evening recap 050606

i ended my day today at a coffeshop, sitting on the patio with a cappuccino and finishing life of pi. this is the same coffeshop kiki and i sat at about 4 years ago, waiting to hear from Breton, or whatever his name was, who never pulled through. regardless, the climate, emotionally, was very different tonight. tonight was pure relaxation, bliss, really. the air was perfectly warm, no chill to speak of, soft and dark. my coffee tasted perfectly salty under the foam, and my book was perfectly engrossing. gorgeous.
the day began well enough, with a bizarre dream collin was tattooing my feet. then morning prayers, dad made coffee and French toast and the golden girls was on. a dramatic shift in my mood after i wrestled with Kaplan for the afternoon, still no results, and i stormed around until i had to be somewhere, namely the 1:00 oil change i moved up from 2:30 to accommodate FRA-POR semi-finals. i watched the game at The Sportspage on Main in SRQ, right off the marina, and made nice with the bartender and her boyfriend.
i don’t assume that I am what you would call an “approachable” person, and i say this because i’m not often approached. the bartender, however, was very quick to introduce herself and shake my hand and we had good soccer conversation. i met her boyfriend, a frog, and she gave me her card when i left. i am stunned at how easy it’s been for me to make new friends here. it’s a marked departure from what life was like years ago.
i left the bar, celebrating FRANCE BEATING PORTUGAL *ahem * and met Lauren at siesta beach, where we talked and made fun of people and dug in the sand and tried to make plans for roller derby. an 8:00 mtg off Bahia Vista, at a church that looks like a skate ramp, just as Kat described, then to the coffeshop.
I detail the bits of my day for one very important reason: the sheer simplicity that fills me here. i always talk about how i’d live here or i’d live there, but Venice is always the place where i grew up, as far removed as i may be. inland, i feel suffocated, like there’s no room to move, breathe. waterside, something about the infinite space beyond calms me and gives me permission to settle down.