Cheeseburger in Paradise: Friday
Jun. 11th, 2005 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kellan_the_tabbyFinally caught up to yesterday! Most of this is still from the handwritten journal, but the last bit I'm typing in now.
Friday, afternoonish, north on Rt. 1
Feet feeling a lot better. Sunburn still awful.
Finally heading up to visit Karen. Lewis is _done_, so we're just heading up to her place; we're going to stop a few times, look for Key deer, maybe do a bit of shopping. I still want to pick up something for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
baronadhemar, and look for plates.
just about midnight, back in the hotel room
We're officially staying until Sunday now. We have the room for two extra nights (thanks to cancellations from overly-nervous people who are afraid of a tropical storm quite a ways to the west). We changed the flight, and are now flying out of Ft. Lauderdale at seven PM Sunday. (There are no seats available out of Key West at all, apparently due to overly-nervous-etcetera fleeing the etcetera). We have extended the rental car and will be dropping it off in Ft. Lauderdale.
This morning, I drove north on Rt. 1, mostly to stay off of my feet. Stopped a few places to take pictures, got wet in the spray. (While the tropical-storm-etcetera isn't close enough to be dangerous, it's still very windy and choppy here, and we got a lot of rain overnight.) Also found the No Name Pub and got to see a Key deer. Crossed the road right in front of me, calm as anything.
Drove back down to the hotel, and had just enough time to get out of my wet clothes when Lewis called to say that he was done, done, done for the trip. Typed up Tuesday's journal stuff while he was driving back with Bruce, and we drove out to the airport to get the flights and car rental rearranged. Lewis barely managed to tell the guy that we'd been scheduled to fly out at 5 when he asked, "So you want to go now instead?" Hello, not afraid of Tropical Storm Etcetera!
Lunch was gyros (good ones, too) and then we headed north. Since it was early and Lewis was done we decided to go all the way to Karen & Ryan's instead of meeting them (or just her) at the No Name Pub.
It was sunny again here by then, but still very windy. The ocean was getting that pale blue-green colour back again, though with the partial cloud cover it was almost white in places.
We drove up to Big Pine again and out past the No Name Pub. On the way back Lewis saw some Key deer, so we turned back for another look. I saw a mother and two or three fawns, and Lewis thinks he may have seen a couple more. I pulled out the camera, but by then they were gone.
We headed north again. I pointed out the places I'd stopped for pictures, and we went to a used book store.
Hand's starting to hurt and it's getting late; more tomorrow on Bahia Honda State Park, visiting Karen and Ryan, and talking writing and fandom on the way home.
the rest of Friday
I didn't manage to get much time to write in the journal today, since I've been with Lewis all day, so I'm sitting here Saturday afternoon just typing stuff in directly.
So, all right, we stopped at Bahia Honda State Park, home of what used to be the Perfect Beach before a hurricane several years ago wiped it out. It's still a pretty nice beach, but they're still working on getting it back into shape.
The oceanside beach was covered with a lot of seaweed and other stuff. I got a bunch of cool pictures of coral bits and sponges and a lot of things I couldn't identify. We're going (hopefully) to be downloading those from the camera into this laptop as soon as I'm done this entry, and I'm going to post them somewhere eventually.
The 'perfect beach' is in a sheltered cove and thus wasn't full of stuff. Only people, and not many of those. The waves were pretty low, since it's in a protected spot.
Part of the old bridge is attached to the park and we walked out onto that. There's a section cut right out of the bridge, apparently to keep people off of the center parts. I got some cool pictures (I hope) of the end of the cut part. Also some butterflies, though they weren't being very cooperative.
By then I was pretty tired so we got back into the car. I brushed my hair, which felt very good after the way it had got blown around outside. We drove north again, and got to Mile 68 just about when Karen called. She gave us directions to their place and we got there fine.
It's small, but nice. It's the first floor of a place maybe the size of ours; they have one bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room. Pretty furniture and they've done a better job of getting their artwork hung up than we have. And we got to meet Tipsy, their cat, so-named because of neurological damage due to an overdose of de-worming stuff when she was young. Effectively she has falling-down disease, like Chocolate did for a while, but hers isn't going away. It's kind of sad to watch but it doesn't seem to bother her at all. She wasn't sure about this whole 'visitors' thing but she adjusted well enough when both Lewis and I proved to be able to find the good spots.
