Methodical Hat Knocking

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand on me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from delibertly stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With philisophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or another, cherish very nearly the same feelings toward the ocean with me." - Herman Melvillie, excerpt from Moby-Dick.

I am definitely quite grim around the mouth, my hypos have definitely gotten the upper hand on me, and I have already knocked off several people's hats this week alone. It is beyond a doubt time for me to get to sea, but unfortunately, I don't live in the eighteen hundreds...

Lately it seems everyone around me has been going nuts with taking cruises. Maybe ticket prices are down with less people traveling, or maybe everyone around me is somehow doing a lot better financially than me (disregarding the fact that they tend to whine about the economy in the same conversation that they announce their planned cruise).

Anywho, Ishmael has some fantastic advice, "never go as a passenger". Taking that advice, I am seriously considering finding myself a job on some ship somewhere, probably a cruise liner, though I may be a bit late in the season for that. Anybody here ever do any of that kind of work? Worked on a cargo ship, a ferry, or a cruise liner? I wonder how difficult it would be to get into that line or work? I imagine it would be long hours, and you'd be away from home for months at a time, which sounds absolutely wonderful to me right now.

I don't know, but if you can figure it out, sign me up too!  Going far, far away from my miserable existance excites me to no end!

Seriously there has to be a way.

Sometimes I feel I was born about 100 years or so too late. It is too easy to get tied down in this modern world we live in. I feel utterly overwhelmed when I look at how many school loans I have yet to pay off. I'd love to disappear to some remote village in some foreign country for a couple of years, even if I just live by the sweat of my brow, hunting and gathering. But there are too many financial obligations back home to worry about. I could simply just ditch them all, but in the event of wanting to return home and visit family, I'd probably be snatched up and thrown in jail for having not payed any of my debt for over two years.

But if you could find something that pays you, like a job on a cruise liner (somebody has to wash the sheets, clean the dishes, scrub the deck, prepare the meals, hand out towels, and sell drinks on those things). You could be getting paid and getting away all at once. If I lived anywhere near the coast, I would have gone out today and found the head quarters for every cruise place I could find and dropped in applications. 

Aw, when I saw the title of this thread I thought it was going to be an Anagram thread.

A Gamecock Doth Think Nil!

Well, I know that some cruise ships employ actors, which I am (or supposed to be aspiring to be), so maybe I could find work on one of those.