Luscious Larvae

Like, OMG - Fish!

 Fish Fish Fish Fish OMG! Fish Fish Fish OMG! Fish 

Goodbye Reef - A Hair Band Tribute

Last day on the reef and after a conversation on Sunday about Motley Crue, I decided to make a CD. Dave's always itching for new music to listen to so I brought my best 80's cheese.

One guy on the first trip came up smiling saying he tried to sell all this kind of music at a garage sale but no one bought it. It was a strange validation for him and reminded him of his college days. He especially loved Asia's "Heat of the Moment".

It was THE best music to listen to charging into open water. I felt like I was on a party boat in a lake back home in Missouri.

As Lita Ford sang about how she went to a party last Saturday night, she didn't get laid - she got in a fight. Uh huh, it ain't no big thing - I got up on the platform to grab the mooring line. A normal task but suddenly I felt like I was in a Whitesnake video getting ready to writhe all over the front of the boat. 

We had a whole load of kids on the second trip and while Dave and I were making rock on hand signals to Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel the Noize" a little girl said "What's that?" pointing at the hand gesture and stuck out tongue. 

Then she said "I can make a heart" and she showed me with her fingers. 

I said "That's good but can you do this?" Then I took her tiny little hands and got the fingers into the right position. We successfully got both hands into tiny little devil horns and she just grinned.  

Rock on little sister. Rock on.........

Mad Men - Ah, Don Draper...

Getting my last fix of Netflix and have been sucked into this show - Mad Men.  It's so dead on it's scary and worth it to watch for the art direction alone.

No More Joyrides

Let me preface this story with Eric's breaks are VERY SENSITIVE.

So, had a hankerin' for some pancakes and asked Eric if he wanted to head out to Goldmans for breakfast.  I then remembered that his car wasn't working right but he said "No problem, just switch the seat over so you can drive, I'll sit in the passengers side."  Sounds easy enough and it was until the ride back.

Here we were going along chatting when I notice the light start to turn yellow. Safety first - better not run it I thought. When all of a sudden the brakes lock up, the car starts squealing as if we've attained DEFCON 1 status.  Just as I look down to see what the hell happened there's goes Eric - into the windshield. "Holy Shit! Are you OK?" I said pushing him back up.  "Yeah, Yeah." Eric said bravely with a tinge of dazed. After checking him out to see if he was in one piece and unlocking the car from it's freeze frame status, we slowly move on.

"You scared the crap out of me"  I said.

"You should have seen the guy's face in the taxi next to us"  Eric said.

We get back to the house and both of us shaken, I look at my friend trying to examine him for any physical and/or mental damage.  

"Uh, would you like some Advil?"  this was as ridiculous as it sounded

"Sure, that would be good."  his verbal skills still in tact

"I am sooooo sorry. I can't believe that happened." me still in shock

"Well, I was saying I needed more excitement in my life" Eric said

"Were you really looking for that type of excitement?" 

"Uh, no."

Amazingly, there was no blood, no scratches, no bruises.  Apologizing profusely, he absolved me of my guilt as he said he should have known better and put on a seatbelt. I gave Eric some space to collect himself and took my guilt ridden self to my room then promptly called Cricket for a "I just almost killed Eric" talk. She being the good friend that she is, calmed me and followed it up with a Penny I once broke Eric's foot talk.  

Ah, yes, the infamous Cricket and Eric evening out at the Bottlecap Saloon where both good friends had a little too much to drink. Cricket sitting on top of Eric's lap gave her best imitation of Titanic's "I'm the King of the World!" when her butt hit his controls and drove them both directly into a wall. 

I went in to see if he was ok.  His bodyworker came by to check him out and massage out any possible aches.  

"Well, what's the prognosis?" I timidly asked

"Well..." he said somberly "She said I'll never walk again."

I gave him a wide-eyed look and then we both laughed. Wit DEFINITELY still in tact. 

