Road Trip

So Swell and I just got back from our very quick, very spontaneous road trip. I was doing what I do best, nothing, when I saw an itinerary on the internet for a meeting occurring a mere 464 miles from our home. The first order of business on this itinerary was a presentation by a particular man. When I saw that this man was part of this meeting I said: "Swell. We've got to go to Tampa."

Swell: "Why in the world would we go to Tampa?"

Me: "I've got to see a man, about a thing."

With that she said, "Let's go."

Plans were made. Plans being we'll leave on Saturday after work get there in time to see the man about the thing and then come home on Monday. Plans did not include finding a place to stay. That would be too much planning.

On Saturday I was busy at work. The busiest I've been in years. No lies. Upon leaving I looked at one of the opticians (who used to work with me at my old job) and said, "that was worse than DVW" which is saying a lot.

A whole lot.

I saw my 30 patients and by 7:30 we were on our way to Tampa.

Long story short we were in bed by 4 am after searching for a reasonably priced hotel nearish to where the man was going to be.

I was up at 7 and out the door by 7:45.

I sat nearby the meeting and when I heard the applause indicating that the man was done speaking I stood near the door.

Upon seeing him I did what any sane person would do.

I said: "Dr. Man, I drove from Atlanta last night to give you this." and I handed him my CV/resume.

And that my friends is the way one gets noticed.

He was slightly taken aback and spent the next 10 minutes or so talking to me before he had to run to the airport to catch his flight to...


...Atlanta.

Goshdarnit.

The rest of Sunday was spent sleeping, visiting with some others who were in Tampa for the meeting and then going out with Swell for one of the best dinners we've ever had.

Swell asked the front desk person at the hotel what was nearby in terms of a good place to eat. We could have stayed for the meeting's dinner but since we had already stolen lunch from them as well as snacks we didn't feel it in our best interest to steal a $60 pp dinner although we easily could have...

...and were encouraged to.

We just wanted to go out on our own.

The front desk lady directed us to go from Tampa (nearish to the airport) to a town called Clearwater where we ate at the Island Way Grill. It was really good.

We started with an appetizer called Frankie's Tuna roll which is a sushi-like dish that was fantastic. Per the menu it is "TUNA, CREAM CHEESE, GOBO, ASPARAGUS, AND CRAB, BATTERED AND TEMPURA FRIED". It was out of this world.

Then we were, much to our surprise, given very large salads with Rice Wine Vinaigrette. This, too was fantastic.

Then for our main courses we had Szechwan Pepper Crusted Tuna. Which was recommended by the waiter to be prepared raw. It was served with wasabi mashed potatoes and sauteed Asian greens. We also got Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi. It, too, came with the wasabi mashed potatoes. Notice I said "we got" because we shared each. I ate half of the tuna while Swell ate half of the Mahi-Mahi and then we switched. Portions were huge. Too big. We couldn't finish either.

It was a nice night. We were sitting near the water (although it was just a marina it was nice) on a large patio. It was nice to get away from Atlanta. We decided we have to do it more often.

Then funny thing about being in Tampa - funnier than driving all the way there just to give someone my resume - was that I felt a strange twinge of guilt.

You know that feeling you get when you pass near or through a city where you know someone and you feel like you should at least give them a call to say "Hi"? Well we "know" someone who lives in Tampa and thought about looking them up on Monday morning but didn't. So as we left town on a disappointingly rainy Monday we felt a small twinge of guilt for not at least dropping some cookies off at this person's work place.

What's funny about this?

We've never met this person in real life.

We only know of them via the internet.

Yet we felt like we should say "Hi" because we were in the area.

That really would have taken my stalking to a whole new level. Pounce on someone unannounced as they leave a meeting just to hand them a resume and then show up at a person's work cookies in hand that we've never really met.

Maybe its good that we didn't.