Oil in the Keys...a sad day

Not to be a downer, but this morning they found balls of tar washed up on Ft. Zach beach right here in Key West. They had been saying that at worst case scenario it would take another 10 days or so...but surprise, its here early. I hope it turns out to be just a few balls of tar and oil and not a massive amount. I also hope BP and Transocean take FULL responsibility for this awful mess, and that they have to pay through the nose. It seems the only thing these big oil companies understand is money, so we need to make it so costly that they take every possible measure not to let this happen ever again!

Enough with the bad. There are still many good times to be had on this little island. On saturday I went over to the Schooner Wharf with some friends. They were having a party to celebrate the anniversary of their "magic bar". The Schooner has a house magician to entertain bar patrons with magic tricks, a great idea, because magic tricks seem to astound people more after a few adult beverages. Imagine my surprise when I looked to the stage and Clarence Clemons of the E-Street Band made a surprise appearance and played a show with the house band.

Also in attendance was Mike Leach, former head foodball coach at Texas Tech. Coach Leach got involved in some controversy over mistreating a player who had a concussion. The circumstances of his firing were shady at best, among the reasons are that the player was the son of a prominant ESPN anchor, and he was fired the day before he would have gotten a huge bonus according to his contract. He is currently in the middle of a lawsuit with Texas Tech and I hope everything works out for him. After he was let go, he did the same thing I did when I was in a rut...packed up his stuff and moved down to Key West!

I've also been spending quite a bit of time at the Rum Barrel watching the Flyers' historic playoff run. Its always a great crowd there for playoff games, most of the customers are on vacation from Philly or South Jersey, my kind of people! I'll be there tonight for game 2 of the eastern conference finals, and hopefully I'll remember my camera this time!

In job news, my drug test results finally came back, so I'm officialy a new employee at the Sheraton. My first day will be June 1st, two days after we get back from the cruise. I can't wait to start...Key West has a way of depleting savings accounts pretty quick! Thats about it for now...about to take my walk to Sandy's for a con leche and some cuban toast. Till next time!

Employment!

So I've been here for just over 2 weeks and all of a sudden started having success with the job hunt. On tuesday, right after I got back from Islamorada, my phone started ringing every few minutes about applications I had put in. After 3 exhausting days of inteviews, second interviews, background checks, etc. I now have 2 jobs for the summer.

First, the full-time job...I got hired at the restaurant supervisor at the Sheraton Suites Key West, right on smathers beach. I'm thrilled about the job, not just because it has pretty good pay and full benefits, but the hours are great, and the Sheraton is where I used to stay when I came here on vacation over the years. The restaurant does most of his business during breakfast, and handles all room-service food as well as the food for the bar at the pool. As such, my hours will be mostly daytime, most of my shifts will be 7-3 or something similar. Once I have been there for 90 days, I get full benefits including health insurance. My biggest complaint about management the first time around was the hours. I was on salary, so it didn't matter if I worked 40 hours or 70 hours a week, I got paid the same. (Usually it was closer to 70) The Sheraton pays its managers hourly, so now I won't mind the extra hours....overtime!

I also got a part-time bartending job at the Hyatt resort. The Hyatt is right on the marina, and is one of the most beautiful resorts I've ever seen...

Because of this, the Hyatt does a lot of business in weddings, banquets, etc. I'll be on-call for their special events, which they get anywhere between 1 and 8 per week. I'll get a nice hourly rate ($7-8 range), plus a pool that gets distributed amongst all the banquet people (bar, servers, chefs), AND I get to put a tip jar out on my bar. The best part of this is that its a very flexible job. They call a week in advance and ask if I want to work a certain party, and if I have other commitments already, thats no problem at all. A perfect side job!

Both of these jobs are corporate, so I had to do a background investigation (Hyatt), and a drug test(Sheraton). Once these come back clean I'll get my official start dates, and they both already know I'll be out of town from the 24th-29th, so my start date will hopefully be right after that! I'll keep you posted.

In other news, I saw Iron Man 2 last night. I had high expectations after the first one, and I was a little dissapointed with the sequel. Still a cool movie, just nowhere near as good.

Tonight is game 7 in the Flyers vs. Bruins playoff series. I'll be down at Pat Croce's watching the game, so anyone else in town, come join me! I love it at the Rum Barrel, the bartenders are awesome, and most people at the bar are from philly or south jersey. Plus they give me a locals discount! The Flyers were down 3 games to nothing earlier in the series, so the fact that there is a game 7 is pretty cool!

I had breakfast at Goldman's Deli in new town this morning, and it felt just like being in a Jersey diner. I had scrambled eggs with bacon, home fries, and a REAL bagel. And since this place is far away from the tourist district, it is very reasonably priced...all that food and coffee was right around $8. Since parking is such a hassle in my neighborhood, I normally stay close for breakfast, but I'll definitely be going back to Goldman's. Worth the hassle!

Thats about it for today. Its overcast and raining on and off, so I'll probably just hang out around the house for a while.

