Ok ok, I'll blog about it!

So after like 100 e-mails/text/phone calls & messages asking where I've gone and what I'm doing, I've decided to blog about this amazing adventure!  Here's a quick re-cap before I dive into it all...

I've lived in the same house my whole life, gone to school (grade school, high school, and college), worked, and purchased a condo all within a 20 MILE RADIUS of 55417, and after 26 years I've decided a change of scenery is a must.  I go to the same bars, meet/see the same people, and do the same GD thing every single weekend and although I have girlfriends who have become my sisters and a job I absolutely love, I know I have to get out.  I've been talking about moving away for years now, so what the hell - why not sell my car, quit my job, rent my place, and move down to Florida to become a boat Stewardess!?!  Logical?  Hell no.  But then again, that's the point.  To leave everything that's "logical," safe, familiar, comfortable and experience something completely foreign...to stop going through the motions of life and actually LIVE it!

So I signed up for a package deal off some random website (four yachting classes/certificates for $2,000), bought a plane ticket down to Fort Lauderdale, booked a hotel, and off I went.  I've been down here for a little over 3 weeks now and let me tell you, NOTHING about this trip has been predictable/easy/or comfortable but EVERYTHING has been absolutely amazing!!

I got down here on a Sunday, checked into my hotel and got ready for two weeks of class.  The first day of class I meet a Canadian named Kendal who thinks pregnant chicks are hot, and bam I've got a new "friend".  He introduces me to his housemates the next night after class and now I've got a South African and Bohemian friend.  So after two weeks of classes, parties, yacht networking, friend making, and moving (I moved out of my hotel and into a crew house - which can only be described as college co-ed dorm gone bad), I hit a slight bump in the road.

First hiccup: Don't make fun of me when I say this...or call me 'Grandma', but the day before I came down here I got a crown put on my tooth.  The dentist apparently went to 3 years of dental school instead of 6 because he fit my tooth wrong, and I was forced to book a f#cking plane ticket home for another horrendously painful dentist appointment.  When I got home my dad gave me an untimely letter he'd picked up in my forwarded mail.

Second hiccup:  The letter says - "Dear homeowner, congrats on your tax credit.  If for whatever reason you decide to do any of the 1,00,000 following things, you have to give it back.  (I.E - I owe a shit load of money).

Third hiccup:  I'd been down in FL for a week when I got an e-mail from my bitch of a front office lady saying she has no info on the people living in my condo and I need to fill out a rental license ASAP...if I don't fill one out I owe 50 bucks per day for every day they live there without a license.  Fortunately I had to go home for my dentist appointment anyway, so after getting my 'notice' I went into her office and said "look, this is still my primary residence, I'm dating one of the guys living in my place and every time I come home I stay at my house."  She says - I've looked into it and you've had your mail forwarded to another address, you're clearly not living there, you're required to have a rental license, end of story.  I tell her NO WAY so she says she'll bring my "case" in front of the board at their next meeting.  I ask her when the meeting is taking place, she tells me Wednesday morning.  I was supposed to fly out Monday so I cancel my flight, re-book my ticket for a week later and attend the meeting.  I explain to the panel that all my shit's still at my place, one of the guys living there is my boyfriend, my mail was just temporarily forwarded, etc etc etc so case closed.  They approved my request so I got my ass back on that damn U.S Airways plane and here I am!

I got in Saturday night (midnight),  snuggled into my new bed at my new crew house with all new roommates, woke up Sunday morning so lonely and sad I could hardly breath, so I decide to head over to my old house to say hi to my "friends".  As I'm sitting there with Jenny (my New Zealand friend), a girl who I'd met at Waxy's (a pub where Captains & Crew hangout) comes in and offers me a job.  I drive down to the boat, meet the First Mate, and start the very next morning.

And here I am!  I've been working as the sole Stewardess on a 78 foot ferretti Motor Yacht and it's been amazing.  He offered me a job through (and at) the Boat Show which gives me free access to all the docks/boats/parties/events and cash money for the next week - p.s yachties pay ain't 1/2 bad!  So the boat's interior (which I'm responsible for) has been cleaned upside down and inside out and she looks AMAZING!  We pulled her into our slip this morning and I have to be back to the docks by 7am tomorrow to meet the lady I ordered our flowers from (cross your fingers I did a good job...if these flowers are horse-shit I'm screwed).

So there it is ladies and gents, my first official blog :)   I'm exhausted and literally out of breath/finger strength so I hope you're happy!  Wish me luck tomorrow and I'll be sure to post pics of these MASSIVE "boats" and all the hot deckhands - sexy, sexy men let me tell you!

Welcome to my life for the next 365 days, it's sure to be one hell of a ride!

xo,
mE