A One Week Cruise!

The Cruise Staff's Good Bye Show

This is a photo of the show being shown on the ship's TV's.

Not A Great Photo Of Me ~ But You Get The Point. Lido Pools with Retractable Glass Dome.
Aft Pool
Hubbard glacier

Holland America Line

The Assistant cruise Directors

L to R: Lenny, Jackie, Nicole, and ME!

Getting Ready

The countdown is on! I’m once again officially a resident of Pilot Mountain, North Carolina ~ but not for long. Yup the move is done and I am living at home with the parents once again. No worries cause it’s off to Alaska on Friday.

The move went well yet it was a bit awkward. I’ll say it now and I will say it again DO NOT USE UHAL they really screwed us over. We were scheduled to pick up the truck on Saturday morning at 10am. On Friday around 3 Uhaul called to say that even though we had a confirmed reservation that they where trying to locate us a truck. We gave them several options for pick up locations and tried to negotiate with them. Needless to Saturday rolled around and UHAUL never contacted us again. We were up the creek with out a paddle. So we contacted some local storage company and they had a truck so the move was moved to Sunday.

The Richmond Widdowson were in Greensboro for my cousin Hailey’s soccer tournament. We went and saw her pay and then went and had dinner at the Green Valley Grill. What a great time! I enjoy seeing them. They are some of my favorite people in the world. It was great to see them especially before I leave.

Sunday was the move. It was hot it was tiring and it was not fun…… Thank God its over. I truly thank Mom, Dad, and Hannah for their help. It’s amazing what these people can do!

The past few days have been spent running errands like crazy. I’m putting tons of mileage on my car and getting lots accomplished. Tomorrow will be more of the same.

Hannah had a lizard in her room this evening. Those of you who know her, know that’s not unusual but what is odd is that she did not put it there ~ and neither did I! So, I have just spent the past 20 min hunting down a blue tail lizard in her room. We ended up catching it and I personally recommend that she clean her room more often!

Well that’s it for tonight. I’ll do an update before I leave on Friday – until then be good!

Dreams relay Do Come True

CROOZMAN LIVES!!!

Who would a thunk it ~ I'm actually sailing away. After so many years of dreaming and planning its finally come true. I Seth Talmadge Widdowson will finally "sail away" aboard Holland America Line's Statendam on June 2nd, 2006. The length of my contract has yet to be determined but I will surly keep you informed here.



Special thanks goes out to my friends ~ family at the Hilton Raleigh Durham Airport. You all are wonderful people and may God bless you for many years to come! Please keep in touch.

So stay tuned and get ready - this BLOG is about to sail away!

until next time - be good!

Seth aka CROOZMAN

Venting, and yes I Hate the Carol Grotnes Belk Library!!!

I hate the Carol Grotnes Belk Library!!!!!

I now feel officially certified to write the premier study on “The Culture Of The Carol Grotnes Belk Library.” After spending the greater part of my weekend and now majority of this semester in it – I know the ups and downs, the wacky hours, the make out spots, the area to socialize, when and if the printers will work, that there no printed materials of any help located here, how to “smuggle” in food, and the area where the relay creepy people that I don’t think are elon students gather.

I’ve worked my butt of and I’m stressed to the max! I spent all day Saturday in here working and at 8:30pm they make an announcement that its closing at 9. What The Hell Kina Library Closes At 9pm The Weekend Before Exams! Needless to say I’m pissed. So, I go home get something to eat, and watch Big Fish. Afterwards I do some work and go to bed. I get up first thing this morning and come over to the library only to find all….. yes, all of the study rooms full at 10:30 in the morning! Lets note however all of them are full of one person….. just one single person sitting in the “group” study room that’s made for 8 people! Don’t get me wrong….. I too on many occasion… “yesterday” take a whole study room for my self. However, I know several of the persons in these study rooms…. and well…… I Deserve It More Than They Do!!! (being an only child for 10 years will cause me to rant like this from time to time) But seriously… you think they could share their rooms…. I know I would….. I’ll just have to steak one out.

So, here I sit in a reading lounge of the library. I’ve taken my Concerta and let’s hope that its kicks in soon before my AADD gets the better of me and then I can get some work done. I’m trying my hardest this time and it seems like the world is beating me back even more than ever….. so I’ll just keep trying as best I can…. I suppose that matters some where down the road……….