We went to the Outback for dinner, since everything else was really crowded. Had a lot of fun talking about stuff. It's still so odd...but I guess it's time for Karen and I to be getting along, and Ryan is a really nice guy.
Took about an hour and a half to drive back to the hotel. Hit a bit of rain but that was about it; there wasn't much wind, even on the Seven Mile Bridge. Nice lightning show, though.
We talked about my writing, and Lewis suggested a couple of people as additional proofreaders. I'm thinking about it, though I'm pretty pleased with the people I have now. Still, I can see an advantage to having people who don't know me reading my stuff.
Then we had a long discussion of fanfic writing versus original writing, and then fandom in general. I hold that writing fanfic can be both helpful and harmful top an aspiring writer. On the one hand, it gives one a chance to practice various parts of writing without having to work on them all at once (the world and the characters, at the very least, may be borrowed, along with some of the plot). On the other hand, I begin to see how it could become a crutch - it _is_ easier in some ways, and you can write with the knowledge that your audience already knows a certain amount about the world. I shall continue to write fanfic (I suspect a few people would smack me if I didn't) but I will also continue to write original stuff (as I suspect that a few _other_ people would smack me if I didn't...)
Then on to fandom in general, and canon vs. fanon, and a discussion of healthy fandoms versus fandoms which aren't so healthy. By this point it was mostly Lewis and I babbling to each other to stay awake, so I guess I didn't _mean_ some of the nasty things I said about Star Trek fandom. Harry Potter fandom, though, I don't know...and Harry/Snape just squicks me. But here's the state of our minds by this point - we had a serious, protracted discussion of how Harry/Malfoy could word.
Got back to the hotel and wrote for a while, as I said above. Then I went the hell to bed. Lewis stayed up until three reading 'Order of the Phoenix', for which I have grumbled at him.
Must remember, if I'm bringing a laptop, that I should also bring a wrist-rest. Ow, ow, ow, ow...
But I'm almost caught up.
Friday, afternoonish, north on Rt. 1
Feet feeling a lot better. Sunburn still awful.
Finally heading up to visit Karen. Lewis is _done_, so we're just heading up to her place; we're going to stop a few times, look for Key deer, maybe do a bit of shopping. I still want to pick up something for
baronadhemar, and look for plates.just about midnight, back in the hotel room
We're officially staying until Sunday now. We have the room for two extra nights (thanks to cancellations from overly-nervous people who are afraid of a tropical storm quite a ways to the west). We changed the flight, and are now flying out of Ft. Lauderdale at seven PM Sunday. (There are no seats available out of Key West at all, apparently due to overly-nervous-etcetera fleeing the etcetera). We have extended the rental car and will be dropping it off in Ft. Lauderdale.
This morning, I drove north on Rt. 1, mostly to stay off of my feet. Stopped a few places to take pictures, got wet in the spray. (While the tropical-storm-etcetera isn't close enough to be dangerous, it's still very windy and choppy here, and we got a lot of rain overnight.) Also found the No Name Pub and got to see a Key deer. Crossed the road right in front of me, calm as anything.
Drove back down to the hotel, and had just enough time to get out of my wet clothes when Lewis called to say that he was done, done, done for the trip. Typed up Tuesday's journal stuff while he was driving back with Bruce, and we drove out to the airport to get the flights and car rental rearranged. Lewis barely managed to tell the guy that we'd been scheduled to fly out at 5 when he asked, "So you want to go now instead?" Hello, not afraid of Tropical Storm Etcetera!
Lunch was gyros (good ones, too) and then we headed north. Since it was early and Lewis was done we decided to go all the way to Karen & Ryan's instead of meeting them (or just her) at the No Name Pub.
It was sunny again here by then, but still very windy. The ocean was getting that pale blue-green colour back again, though with the partial cloud cover it was almost white in places.
