Entries this day: AM_Dream AM_Roosters AM_fuckin-me-around Diving_with_sharks_in_Tahiti back_on_da_boat

AM Dream

5:55am HAST Saturday 11 March 2006 (day 13135)

Bette Midler was supposed to do an opening act somewhere, but due to some scheduling opps, she ended up in a hotel; she talked tothe manager and was able to set up things so she could use their lobby as the backdrop of her opening.

Meanwhile, I found two coins, put them into a machine like at Chuck E Cheese, and got 1270 tickets. I enjoyed watching them all stack up and turned them all in at the counter; the prizes were no particularly stellar, but I decided not to donate my tickts to a ticket collecting charitible organization.

AM Roosters

5:59am HAST Saturday 11 March 2006 (day 13135)

Off in the distance sounds like 100 roosters all repeatedly announcing the dawn of a new day here in Tahiti. Everyone is crashed out on various mattresses.

AM fuckin me around

6:31am HAST Saturday 11 March 2006 (day 13135)

I thought we had a pretty solid plan last night; a few of us are going diving, and the rest have the option of an island tour.

But Mark, of Mark's Place Paradise, has been continually saying we've been fucking him around by not telling him what we want to do, how many people will stay, who paid for what, etc etc etc... to the point that it was literally the first thing he said to Carla this morning as she was walking from the main building to the bathroom area.

This is a beautiful area, but I doubt any of us would ever come back.

Last night I had originally written "I wonder if I'll be able to get it back," referring to the money, but I changed it to "I trust..." but now I'm not so sure again. Wow.

10:47am HAST Saturday 11 March 2006

Carla went to support me in talking to Mark. After I was like, "Carl ended up not staying here," he interrupted, "I don't know anything about that; you guys tell me people are staying and he comes at 9pm and says he's not staying and we have this no refund sign here and what am I supposed to do? what would you do if you were in my position? I do my best to make you guys happy and I no one says thank you and that girl and her family her parents last night insulting me and my family; I don't need that; no one needs that; what would you do if you were in my position? I'm going to call everyone on PB and tell them not to come here again, because you guys don't understand, I live in paradise here and you go back to wherever you live and I live in paradise, so I'm happy to just stay here but now you're trying to swindle me out of money, and that's not how you do business; what do you think I should do? You're the boss, tell me what to do," Carla did basically all the talking on our side, which was a very small amount, given that even when Mark said, "I am listening," he interrupted everything Carla said.

Wow.

In the end, he believes he was cheated out of 1800 Francs for internet (under someone named Jim, who came three times during the night, but is not from our group), and I think we were cheated out of 2500 Francs for a person who didn't stay. Carla suggested we call it even.

She went to get ready for scuba, and I stayed to try and give some love to Mark in the form of, "I did say thank you; we all said thank you," etc, but didn't have a chance as he was speaking poorly about us in French to Roland, who came to take us scuba diving.

I could only wonder about the paradise he's living in his heart and mind. Doesn't sound like a very happy place to me.

Diving with sharks in Tahiti

10:42am HAST Saturday 11 March 2006 (day 13135)

Nice time diving this morning with Carla and Matt, plus Kellie who escaped Mark to go snorkeling. We saw some sharks (3 or 4 small black fin sharks, and a couple of big lemon sharks) and more fish than I saw in Acapulco or Seychelles. This water was way way way hella clear compared to either of those places. We were at 80 feet (my new record) and it was still quite clear.

so bummed that my camera battery is dead! Argh!!! I forgot to charge it last night and it simply wouldn't even turn on in the water. Crapola.

back on da boat

4:15pm HAST Saturday 11 March 2006 (day 13135)

I'm back onboard, fully 3 hours before the time limit, but I just need time to chill within my own brain, but mostly cause I'm tired of being out of money in the port.

Oh man, and really sucky: I found out that my camera wasn't working while we DOVE WITH SHARKS because the battery compartment had come open a bit. Not because the battery was dead. I was stupid to not realize this, or to not check it above the water or something... I'm really bummed about it, but suffice to say, diving with sharks for the first time was pretty surreal.

I guess I'll have to come back to Tahiti sometime.

We zoomed back on the express ferry, but it didn't seem as fast as it looked when we saw it yesterday while we were on the slow ferry. The waves were bigger today, so maybe they slowed down for that reason.

I got a card from Hitomi; my brain is confuzzled; I want to see her but I don't want to get physically involved with her, but I don't see the harm in it right now since I'm obviously not going to get any on the ship, and I'm just like argh about it now.

Plus, when I got emails today, my PB peeps are doing all kinds of fucking cool-ass stuff, and I feel like I'm just a lazy fuck, going around the world again with no job nor direction in life.

How can I go around the world and not think I'm doing something interesting??? What a weird disconnect.

It also seems that the women I know who are doing cool things, like the go-out-there and do-it people are also people who love to party smoke-and-drink, which is totally off my list of things to do. Then I think about super-tall super-beautiful super-Paige out there in AMMAN, Jordan, working with the UN; oh my god!

There's an obvious disproof to what my brain thinks is true above: Kattrean doesn't smoke-n-drink, but she is doing cool as shit in the form of going to UK for 2 years.. so awesome!

I just need to meditate; figure out my own shit for my own self; do my own thing; it will allll fall into place.