Key West

Interesting past few weeks. Actually, some of it was kind of the same old thing--I tend to get obsessed over a woman and take it very personally if she doesn't reciprocate. In this case, it's a friend of mine I've had a thing for for quite a while, and though I work with her, I haven't been able to get her to go to lunch for a couple of months. I'm not sure if she knows the depth of my feelings, but I'm pretty sure she knows I kind of like her, and probably would date her if given the chance. Compounding this is the fact she's getting over a relationship but hasn't told me for sure it's definitely over, and then there's the work thing. When I feel that I've totally blown it and she must be avoiding me, I drop by her office and we have a nice chat for a few, or have a good, funny (occasionally a little flirty) email exchange, and everything is cool, but I just can't get it going to the next level, and this is really someone I could see myself with.

I wanted to at least have lunch once to kind of find out her/our status together as friends/potentially something else before leaving for Key West last Wednesday for my cousin Ben's wedding. It didn't happen, and I even kind of told her off in an email, to the effect that since we hadn't had lunch in two months, I was going to make it easy on her and stop asking, to which she replied, "You are killing me" and then immediately called me to say that I'm too sensitive, she likes me, it's all good, etc. Conventional wisdom, and several friends, suggest(s) that I should just move on, and I just haven't been able to yet. I can see the point, but there is still something that is so into her and feels that I can overcome all my crap and win her over.

Anyway, so I left in kind of rough shape, emotionally. The night before the trip, I was up late finishing my column and packing, and I ate a lot of crap and drank three beers, because I knew I had to fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Flew out of San Diego at 7:00 a.m. to Houston. Remember little about that except I read a lot of This Is Orson Welles--much of which is conversations between Welles and Peter Bogdanovitch. Fascinating. It's actually kind of exhausting how rich the discussions are, as it's so packed with anecdotes and smart lines, the result, I suspect, of Welles revising the transcript and apparently rewriting it.

From Houston to Tampa, where I had almost a two-hour wait between flights, so I had a shaker of margaritas, a large Dos Equis, and some okay but bland pollo verde tacos. I'd already had a pretty strong migraine coming in, but with the flight from Tampa to Key West so short, I figured I'd be okay, and though the plane was warm and bumpy (just an 18 seater), that flight was fine. I kept looking at one attractive waitress and whenever she came to the bar, she would look at me, but it wasn't her station, so nothing happened. It looked like she might have had a ring on but I couldn't tell for sure. While eating and sipping, I pulled out my full six-issue script of Irregular Joe and got some rewriting done on it. Mostly little things, but I redialogued one minor character's one scene with my second male lead about 90%. The character is a Hollywood agent in the mid-'40s, and rereading his lines, they came off way too cliche, too Jewish. I think they're better now.

I even chatted with a couple women at the gate, one I'm pretty sure was a lesbian farmer and one I didn't determine. The latter overhead the former and me and offered some info on restaurants and bars and other things to see, which I wrote down and then didn't really consult much later. She was okay but not quite my type, and I didn't ask for her number. The girl next to me on the flight to Key West was okay as well, and she liked to hang her shoe kind of off her foot, which gave me an urge to knock it off with my own foot, but I resisted. I didn't talk to her.

As soon as I got to the house my cousin had rented for I think 14 of us for the week (at $5K), the menfolk were off to the bars, as it was bachelor party night. Most of them had already been there a few days, and it sounded like I missed some house party pool nudity and whatever, but no matter. This destination wedding had a lot of family visiting for it, so my 87 year old grandfather, my uncle, and later, my stepdad, all joined us at various bars, at least early on. That was very important, because aside from my cousins and family, I didn't know all my cousin's friends and future in-laws. That's always a tough situation, when you're thrown into a group of guys who grew up together or at least spent some intensive time together, such as college, so they all know each other and can pull out old stories at will.

I'll write more about this and other stuff soon--I even made my first offer on a condo tonight!

We all drank many beers and a couple shots of Jager here and there, which I hate. When one actually tasted good to me--like Kool-Aid--I should have known taken that as a sign. Actually, though, I never had a bad drinking night of the three, though that Wednesday night was closest. Here's why: the next night, at the family bbq house party thing, Ben apologized to me for the night before, for being so drunk when we were walking home together, and my honest reply was, "We walked home together?!" I don't remember that part, and in fact it was a great relief to wake up Thursday morning on the couch, undamaged, and pretty well-rested for coming in at what must have been after 4:00. The only other significant things about the night were that we had a couple drinks in Capt. Tony's Bar, which was the original location of Hemingway's favorite bar, Sloppy Joes. That moved a block over long ago when the landlord raised Joe's rent a dollar a week or something. Tony's is a hideous bar with dangerously uneven floors and a tree growing through the middle of it, but at least I can say I was there. The other thing was that we went to some strip club--Teasers--and though I really never have a great time at them and would never suggest going, I somehow either made a connection with/presented myself as an easy mark to, this Dominican girl, Alexandria, whom the others agree was easily the most beautiful girl there. She liked my eyes, and we chatted a bit, had a couple lap dances, nothing too big. Remember, I was really drunk by this point, so I think that night I offered to fly her to San Diego, and she seemed into the idea. I was never so drunk to think this was true love or that it would even happen, but hell, life is short, you know?

Anyway, Thursday was more mellow--mainly lunch with the family, then shopping with the females in the family (mom, grandma, aunt), then hanging out at their hotel for a bit, then the house party. Key West is obviously touristy--Duval is the big street for all shopping, dining and clubbing--but it's mostly pretty nice. A bit of a New Orleans feel, a bit Southern--even the tackiest shop is better than something you'd find in Oahu or Mexico. And the straight/gay blend was very cool and nonconfrontational either way; it just is what it is and everyone is cool with whatever you're into, as far as I could see. Tried on some sandals and the cute clerk with something of a Germanic accent kneeled and totally exposed her breasts to me.