I finally had some fun today...

...and it's been a rather long time for that. I met a blog buddy that I saw the last time I was here. We had a great time and since it's been so long since I've had anyone to talk to that could A: Talk back to me. or B: Follow the conversation., that I think I may have talked her ear off. But it was fun and she did hang out for a while before she brought me back here.

We walked around Tarpon Springs, a really quaint old Florida town where a lot of Greek people settled when they found work in the sponge industry. I wish I would have though of that. It would be easy to just swim around grabbing sponge. I'm sure it has it's pitfalls but it seems like a pretty cool job to me. We went to a Greek restaurant and ate octopus...two kinds...and calamari. I also ate other Greek things that I couldn't pronounce much less spell so I'll leave it to your imagination...it was ALL Greek to me. Fried cheese is wonderful...I'll have to check at the Marietta Diner to see if they have that stuff. The menu is about 30 pages long and it seems to have everything I can ever think of.

I must admit, however, that I wouldn't ordinarily think of octopus...but I love the fact that I can no longer say, "I've never eaten octopus." I used to say that all the time. Now I can never say it again. I've not only eaten octopus...I ate PICKLED octopus. I actually liked that better than the cooked octopus because the pickled octopus was easier to chew. I chewed like a son-of-a-bitch but I couldn't get at that sucker. I finally just swallowed it whole with a lot of iced tea.

They put the cheese on fire at the table and we were supposed to say "Oopa!" but I wasn't sure if he said "Oopa" or "Oompa". So, I just didn't say a word and then I heard the guy say it over and over again. He was a real Greek dude. There was a nicer looking Greek dude at the check out counter...but this one was certainly the most colorful one in the family. That was so cool. The restaurant was called Hellas...I'm pretty sure...and it was right there in Tarpon Springs. Like the Marietta Diner, they have a large menu and a LOT of people. And the sea was right there, you could see the fishing boats coming in to cut up fish. I didn't get to see them actually do that but I did see a bunch of hungry pelicans waiting for them to clean the fish.

We also walked around a little mall type place that had an old-fashioned candy store. I recognized so many different "old fashioned candies" that I must be either old, old fashioned or both. I bought one kind...the old candy cigarettes. I haven't seen those suckers in years. I guess the only place to get them is a store like that. That's usually where I got all day suckers as a kid. A lot of grandparents go to stores like that and buy those giant lollipops. Then, the next time they see the kids...they have those big suckers that, as my friend said today...end up stuck to the carpet or the back of the couch before any kid actually finishes them. That's a shame too, it's very misleading to a kid. Most of them would take an all day sucker over a huge bag of Tootsie Pops and that's just stupid. I don't ever remember finishing an all day sucker but I could make a bag of Tootsie Pops last at least two days even if I share them.

My friend mentioned something that I hadn't thought of when I was walking along the canal totally unconcerned about falling in because, "I can swim." Well, I probably can't out swim an alligator and that option never occurred to me. How stupid is that? I know about alligators...I know a LOT about them. I know enough to know that they live in FLORIDA!!! What a nit wit...it never occurred to me that there might be an alligator in the water in FLORIDA!!! Oh well, luckily I never fell in.

After dinner, we drove over to Honeymoon Island and walked by the water. The wind was whipping up so badly that there were actually waves in the gulf. The gulf rarely has waves over a foot high and today there was a guy surfing out there. He did fall in quite a bit...but those waves weren't those Jersey Shore waves that can rip off your bikini top and scrape the hell out of your back...but falling down never looks too graceful...even if it's in shallow, relatively calm water. Actually, you look dumber then because there really wasn't anything to knock you down.

Oh, there was a wedding going on too. Because of the time we were there, I would guess it was going to be a sundown wedding. That's such a pretty place that people from all over would honeymoon there. Of course, there were also signs that said "Beware of rattlesnakes" so what can you do?

Ah...5 weeks in Florida and this is the first fun touristy thing that I've done. And just in time...I'm going to go home if ever I find my debit card.

Ooh! The song Kokomo is on...should I go? I'm halfway there...damn...it sounds like a good idea. Anybody around Tampa want to go to Kokomo?

By the way...thanks again to my friend who took me out to Tarpon Springs and Honeymoon Island. I can't wait until that shuttle takes off!