Well, most importantly, I just went and say “Fellowship of the Ring”. My new boss's wife works for a big burger chain (which will remain nameless), and so we got free tickets. All in all, it was quite enjoyable, my nervousness about having a row of 6 year olds in front of me mostly went unjustified.
I apologize to all of you for not updating sooner, I hope you can understand that it's been difficult for me. The computer at work is shared which makes it harder as I don't have a computer at home anymore. However, I will try and give a run-down of what has been happening.
Most importantly so far was the arrival of my friend Illara Sunsurn. She was visiting a friend in Nashville on her way to Vancouver and I managed to convince her to catch the bus down to Miami for a few days. She got here on the Monday afternoon, exhausted after the long bus trip. I took her home to have a shower and some sleep, and that night we went out to the local Sunset Blvd shops for food and celebratory drinks. The next day she walked around the local area while I was at work and soon learned that unless one can't help it, that nobody walks anywhere in Miami if they can help it. We did however make the trip out the the fabulous area known as “South Beach” where we stood in the water and looked out over the Atlantic, how strange that only a few weeks ago, I had done the same thing with Allison in the Pacific. We toured around the area on foot and in the evening cool, it was very enjoyable despite me being very tired. We had pizza for dinner and then caught the bus and metro-rail home.
On Wednesday I was very tired by the end of the day, but I managed to see the Lowe Art Gallery here on campus with Illara before I went home and crashed, exhausted as I was from the day before. Thursday was a similar evening, with me being very tired, to the point of not being a perfect host. Alas Friday came all too fast and it was time for Illara to head back to Nashville for the time being. We parted ways remaining the best of friends and happy in the knowledge that we will see each other again soon.
In other matters, my attempts to get things return to normality are being frustrated. Most importantly, I do not have the key to my apartment mailbox. Without it, I cannot get to either my electricity bill (which was supposed to be paid today) or my social security number (without which I cannot get paid at all). I need to get back in contact with the real estate managers and have a lock smith out as soon as possible. They say they sent the key in the mail, but it has been over a week now.
The chemistry has been keeping me occupied somewhat. It's challenging, and I hope I can rise to meet it. Having it to work on stops me from going too insane. Miami continues to amaze me with it's weather, almost Xmas and it's still +80F, the people are mostly nice and I think, that once I adjust to the conditions that I will quite enjoy myself here.