Surprise Again

D1 knows me so well, and knows one of my recurring fears is that she or her sister will be hurt in a car wreck, especially during that damned long trip between Miami and Gainesville.

This fear stems from my line of work --the thousands of car crashes I've seen and reviewed over the years, as well as D1's serious crash of last Fall. So, when possible, she simply surprises us by showing up, as she did Friday evening.

We spent Saturday travelling to Aventura, where my partner's son Alex was hosting a "trunk show" at his jewelry business, along with his wife, mother in law, and brother in law. Wifey, the Ds, and I caught up with our old friends, and did some seriously interesting people watching among the wealthy Aventurans (Aventurers?).

Afterwards, the Ds drove back south, and had some Mexican food followed by an evening of sisterly bonding, while Wifey and I headed to Miami Beach for dinner with her recently widowed friend, Cara.

Cara cooked pasta, and had us as well as her old friends for dinner. Roy, now in his mid 80s, was the longtime host at Joe's Stone Crabs, and regaled us with tales of Miami celebrities, both the nice and obnoxious. Roy is still quite spry, and it turned out he went to the same high school (James Monroe) in the Bronx my parents attended.

He moved to Miami in the late 40s, and owned and worked at restaurants, until he ended up at Joe's. Joe's had a "no reservations" policy, so if one wanted to be seated in under the typical 5 hour wait on a weekend night, they had to appeal to Roy. Apparently many people got on his good side, as he and his wife Joyce bought a unit in a gorgeous high rise condo, and travel the world on high class cruises.

Yesterday D1 got picked up by her friends Andrea and Danny, and had, thankfully, a safe and quick return drive. D2 and Wifey went to visit my in laws, and I spent the day reading the entire Sunday Herald and NY Times, pausing only for a 1 hour nap that ended abruptly with a prolonged face lick courtesy of my bored Basset Hound.

2 surprises in 1 weekend; how lucky can 1 guy get?