Florida Revisited

Two of John's bandmates are driving to Florida to pick up a Black Knight pinball machine one of them purchased. Can you believe what John started? The guy is driving to Florida when it would have cost him less to ship the damn thing. Good grief. At least he has a partner to go with him now. The British singer is joining him, seeing as he's newly separated and hasn't seen much of the US. That should make for an interesting ride. Wish I could put a webcam in there or something.

The last time I went to Florida, I flew. John and I had only been seeing each other three months when he bought tickets to Fort Lauderdale for my birthday. I failed to notice them when I opened the card, which obviously frustrated him to no end. He had them tucked into the back of one of those cards that has about a gazillion folds and pages. Since I don't make it a habit of rifling through cards and looking all ungrateful and greedy, I missed them. Finally, when he couldn't take it anymore, he told me to look at the card again. I picked it up and out fell the tickets. Not only had he arranged for our trip, he arranged for Kay to watch Hammy while we were gone. How's that for the first birthday he spent with me?

We went to Florida, got burnt to crisps the very first day and spent the rest of the time going out at night and lying in our room. We still had a great time, especially when we got the entire swimming pool all to ourselves one night. I've always been a night person, so missing sunny days on the beach wasn't a big loss to me.

Like good travelers, we got to the airport very early for our flight home. We got there so early; we had to find things to do. We ate, read, and visited every gift shop in the airport. I realized I hadn't gotten a stupid vacation memento for Kay or Hammy or even myself. Hammy and Kay got the standard t-shirts, while I picked up my alligator. I have a thing for cute, stupid stuff like this, and I had to have him. The cashier even wrapped him up in tissue paper, because you can see he's a delicate and precious item.

That damn alligator almost made us late for our flight. While finding just the right thing to remind me of my crispy trip to Florida, I didn't hear any of the boarding announcements for our flight. Since we had plenty of time upon our arrival to the airport, we never considered that time might continue ticking away while we goofed off. After my purchase, we strolled over to the gate where we were the only ones sitting. Did that clue us in? No. We figured we were still excessively early. Then we heard the last call made for our flight. Holy shit! I dug out our boarding passes, and we scurried on the plane, feeling like idiots.

The alligator has survived all my cleaning scourges since that time. He resides next to or on top of the computer as a constant reminder of a whole lot of stupidity. He makes me laugh, not just because he looks funny but because he is an odd representation of our relationship and where it began. I love that goofy thing.

You know what's even stranger, besides the fact he wasn't even made in Florida but Mexico? His sticker has "Gabby" on it, a nickname of the child we would have together. It's not the nickname we use or even like, but it's a derivative of her name nonetheless.

Another peculiar story having to do with the name Gabby is the one time John and I went to the dog races with his cousin and her husband. The guys and girls decided to split up, since they wanted to play slots, and we wanted to watch the dogs. One of the last races had a dog named "Gabby's Choice." It wasn't a highly ranked dog, and I refused to bet on a dog with the nickname I didn't like. You can see this coming, can't you? That dog placed first with a payout of over $350. So I decided that all things Gabby are ok, but we still aren't calling our daughter by that name, even though it's sometimes appropriate.