Key West and it's characters.

Being back on my little crazy island has it's ups and downs.

It's so nice to see all my old friends and catching up with them as we stumble across each other. I ran into my old friend Josh tonight who used to live with me and 6 Fury employees in the "Fury Frat House" back in 2004, that was fun. (Can you feel the sarcasm?) I also ran into my good friend Mandy whom I lived with for a long while before I evacuated after hurricane Katrina.

I came home and got online to see what I had missed on my happy hour excursion into town. I noticed my drag queen friend RV Beaumont was online. Now, I knew that RV was diagnosed with cancer but I thought she was doing ok, fighting through it and getting better. I had seen pictures of her recently in drag and doing events so I didnt think much of it. But I figured I was home, and I just made tacos, and who doesn't like tacos? So I offered to bring her one. She told me her address (which just so happens to be just around the corner) and a walked over, foil wrapped taco in hand.

I skipped right past the house and into the 801 Cabaret where I asked the door girl Marilyn where RV lives. She said "you walked right past her!" I backtracked to the lamp lit porch where a skinny, bald man with big lumps on his head sat smoking a cigarette. I said, "Is RV here?" and to my surprise (for fucking real, SURPRISE) he said "It's me bitch!". Oh. Oh my. I ran over and hugged him because it was the only thing I could think to do other than burst into tears. He is a shell of his former self. I've never seen anything like it. Last time I saw him he was HEALTHY looking if you know what I mean. I can't really put it in to words my feelings. I just try to imagine what my mom had to go through seeing my father go through the same thing. RV has melanoma and bone cancer. They didnt catch the bone cancer when they caught the melanoma and its caused large tumors to grow on his head and spine. We sat on the front porch and watched people walk by as they watched us on the porch. We laughed and talked about them as they looked at us inquisitively. It's good that he keeps his sense of humor. I'm going to keep visiting him. I think he enjoyed having me there. He's still fighting. They are doing an experimental chemo on him and I hope it works. I told him we need to start designing his fantasy fest costume for next year... he just looked at me like I was crazy.

I put the taco in the freezer. He promised he would eat it when the indigestion subsided and before the next round of radiation on tuesday. I told him he could freeze it forever if he wanted.

This is a video of his before he got sick. Actually he was sick here, he just didn't tell anyone.



And this is a classic RV Yoedel skit. LOL



You can find his YouTube channel here

http://www.youtube.com/user/rvbeaumont

Anyway, just letting you know what I did today. I need some sleep now. Hope you and yours are healthy and happy. I feel so blessed that mine are.

Wasting away again in Margaritaville!

Well hello there...

So here I am, sitting in my enormous comfortable bed in my huge air conditioned bedroom in my amazing new house waiting for my hot tub to heat to the perfect 99 degrees in beautiful Key West, Florida. How did I get here? I asked myself that same question recently while lounging poolside sipping a sweet tea vodka cocktail while my long time friends ordered our third round of jagermeister shots. It's simple really. As the late great Hunter S. Thompson once said, "Buy the ticket, take the ride."

Lets take it back a few notches. Last you heard I was on a boat sailing. Somewhere between Portland, Maine and Boston. My brother came to visit me in Boston and it was so awesome! We had a great time and I took him to Provincetown to meet Will and all my buddies there and we had a blast. He really seemed to enjoy it. I am so happy we got to spend some quality time together. After he left I went up to Portland to work on a catamaran for a few days. Well, after the Portland episode I went north to Camden to hang out with the Schooner Appledore for a week before deciding to come back to Key West after having a very short, to the point conversation with my best friend. I called her on the brink of tears, not knowing what to do or where to go and she basically said, "go home." and hung up on me. Thank god for friends. I booked the flight and packed my bags. After a whirlwind road trip back to Boston I celebrated my good friend Alaina's 21st birthday with her and my buddies then hopped my plane to Key West.

My 7am flight from Boston got diverted to NYC when the dude in front of me decided to have a heart attack. I know. Just my luck. So we were stuck there for almost 2 hours. Got to Miami in time for my connecting flight to Key West only to find out it was delayed for an hour and a half. By the time I got to my little island it was 3pm. My good friend from Texas, David and his bird Marquesa picked me up and took me directly to Dante's pool bar at the Key West Bight where we met up with our friend Raggs, a local legend. As the conversation goes, Raggs asks me if I have a place to stay to which I reply, "no" and he just so happens to have 2 rooms available in his amazing conch house. Well, I just so happen to need 2 rooms for Ryan and I, he takes me to see the place and done deal. Housing situated. That same day on my stroll down Duval St. I stopped into a local bar to see if a friend was working. He wasn't but the manager happened to be standing next to me and asked what I wanted with him. I replied that I just got back into town and wanted to say hello. I mentioned that I was looking for work and he asked me if I had time to fill out an application and have an interview. Long story short, I am gainfully employed at a very busy Duval St. bar. My life just amazes me sometimes.

(Side note: Ryan is an ex-captain and very good friend of mine who is coming down to be my roommate.)

Being back in Key West is so good for me. In the week I have been back I have lost 5 pounds just from walking around everywhere. As soon as I get a bike it will be even better. I was a size 4 when I left Key West a year and a half ago and I am waaaaaaay bigger than that right now. I can't wait to get back into all the clothes I brought with me!

The only negative thing that has happened since I got back is that I dropped my brand new Droid phone in the ocean... Damn.

On the relationship (or lack there of) front, I met a really great guy who is in the Navy but I'm not so sure that's going to work out. He is deployed till November and then goes back to NYC for two years and I'm here and I just don't know how it's going to pan out. I told him I would come see him in November and we would see how that goes. I feel really confused and stressed about it because I feel like he's someone I could potentially have a wonderful relationship with but there are so many things standing in our way right now I'm having a hard time seeing around them.

All in all, I think I made the right decision coming back here. I have a great circle of friends who I think of as family and I feel blessed to have so much support around me.

I will post pics and info more regularly I promise. I have internet at home so I really have no excuse now do I???

I hope you are all well, happy and healthy.

(photo at the top was taken at the reef just before I dropped my phone in.)