A family from Slovakia and four fashionable sisters from the Philippines came to the cathedral yesterday morning. These are the things you learn when you usher. The Slovakians left after the offertory to catch their cruise, but the Filipinas stayed till the end. I wondered, about both groups, if they thought they were attended a Catholic mass, but one of the sisters, on leaving, told me she usually comes to the service in Spanish.
I got in the car and drove to Little Havana for the Three Kings’ Parade. Surprisingly, Calle Ocho was open to traffic. After parking on a side street, I asked a policeman about the procession. “It’s next Sunday,” he told me. “But today’s the day,” I said, shaking my head. Then I took a picture of a man in a white suit dancing in front of the Tower Theater.
At home I suggested to Hania – it was a spectacular day – that we go to the Las Olas Dog Show. It’s really the Las Olas Art Show, but the dogs are usually more interesting than the paintings. I ran into a former colleague from the newspaper carrying a Chihuahua in a pouch slung low on her waist. “It’s not mine,” she explained. “It’s my friend’s. But she left it with me for six months.”
We stopped at the Riverside Hotel for a drink, getting a table next to a family with three teenage children. “Your daughter’s very pretty,” Hania said to the mother as they got up to leave. “Do you want her?” asked the father.
