Coming up on my 35th week and only 35 days left! This week was busy in the salon it felt like christmas season again except Charmaine was there to help me, she was a huge help! The rest of the spa was super slow all week luckily they got to work on each other when they had down time. I really wanted to make time to shop for fathers day and my siblings birthday but My entire schedule was all over the place, typically I would come into work at ten but Audrey had me in around 8 or 9 most days completely booked, which is great… that means more money for my epic vacation:]

WEEK 34- Saturday they were celebrating King Kamehameha day which was on June 11th, and the reason why they had a parade going on in the streets of Honolulu while I was at Starbucks. Its a big celebration on the islands, he is the one who conquered the Hawaiian islands and established the kingdom of Hawai'i in 1810. I worked from about 2-10pm, like I said earlier, we were busy all week from sat-fri. That night we had a crew party at Mardigras on the ship because we hadn't had one since the valentines party. This party we played a huge game of Quest, The Quest is like a scavenger hunt where we divided up into teams of 5 or 6 and had to show the announcer things like a boy with lipstick on or an empty purse It was a lot of fun especially to have practically the whole entire crew together like that.

Last week Jess mentioned she was a youth pastor so at the party I asked her more about it and when it was and why she was here. She said it was actually what she did before she got on ships but she's been with the ship for a few years now. She told me about how she knows its her calling because she just has that evangelistic personality. Then she asked me when I am going to start teaching, she said she knows I have a lot of knowledge about the bible. I shared with her how I was a small group leader for a while and I'd really like to get into working with the youth in the church someday.

We ended the night dancing, I learned that Emily loves to dance, everyone had a great time.

Sunday Funday! I slept in till ten without even realizing it, I wanted to get up early to go workout for June up Tune up but once I heard Michelle leave at 6:30am I knocked out until she came back into the room at 10.

Michelle and I took the bus to the Grand Wailea for a much needed spa day. She had never had a spa day or been to the Grand Wailea before and that place IS Grand! After our massages we relaxed in the different salt pools and then got ready and headed to the beach to watch the sunset. That place is probably the best place to watch the sun setting or at least it is on maui. We sat in a little cabana while we waited for Aaron and Brendan to arrive. I told Michelle about mine and Jess' conversation the night before and how Jess thinks I should start teaching and Michelle said I could start with her and teach her since she doesn't know very much about christianity. Aaron and Brendan arrived and after sunset we went to the Bistro at the Grand Wailea for dinner. We finished dinner and when we walked out we saw the pool and hot tubs and decided to jump in for a bit.

While we were in the hot tub I asked Michelle if she ever made a whirl pool with her friends when she was little and she said no, so we all started going in circles to make a whirlpool It was funny to me that we were 23 and Aaron and Brendan are over 30 and making a whirlpool. Then we jumped in the pool, the pools in Hawai'i are always at a perfect temperature especially at night. Swimming at night and being able to see the stars is the best. We jumped out of the pool and while we were walking to the car we past by the bar in that is in the center of the Grand Wailea and heard this girl playing acoustic with a beautiful voice and decided to sit and listen to her. I bought Aaron a drink for his birthday which was coming up on Tuesday as well as Gina's birthday and King Kamehameha day. We finally made it to the convertible that Aaron had rented for the evening and headed to the beach to play our ukeleles under that stars and listen to the waves crashing. It was a beautiful night we could see so many stars because there wasn't any moon that night. Without a doubt I always see a shooting star at night on the beach and it always happens to be with Aaron and Brendan and sure enough Aaron and I saw the same shooting star. On the drive back my friend Josh from back home texted me and I hadn't talked to him in months, he asked me what I was up to and I said "oh just driving around my favorite Island in a convertible, just got done sitting on the beach listening to the waves and playing our ukuleles under the stars." He laughed and told me how jealous he was. Having a day off in Hawaii never gets old. I told Michelle, Aaron and Brendan how I wish they lived in Cali so I didn't have to miss them when I leave and we could hangout at all my favorite spots.

That day Emily's grandma passed, just the Wednesday before she was telling me how her grandma wasn't doing very well when she left and Emily would make comments about things they would do when she got home and her grandma would respond with, "If I'm still around." That really hurt Emily she was hoping she would get better but I guess her grandma just knew it was her time. Audrey got her some beautiful flowers that smelled so good the smell filled her cabin. I can't imagine how hard it must be for Emily, for her to only be on the ship for a week and her grandmother passing and not being able to go to the funeral.

Monday I had to work at 8am but I really needed to do my laundry so I got up at 6:30 to run to the laundromat to do it real quick. There was a gorgeous rainbow that went across the sky, it was an awesome thing to wake up to. It started raining on the way over and after I was finishing up my laundry I was running late for work and debated on calling a cab at that moment I saw Gina and she offered me her bike to ride back and she kindly took my laundry back to the ship. What a life saver! I was so afraid of falling off that bike because she has a road bike with the buckles on the peddles that connect to your cycling shoes and she's taller than me so the bike was pretty high. I rode through the Whole Foods parking lot and just so happened to ride by Jess and with her confused face because I was on Gina's bike, I yelled and waved, "Just running late for work!" haha. I was just exhausted that day and had 13 clients. After work Gina massaged my arms and shoulders which helps so much because my arms, wrists and hands start hurting from working so much. She said my back was pretty tense and I was told her I just had a massage yesterday! But my body can't be fixed in one day I need like 50 massages… you could imagine how tired I am from working over 50 hours a week for 8 months straight, I need a break.

