As a matter of fact, this blog is just stream of conciousness, the way it should be.
So, to update... Florida was ass. Hot. Full of land crabs, giant spiders, and humidity. I tried to escape the company of my co-workers often to visit our "clients" restaurant/arcade, mostly to play a horse racing game. My co-workers did drag me to some French Canadian hot dog/ice cream stand, where I was told to try something called "poutain" - perhaps spelled poutine. They're both French Canadian also, so I thought it was French-Canadian for "poon-tang", but no. Its a concotion of french fries smothered in gravy and cheese curd. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but still, not as good as poon tang. Behind our hotel in Hollywood, FL was a giant spider web that was home to a giant spider, that we would toss live crickets, bought from the adjacent Pet Depot for 10 cents each, into. The spider would immediately grab it, bite it, and then spin a cocoon of silk around the poor sucker and save it for a later meal. Just past the spider, in a wooded area, were land crabs - creepy mother fuckers that gave me nightmares. I was never able to get a good pic of the bastards, which is just as well.Fourth of July was spent at a Fort Lauderdale Beach. Nice fireworks, nice people, but the whole Miami and Fort Lauderdale area reminds me of the coastal areas of Los Angeles, so I could care less. The only difference is the Florida has shittier drivers, but nicer people. A fair trade off.
We then ventured to Jacksonville, FL. A pit, but a decent pit. Not much happening in Jacksonville, which is where I ended up celebrating my birthday by sleeping in, going to see "The Terminal", and then going out with the guys for some decent, inexpensive sushi.
The day before I left I went alone to St. Augustine, supposedly the oldest city in the U.S. My main goal was to visit Ponce de Leon's infamous fountain of youth... appropriate since this was the day after my 32nd birthday. I knew my trip wouldn't be complete unless I was able to bring my girl Claire back a bottle of elixir. The Fountain of Youth park was much cheesier than I could have hoped for... a giant spinning globe lit by black lights helped tell the story of Ponce de Leon's exploration of the world, another building housed a planeterium, circa 1962 (my guess), that showed how folks like Senor de Leon navigated the seas by star light. Best of all was my chance to actually drink from the fountain of youth, which they dispense of sparingly in tiny cups. You'd think this would be because they want you to only sample the goods and buy the rest at the gift shop. Actually, they don't want some unwitting fool to chug it down and puke back into the fountain. Two words I thought I'd never use again in the age of Aquafina: egg water.I also visited the Golf Hall of Fame, but only to see an Imax film. I made the mistake of seeing the first available show, "Our Country", which tries to tie the history of country music in with the history of the United States, but ends up being one bad country music video after another. Because it was pouring out so hard when I walked out, and the truck I'd driven was parked a few hundred yards away, I elected to see another Imax film, "The Coral Reef Adventure" to kill the time and stay dry. Cool movie. And best of all, when I came out the skies were clear again.
The next day, after running the event one final time, I was back on a plane to Los Angeles. I can't complain too much about my trip, considering that out of my fully paid two weeks, I actually only worked eight days.
So... that brings my tail up to last Monday. More later with my report from the Espy's.
