I was awakened by my phone this morning. The NETCO tech from Jacksonville called me. He wanted to let me know that he heard a position was opening up in Tampa and wanted me to be the first to hear about it. I thanked him but declined. If I am moving, it will not be to Tampa. See, these are the kinds of phone calls Carl will NOT get. Every time I get to doubting myself, I get a realization like this that just tells me that I am not a bad guy.
I was awake and lying there for 20 minutes when housekeeping knocked. I got up and walked out to the beach. It really is beautiful here. I can see why they flock to the beach. Clear green water for a few hundred yards giving way to the ocean blue. When it rushes in and hits the beach, you can see the sand in it but before that split second where it rolls back out, it is perfectly clear. Concession stands right on the sand, thousands of the same umbrellas, chairs and cabanas out on the sand and this was a public beach. Very few people out there right now. There’s a storm coming. A nice breeze is blowing but it is still too hot to be wearing these jeans.
My cough is coming back but the sore throat of the strep is completely gone. I walked over to the pharmacy to pick up some razors, NyQuil and some bottled water. I’m getting irritated by some of the people around me but I let it go. I guess stupidity is universal. I drop off my stuff at the room (still not made up) and head out to get lunch.
I stopped at a little luncheonette that was very busy earlier. Always a good sign. I couldn’t make out much of the menu as most of it was in Spanish. I knew what the words meant but wasn’t familiar enough with the culture to know what it was. “Media Noche” Sandwich. A Midnight sandwich? What is that? I asked the lady and she told me, ham, turkey, pickles (lots of pickles) and mustard on Cuban flat bread. “OK” I said, “I’ll try that”. She asked what I wanted to drink and I just pointed to an unfamiliar red can and said, “whatever that is”. She smiled and I told her I wanted to taste everything new. She was serving another customer while I waited for the sandwich and she said, “OK, you want to try new things, here!” and dropped a tiny empty creamer cup in front of me. She poured a little coffee in it and said, “drink”. I gave the salute to her and the other customer and did my first shot of espresso. We all had a laugh at the face I made. I wasn’t expecting it to make me react like that. It was good though. I paid for my lunch (and the other guy’s espresso) and went back out to the beach to eat.
Spent much of the day just walking around and watching the people. I must have been in 15 different art galleries now. Some of them were good, some not so good. I try to be open and look at things oddly but I just didn’t understand the artist’s concept of having a nude woman lying on the floor with a plate of broccoli and completely surrounded by loaves of Wonder Bread. Maybe I’m just not cool enough for this. There were some other people that just stood there and held their chins making the, “hmmm” sound. I don’t think they really got it either, they just wanted to look like they did. The artist came over and “no-touch” kissed them on each cheek while babbling something about Federico’s party last night. OK, time to leave, I’m DEFINITELY not cool enough to be here. I was much more comfortable in the more conventional art galleries. Some of them got pretty weird, but none made me feel like I was an extra in a bad 80′s movie.
Ate a $35 steak tonight at Locando Sibilla. I have to say, it was tasty. It was good enough to say that if T and I were here and I was paying my own way instead of being on an expense report, I’d go back and have it again.
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