When I first moved to South Florida, I lived in complete and abject fear that I was destined to share my home with the dreaded Palmetto bug–aka the Florida version of a giant, disgusting cockroach.
“Everyone has them, battles them,” I was told over and over again by Fort Lauderdale friends.
Not this gal. I kept everything [...]
“You must snorkel and fish and be out on the water all the time!” says everyone and anyone who has vacationed here for those purposes.
At the year-and-a-half mark of my living in the Keys, the following pathetic statistics bear witness to my landlocked life here: I have been fishing once, never snorkeled, and can count [...]
“Hi,” he said, way too awake and far too jovial for my morning crowd. “Let me introduce myself.”
My regulars grudgingly looked up and silently acknowledged his presence, then immediately turned back to their styrofoam cups of dark coffee.
“Can I get you something from the bar?” I asked.
“No, no. I’m here to introduce myself,” he [...]
“I’m gonna smack the first person who says it’s too hot when August rolls around,” said one of my regulars during the first week of March, when we shivered again in the seemingly never-ending below-normal temps.
“Damn, it’s too hot for June,” he said two days ago.
So it is that we feel cheated again by the [...]
“You must live the most stress-free life down here!” commented a customer to the bartender at an outdoor spot, where my great guy and I had just met after our many multiples of work shifts for the week.
My great guy and I exchanged glances as we sipped our cocktails. The bartender saw us exchange the [...]
You will love the weather in Key West, especially when the cold fronts blow through and you can open your windows, hunker down under a blanket, and forget about the AC for a few days.
You will hate the bad moods in which the cold fronts put the tourists, and you will grow weary of hearing [...]
“You live here? You actually live in Key West? It must be awesome! I am so jealous.”
I hear dozens of variations on this sentiment every day. Thus, I am curious to hear from my readers–is living in Key West your dream? If so, why? What do you imagine it to be like?
And, if you’ve [...]
“Can she see your dog?” he asked, seeming to appear out of nowhere amidst the throng of tourists navigating Duval Street.
I was perched at my favorite outdoor bar, Rouletta on my lap, sipping a fresh grapefruit and rum while waiting for my great guy to finish his shift at the restaurant a few doors down.
I [...]
A reporter recently contacted me and asked for my “unique perspective” about why the area in which I live–The Keys–has the second highest divorce rate in the United States. In the end, she didn’t use any of my quotes, preferring instead to cite actual professionals literate in matters of marriage and divorce. Go figure.
But what [...]