A week later....

Kensington, Maryland- August 12

All good things must come to an end, sort of...  

Last Tuesday I packed up my 55lbs suit case and headed back to San Francisco via Fort Lauderdale.  Our good friends Paige and Charlie postponed their lunch hours to pick me up and we had a great late lunch together.   I met Paige many moons ago, when she was working in personnel (the term HR had yet to be invented) at Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy  Chase, Maryland (this was probably 1985), she hired me to do inventory, which re-numerated me with a small check and two days of shopping discounts at Saks.   Don't remember what I bought, likely it would not fit today, but so began my friendship with Paige.   She later met the love of her life, Charlie, they married, she went to work with Claire at the travel agency, and it goes from there.  Charlie and Paige have two very beautiful, smart daughters, and over the years we have had lots of fun times in California, Florida, Washington DC, Key West and France together.

Me, Paige and Charlie

Lunch went by too fast, and soon I was back at the Ft. Lauderdale airport, and then on the plane home.   Reinold met me at SFO - the circle was complete!  I had a busy few days before leaving again this past Saturday - saw my parents one night for dinner, and Simon/Elizabeth on Friday.  Currently I'm attending a certification class in Fairfax, Virginia, staying with some other friends, Barb, Drew and Cailin in Kensington, Maryland just north of Washington, DC.   Cailin is keep me on my toes, when I arrived Saturday, and knocked on the door, this 4 year bundle of nuclear energy belted out "It's open...".   We've been having a good time, in between my trying to understand how to describe an ENTJ...but I got a 100% on my first test today, so I must be making progress!

Cailin and her dad, Drew

And so life goes on.  Hopefully I'll have some consulting work soon, in the interim I'm catching up on some training and certification opportunities that I neglected in the past couple years, and quite honestly I'm kind of enjoying for now being in limbo.   August is a dead month for job searching regardless, however I'm still very certain something good is on the horizon.    The past 40 or so days have been enlightening - Reinold and I are blessed with a remarkable, global network of friends and family, it has been easy in the past 12 months to lose sight of that with other things going on, but I'm back in focus now.   I have also discovered joy in writing this blog, and will be starting another one shortly about the end of summer/early fall adventures of looking for a job, and general thoughts on life.  

Lots of people to thank for my incredible month, including Fiona, Tom, Annette, Anita, Andrew, Sharon, the Jackson 5, Roger, Rosy, Louise, Greg, Rob, Juliet, Carmen, Will, Todd, Kerry, Claire, Paige, Charlie....and many others.   And thank you to Reinold, who patiently supported this undertaking as he does with so many things in our life together.

So stay tuned, the adventure continues... 

Key West Top 10/Headed Home

Key West - August 6

In 2.5 hours I'm headed north to Ft. Lauderdale, for lunch with Paige and Charlie, then off to San Francisco, where I will land around 8:30 tonight - the global circumference will be complete!   As fun as this has been, I am ready to get home, see Reinold and our two fuzzy friends....and get ready to leave again Saturday for my MBTI certification course in Washington, DC, followed by a weekend with Reinold at Bob and Sally's place in Utah.

Monday was low key, usual routine, in the evening Claire's friends TK and Brady came over, and TK made grouper for dinner, fantastic meal, fun night.    About 6am this morning it finally rained here, torrential downpour for about 25 minutes, which cooled things off significantly, though still very humid.   Claire and I are just back from our walk, she has been a fabulous host all week, and made the final stop very enjoyable and restful.

So, the Key West Top 10:

#10 - Fresh grouper, snapper and Florida pink shrimp - amazing seafood here
#9 - Katie the cat's at a distance tolerance of me, versus her usual run for the closet act (Tim, eat your heart out...)
#8 - Amazing meals out - Michael's (did this twice...), Antonia's, Salute, Santiago's, Blackfin, Hogfish
#7 - The backyard swimming pool
#6 - Claire's startling revelation on Sunday morning, 4 years after the kitchen remodel, that the cabinet handles didn't match - tied with this morning's revelation that the kitchen window is listing to the left.   I hope the fridge is o.k....
#5 - Lots of fun times with Pam, Claire and Carol on Friday/Saturday/Sunday
#4 - Sunset on Saturday
#3 - Iguanas and Chickens
#2 - Key West's relaxed atmosphere
#1 - 717 Ashe Street, and my pal Claire, the sister I never had

That's it for now, will blog from home tomorrow to wrap this up, stay tuned.