Tuesday I got lucky and didn't have to work till 12:45pm but the down side was we were in Silverservice again so we couldn't eat in Aloha. I got up at 8 and walked down to Ken's for breakfast, I forget how yummy that place is and how huge their portions are. That night the spa team celebrated Gina's birthday at Teppanyaki, that place is so much fun I love having us all together. Michelle was the only one that didn't make it, she went to Cagney's steakhousw with Brendan and Aaron for Aaron's birthday. They came by Teppanyaki to say hello and then a few of us went up to Pink's Champagne for a little more birthday celebrating with Gina and Aaron.

Wednesday I worked at nine. This entire week I had been feeling sick. I guess I caught a cold while we were out on Sunday night and it just progressed throughout the week, and working on 10-12 clients a day didn't make me feel any better. Because I had been feeling so sick this week I put June up Tune up on hold, there was no way I was going to have enough energy to work out with how much I worked this week and how sick I had been. I ate lunch in the crew mess because we were still on Silverservice.

After lunch I had a guest who had alzheimer's, her husband brought her in and explained to me that she needed a manicure because she'll randomly attack and scratch him and he showed me his arms and it was getting harder for the care takers to take care of her, her alzheimer's was getting worse. Of course I was really nervous to do her nails if she had been snatching out like that but throughout the manicure I was talking with him and he said she was doing very good and that she must like me because she was smiling, she agreed he told her "you're doing very good, Shirley" and she said with a smile "She's good!" You could really tell her memory was gone but she still remembers her husband or at least she felt safe around him she would ask where he went if he stepped away for a second. It must be terribly hard for him to see her like this, she's lucky to have him especially when its difficult for the care takers, he's a doctor.

After work I went straight to my cabin I wasn't feeling well at all my throat was hurting. Aaron called my cabin to see what I was up to he had just finished working out at the gym, I told him I was just laying in bed not feeling well we hung up and then he called me back again saying he just bought some soup earlier if I wanted any to just call him. So I called him back a few minutes later and got some soup from him and ate it in the crew mess while I read some of my book I'm reading for the month of June.

Thursday I woke up still sick, feeling worse every morning. Aaron texted me saying if I needed any emergen-c that he had some I told him I'd take him up on that offer since I had just finished up all my emergen-c. He left some on his desk with a papaya for me. What a genuinely nice person! All of my friends on the ship and such caring people I love it.

That night majority of us got off at 7, I texted Alex saying I wanted to do a photoshoot with Emily and he said he was up for it. I finger waved Emily's hair and while she was under the dryer I cut Gina's hair. Emily and I later met up with Alex and Ivan (one of the other photographers) for dinner at Skyline. Once we finished dinner Emily and I went back to my cabin to do her makeup and find something for her to wear. We just used some of my clothes for a vintage nautical look since half of my wardrobe is navy. We met Alex in the photography studio and he was a huge help with the lighting and backdrops and what not, you could tell he was exhausted from the day but still generously stayed up to help us. I get a little nervous shooting around him since he knows a lot more and I'm still learning. Emily was nervous to model, she'd never actually had professional photos taken, not that I'm a professional or anything but you get the idea…she did great, she's a natural:]

Friday I didn't need to work till nine again which was wonderful considering we didn't get to bed till about 3am because of the shoot. Still feeling sick with 10 clients that day. I had a lady come in and she sat in my salon chair explaining that she went out on a tour the day before and it was raining and her hair got all wet and then she pulls off her wig that looked exactly like her hair underneath I just smiled and got to work. I guess she liked wearing a wig to cover her hair instead of a hat? I ate lunch in the mess and after lunch I was dreading going back to work, I love being here but I must say I'm dead tired of work and being sick doesn't put me in a good mood so I really had to push myself to get to work this week.

For dinner we were all eating in Aloha and there was a lot of crew together, I saw Captain Ron looking for a place to sit and I waved at him and jokingly told him I saved him a seat and he came to sit at our table. His wife is coming aboard the same day my parents embark and I asked him how they could get invited to the Captian's dinner and he told me he would try to work something out, they haven't been having it recently for some reason but he said if they do he'll see what he can do. I told him they would love that!

I'm currently at starbucks, feeling sick as can be, I think Gina caught my cold she was feeling terrible last night. I texted Emily to get me some cough medicine since she was going shopping today. Alex just showed up to get the photos from me from my shoot on Thursday, he loved the concept and makeup and wardrobe and really wanted to edit them. Let's hope he does a nice job editing, him and I have quite different tastes. Hopefully I'll have a chance to get around to edit them myself sometime this week.

Well just two weeks till my parents come! I'm so excited!! and even more excited to get home!

"The Lord appears to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness." -Jeremiah 31:3