Seth



PS: I've found a new, yet, not so practicle use for my BLOG - Venting! LOL ;-)
The picture above was taken by Eric during our sophomore year here at elon.
He calls it "Seth, Telling Us How Its Gonna Be!" and no, my eyes were or arnt realy that red.... the camera did it LOL!

Elon Lights Up!

A Holiday Tridition, That Only Elon Can Do!

Elon Lights Up

Elon Lights Up!  

Thank God, It’s The Holidays!

Where Da Turkey?

Life is good! As I type, I sit in a warm home with a stomach full of great food watching Bond, James Bond in Octapussy. For me, life – other than being on a cruise ship - doesn’t get much better than this!

Where we last left off I was about to head home for thanksgiving. Well thanksgiving is now done and over with and I’ve moved full force into the holiday season. Dad and I picked up Mom Mom from the airport on Tuesday. We still aren’t quite sure what’s up – but for some reason Pop Pop decided that he wasn’t coming and well he didn’t. So it’s just Mom Mom. The rest of that day was very lax and not eventful what so ever. Just hung around the house, ate, and watched tv. The same goes for the greater majority of Thanksgiving day as well… at least until the rest of the family arrived.

Little children truly add life to a event. Regardless of if it’s a wedding, funeral, birthday party, or the holidays – mix in little children “we’re talkin 4 here – all between 5 and 1” and you won’t be bored. Don’t get me wrong they were all great but it does make for a wild time. We actually had a wrestling match goin on at one point in the middle of our den. Things were over rather quickly – grandma is obsessed with Ken Jennings on Jeopardy. She knows how much he’s won and how he won it down to the penny. So, with dinner starting at 5 grandma had to be home by 7 for the start of Jeopardy. Luckily everyone else stayed around a while longer. When you sit around all day doing nothing but anticipating a Thanksgiving dinner you don’t want it to be over overly quickly. For those of you who know my family or rather mom, you won’t be disappointed – she did give out goodie bags. A trail mix kinda snack where each item in it represented something from thanksgiving. Bugles were cornucopias, sunflower seeds were supposed to be seeds panted, pretzels were hands cross in prayer or something like that…. Needles to say the list went on and on and the more it did, the more cornier things got.

Today was just more of the same. Mid-afternoon we headed towards Winston. After some light shopping we went to the Village Tavern for an early dinner. Then we started off the holidays in grand style! The Tanglewood Festival of Lights! This was the first time that Mom Mom had been through. No new additions but some enhancements on the old things…. still just as great and just as cool. We sang Christmas songs, cut up and had a great time. On the way back home we stoped off for a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

So now here I am – and like I said before…. in a great mood. Lots of work yet to do. Looks like mom will be having her way with that – she’s calling for us getting up early tomorrow and working all day – its going to be interesting to see if that actually does happen.

Other than that no new news that you immediately should know about. If anything overly exciting does happin I’ll be sure to let you know. Other wise I doubt I’ll make an update until at least early next week.

Until then be good!

Seth

Anyone else sick of the U2 Commercial?

Honestly, every channel, every commercial break….”Uno, Dos, Tres….I Can Feeeelllll!!!” BLAH! Sorry I’ve just hand enough of it. So, enough of that….

Today was a good day, one lit review down, one to go. This of course leaves two policy papers, one critical ethical book review, and two full fledged finals. So, as I said today was a good day…… lets just keep those prayers a goin and I’ll make it through this.

For those of you not familiar with Elon’s infamous Jack Smithson emails, boy did we get a doosey today! Apparently, last Friday night while making rounds a Safe Rides car pulled up to ask a pedestrian if he needed a ride…. the pedestrian then grabbed a cell phone from the safe rides volunteer….. If I don’t do it justice here’s the email

Safe Rides is requesting the return of one of its phones- see email below from
Safe Rides.


One of our Safe Rides phones was stolen by a
student on Friday night at Sheridan. The student grabbed it from the
volunteer who had his window rolled down to ask if the student needed a
ride. They were not able to catch him. Safe Rides is requesting its
return, anonymously, to the Safe Rides Mailbox in EV!. We would really
like to see it back before Thanksgiving and not have to deal with the fees of
canceling it and getting a new phone, something we do not have room in our
budget for.