We drove up to Big Pine again and out past the No Name Pub. On the way back Lewis saw some Key deer, so we turned back for another look. I saw a mother and two or three fawns, and Lewis thinks he may have seen a couple more. I pulled out the camera, but by then they were gone.
We headed north again. I pointed out the places I'd stopped for pictures, and we went to a used book store.
Hand's starting to hurt and it's getting late; more tomorrow on Bahia Honda State Park, visiting Karen and Ryan, and talking writing and fandom on the way home.
the rest of Friday
I didn't manage to get much time to write in the journal today, since I've been with Lewis all day, so I'm sitting here Saturday afternoon just typing stuff in directly.
So, all right, we stopped at Bahia Honda State Park, home of what used to be the Perfect Beach before a hurricane several years ago wiped it out. It's still a pretty nice beach, but they're still working on getting it back into shape.
The oceanside beach was covered with a lot of seaweed and other stuff. I got a bunch of cool pictures of coral bits and sponges and a lot of things I couldn't identify. We're going (hopefully) to be downloading those from the camera into this laptop as soon as I'm done this entry, and I'm going to post them somewhere eventually.
The 'perfect beach' is in a sheltered cove and thus wasn't full of stuff. Only people, and not many of those. The waves were pretty low, since it's in a protected spot.
Part of the old bridge is attached to the park and we walked out onto that. There's a section cut right out of the bridge, apparently to keep people off of the center parts. I got some cool pictures (I hope) of the end of the cut part. Also some butterflies, though they weren't being very cooperative.
By then I was pretty tired so we got back into the car. I brushed my hair, which felt very good after the way it had got blown around outside. We drove north again, and got to Mile 68 just about when Karen called. She gave us directions to their place and we got there fine.
It's small, but nice. It's the first floor of a place maybe the size of ours; they have one bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room. Pretty furniture and they've done a better job of getting their artwork hung up than we have. And we got to meet Tipsy, their cat, so-named because of neurological damage due to an overdose of de-worming stuff when she was young. Effectively she has falling-down disease, like Chocolate did for a while, but hers isn't going away. It's kind of sad to watch but it doesn't seem to bother her at all. She wasn't sure about this whole 'visitors' thing but she adjusted well enough when both Lewis and I proved to be able to find the good spots.
We went to the Outback for dinner, since everything else was really crowded. Had a lot of fun talking about stuff. It's still so odd...but I guess it's time for Karen and I to be getting along, and Ryan is a really nice guy.
Took about an hour and a half to drive back to the hotel. Hit a bit of rain but that was about it; there wasn't much wind, even on the Seven Mile Bridge. Nice lightning show, though.
We talked about my writing, and Lewis suggested a couple of people as additional proofreaders. I'm thinking about it, though I'm pretty pleased with the people I have now. Still, I can see an advantage to having people who don't know me reading my stuff.
Then we had a long discussion of fanfic writing versus original writing, and then fandom in general. I hold that writing fanfic can be both helpful and harmful top an aspiring writer. On the one hand, it gives one a chance to practice various parts of writing without having to work on them all at once (the world and the characters, at the very least, may be borrowed, along with some of the plot). On the other hand, I begin to see how it could become a crutch - it _is_ easier in some ways, and you can write with the knowledge that your audience already knows a certain amount about the world. I shall continue to write fanfic (I suspect a few people would smack me if I didn't) but I will also continue to write original stuff (as I suspect that a few _other_ people would smack me if I didn't...)
Then on to fandom in general, and canon vs. fanon, and a discussion of healthy fandoms versus fandoms which aren't so healthy. By this point it was mostly Lewis and I babbling to each other to stay awake, so I guess I didn't _mean_ some of the nasty things I said about Star Trek fandom. Harry Potter fandom, though, I don't know...and Harry/Snape just squicks me. But here's the state of our minds by this point - we had a serious, protracted discussion of how Harry/Malfoy could word.
Got back to the hotel and wrote for a while, as I said above. Then I went the hell to bed. Lewis stayed up until three reading 'Order of the Phoenix', for which I have grumbled at him.
Must remember, if I'm bringing a laptop, that I should also bring a wrist-rest. Ow, ow, ow, ow...
But I'm almost caught up.
