First subway trip addendum

Oh, I forgot to mention. There was one minor little incident in my first subway trip. As I was leaving the station, my shoebox managed to get jammed in the turnstile. those turnstiles aren't joking. Grabbed my shoebox and held it firm. Had to grab the box with both hands and yank it free. Smashed a hole in the top of the box, but fortunately the shoes are fine. But it brought to mind a childhood trauma. When I was about ten, I somehow managed to get my leg caught in a turnstile going onto or leaving a ride in Opryland in Nashville. They actually had to get someone over to take apart that turnstile to get me out, since you really can't just yank a ten-year-old boy's leg free. If that had happened today, we could have sued the park and now been owners of it instead of them shutting it down and turning the space into a shopping mall. That sucks.

And speaking of childhood traumas and stuff, I still have not seen my first subway rat yet. Those of you who know me know that I only seem to have one phobia: Rats. Every time I go in the subways I brace myself and prepare myself emotionally so I don't run screaming like a little girl and make a complete ass of myself on the subway platform in front of hundreds of people I'll never see again and won't remember even if I do see them again. Lots of poeple here look a lot alike. I swear, I saw this one guy walking towards me today three or four times. He looked like the guy who runs the deli on the Letterman show. There's a lot of guys down here who look like that.

First solo Subway trip

OK. Today I took my first solo subway trip, and fortunately it was disappointingly uneventful. I had to go and get shoes for the job interview tomorrow, and Carson had to get to work. So I hopped on the subway, went down to Astor Place and walked over to the shoe district where I procured a pair of black stylish but calm and conservative leather shoes. Then I hopped back on the subway in rush-hour traffic at about 5:15 and rode back to my neighborhood. The train did get crowded, but only after I was already on there, so it was just that there wasn't room for other people.

But I have to tell you, I was just a little dazzled today. Broadway. Park Ave. Madison Ave. Streets known throughout the civilized world, and they're my neighborhood now. I can walk to Bloomindale's. I can walk to Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum. And I haven't even started exploring yet. Spent pretty much every day here so far dealing with the stuff I brought up from Key West with me. There's a big difference between taking stuff out of a first floor apartment and carrying it up to a 6th floor apartment without an elevator. And then just organizing and cramming stuff together and making everything fit! I'm almost through with what I have here. Two boxes went right to the storage room, and probably after I get settled in a bit, I'll look into tackling that stuff and figuring out what to do with it.

Tabitha, Carson's cat, and Mikey and Salem, my gay dogs, are still trying to figure each other out. Mikey was wildly humping Salem today, by the way. Don't have a clue where he gets it from . . . Anyway, Tabitha is getting more and more curious about the boys and of course, every time they see her they run over to greet her, which puts her off a little bit. But when I got home they were all three on the furniture in the main room of the apartment: Salem and Mikey on the futon and Tabitha on the recliner.

Aundrea: Don't play with this bug

This ugly bug was in my living room one morning. My living room. Probably straightened out, he would have been maybe 4 or 5 inches long. After getting him to pose for me, I put a plastic bowl over him, slid a magazine under the bowl, and carried him to the playground of the private school across the street where the children are unable to play without screaming at the top of their voices and start playing at like 10:00 in the morning. Do you enjoy waking up to the sound of 20 children screaming? I thought maybe I could give them something to scream about.

The demise of Saturn

And speaking of Hurricane Wilma flooding the island, this is the street in front of my house after Wilma went through. At its high point, the water was over the steering wheel of my little Saturn. The canal is about a block and a half from here. On the bright side, my car somehow had a horrible infestestation of ticks. Hundreds and hundreds of ticks. Really bad. I had tried bug spray, a tick and flea bomb, tick powder, and nothing was getting rid of them. After Wilma, they were all gone. So if your car happens to get a severe infestation of ticks, just flood it was ocean water and you won't have to worry about the ticks any more.

Florida Mangrove Snake

This seems to be a Florida Mangrove Snake, so far as I could find out. Florida Mangrove Snakes can range in color from orange to green, are pretty much solid color, whatever color they are, and range from the Keys to the southern Florida Mangrove swamps. One thing that this snake taught me is that down here in Key West, people will always give you an answer, even if they don't have a clue. Before I finally found out this was likely a Florida Mangrove Snake, I was assured that it was definitely a water moccasin, a coral snake, and one well-informed guy told me it had to be an anaconda since it was in salt water. This snake was living in the canal that runs across the island from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. I'd see it once every week or two as I crossed the canal on the way to work until Hurricane Wilma flooded the island.

Iguana time

Came home from K-Mart one day and this guy was sitting on my front walk. He was about 3 feet long. Iguanas are not native to Key West, but enough people have either released them or allowed them to escape that there is now a wild population of them on the island. I've seen three other ones down here. And these guys are fast. You just can't catch them.

tiny little lizard

These tiny little lizards live down here. This one is probably 3/4 inch long. Don't know what they are, but they are the cutest little buggers.

Horseshoe Crab Love in the Rain

So down here even the horseshoe crabs just want to get laid. Horseshoe crabs, like tourists, migrate from miles and miles away to Key West hoping to get laid. Many do; but often the really unattractive horseshoe crabs either have to settle for someone equally unattractive, frequently from their own hometown, or go home disappointed. See, life in Key West isn't all it's cracked up to be. The little, scrawny horseshoe crab just isn't going to get the big, strong, muscular horseshoe crab. The big, obese horseshoe crab isn't going to get mounted by the little twink horseshoe crab. Not for free, anyway.