Chickens, Iguanas and Graveyards

Key West, August 4

What can I say...life is tough here in Key West.

It's Sunday morning in the southern most point in the United States, have had a really relaxing few days with Claire, and now additional friends Pam Dawson and Carol McDonald who came down Friday from St. Petersburg to join us, we are also quietly celebrating Pam's ascension into the life decade I've been in for over a year now.   I met Pam back in the early days of eTrade in California, in the mid 1990's; she and Claire became good friends through Claire's long association with eTrade, and Carol keeps Pam honest and practical (we discussed the similarities of this to the Tom/Reinold dynamic last night at dinner).

Days here have consisted of the following general pattern - up around 8am, walk with Claire, splash in the pool,  coffee and breakfast, catch up on email/internet stuff, plan lunch, eat lunch, nap, splash in the pool again, go to the gym, come home, glass of wine, dinner.    Speaking of dinner, we have had some blowout meals this past week at Michael's, Antonia's, Santiago, Salute, complimented one night by my own culinary attempts (TG's version of chicken paillard; Claire liked it, wants me to make more for her to have for lunch after I'm gone Tuesday) (Bob, the asparagus was good too, thanks for the temperature guidance).

Weather has remained consistent, by afternoon quite warm and very humid, it's rained a great deal up in Miami, but not down here, not a drop.   Still some breezes in the early evening, last night we had a drink at sunset before dinner,  the view was spectacular.

 

Me and my lovely host

 



Evident throughout Key West is the impact of people on this pristine environment.   Yesterday I walked over to the Key West Cemetery to have a look around.   I was captivated by many of the head stones and the engravings, some of them close to 200 years old - people have been partying out here for a long time!  

 

 

 

 

In addition to this history, some of the departed left humor and mystery on their headstones.  One had an encryption "I told you I was sick", another said "At least I know where my husband is sleeping tonight".   Of particular interest to me was the following plate on an occupied mausoleum space:

 

 

 

I googled GROK, and have yet to figure out what it meant, there's a good bottle of red wine for anyone that can email me the answer.

 

During the cemetery walk, I also encountered two feral examples of mankind's presence in paradise, chickens and iguanas.   In addition to a lot of cats and many inebriated tourists, Key West also has thousands of feral chickens walking around, often bravely crossing busy roads, some leading their chicks in maternal procession, roosters crowing at all hours, all descendants of chickens people brought here for eggs and food, that escaped and became part of the scene.   Anywhere else in United States you'd have the local municipality rounding them up and dispatching them to the local Fosters Farms plant, but not here - the public tolerance of these birds is an example of the general relaxed and accepting attitude of the 15,000 year round residents in Key West.

 

 

Rooster in fast retreat from my camera - not shown was his lady friend hiding behind the green bin

 

 

Another exotic example of pet ownership gone wrong is the abundance of colorful iguanas.   Discarded pet iguanas have very successfully survived and multiplied throughout parts of south Florida, and as voracious herbivores, they have laid waste to various home gardens, fruit trees, etc.  A few winters ago, they had an unusual cold snap in and around Ft. Lauderdale, resulting in many frozen iguanas falling dead out of the trees they typically hangout in during the night - apparently a very messy scene to wake up to...



 

While I have heard many iguana stories over the years, until my cemetery tour yesterday I had yet to see one in action.   Claire has one that visits her backyard, apparently their guano is fairly disgusting and not fun to clean up (but then again, what animal's guano is enjoyable?) however, the one that fouled Claire's deck has yet to show his/her face this week.   In the cemetery, however, they were all over the place, multiple/vibrant colors, shapes, and in general very timid, they'd run away and hide under a grave stone before you could get a picture, with one exception....

 

 

Myron, one big, colorful, un-intimidated cemetery iguana

 

 

I decided to name him Myron, although quite honestly Myron may have been a she, I wasn't sure how to determine that with any level of anatomic precision.   Myron also had very long claws, and while I know they are generally vegan, I decided getting any closer was probably not in my best interests.  The iguanas in Key West are being fruitful and multiplying, and there is faint evidence of emerging intolerance of these lizards, as demonstrated by a sign in a home adjacent to the cemetery.

 

 Reptile intolerance, Key West style

 

 

1.5 days left in Key West, then its homeward bound, via a lunch stopover in Ft. Lauderdale with our good friends Paige and Charlie.   Key West top 10 coming tomorrow, stay tuned.