Living in a Vacuum, The Validity of the Cruise Industry

Only recently have I returned home.  Since 2002 I have had the privilege of playing the piano on cruise ships.  Secretly my family scorned me, until I had paid back almost in totality the debt I had accred putting together a home recording studio.  On various credit cards I had amassed a fifteen thousand dollar debt, which I borrowed from my father.  In approximately three years working for Carnival Cruise Lines I had made enough money to pay him back.  Religiously I sent him $350.00 each month of which he became accustomed.  In 2006 I changed companies, and until 2013 except when a freeze occurred we received merit pay increases.  My salary slowly rose, and the burden of having to strip away $350.00 each month receded.  I began making money.  The interesting thing about working for a cruise company is you have to live on a ship.  When I started with Carnival, you could work a three month contract.  This was a moderate amount of time for one contract, and it made life easier.  If you encountered a not-so-favorable band, it would not be long before you could jump ship and join another vessel for a new start.  I have worked on over twenty cruise ships.  The irony of the cruise industry is you must live on a ship.  The irony of the cruise industry is you must live and work on a ship.  The only way you can work in the cruise industry and not live on a ship is if you are a Guest Entertainer.  These musical performers fly to the ship and embark at one of the ports in the cruise's agenda.  After they do their show they are at liberty to fly back or stay until the end of the cruise.  Each and every other crew member including the officers lives on the ship.  You get used to it.  There are married couples in the crew both together and apart.  Many of these couples spend months apart, and I do not know how their marriages survive.  Earning a living for a family is imperative, and they make the sacrifice.  I have been living on cruise ships beginning in September 2002 until recently when I returned home to help my aging parents.  When I returned home I did not know whether I would return to ship work or not.  I have not ruled it out.  The irony is living in my childhood home quickly became a full-time job in its own rite.  Cooking, shopping, and yard work take up the most time.  Consequently I am not earning money.  When you work in the cruise industry and earn money you must live on the ship.  I have done some shorter fill-in contracts, and they are fine.  To make a comparable salary to someone living in America, you live and work full-time on the ship.  Because I was single it was an easy adjustment.  Over time you realized how little you needed to be happy, especially when you are working in your chosen vocation.  I enjoy music work, although there were many compromises to be made working on ships.  After my salary had risen to a reasonable level, it was easier to make those compromises.  You remain silent for the most part, don't make waves, and take your money.  I have my W-2 forms dating back to 2006 when I began with Royal Caribbean.  Their corporate headquarters is in Miami, Florida, and many of their ships are docked at Port Canaveral, Port Everglades, and Miami.  My vehicle remained garaged at my parents home in North Carolina, because I had no need for it.  Although the North Carolina Department of Revenue does not like to recognize it, I did not live in the state where my vehicle was parked.  It was a convenience, because letting my vehicle sit in the elements in a cruise terminal parking lot was not prudent.  I had to spend a fair amount of time proving this to the NCDOR, but it was not difficult.  A judge would make your determination of residency based upon two things.  One is whence you earn your income, and the other is where you physically are present.  It is impossible to live in North Carolina, and earn money on cruise ships.  Therefore I have been living on cruise ships that often, but not always are docked in Florida.  In other situations, I have been fortunate to have been in international waters.  I have seen Australia, Italy, Spain, France, Alaska, Hawaii, and New Zealand.  I have spent up to six months at some of these destinations.  I used my parents address on my federal tax return, because it was the only reliable source of contact for my transient situation.  I didn't want my federal tax refund bouncing around the Caribbean trying to find me.  Obviously seeing this address on my federal tax return peeked the interest of the NCDOR, as it should have.  They continue to send me bills for North Carolina state taxes, and I continue to send them proof of my residency elsewhere.  At times it has been a difficult pill to swallow, but I reread my well-worded letter of defense, Xerox my federal tax returns and W-2 forms from Florida (which has no state tax) and hold my breath.  It has proven effective, because it is the truth.  Over the years they have reworded the laws somewhat allowing you to tick the box, "Do you have a vehicle garaged in the state?"  It would seem they prefer you to obtain a driver's license in your state of residence, but how does one do that working on a ship?  i didn't, but that doesn't change my residency status.  A judge looks at many things chronologically including your source of income (Royal Caribbean International), your whereabouts (on ships mostly in Florida), and other proximal relationships such as where you attend church, where you pay bills, basically where you are.  Only recently when I have earned no money, have I returned to North Carolina.  I earn no money, because to earn money working for a cruise company you must live on the ship.  I have yet to seek other employment in North Carolina, because I do not like it much. Also I was not required to file North Carolina state tax returns, because I did not earn the required $7,500.00.  I only earn income, when I am working full-time and living on a ship.  The only ship in Fayetteville, is a sunken barge belonging to the Breece family.  Damn my vehicle!  You have caused me such stress, but I have it under control.  This situation forced me to understand both residency and domicile, and also it is applicable to the American military at Fort Bragg.  Their situation is not mine.  In many ways I miss my cruise ship job.  First I was earning a reasonable salary.  Second I had few expenses.  Third was able to travel and see the world.  Returning to America has been a shock.  It has been brutal, and not because the NCDOR occasionally sends me itemized bills for what they perceive as delinquent state taxes.  Having to defend my residency status has helped clarify my station in life.  I have none, and that must be unusual.  I can't imagine there are other Americans in situations similar to my own, or can I?  America certainly no longer is in her glory, and that is not sour grapes because I cannot earn the same salary I earn playing piano on cruise ships, or is it?  Maybe it is.  Before I began ship work in 2002 I was able to make ends meet playing piano.  I did this in Columbia, South Carolina, Columbus, Ohio, and for a very short time in Fayetteville, North Carolina substituting in my father's band after he had a mild stroke.  When he returned to reasonably good health is when I got my first call to work for Carnival Cruises.  Ironically it also was the day after we opened the musical "Footloose" in Fayetteville.  It seems just like "The Boy Gets Around," so does the 'word.'  Ray Kennedy may have had something to do with it.  He directed the show, and also does some ship work.  I have been doing my best to get the lay of the land, and there is not much.  Often I rail against the music industry, as I should.  It almost has become comedic.  Both acting and performing music have turned into parody.  Watching and listening to Jon Batiste play and sing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert....   It pretty much sums up what music has become in America.  Whenever NWA (Niggaz Wit Attitudes) rapped into their mikes in front of beats, because of their message, it was powerful.  They were rapping about racial injustice and police brutality.  The country responded and they became stars.  That symbiosis of rage against the machine was tangible, relevant, and timely.  Today we have LBGT.  I am not homophobic, but watching my profession turn into a platform for the LBGT community is not my idea of fulfilling.  Music once stood for many things, not an aberration of human sexuality.  What the @#$%^!? I am finding it increasingly difficult to continue in the music field, because its traditional roots have been transplanted.  Who made this decision?  Who made the decision that the entire disciplines of acting and music performance were to be reduced to standing on stage, staring into space, and waving your arms?  (not withstanding when actors actually have to speak lines with absolutely no preparation or feeling)  Again, "What the @#$%^!?"  I assume it is because the reality of producing quality musical performances requires money.  The same faction who decided music performance was standing on stage, staring into space, and saying lines with no preparation or feeling decided that musicians no longer merited earning money.  The cruise industry disagrees.  P.S.  My last legal state of residency was Ohio.  I declared residency several years after moving there in 1990 from North Carolina to attend The Ohio State University.  I stayed until 2000 and have been on their voting roster ever since at 519 E. Beaumont Rd.  Judge Rick C. Pfeiffer is first judge of the Franklin County Environmental Court.