A Click Away From Miami

2004-05-03 10:02 a.m.
I was a credit card number and a click away from being in Miami this weekend. $100 less and I wold have gone through with it.

On friday, an old South Aftican coworker (and now good friend) called and told me he was at madiba (SA restaurant in brooklyn) with the company. Ding! Free dinner and drinks and a night with old friends is The first thing on my mind.

Oh! and S. was in town. He's the guy who let me stay with him and his wife in Colorado on our road trip. The guy who took us out to feed his llamas at like 7am (not sure if I wrote about it here). Well he's since been promoted to VP of my old company, and he was at dinner with them. I really wanted to go now, as he's by FAR the nicest person I've EVER met. No exageration. Not even a little bit.

I was in the middle of a meeting, so I told him I wouldn't be there for an hour. They were leaving in an hour. Damn. Then in the background, yells of "we'll be here all night!!" Nice.

So I finished up, got ready, as in shower, skip the shave, ironed some shit, wallet, keys, money, phone, smokes, walking to the door, I call. "I'll be there in 15 minutes." "Awww... we're leaving in 20"

Fuck. It was like not being able to go to the amusement park after a restless night tossing and turning figuring out which ride you're getting on first. Fuck it, I'm dressed. IM'd R. No response. Man, I'm goin somewhere.

So, I hit the travel sites, looking for anything with sun. I wanted to spend about $550 on the trip itself, so I'd have about $400 or so for spending. I was looking at last minute deals, weekend cruises, calling agencies, hitting sites, all types of shit.

Best I found was a weekend in Miami, hotel right on the beach with a rental for $650. Damned good deal for 2 people, and my girl would have lost her mind if she got home from work and I was like, pack your shit, we're headed to Miami in the morning.

So I sat with the site up and a blinking cursor in the credit card field for about 10 minutes. Grabbed a smoke and a beer and just thought it out. Just as I reached into my wallet to grab my card, C. calls. He's in town for the weekend as he's speaking at a conference on Monday. Called just in time.

So we all chilled Saturday night. R. gets pretty tame when his girl is around. Not that he's all wild and shit, but it's just not the same R. They left early as she wasn't enjoying it much. All was good, caught up with C. on the past few months, my girl and L. showed up, we had another couple rounds and broke out.

Spent about 4 hours yesterday at Bloomingdales with R. and A. A. is R's girl, a.k.a. fashion cusultant, but to me, she just doesn't dress all THAT well. Don't get me wrong, she doesn't dress poorly by any means, and she seems to know her shit, as she was helpin R. really well. I just can't recall remember a time when I was like, damn A. is wearing some dope shit.

Granted I don't pay THAT much attention, but when someone is dressed really well, you see it instantly. Their clothes move well with them, and their whole body seems to work with itself. L. always looks damned good. She's a beautiful girl, but not in the way the media would tell you. She's a bit chunky, round face. But she always looks damned good (without showing a damned thing). And she's the one who I'll probably be shopping with.

I guess with the amount of confidence A. has with her fashion sense, R. has little choice if he's to remain sane with his girl.

Found a few shirts I was really feelin, and learned that R. was definitely interested in updating his entire wardrobe. IT was the first time I ever shopped wit ha dude for some decent shit, which was a bit of an experience. So I tried a couple on, and of course, I could barely get my arms through. Sometimes I HATE being 6 and a half feet tall. Shopping is the most prominent of those times. It's not even having a gut, this is just the plain length of the clothes.

There are NO dope sneakers in size 14. None. The nicer shoes, you can usually get in 14, but they're always out. And the majority of shirts are Medium or Large (about 36 - 40), I need an XL - XXL (about 42+), and that's not necessarily even baggy.

Tried a dope $200 Hugo Boss shirt. Couldn't get my second arm in. Another one. No Chance. A short sleeve joint for $150. Nada. R. isn't a lil guy either. He's like 6'3 / 230. He was havin a pretty hard time, and he was actaully tryin to buy yesterday.

I was pretty much looking to see what I might be interested in, and how much money I should come with. I figure I'll need about $2k, if I can find enough shit that will actaully fit me. So hopefully in a couple weeks, I'll be on that mission. Maybe an extra 1500 for a suit.

Speaking of mission, it seems I may end up in San Francisco for the month of June. That web industry cat I met up with out there wants to bring me in on a few projects and needs me to be local for them. I'm pretty excited about it, pending his agreement to get me a sublet or something and pay for my flight.

To say the least, I'll be working on high profile projects for good money. And I get to spend a month elsewhere, which will get me off my ass about breaking out of NYC. Still not sure where to, yet.

Also have a 1 week long family reunion in July. Now THAT is gonna be incredible. A bunch of drunk Mexicans with cabins, good tequila, and time off. And then, I guess a trip to Europe for a few weeks in August.

Alright, I'm scruffy as fuck (ie. need a shave and shower) and I've got some work to do.