Our New Mexico Mule Rides onto the Scene

 An update on the solidified smuggling ring

The smuggling ring is a well oiled machine at this point. Yesterday, despite Jason joining me in the clink, we got a bottle of Chardonnay delivered in a flat 3 minutes from the time it was mentioned. 

You have to have a man on the outside.

You have to grease the skids.

Let me explain, because, frankly, you never know when you might have to build your own underground smuggling ring (USR). 

Now, when I first hit the clink, Jason jumped into action because a) he’s rad b) he takes good care of me an c) he’s the kind of guy who gets things done, if you know what I’m saying. And what I’m saying isn’t some weird mafia hit. I’m saying this man can get wine moving. 

What Jason knows as someone who once worked as a server is that kindness and money talk. And the two together are solid gold. With that, hope was alive.

Now, no one is allowed on the quarantine floors. The doors are sealed off. You can’t just pass by. Which means any of our usual suspects cannot deliver anything. This was a challenge. At first. 

Now, we have our main man James who runs the wine bar. James has got things figured out. He knows if we order 4 glasses to give us the bottle. 4 glasses are “free” with our beverage package. A bottle is not. Unless James says it is. A bottle is more precious than 4 glasses because you can control when you drink it and it is easier to move around. James cannot deliver the wine- but he can produce the bottle.

When Jason was on the outside, he could get the bottle from James and get it over to Dragon. Dragon somehow got it to a delivery person who was allowed to get into the quarantine area. We don’t know how any of that came together. 

Now that Jason is on the inside, we thought we might be in a pinch. But then, we found our mule. Our New Mexican mule came through like a freakin’ rock star. So good, in fact, that three bottles showed up last night. And I don’t even know that we asked for 3!!! A text came through later that said, “”your New Mexico underground is on the job. Drink up.”

Then, to up the ante, I realized if I send a note to the “crew chat” which is an open, first come first served, chat and I even mention Dragon that he will call me within minutes. Shazam! 

And then, as if this wasn’t already really good, my man Ecer really stepped it up. I sent a cryptic note through crew chat last night and someone I don’t know wrote back with a note from Ecer saying hi to Jason and letting us know he’d just sent the wine through. One second later, there was a knock. Ecer is a man who can get things done. 

Boom.

So, I’ve just been tested again. We’re waiting to hear if I’m negative. There’s not a lot I can do at this point today anyway because there was some snafu this morning. The Italian health people and the police came aboard and I’m not sure what went wrong but something did. They delayed letting people off the boat at least an hour. Dragon called us and needed all our vaccination dates. They delayed the testing because …of whatever the Italian health people were making them do. So, here it is … 10:30 and I’ve just been tested and will wait for results. Last time, I waited several hours. Meantime, no hope to go ashore and do whatever. This is our last port. Tomorrow we’re at sea and then we’re in Barcelona. 

Honestly, in a 6 day stint of things that didn’t feel fair, I guess I’m numb to it. 

But anyway, here’s to Jason who expertly built this well greased underground smuggling ring, to James, who knows how to supply the goods, to Dragon, who makes the connections work, to Ecer who slid right into the ring like a boss, and to Ginny, who heard the call and stepped up to the plate and smashed a home run in her first hour in the role.

Team work makes the dream work, people.

Cheers.