Tampa days

Well, here I am, fresh (somewhat) from Tampa. It was my first time ever going, and the trip had its ups and downs. When you travel with my family, it's always a circus.

Was a bit nervous about flying out Wednesday since we were supposed to have bad weather, but it never came. It was quite bumpy up in the air, but we made it. Trying to get through the Tampa airport with all of our shit, plus Riley, plus pushing Mom in the wheelchair was an adventure all on its own. We got the rental car and as promised, we drove to Le Segunda Bakery in Ybor City for the authentic Cuban, which was one of the things I was looking forward to. I assumed it was a restaurant but it was just a walk-in bakery, so we had to get our food and go somewhere to eat. We found a park to eat in, but Ybor City is overrun with roosters for some odd reason, and parking is as big of a pain in the ass as New Orleans is. We had to eat with the roosters cocka-doodle-dooing around us for our food, Riley was terrified of them for some reason. The Cuban was delicious. We didn't stay there long. Goddamn roosters.

Autum wanted booze (go figure) so we put a liquor store into the GPS and ended up in the damn hood. Autum didn't give a shit, she still went in and got it. We went to the grocery store (Instead of Walmarts, they have Publix, which is really cheap and nice) and got some food and more booze. I forgot what else we had to do, but we drove to Treasure Island to go find our bungalow, and it was SO. CUTE. It was super tiny, but it was well kept up and the pool area was amazing. We unpacked the car and then got into our bathing suits, took a dip, and then went to the beach. We had our own private wooded walkway to it. Beach was much nicer than Biloxi by far. We tortured Mom until we got hungry and went back in, got dressed, and decided to go to John's Pass down the street to go shopping. We spent most of our time in this shop called The Bronze Lady, but we wandered across the street so Riley could watch a fire eater and Mom and I went into a candy store. They had chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick, just like Renfaire! I got some. It was delicious.

I didn't really buy anything there the first day, I was conserving my $$.

We passed the hell out. For a fold out bed, I was pretty comfortable.

We woke up relatively early the next day, spent some time at the beach with Autum & Riley. We had tickets to go on a pirate cruise in Clearwater Beach, so we got dressed and drove down there. It is a hell of a lot cheaper to park down there then it is here. Our cruise was for 2PM, but the weather was acting funky, so they pushed it back to 4:30. We were hungry, so we went to this place called Crabby's on the harbor. Autum and I got two 'buckets' of margaritas, but they're not too generous with their liquor in Florida. That stuff couldn't get a toddler drunk. Food was pretty good though. Autum got a grouper sandwich and had a total Jessica Simpson moment when she thought it was chicken. After we ate, we went into a little souvenir shop and then wandered down the docks to check out the boats. There were some SERIOUSLY amazing boats out there. I was about to pull a Stepbrothers stunt.

It got close to 4:30, so we had to walk ALL the way down the dock again until we found the pirate ship and paid for our tickets. Got onboard, and it was AWESOME. We got all the way up on the forecastle deck. I was all excited because they had raspberry margaritas, but it was pretty much a blue raspberry slushy. We pulled out of the harbor and went into the bay and they were blaring music and entertaining the kids with games so we could chill. They had free champagne and wine and Cokes but I really didn't drink anything. We got out to the Gulf and kept on seeing dolphins everywhere. It was a seriously cool experience.

Riley wanted to go to the beach, so we ended up paying a goddamn kings ransom in parking at the Hilton so that he could go down the massive waterslides at the beach. Mom couldn't walk out there, so she stayed at a tiki bar while we trekked across the goddamn dune sea. Anakin is fucking right about sand-it gets fucking everywhere. By the time we got to the damn slide, I was about to pass out. Autum went and got tickets (she ended up getting like 20-40 tickets for some reason) and I went up once, but it nearly killed me. Watched them slide up and down for awhile until they admitted defeat and we trudged to the beach. We were right by the pier and the sun was going down. Clearwater is supposed to be one of the nicest beaches around, but there was a lot of seaweed floating nearby. We weren't in the water for long when a dolphin appeared, less than ten feet away. He hung out with us for awhile but around 8PM we decided to go back to get Mom because it was getting dark. We found her at the Tiki Bar, but Autum discovered at that point that water or liquor had gotten into her phone, so she was PISSED. We left Clearwater and went to Publix again so she could get some rice. My stomach was really bothering me, so I got some medicine. Got back to the room, Autum was in a mood (understandably) and her phone wasn't working at all. We all took baths and laid down, but Autum was in the kitchen when she started screaming about a roach, so we had to all get out of bed and move furniture around to track that fucker down. Riley ended up beating the hell out of it with Mom's shoe. That ended Thursday.

