. A long dormant volcano emitting a wisp of hot smoke. These are bad signs, heralding something really awful. The cruise ship equivalent of a grey hair or minor tremor is a passenger or crew member reporting to the Medical Center stating, “It’s coming out. Both ways. And it won’t stop.”

The alarms sound. We have a “Code Brown” - the first sign of a gastro-intestinal disorder, or simply, “G.I.”

G.I. is a nightmare for a ship. We are in a very enclosed environment, breathing the same air, touching the same food, sharing the same over-priced cocktails. It is very difficult to contain, and for the past couple of days we have been getting used to our utensils being handed to us by a rubber-glove wearing crew member, our hands sprayed with sanitizer every time we enter a new room, and our ears perking up every time we hear the words, “I’m not sure I feel so well.”

Today was supposed to be the debut of the Second City, our first public appearance as performers on this 12-day cruise.
We were scheduled for rehearsal at 11:00 AM today, but Jennine was doubled over in the medical center waiting to hear the inevitable – You. Have. G.I. So, the four of us (and our musical director) began working out a way to do a four-person show – we’d done it before (Blog trivia! Why did the cast have to do a four-person show in the past? Answer at the end of the entry!).



Then we got a call that Jennine would be fine, but would have to be quarantined – a standard procedure on ships – for at least 24 hours.

And, so would her husband and roommate and vital cast member, Dave. Even though Dave felt fine, this ship isn’t taking its chances.

Hence, no show tonight, and a lot of DVD watching, room service, and trying to stay sane for Dave and Jennine.

The show has been rescheduled for Wednesday. Our Cruise Director made the announcement several times today that our show had been changed due to a, “Misprint in the Freestyle Daily” which is the ship’s newsletter.

I’m a little nervous that people are going to think this is a scam. The Second City cast finally has to work after being paid to traipse around in exotic lands and suddenly they are “quarantined?!” Well, here’s a bill for not holding up your very, very miniscule end of the bargain – it is labeled, “You aren’t going to hoodwink us, you free-loading hippie actors. Nice try.”
(Trivia Answer: Our very first show on the Jewel was a four-person show because Steve went to L.A. to become famous.)