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My Keys Journey … Part 4

July July July …. Oh my where has the time gone? Have I really been living here for 3 months already? I wouldn’t have believed it if my bank account didn’t tell me yes you have paid your rent 3 times. I love my little house! I know I keep saying this but it’s true, I keep finding more and more ways to be creative and make use of the small space that I have.

I ended up going to Smathers beach to watch the fireworks for the 4th of July. They set them off on White St. pier and they were sponsored by the Key West Rotary Club. I don’t think they have the funding like they should, the show was pretty small compared to what I am used to seeing at home at Memorial stadium or even bigger if i would go into Chicago at Navy Pier. I would have liked to have seen bigger ones since they lit up the water so nicely but a girl watching them from the beach should not be complaining.

For my birthday am some of you know I started writing this ongoing story about my journey to the keys. After spending the day at Fort Zach I took myself out to dinner at Ambrosia a sushi restaurant here on the island. I was absolutely amazing. Started out with Miso soup and that had a nice mushroom surprise in it! I had never had a miso soup with mushrooms in it. Next was my favorite roll … Every new sushi place I goto I get the Shrimp tempura to start and I can tell from that if I like the place or not. They defiantly rate in the top 5 places I have ever had that. After dinner I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. Go home? No one wants to do that on their birthday. I saw on Facebook that my friend Kathryn was at a bar off Duval St. called Virgillios. Now I say friend loosely since we had only talked on Facebook and Twitter so far and had never met in person. I sent her a message and asked her if she would mind if I joined her. She said come on down and I headed that direction.

I am so happy that I did! She is the sweetest gal and I also got to meet her now boyfriend Jack. The place was packed and we were sitting near the back just listening to the band. Every once in a while they would get up and dance. I need to be practically drunk to be alright with dancing in public. I was very happy to just sit there on the sofa.

Kathryn invited me to another event that happens once a month here in Key West, Girls Night Out! That was a lot of fun and my other friend Whitney ended up coming so that was a lot of fun. For the first time since I have lived here I actually didn’t feel out of place. Did I find my people? I hope so! After the Girls Night Out event we headed over to a locals spot. It’s the bar inside the Gallion a timeshare here in Key West. That is a place I have been back to a few times, they have an amazing view of the sunset!

Later that week I was invited to another event at the Hyatt for the Key West Business Guild. That was a great place to meet some other people that are living and working here in Key West. I do have to say the food was really good and the chef is not to bad looking if you know what I mean! The Hyatt has a great view of the sunset and I got some amazing photos. I will have to go back there for another sunset!

More to come next week!

Peace, Love and Tweeting! -tOr

My Keys Journey… Part 3

Finally after 3 weeks of job searching I got an interview at another hotel here in Key West. The first interview went great! I knew I had the job in the bag. They emailed me later that day and asked for some of my references and if I could come in for a second interview. During my second interview they asked if I had any questions. As a matter of fact I do, I asked about the clocking in and overtime. They do follow all the rules and guidelines and I happily accepted the job. I have now been working there for a month in the reservations department. Last week for my birthday they bought me a cake and sang Happy Birthday to me. I turned bright red as I usually do in any of those situations.

I am starting to adjust to life here in Key West and think once I make a few friends I will really like it here. It’s always hard when you are somewhere and you don’t really know anyone. I do feel like I am very independent and I will be fine it’s just not so much fun right now. I do LOVE coming to the beach. There are 4 beaches on the island. Smathers beach on the northern part of the island closest to the airport. Higgs beach next door to the Casa Marina, Southernmost beach at the end of Duval St. and Fort Zachary Taylor where I am now. You do have to pay to get into Fort Zach since its a state park but I personally think that keeps some of the not so lovely people away and I am fine with that.

Every weekend I have off work I wonder oh crap what am I going to do this weekend. Yes I know I should be excited about having time off in Key West the possibilities are endless but things get a little boring when you are always alone. I did a Jetski tour with the company at work and that was a lot of fun. I had not been on a Jet ski since I was down here in 2011 and flipped it with my Mom on the back. So need less to say I was not thrilled about the idea but I knew I need to as some people say get back on the horse. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun. It was about a 90 minute tour, we went along the Gulf side of the island under the bridge by Boca Chica and to a sandbar that we were only in about 2 feet of water. At that point we were able to get off the Jet ski and play around in the sand. After that we headed down the Atlantic side of the island, stopping at Southern most point and Fort Zach along the way. Overall it was something I needed to do to loose my fear of them in the ocean.

Another thing I did was drive up to Bahia Honda state park. I was told by quite a few people this was a not miss thing to do and they were right. The park itself has 3 beaches, 1 is very shallow and great for kids, the other is on the other side of the parking lot and really nice view looking at nothing other than ocean and the last is on the other side of the park you actually have to drive there and that was my personal favorite one. Pretty sandy compared to Fort Zach and not a lot of sea weed like the others.

Part 4 coming soon!

Peace, Love and Tweeting! -tOr