On Friday we originally had plans to go to Tarpon Springs, which is where my Greek grandma lived. It has the largest concentration of Greeks in the USA. Mom didn't seem like she wanted to drive up there (it was about 45 minutes) but Autum really wanted to go parasailing. She and Mom were in moods so there was a lot of bitching that morning, but we finally got out and decided to take the scenic route up the coast to go back to Clearwater for the parasailing. It was a beautiful day. Going up that coast is nothing like going up Biloxi's coast. These people had $$$$$. Everything was either very quaint and colorful, or massive and colorful. Autum called up the parasailing people, and lo and behold-they were closing because there was too much 'wind', but there didn't feel like much of a breeze to us. That didn't improve her mood very much. After much back and forth we ended up back in Clearwater and went back to the slide so Autum & Riley could use up those damn slide tickets. Mom and I sat on the pier and waited for them, we did a little shopping. Since we weren't going to Tarpon Springs, I really wanted to find a Greek Bakery, so we found one called Manos nearby. Holy shit, it was like Greek food paradise. I finally found some béchamel! I got a steak & cheese sandwich and a chocolate croissant (both incredibly delicious) and we went back to the bungalow and ate. Mom wanted to go by the pool and Riley wanted to go to the beach, so Autum, Ri and I got our stuff together and once again trudged across the sandy fucking wasteland. We had good time, surfing on Riley's wave-board and finding shells for Dad. Came back to the pool and swam for a bit, then decided to go back to John's Pass since we really didn't get to explore it much the first time. Found a few cute stores, but by then my feet were killing me so after like 6 stores, we went back to the bungalow. Passed the hell out.

Saturday was our last day there and Autum was still hell-bent on parasailing. We had made reservations to go to another place, but just as we were getting in the car (after packing up and checking out) they called to tell us that they were closing again because of the wind. Autum was not a happy bunny. I felt bad for her, since she paid for her vacation and couldn't do the thing she wanted to do and lost the use of her phone. We tried other places, but we had to settle on something else. We stopped at John's Pass again to pick up something for Dad and decided to go on the Dolphin Racer in St. Pete's. It was quick to get there, had to wait a little to board, but once we did, it was super cool. We had to go quite far out to find some dolphins, but we found a pod and they jumped behind us in our wake and the captain was blaring 'jump' by Van Halen and there was even a little baby dolphin! He was so cute. It made me want to go swimming with them again. We saw a sunken boat on our way out there, and enjoyed looking at all the millionaire's homes on the water. People in Tampa have it made. We all got super sunburned on the boat, but it was a lot of fun.

We had to go back to Tampa because we had to go eat and then return our rental car, so we went to this place Mom & I found on the Net called Burger Culture. It was a food truck. Man, that was a fucking amazing burger. I couldn't even finish it, I had to pack it in my suitcase for later. We returned the car, then had to run all over the damn airport (it's huge) and take two trains just to get to where we needed to go. By the time we got to our gate, we were all exhausted. One advantage to Mom being in a wheelchair is that she gets to board first, so we got good seats on the plane, which was much more comfortable. It was a quick flight, and once again we had to haul ass through the NOLA Airport with all of our shit plus Mom and Riley. David came and picked us up. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to get home. Of course, I hit every goddamn red light and slow person on the way. Took a bath, passed the fuck out.

Yesterday I woke up and got dressed (kinda) and went to LaPlace to get Jack, who I missed very much. Spent most of the day editing pictures, reading, watching TV, and trying to calm my stomach down. Finally started feeling better last night.

Today was a total fuckshow at work. While I was gone, people processed my cases, so I had a lot of catching up to do, and one of the insurance companies would not pick up the phone. I must have yelled at about 5 different automated response systems today. Had to go grocery shopping right after work and got mostly fruit instead of snacks, which I'm proud of myself for, but let's see how long I go without feigning for pepperoni or potato chips. Got most of the photos done tonight.

Very happy to report that A is back! I've been doing my blog project (which is making me rethink a lot of past behaviors) and found the exact date in 2003 where I invented him. H wasn't around back then, but I found some of my old shorts and once I read them, he was back. I was starting to worry I had lost him.

It's funny, this blog project. Of course, I'm going back to the very beginning, scouring all of my disks and letters, so naturally, this portion is all Tyler. It makes me laugh and wince all at once, and I want to go back to younger Rae and shake her and scream, "You damn fool. This isn't worth your future'. I don't see how 16 year old me could not see through all of it, but that's youth for you. Also kind of weird-to put me in the right headspace, I have it on the 2000s Station on Pandora, and on three separate occasions, 'Be like That' by 3 Doors Down came on while I was transcribing. 'Be Like That' used to be me and Tyler's song. Eighteen years later and that song makes me wistful, but not because of Tyler.

She spends her days up in the north park

Watching the people as they pass

And all she wants is just a little piece of this dream

Is that too much to ask?

With a safe home

And a warm bed

On a quiet little street

All she wants is just that something to hold on to

no

That's all she needs

It's been fun, doing this project, though I do have moments when I can't read anymore because I get so engrossed in it that I remember what it felt like to be so torn up. It doesn't make me miss the person, but man, I am so glad that kind of heartache is done and over with. Heartache sucks no matter what, but there is nothing like that first one. That first one echoes through the years and it colors everything. I've laid all of that to rest a very, very long time ago, and I am not afraid of it coming back, but Jesus, I was one angry little chick.

KT Johnson appeared back on the scene and was kind enough to let me into her Google Drive to get some of her old snaps. I found a few good ones. God, what I would pay to get my old VHS back. Sometimes I feel like casting a line for it on social media, but the last person who had it was Roy Mayberry, and he lives out in the boonies now, so god knows where that tape is. I shudder to think about where it is now. It had some shit on it. It must be gone, because if it were there, I'm sure I'd be hearing of it now. It wasn't exactly PG-13.

Anyway, time to go and read. Might go hang out with Dani tomorrow night after work at her hotel.

-Rae