It only has walkie-talkie capabilities, not cell
phone, so it shouldn't be much use to whoever stole it.

Jack
SmithsonVice President for Student Life & Dean of Students

Lets just hope there’s no elon copy right law or anything like that….. I got weary of blogs after seeing the flight attendant on the morning news who published pics of herself in uniform, sprawled out across the interiors of the plane – and is now pissed because Delta fired her…. Go figure.

Well enough typing for now…. after all I did spend the majority of the past 48hrs in the library typing and probably will do the same for the next 24.

Turkey day is closing in and I’ll attempt to keep you informed on the happenings of the Widdowson family. I’ll head home Wednesday and should be able to keep in touch there too.

Until then, be good! and don’t overdose on the tryptophan!

Seth

Today’s Random Picture Is Entitled “Danger Of Death” – Me in a momentary loss of good judgment in London’s Heathrow. Layovers will drive anyone insane!

"Danger of Death"

Time for an up date!

Its Time I Updated This Sucker!

Ok, tons has been going on…. First and foremost school work…. After all I do want to graduate come the end of December! Sense the last update quite a lot has happened all good – all progressive – and no true complaints. Rather than fill you in on everything I’ll just go into what’s going on right now.

For one thing, I’m currently having a wonderfully relaxing Friday evening by watching Cirque Du Soleil on Bravo! To bad they don’t have any shows currently scheduled to come to NC and I doubt they will for a while. Looks like La Nuba, Dralion, and Quidam are as close as I’m gonna come for some time. But no worries I always have the CD’s and DVD’s of them. FYI: Cirque Du Soleil Sur La Mer starts next week. For those of you who know me might begin to guess what that means….. yes its just that scary – if you translate it roughly its Circus of the Sun upon the Sea – now you got it…. Cirque Du Soleil goes cruising! Cirque Du Soleil and Celebrity Cruises have teamed up to form Cirque Du Soleil Sur La Mer! Its only a trial run but if results are good they will deploy it fleet wide by next Christmas!

There are of course other things going on right now – as stated before classes are the focus of my life and things are very intense! Two lit reviews due on Monday! So looks like a full weekend in the Library. Its all good, because there’s lots to look forward to! Thanksgiving is of course next week – I get a good long break at home with the family and extended family. Mom Mom and Pop Pop are flying in. I’ll probably work though most of it because I have two policy papers due when I get back. Also, if I have my way we will go ahead and decorate the house for Christmas.

December is just around the corner and damn its gonna be a great month! Classes will end by the 13th. Which means my college career will be over! Then I get to spend a weekend in Jackson, Mississippi with Lauren! Its been sense August sense we last saw each other…. And well that’s just way to long! I then head back home to celebrate Christmas. Then as soon as that’s over I hit the road again. This time its to Maryland, where we celebrate Christmas allover again. Half way thought that I hope to leave the family and fly down to Jacksonville, Florida to see Eric, Ryan, and Lauren for New Years – now that’s gonna be a heck of a new years party!

After that I’m coming back to Elon. I’ve paid for it so I’m going to audit a course and then work part time. I’m currently registered to take Ageing in the 21st Century – a good one that will tie in nicely if I end up working with geriatrics. After that I honestly have no clue and at this point I don’t care.

So all in all things are good…. I’ll try to keep you up dated will all my random observations of the world as they happen – but I don’t guarantee it!

Jamie’s birthday is this Sunday so below is a great pic of her and Lauren – I sure miss the days when everyone was still here….

Anywhoo…. Thanks for reading – be good and until next time…….

Two Of My Favorite People!

The Weekend UpDate With Seth Widdowson

Greetings all,

A great weekend thus far ~ so I thought I would let you know whats going on.

I did my graduation audit on Friday "round two" passed sucuessfuly ~ even the registrars office thinks I will make it this time! The rest of the day was spent milling around the apt and getting some work done untill about 8:15 when Kaite IM'd me and said Jamie was in town! I can't begin to express how great it was to see the two of them. Honestly I didn't fully realise how lonely and boring this semester had been compared to the past ones untill I was with them agian. It was a blessing in disguise.

