Chapter 31: February 3 thru 6 – at sea (4 Days)
Last sea day of the four in a row. Part of me has been grateful for the break from going on land, and part of me not so much. More time to work and get that paycheck doing something I am good at, also unfortunately more time to have to navigate the adult world and while I’m an adult – obviously – I find I am not all that fond of many adults I am forced to navigate with.
I got a huge amount of paperwork finished. I didn’t get it filed but Barney said not to worry about it, that Etta is working to earn some money for a new computer as she cracked the screen on hers. Given the tinsel strength of the new screens I’m really surprised she managed it; many of them are at least as strong as aluminum and the smaller hand-held smart devices are as strong as steel. She either hit is just right, or her temper really got away from her. In confidence Barney told me that Etta had gotten angry about something, was acting the drama queen, and knocked it off her desk. Worse, she hadn’t had a screen protector on it like she’d been instructed. Had it been a mechanical problem, or a true accident, Mr. Baird would have gotten her a new one but under the circumstances that it occurred he told her she’d need to come up with the cost on her own. Taxes and the like had already taken a chunk out of her last quarterly payment from her trust fund and the rest was tied up in other ways. One of those ways is that the government where the trust is organized only allows so much of the funds out of the country in any given time period. Unless she wanted to expend all her liquid assets and then be “broke” until next quarter, she needed to earn additional funds.
I still have a problem with the whole putting young kids in charge of their trust fund like it is a regular allowance, but it is none of my business. I was interested to see that Mr. Baird drew the line at certain things, even if it was strange things. So Etta is earning money filing and/or shredding papers that don’t require a security clearance. She’s also doing some minor housekeeping which explains the tea pot tasting like soap suds on occasion. I won’t have to worry about that again though because what Henry had to say when he got caught by the suds-fairy isn’t printable.
It would have all been very productive and satisfying except that Vit is insisting we socialize. Sigh. I’m trying to not be a spoilsport. I know he enjoyed my brats’ company and that of the men that Devin introduced him to. I know that he also enjoys the company of some of the men that he XO’s with. And I know the SOs of the other XOs … what a ridiculous word play that sounds … enjoy socializing as well. I just have never been very good at socializing. Or let me rephrase that, I’ve never been very comfortable socializing. I can do it, it just isn’t my favorite activity. I had to learn to do plenty when Derrick did work with the Foundation. But that was all arms’ length interactions and that is not the way that those women want to interact.
I am not free very often, something they all remarked on, as my Days off are few and far between. They have regular, “9 to 5” type schedules with regularly scheduled Days off. I haven’t had a full Day off in quite some time, even before we hired onto the B. And when I come close someone usually requests me to play, mostly it is on deck at night in some out of the way location. The women have all joined the various activity courses like Zumba, art class, educational classes, and I honestly don’t know what all else as I just don’t have the time for it. I know it is designed to keep people from going a little crazy on the ship, to build social networks, but really, there is so much to do with our jobs that I don’t see how people have the free time to even attend these things on a regular basis. I struggle just to find time to do my yoga routine in our cabin and spend some private time with Vit. Those other people must have found some way to fit more than 24 hours in their days.
And speaking of, Vit is putting the finishing touches to his uniform so we can go to dinner again. It will be too late to do much of anything by the time we get back except to prepare for tomorrow’s field trip. Ugh. Who would have thought I would have ever attached my little red wagon to someone that was – gasp – sociable?
Last sea day of the four in a row. Part of me has been grateful for the break from going on land, and part of me not so much. More time to work and get that paycheck doing something I am good at, also unfortunately more time to have to navigate the adult world and while I’m an adult – obviously – I find I am not all that fond of many adults I am forced to navigate with.
I got a huge amount of paperwork finished. I didn’t get it filed but Barney said not to worry about it, that Etta is working to earn some money for a new computer as she cracked the screen on hers. Given the tinsel strength of the new screens I’m really surprised she managed it; many of them are at least as strong as aluminum and the smaller hand-held smart devices are as strong as steel. She either hit is just right, or her temper really got away from her. In confidence Barney told me that Etta had gotten angry about something, was acting the drama queen, and knocked it off her desk. Worse, she hadn’t had a screen protector on it like she’d been instructed. Had it been a mechanical problem, or a true accident, Mr. Baird would have gotten her a new one but under the circumstances that it occurred he told her she’d need to come up with the cost on her own. Taxes and the like had already taken a chunk out of her last quarterly payment from her trust fund and the rest was tied up in other ways. One of those ways is that the government where the trust is organized only allows so much of the funds out of the country in any given time period. Unless she wanted to expend all her liquid assets and then be “broke” until next quarter, she needed to earn additional funds.
I still have a problem with the whole putting young kids in charge of their trust fund like it is a regular allowance, but it is none of my business. I was interested to see that Mr. Baird drew the line at certain things, even if it was strange things. So Etta is earning money filing and/or shredding papers that don’t require a security clearance. She’s also doing some minor housekeeping which explains the tea pot tasting like soap suds on occasion. I won’t have to worry about that again though because what Henry had to say when he got caught by the suds-fairy isn’t printable.
It would have all been very productive and satisfying except that Vit is insisting we socialize. Sigh. I’m trying to not be a spoilsport. I know he enjoyed my brats’ company and that of the men that Devin introduced him to. I know that he also enjoys the company of some of the men that he XO’s with. And I know the SOs of the other XOs … what a ridiculous word play that sounds … enjoy socializing as well. I just have never been very good at socializing. Or let me rephrase that, I’ve never been very comfortable socializing. I can do it, it just isn’t my favorite activity. I had to learn to do plenty when Derrick did work with the Foundation. But that was all arms’ length interactions and that is not the way that those women want to interact.
I am not free very often, something they all remarked on, as my Days off are few and far between. They have regular, “9 to 5” type schedules with regularly scheduled Days off. I haven’t had a full Day off in quite some time, even before we hired onto the B. And when I come close someone usually requests me to play, mostly it is on deck at night in some out of the way location. The women have all joined the various activity courses like Zumba, art class, educational classes, and I honestly don’t know what all else as I just don’t have the time for it. I know it is designed to keep people from going a little crazy on the ship, to build social networks, but really, there is so much to do with our jobs that I don’t see how people have the free time to even attend these things on a regular basis. I struggle just to find time to do my yoga routine in our cabin and spend some private time with Vit. Those other people must have found some way to fit more than 24 hours in their days.
And speaking of, Vit is putting the finishing touches to his uniform so we can go to dinner again. It will be too late to do much of anything by the time we get back except to prepare for tomorrow’s field trip. Ugh. Who would have thought I would have ever attached my little red wagon to someone that was – gasp – sociable?