Accountability: April 2020
I am 31 years old and I am currently onboard the cruise ship that my husband works on. There are no guests onboard and none of us have been on land in about six weeks. We are currently sitting at anchor outside of the Port of Jakarta, Indonesia waiting to be able to disembark over a hundred crew members so they can return to their homes – with any luck that will be happening tomorrow. (Yay!)
This month has been both repetitive but also ever changing as where we are going and when we are going there is a bit of a “fluid” situation. As one friend pointed out, is it a “fluid” situation because we’re on a boat that is on water, and water is fluid? These are the questions in life that we may never know the answer to.
Unrelated to these particular goals I did two things that I found super scary this month. I played piano for the Easter service on board the ship (it went medium well) and Stuart and I decided to dip our toes in the stock market. Of the two playing piano at Easter was far more terrifying.
Okay, time for those pesky goals.
- 15 French lessons per month + watch one movie in French per week.
- I did manage to do 5 French lessons… considering the limited internet that I didn’t have to pay for this seems pretty good. I’ve also decided that maybe I should just see how many MB it uses on the paid internet plan and do it that way?
- The good news is the cabin we moved into has a DVD player so I’ve been able to watch movies in French somewhat regularly. While this isn’t perfect at least it’s something.
- Post every Tuesday and Thursday, also at least one Saturday post.
- Huzzah! Success! Without having set this as a “goal” I am not sure I would have actually done this. Stick-to-it-iv-ness! I still need to figure out more of what I want this blog to be about. I think for me to really make any money on it I need to find more of a focus. I also like being able to write about pretty much anything that comes to mind, so this might be a conundrum I’ve got to work through.
- Do one thing per month towards getting a job with follow-up action. (Example: I can update my resume all day but if I don’t send it out it won’t do any good just sitting on my computer’s hard drive).
- Well, once the passengers left then it became a giant adventure to get crew home once they realized this shut down was going to last more than one month and instead is more of a long-term adventure.
- Christina and I’s application materials are nearly beautiful and ready to send.
- I am working on a general application video for me to have on my LinkedIn account and to send out as a link with various applications.
- My revised goal for next month is to do at least 2 actionable items, maybe more depending on responses.
- Make sure even while traveling I talk to my mom, my brother, and my grandmother at least once a week. That means if I call and they don’t answer it doesn’t count. Actually talk to them.
- While this has been more expensive (hello calling cards!), all of our other spending is down. When you can’t leave the ship you can’t go out to dinner somewhere or buy any souvenirs. Anywho, the real kicker on this one is the time change. We have been between 11 and 12 hours ahead for a while now. It also means that unless I think of it first thing in the morning the whole middle part of my day is when they’re sleeping. Alas, it is obviously worth it. In the next couple days I will hopefully talk to my mom (I have some amount of cell phone service but tomorrow it should be better) and I will give my grandma a call from the calling card probably tonight actually.
- Check in with my 5 main closest friends at least every other week.
- I’ve done a medium job at this. The time change has been my hindrance at this one, but I need to realize that I am sending them WhatsApp messages. They don’t have to respond if they are busy and most likely overnight their phones are on silent.
- Go for a walk on deck at least every other day while on the ship.
- Yes! Somedays we really don’t want to, but we go anyway because it’s good for us!
- Read at least two books.
- I have finished 5 books this month and am about halfway through HP and the Goblet of Fire right now. Yeah – I’ve had a bit of time to read and as it doesn’t look like that’s going to change, I might very well end up reading 5 books again next month.
I might not have done the absolute most that I could have in April. There were days that I had big plans to do a sewing project and then ended up watching a movie instead. I still have my wits about me and even did a little jig in the Lido when I saw we had more green tea. Does that level of excitement of green tea mean I am focusing on the positive in life or that I am slowly going crazy? Another question the world may never have an answer to.
May looks like it will be largely the same. That means lots of time for writing, reading, working on this blog, and sewing. On the scale of things I’d say we’re doing okay. Life could be worse than having a ridiculous amount of time for writing and reading, right?
- Life and Such: February 2023
- Accountability: July 2022
- Accountability: January 2022
- Accountability: August 2021
