An Orchestra Firing

Weeeelll, Ron got fired last night and he's gone this morning. He has to find his way home from Cozumel and pay for his plane ticket.
This past week, ron's girlfriend was on the ship. This is normally a really great thing for a person to have a family member or girlfriend cruising, because you get to use more of the ships amenities (cafe promenade pizza YAY!). The problem in Ron's case is that he had been having an affair with a dancer for the past month or so and he was not so great at hiding it. All week he was behaving strangely, being quiet and introverted. Enough for any girlfriend to see right through. At the end of the week, he broke up with his girlfriend of 5 years and went on a drinking binge the likes of which I have rarely seen. He started drinking in the morning in New Orleans and didn't stop right up until we had to play the welcome aboard concert at 6:30. He couldn't string a sentence together or walk in anything resembling a straight line. The best decision for him at this point would have been to just count his losses and go back to his cabin to recover. He would have gotten a written warning for missing the show (3 warnings and your out,) instead he got his trombone out, sat down on the risers and immediately preceded to fall backwards out of his chair and off the edge of the riser. Luckily, the show hadn't started yet and the curtain was still closed. He didn't hurt himself or his trombone physically, but this was the last straw for David (Musical Director) who sent him back to his cabin to sober up. David had no choice but to call medical to get him breathalyzed. He blew an astounding .217. I can't believe he didn't pass out or vomit or DIE.
The limit for blood alcohol content for crew is .04 while you are working or .08 while you aren't. Seeing as Ron blew over 5 times over the working limit, he was scheduled to have a captain's hearing. Our piano player recently had a captain's hearing for blowing a .19, but this was while he was off work so the captain had mercy on him and he's still here. Ron was not so lucky. We will be without a trombone player this week while a new one is found.

In other news, we have our old bass player Vlad back now that Marina is gone. He's a constant delight. Always loud and crass in a light hearted way. Marina tells me she is in room 4259 on her new ship, which is the same as my old cabin. She also has a ukrainian roommate, which is the same nationality as my first, stinky roommate. Good luck to her...