February 19, 2006 - Day 2 of my last week on the ship. Instead of just being able to coast I am seeing new things, new people, and being pushed musically. There is a new music director, who is incredibly talented. he is over talented for the ship musician job. How many guys who toured with Arturo Sandoval play piano in a show band on a ship? Not many, I bet. For the captains cocktails sets today instead of the usual set list prepared ahead of time, out of a book everyone in the band has, Phil, the new music director just called out tunes as we went along. Luckily nearly all them were songs I knew well, songs that were also in the Real Book (which I borrowed from Amendine), and had basic chord progressions. Things got a little trickly when we did "Giant Steps as a Cha Cha". I lived through it, though, and got pushed musically to a new level. The art auction also saw changes. I trained Wilson, a guy from the Ocean Bar band that will be replacing me, on how to run the desk. He had done similar work before so it wasn't too tough. I realized at the end of the day, on my way back to my cabin from the bar, that my foot was healing, because it didn't hurt while I was walking back.