I spent Thursday night in Miami. At happy hour at the Perez Museum of Art a DJ worked outside on the patio. Downtown later in the evening, a DJ blasted music on the small rooftop bar of the Langford Hotel. Yesterday afternoon, stuck in traffic on I-95, I thought: How long before they put a DJ here?
This morning Facebook suggests that I "Celebrate my upcoming birthday with friends by creating an event." I'd rather not. But if I don't, will Facebook still deliver their birthday wishes?
About a month ago I received an email from a young person who had heard me talk, asking for advice on becoming a travel writer. I wrote a long reply, telling the story of how I started and offering suggestions for someone today.
I never heard back. Clearly, I had forgotten the best piece of advice: When someone does you a favor, acknowledge it. It’s not just polite; it assures the person that his or her missive was received. Though this young woman already has something going for her: Once she starts submitting her work, she will not be surprised by editorial silence.
We had eaten an excellent dinner to celebrate Hania’s birthday (a few weeks late), and strolled Collins Avenue, walking into the Delano and the Raleigh (the now and then of South Beach hotels). We had admired the pastries in the Italian bakery on the west side of the street, and we’d seen a woman in a black bikini drinking beer from a bottle and using a trash receptacle to support herself.
Now we were in the car, driving the street we had just walked. “Those women are looking at a rat,” Hania said with delight. The traffic was bumper to bumper, so I turned my head to see if I could catch a glimpse, but the rodent had disappeared. Then, all of a sudden, it crept out again – long and furry – and scurried up Collins unperturbed by the crowds.
Yesterday I rode the train to Miami and had lunch at Brickell City Centre with a young woman I’ll call Vivian who took my travel writing class a few years ago. It was her first visit to the Centre, though she knew it well, having interviewed the developer while it was under construction.
Vivian announced that she was moving to the Pacific Northwest to get her MFA. Another bright young person leaving the city. She told me stories about the Key West Literary Seminar back in January, when she had met George Saunders, Billy Collins, Teju Cole, whom she drove around the Keys. She is a very well-read young woman but I was still impressed by her ability to hang with the literati. “The average age at the seminar was about 70,” she explained. “And I was more agile than they were.”
We finished lunch at American Harvest and walked through the Centre. “We’re the little people who were in the architectural renderings,” Vivian announced as we approached an escalator. Then she pointed to a woman walking a terrier. “And there was a dog in the renderings!”