Well, once again I find myself wondering how I have let such a long time pass between postings... but, looking back I can see how that happened quite easily.  So, where do I begin?  I left off with returning from leave, and taking the ship into dry dock.  Spending the winter in the shipyard is nobody's idea of a good time.  Yeah, the ship is up on blocks and we have to climb a four story gangway just to get to the main gangway to the ship, which was really no more than an expanded steel stairway, lying flat so instead of the stair treads being like well... stairs, they were more like steel ankle breakers!  Carrying provisions up that gangway and across the ankle breaker was a huge pain in the arse! 

Additionally, they had the aft deck covered with cables and welders, racks of bottles of various welding gasses, dumpsters, paint lockers, and tool lockers.  The cables were banded together and suspended like an umbilical that led into the depths of the ship through the open aft hatch, and sometimes a cold wind would howl up through the main passageway and into the mess deck where we mostly hung out since other parts of the ship were torn up awaiting the next phase of workers to come through and finish what the previous ones started.

Part of the work that was done involved welding a steel rub rail to the starboard side of the ship, which necessitated the displacement of several crewmembers, I among them.  Fortunately, my shipmate and friend Colleen was going on leave, and her room-mate Faith had moved into one of the vacant scientists berths on the 01 deck, so I was able to move into their room for duration.  The bad part about that was that I had to either lock up, or move all of my stuff out of my room, since they were going to have it torn apart for welding, so most of my stuff was in a pile on the floor in colleens room.

We were initially told that we would be well advised to lock our rooms while we are in the shipyard, as there would be temporary laborers working aboard, and there were a few instances where someone found a laborer in a space where they shouldn't have been.  Often their excuse would be something like, "I was just looking for where they were doing the welding..." to which we would reply, "Well, it certainly isn't in HERE... go look for the big hole in the side of the ship!"  They were removing the generators for repair, and they had to take them out through the side of the hull, lifting them through holes you could drive a car through.

So, winter began like that... and during that time I was sent to two weeks of school to get my Able Bodied Sailor endorsement on my Merchant Mariner Card, but I soon learned that it was pretty much a waste of time, since I would have to go work on deck if I wanted any of my sea time to count for that... and I really enjoy my job, so I decided to just let it go.

Here is where the best part comes in...  Okay, so I have used online dating pages before with mixed success, and suddenly I found myself thinking about how nice it would be to meet someone to spend some time with.  Obviously, my job doesn't really allow for a typical relationship, so I decided to be completely frank about that aspect of my life and put out a new profile just to see what would happen.

I was surprised at how many responses I got!  Who knew that honesty would be so popular!  LOL!  I found myself chatting via email with several attractive women in Seattle and Tacoma areas, and began to set up dates.  To my surprise, I found myself one weekend with three dates in three days. 

Okay, the Friday date was a coffee date, and we ended up spending a good amount of time sitting and talking, which was great, because I had not talked to anyone other than shipmates in a year, really.  So, we said good night and exchanged numbers so we would get together again soon. She was nice enough and we had a good bit in common, since she was a baker. But, I got the impression that she was really looking for a f*ckbuddy...   What's wrong with that? Well, nothing really... but, it's not what I am about.   But, as a friend, sure, I'd hang out with her again.

The second one actually had to become the third one, because they each wanted to meet on Saturday evening at about 6pm, so I had to pick one to ask to move to Sunday. 

So, I go to meet the Saturday Date, and meet her at a little pizza joint in Georgetown.  It's called Stellar Pizza and it is really good!  So, if any of you are in the Seattle area, go check it out!  Anyway, she seemed nice enough at first until she started talking about her ex-boyfriend and how she was getting back at him by giving away his leather jacket that was in the trunk of her car.  She even offered to give me one of his DVDs that she took from him.  She actually searched his cell phone messages to see if he was cheating on her... I guess he was.  Anyway, while she excused herself to the bathroom, the server  came over and checked on us, and I told her that it was sort of a blind date... and that it wasn't going well, so I asked her for her phone number... and she gave it to me right there!  The date ended , and she said she wanted to go out again, and I said something non-committal and left it at that.  I never called her though... because of the Sunday Date. 

Sunday, I met Leesa.  We had been emailing over the past couple of weeks, and she seemed really genuine and down to earth... She loved horror movies and she had a lot of passion and conviction for her involvement in homeless animal rescue.  I was to meet her at a Borders bookstore where she would be volunteering to wrap xmas gifts for donations to their organization, CAPS (Cascade Animal Protective Services)  Like I said, she was going to be there on Saturday, but I had to change it, and she decided on meeting there since it was a neutral location.

I signed out a vehicle, since it was a Sunday and there was virtually no one onboard for that week. It was three days after thanksgiving.  I followed her directions and met her at the bookstore.  I walked in and looked around for their table, and saw her peeking around at me.   I first thought that she was a lot prettier than her pictures, which really do not do her justice.  She was all sparkly with ‘pixie dust' that she wears.  We were initially going to just meet for coffee, but I had not eaten yet that day and it was almost 2pm. So I asked her if she would like to go to lunch instead.

She said yes, so we took her car over to Olive Garden and had lunch.  We had not been sitting for ling when she said to me, "I have something I need to tell you, and it's okay if you get up and walk away, after you do."

My curiosity peaked, as well as my apprehension, I urged her to go on.

"I have a lot of cats." She said.

"How many cats?" I asked warily.

"Twelve."  She replied.

"Oh... That's a lot of cats." I said.  "I thought you were going to say twenty or thirty... then I might have walked away."

She had mentioned in a previous email that she fostered cats and kittens for adoption, but I didn't know just how many she actually had.

"I thought you were going to tell me that you were actually a man, or something."  I said, in an attempt to break the tension.

We chatted through lunch and I knew one thing for certain; I did not want the date to end so soon.  A thought popped into my head.  I wanted to ask her what she was doing for the rest of her life.

Yes. I really thought that, and I honestly had to curb my instinct to say it right out loud.

I asked her if she wanted to go to a movie instead. 

She said yes, and we decided to go to Stephen King's The Mist, which for anyone else might have been a real mood killer, but she and I are dyed in the wool horror fans, so it was a perfect choice.

After the movie, she drove me back to the bookstore, where we decided to go in and have the coffee that we originally intended to have while we looked at books and wandered around the store.  She had a ‘steamer', caramel... I think it was, and I had a white chocolate mocha, while we spent a good couple of hours poring over this book that she showed me, called Death Scenes (A Homicide Detective's Scrapbook) It is a grisly collection of crime scene photographs and mug shots dating back to the twenties that proves without fail that there in fact, were no ‘good old days'.

After that, it was time for me to get back to Seattle.  Remember, I had signed out a vehicle, and even though there was no one really around, I knew that the Officer of the Deck would be checking in and he might wonder why it had been gone for so long.  I was right, because as I was driving back, I got a call wondering where I had been with the truck for so long.

So, I said to her, "Well, I think you are completely lovely..." leaving the statement with a pause. 

She responded with, "but...?"

"But, I don't think we have enough in common..." I laughed, hoping that she had a sense of humor and understood that I was joking.

She laughed, so I released a breath that I was not aware I was holding.  I told her that I really would love to take her out again, if she would go out with me.  She said yes.

We walked out to the parking lot, and I walked her to her car, where we hugged and said goodbye.  I drove back to Seattle ...

To Be Continued, my friends... The best is yet to come.

Love and Light,

Cedalion