Gravel Front Yards and Pink Flamingoes

20 feb 06

Bradenton, FLA

I lllhate…hhhlove Florida. I think if I ever move back here to live, I’ll live in a Trailer Park. With a gravel yard and pink Flamingoes. Wearing a muumuu with a pack of Benson and Hegdes rolled in the doily sleeve, rollers and house shoes complete, holding on for dear life during hurricane Season, hoping to god my Meth Lab doesn’t blow away. That, to me, is the quintessential FLA experience. Gawd.

Dinner at Thai O-Cha, AA meeting at 8:30. Not bad at all. Still getting over the Bronchitis. Operating at about 75% currently. Listening to Common, salivating at the sight of the outlet mall across the parking lot of this hotel. Alas, my pulse quickened when I landed eyes on the motherload…Saks Fifth Outlet. How much goodness is left in the world of most of it is house in that very building, I ask you?

This is, ironically, the same hotel Kiki and I stayed in when we ventured south for our first real (harrowing) road trip. I’m just glad the same desk clerk who worked then isn’t here now. To remember my sleep-deprived my-roommate-didn’t-tell-me-until-Georgia-she-couldn’t-drive-stick-Geo-breaking- down-in-Tampa-rush-hour-traffic-yelling-at-good-Samaritans-ass, coming over the counter at her when she, without lifting an eye from her game of computer solitaire, informed me that my reservation wasn’t there because check in wasn’t for another 8 hours when I knew goddamned well it was. Living amends, natch.

Maybe I’ll wash my face, go to bed.