The End of the First Trip with T.C.
After the launch tweet:
"Local place with coffee, gourmet sandwiches, ice cream, and air conditioning. Clutch. (@ Caffe Chocolat) http://4sq.com/osegWh."
Snarky tweet to appease my mother: "Yes, T.C. and I were on our phones the whole time during the launch wait, duh, but we DID actually see the LAUNCH."
(Also, it was 100 degrees at the launch. To say that is "hot" is...well, you know. T.C. and I felt we should get extra credit for surviving Orlando at 100 F, when even the locals were complaining.)
Launch lunch finished, we discussed what to do next, doing that polite but weird thing in which you totally like this person but you are different from him, and you're realizing for the first time how different your likes and dislikes are, and I had the additional challenges of being paranoid and crazy (every day, for a woman, but certainly more likely on this, the first trip with T.C., coincidentally scheduled directly over my PMS week) (hi dad!) and T.C. still hadn't recovered from his tummy bug (did I mention we were sharing a small hotel bathroom?) and...yes.
Of course, I wanted to see *everything* while we were already out on the Atlantic, and he wanted to go home and maybe do it tomorrow, when we weren't so exhausted.
"August 5th: T.C. and I not adjusting to East Coast Time well."
Reminded me of traveling with my father and mother. My mother wants to see everything, my father wants to read in the comfort of his hotel room, eat great meals, and see good museums. Not much of an outdoor guy. Similar situation here. T.C. and I came to easy compromise: he would come to Daytona Beach and would find shade and nap in the car, running the engine and with the AC on if necessary. (It was.) I would do my thing. He might meet up with me later, or might not. Simultaneously, I released him from any obligation to come out to the Gulf Coast with me for this trip, as long as he didn't mind if I left him alone for five hours. He didn't. Excellent. On to Daytona Beach.
From the August 5th Twitter Feed:
"Daytona Beach Strand is a little less crowded than I expected. Heat getting to everyone, maybe, even locals. Tonight may be busier?"
It was less crowded on both sides, the Daytona Beach side and the...other...beach side. I can't remember what it was called. I preferred Daytona Beach--more to do, less touristy, more "real" things, like Walgreens and 7-11s, that showed that some people actually *lived* here. T.C. and I made a stop to buy crucial charger adapters, including one that could live in the car. T.C. made a name for himself because his apparently bat-like ears picked up the sound of the engines coming from the race track over closed windows and the radio and ME TALKING, and he rolled down both windows and I stopped talking and turned the radio off and the cars were doing! laps! and we both had a freakout moment. No matter what you think about Nascar as a social symbol, we are both of the gearhead persuasion and that SOUND is OMG VROOM SO SEXY.
We got a break from the heat on the way back to Orlando, driving through a rainstorm. We didn't make it back for the free Happy Hour, sadly, and we went and got pizza for dinner and I had a minor freakout--not in a good way--in which because he told me he was tired, but I could certainly go out on my own if I wanted, I was so paranoid that I thought he was trying to tell me he was breaking up with me. (This is the time at which I decided that I could not, under any circumstances, allow this emotional state of affairs to continue. I am trying certain supplements.)
"I just used #Shazam to discover Fortune Teller by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. http://shz.am/t45328882"
*Crickets.*
We did almost nothing--we chilled out in the hotel and saw a movie (our 2nd of what would turn out to be three movies, it being too ridiculously hot to hang out by the pool, I never put my swimsuit on once the whole trip) and that night we found an anime convention across the street from our hotel and we rejoiced. And we got dressed up and got drunk and went over to see the Con. And it was good. (It was GREAT. It was about the best time we had on the trip.) I got to put on the cocktail dress that makes taxi drivers give me free trips. And I gave T.C. the following speech: "I am way more dressed up than you. I will need a lot of personal attention and possessiveness from you, or else I will feel like an idiot." Him: "Done. As long as you don't leave me hanging, just to make a point." Me: "Done."
The next morning I got up early, grabbed the Challenger keys, and felt like a real pimp, cruising in my skirt and tank top on pilgrimage to a Starbucks at a quiet strip mall. T.C. had not moved, beyond asking me if I had made a deal with the devil. Our attempts at using the osmosis method to share my hangover recovery skills failed completely, and I went out to Ybor City alone.
From the August 7th Twitter Feed:
"Ybor city is a ghost town on Sunday morning, even now at 11. There's a big bar kind of place that obviously does a swinging brunch crowd, but that's a little too bust-ly for me."
Then, after strolling down the street and back, I found the perfect place:
"Crucial food stop. Plus a mojito. Adorable bartender named Christian just added bonus. (@ Carmine's) http://4sq.com/pxa3WN."
(My mojito looked so good that three other tables around me asked me what it was and then followed my example.)
I thought about getting all the way out to the Gulf beaches, but decided T.C. would start getting lonely, and besides--I was lonely, too. I'd rather have had him with me. So I headed back. Plus, I'd been to the Gulf before--on the Texas side.
I did a little meditating, and of course I called my mother, on the way back. And a little Shazaming, thanks to the crucial car charger we had bought at Daytona Beach.
"I just used #Shazam to discover Bright Lights Bigger City by Cee Lo Green Feat. Wiz Khalifa."
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