What I am now calling "Katie's Curse Of The Key" happened again last night.
Each time Kaite is around some one her "carma" causes them or herself to loose,
break, or lockup their key or keys. This has happened before. I was still
suprised that it happened to me. Curses are not uncommon in dealing with Katie
or Jamie. "The Collapsing Curse" belongs to Jamie, one that I have personaly
exeperinced on more than one ocasion. If you arent careful Jamie has an uncanny
ability to make you fall down, so be warned and dont cross her or you just might
find your self tripping over your own two feet ~ theses are great storys that I
probabaly should tell you at some point in the futuer.

Anywhoo....... back to the Curse of the Key.... After chilling at
Katies for a while we decided it was time to make the customary Steak and Shake
run. Being that it was about 12 I decided that I would drive there seperatly. If
any one drives a VW or has driven a VW produced at least 99 and up they will be
familiar with the "fliky-key" where one presses a silver button on their remote
car lock and the key fliks or flys out of it. I've never had one malfunction
before but mine decided to. On thursday I had dropped it and it had been working
fine upuntill this very moment when it decided to die and take my whole car door
opening system with it. Not only would the lock-unlock button not work but even
sticking the key in the door wasnt working.
Od parts were that I could open my trunk with the key and that the burgular alarm activation light was not flashing. We tryed everything from Katie attempting to kick in my back seat though the trunk, to - well cursing the vehical. I told Katie and Jamie that my
spare key was in my apt but my apt key and cell phone was in the car. So we
drove over to Forestdale to call the emergancy number to have the super come
open my apt door. As we stood infront of the club house a unmarked cop car
pulled up and the cop asked me if everything was ok... I told her the situation
and she decided to call for back-up as well as a jimmie kit. So as we waited
already parked by the state patrollmans car, with the unmarked car, another
Burlington Poliece Dpt car who was just finishing his rounds though Forestdale
pulled up so he to decided to wait. It was very enjoyable to say the least to
stand there for what seemed to be at least 20min as car after car of drunken
Elon kids returned from partys on campus right infront of this poliece line up.
I must say thank you to a guy in one of my classes who I honistly dont know his
name - he stoped just as the cop with the jimmie arrived so I didnt get to say
thank you for stoping to ask if eveything was ok.... I'll have to get his name
when I see him in class next week.

So with the cop with the jimmie thingy there we all drove back over to
Katies where my car was and proceded to break into my car. After another 20min
of trying different tacticts and debating what to do the cop asked if I would be
able to disable the alarm if he triped it. I said no, that my spare key - the
working on was in my book bag that was in my apt. He then asked dont you mean
the book bag thats sitting in your back seat? Oh.... I replyed so there it
is.... then yes I can disable the alarm if we get into the car because the other
working key is in my car in my bookbag along with my apt keys and cell phone.
Needless to say the jimmie did not work and luckly I had left my sunroof poped
open, you know where the back of it tilts slightly upward. The cop then proceded
to use a very hook and fish it though the sunroof and grabed the door handle
which quickly poped open sending my car into an alarmed frenzy.... I opened the
door, jumped into the back seat, opened my bookbag, found the working key, and
turned off the alarm. The Curse of the Key had been lifted! A special thanks to
officer Charlie Shehan ~ I think thats how you spell it ~ of the Burlington
Police Dpt.

Hopefully thats as much excitement as I will get for the remainder of the weekend. Once I was on the road again ~ Kaite, Jamie, and I did get to Steak and Shake. The rest of the weekend has been very relaxing - did some work and mostly bumed around all day. Tomorrow - Sunday I'm meeting the family in W/S for brunch and the will most likey come back to Burlington to finish up some more work.

With only 5 full weeks left in the semester its crunch time..... in Sen Sem we have yet to start our projects and as a vetran of that class - its beginning to scare me! Hopefully we will jump on it this week. I also need to get my apt clean b/c I belive Ryan will be comming into town next weekend. Other than that next week should be a prety normal week... lets hope.

If anything worth while comes up I'll be sure to let you know....

Untill next time,
Be good!

Seth