…not a commentary title, I’ve been catching up on Nerdist podcasts and I almost died when I heard this was a magnet on CM Punk’s refrigerator.  And who KNEW that Tom Morello may be *THE* coolest guy EVER??!  I less than 3 you Chris Hardwick!!!!!

Wednesday, our boxes finally were offloaded onto the ship where we could access them.  Funny thing?  There are words printed ON the boxes that don’t necessarily say THIS END UP but imply such and often, a giant arrow is the universal sign for up, yet…at first all the WARDROBE boxes were on their sides and then when we said, stand these upright…some were turned upside down.  Lost in translation or it’s just that sea thing…13 miles out anything goes?  HOWEVER, in typical awesomeness…we unpacked the 53 boxes in about 6 hours.  Currently, about 97% of the alterations are completed for what we’ve got and we’re just waiting for the rest of the stuff to arrive from CA.  …yes…there is still more to come.

Our luggage FINALLY arrived on Thursday evening.  What craziness THAT was!!  Once the bags got to Rome the port agent there was working to arrange transport with the port agent here.  Each gave us different information…which was also completely different from what the airline said…and all THAT was different depending on whether WE called, an Italian speaking ship person called and which Joe was on the other end.  45 different stories from 11 people.  AMAZING!  But it arrived and it was JUST as it was when we closed the bags in LA!

We went back into the city on Friday afternoon.  There is this store called KIKO that we seem to always pass.  It’s a makeup store (?)…there is an advertisement for mascara 3,54 Euro on the window but EVERY time we go past, there is a line down the block to get in!  It’s bizarre!  We had dinner at a pizzeria.  Soooooo good!  Better than the pizza was the cappuccino.  Holy crap!  Why doesn’t coffee THAT good come in a Venti?!?

I had to go back to the ship’s doctor and was given a Z-pak (?) for my sinus infection.  It’s starting to clear up but the “sea sickness” thing is still happening.  It’s getting a little better but I still feel like I’m going to fall over most of the time.  Seriously, this is NOT normal.  Odd, but true.  There really is only so much water I can drink and since the water is shut off most days…it REALLY makes me NOT want to drink ALL the water so…I suffer…sigh…

Now about this dry dock thing…they are working on the ship, obviously.  The big thing is they have added a bunch of fancy new cabins on the top of the ship.  They craned in this giant hunk of metal and have been welding it on all week.  The carpets are being replaced in various parts of the ship and general maintenance is happening.  Which means…there are all sorts of crazy stinks EVERYwhere!  Glue, varnish, metal paneling, sanded wood, welding, etc.  The water is shut off from about 7a-8p supposedly on varying floors but it always seems to be 1…where all the people are.  The electricity goes out periodically for however long it’s out.  They try to give a heads up but…  However, the most useful thing in all this chaos has become my new workout regime.  The fire/watertight door workout.  When the magnets get turned off, the doors close.  ALL of them.  There are 7 doors between my cabin and the theater.  I think they weigh close to 8 tons and the only way to get anywhere on the ship is through them.  There are a couple doors that have air blowing around them in kind of a back draft effect and THOSE are the BEST!!!  I have to put both feet on the wall for leverage to the get the door open.  Never mind going the other way when I have to push.  The hardest part is remembering which shoulder I used last time to throw myself into the door.  Gotta keep it even!!

But it’s really not so bad.  The food is decent, beer and wine is a dollar and while the internet is slow (263 mins to d/l Doctor Who from iTunes GAH!) it’s still faster than most days in Russia and there are 2-3 movie channels that rotate 2 movies/day/channel.  They are even pretty good movies!  Last night was Avengers and some Sean Connery movie (w Nick Cage?) on 1 channel and Hunger Games on another.

We are going to take another day to be a tourist and check out the city…just gotta get the shows ready to go up first.