Miami take-off

Written in the last couple of days:

Dear Friends,

For a couple of days I couldn’t write — travel and jet lag did me in! 

Miami is back in my blood. (This can be a bad thing, I know, but I mean the city invigorated me.)

Where else do you meet an Uber driver who tried to escape Cuba in a small boat — three times!? He said that the first two he and his cousin were caught by police while still in Cuban waters, sent to jail for two weeks, only to try again. 

“Were you scared?” I asked. “Yes, especially at night.” Sharks. 

The third time they got to Elliott Key, in the bay by Miami, and Border Patrol sent them to Immigration. A cousin already in Miami claimed the pair, so my driver was free. Ten years later, he said, he has a wife, two daughters, and a job cutting awnings in a West Palm Beach factory. He takes the two-hour train there and back every day and drives for Uber on the side. 

Where else do you meet a friend (Susan!) who is heart-breakingly aware of Florida's swiftly shifting water level, showing photos of a familiar boat landing that’s swishing water ankle-deep where it should be dry? 

Where else do you get sunshine and brilliant flowers  and music blasting from open car windows -- all of it almost too bright, too alive? 

Miami.

Then Rachel asks what about Zing? How did he fare while I was gone? I feared he might freak out at my week’s absence, and negate all the training we’d been doing. 

Thankfully, Grateful Dog gave Zing a good “report card.” He slept well, ate regularly, and played with other dogs while I was gone, according to their written records. And he seems ready to continue our training, in which he gets treats when I leave him and go out into the hall for a few minutes. I even went downstairs for 10 minutes to let the delivery men in, and the video says Zing whimpered just once. Progress. We're working our way to 40 minutes, which the vets say is usually a turning point.

And that delivery was my daybed: turquoise velvet. Two people in the lobby swooned as it was passing through, and of course I love it too,  as I love anything turquoise. So now you -- yes YOU! -- can visit comfortably. The daybed is twin size, and if there are two of you, one can sleep on the purple couch. You know you’d like it! 

On the way back from Miami I said to myself I'm coming home. Home. Today I wanted nothing more than to settle in again: laundry, groceries, and sweeping the floor.

Love,
k

Sunrise in the sky
Miami take-off