We still love Goldman's.  This is the second accident for Eric on his way out there to which I think he should get a free year's worth of bagels.  We did come up with a slogan for them based on their t-shirts:

"Come meet me at Goldmans.  If you dare....."

sunday is funday

Ah, Sundays on the Cruzan Cat... 

Something I have grown to look forward to and love each week. It's an interesting job that has a great perk, snorkeling at the reef and checking out what's going on out in the water.

This week we had swells that produced pretty good sized waves (something very rare in Key West). The first trip was packed and people seemed to do pretty good out there until later.

Ultimately, everyone got sick from the waves tossing the boat around. The captain had been playing a death metal Smashing Pumpkin's song when he noticed the back of the boat full of people vomiting. Wisely, he switched to a more mellow, soothing Reggae. 

While I feel bad to see anyone feeling ill, there was a perversely funny moment when I was watching people leaning over the edge vomiting to Buffalo Soldier. Something that they would normally be swaying to on a beach with required drink in hand was now straight out of Clockwork Orange. I told Captain Dave he was going to ruin Reggae for these people forever.

The second trip Dave thoroughly warned people of the conditions out there in an attempt to spare them the pain. Four people, one of which had never swam in the ocean, wisely opted out.  Which left us with a family of five who thoroughly enjoyed the wave crashing trip. The ride out was rough and the Dave told me he was trying really hard not to tip the boat.   

Once we got out to the reef it was a different story. After we got all five safely in the water, I jumped in to check it out. Watched a couple of parrotfish peck at the ailing reef. There was not much to see out there that day, but the real fun was playing around in the waves. Got to surf in on my fins and float around enjoying the waves as they got bigger and bigger and felt joyful when they threw me around. 

At one point, I was sitting on a bright orange pool noodle I made Dave throw me, taking in the sites. Watched the dive boat next to us plop people in; saw the Sand Key lighthouse in the background; and felt the water toss, turn and swirl around me when I realized something that made me smile.

As excited as I am to check Spain out for the next three months, I'm as equally excited to come back home to Key West.

two weeks and counting...

So it begins, two weeks and counting. I've started to pull things together for the trip and clean up my belongings so I can fit them all into a 5x5 storage space and leave them behind.

 

That includes a dandy trip to the Salvation Army (or Sally Ann's house as my good friend Abby puts it) to purge items from my old life that look completely foreign to me, namely my business suits and closed toed shoes.

Emailed the hotel in Madrid to find out which of two Metro stops were closest to it. I found the metro stops listed on a Google map after figuring out what subway line to take from the airport. Been reading "The World is Flat" in which Thomas Friedman talks about technology and the internet flatting the world to where we are all connected in many ways and it certainly is true.

Testing my language skills, i emailed the metro question in Spanish. Got a coherent answer back thanks to the espanol i picked up quickly via books and livemocha.com They offer free lessons online similar to rosetta stone but it also offers instant messaging with people around the world to help you brush up on your skills. In one day I talked to a carpenter in Mexico about kayaking and a woman in Jordan who was curious about who i prefer in the primaries: Obama or Clinton.

Pre-Trip Items:

1. work work and WORK.
2. Get art supplies.
   
3. Sent a letter to Tio, the family i have never met, to formally introduce myself and thank them for their hospitality (all in spanish)
4. Change my name to Penelope
   

Apparently, after reading a woman's blog about her solo trip through Spain, I found out my name sounds a lot like the spanish word for penis. My sister tried to tell Tio that my name was Penny to which he gave a weird look. I now know why. She then told him my name was Penita. If I didn't want to be named penis, the last thing i wanted to be named was "little penis".  

While considering the opportunity to introduce myself as Penis from Key West to complete strangers, i decided to change it to what most people think my real name is anyway - Penelope.

I just got a new camera which is incredible. It's a cannon elph and can take macro digital shots which i plan on using for my paintings. The shot at the top is the remains of a snail that was completely eaten by ants in one day. You can actually see an ant in the bottom part of the shell looking for what's left - sorry buddy, it's all gone!