Bartender's Bash 2010

Being that I've been looking for bartending jobs down here, my friend Josh invited me along to Bartenders Bash 2010 in Islamorada. We drove up sunday night, got a room at the Sunset Inn right up the road from the Holiday Isle resort, where the event was being held. We drove over to the resort sunday night to check it out, and it was a really cool place.

Monday was another story altogether. There were tons of people from all over who came to town for the bash. There were tons of beer and liquor people there giving away free drinks as far as the eye can see:

Now, Josh is whats called a "flair bartender". The Bartender's Bash has a flair competition every year with $1000 in prize money to the best bartenders. This was the best of the best of flair bartenders. Some of the competitors had come in from places like Vegas, Argentina, Orlando, etc. One of the judges was the actual bartender from the "5 O'Clock Somewhere" music video. For anyone who is a facebook friend, I posted a video of Josh's performance from the event. Here is Josh setting up his bottles getting ready to go on:

Staying in the hotel room next to us were a few of Josh's friends who had flown in from Vegas. Really cool people, some of them were competing too. There was Nick, who bartends at the new City Center in Vegas, and James (who, unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of), who won 1st place in the contest. He definitely put on a show! This is Nick on stage getting ready to go:

After the competition we went over to the pool bar for some much-needed beverages. The competition was set up right in the sun, so I was burnt up and in need of shade. We ran into a familiar face from Key West, he runs the Alamo bar and unfortunately I don't remember his name. He did have a really cool parrot, and Josh and Nick both spent time playing with it:

So we had a great time! On the job front, I interviewed at the Sheraton Suites here for the job of restaurant supervisor, and I was invited back for a second interview tomorrow, so wish me luck. I had an interview at boondocks, but I'm thinking that place is just waaay too far to drive to every day. Today I have an interview at the Hyatt for a part-time bartending job, so its ben busy! Hopefully in the next few days I'll be an employed Key Wester. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Matt

Byrd and Mindy come to town!!

So only a few days after I arrived in town, one of my good friends from SC came down for a visit. Byrd, and his wife Mindy, were great company and we had a great time! Here is a picture of the three of us at "the top"...even though he has been coming to Key West for years, Byrd had never been to the top of the La Concha building. The La Concha is the highest point on the island, a whopping 7 stories high. It has the best views of the island, especially the sunsets. There is a bar up there caled "the top", for obvious reasons. They have a great drink called the Key West Lemonade, which we all had. The rest of the building is actually a Crowne Plaza hotel, and because of this, a lot of visitors to the island think the top is for guests of the hotel only. Well here is one of the few local's tips I can offer so far: The top of the la concha is public after 3PM. To get up there, walk into the starbucks on duval street, then walk out the back door into the hotel. The elevator is right there. It is so much more relaxing, not to mention a better view than Mallory Square. Byrd, am I right?

And what do you do in Key West if you're visiting? EAT! And drink too...we went around and found all the best happy hour specials, and some great food. My favorite happy hour so far is Two Friends patio restaurant. From 4-7, they have $2 beer, $3 wine, and half price all appetizers. We had buffalo wings, conch fritters, smoked mahi dip, and steamed shrimp. That and 2 rounds of drinks came to $35 or so. Wow!!

On the way into town, they stopped at Bobalu's, which is a famous restaurant down here about 15 miles outside of Key West. They were shocked to find that they opened a new Bobalu's in town, right next to the Green Parrot! We went there and had some yuenglings and a pizza with grilled shrimp, garlic, and red peppers on it. Delicious!

Another great thing about Key West is the coffee! Starbucks is completely obsolete down here. There is a big cuban community on the island, and they bring with them cuban coffee, which I had mentioned briefly in previous posts. We went to the Cuban Coffee Queen, which is a small cafe near the waterfront, right behind half shell raw bar, for those of you who come visit. There are 2 major coffee drinks that any visitor needs to know:

1) Cafe Con Leche: spanish for "coffee with milk", made with equal parts strong cuban coffee, and steamed 2% milk. When ordering you say "con leche, 2 sugar". Absolutely delicious! I'm actually sipping a con leche as I write this.

2) Buchi: a cuban espresso shot. This drink will put hair on your chest! Served in a small cup, just like american espresso, with 2 main differences. One, buchi is not bitter like a lot of espresso, it just tastes like very very strong coffee. Two, buchi is very sweet, they brew it with cane sugar, and it is the perfect blend of strong and sweet.

Now, to talk about something other than food. I had an excellent meeting at the high school with the athletic director, Mr. Fraga. He was very helpful, and pointed me toward all of the right people to talk to for teaching next year, and he wants me to start helping out with the wrestling program now. I'm going back up there at 5:30 to met the wrestling coach. It sounds like they have a great program. They have made it to states many times recently. The problem with wrestling in the south is that there are no feeder programs, that is, there is no wrestling programs before the high school level. What the coach here does, is after high school wrestling season is over (end of february), he runs a youth program at the wrestling gym, so even his freshmen wrestlers have a huge edge when they start competing in high school, especiall in a state where programs like that generally don't exist. In New Jersey when I was growing up, you could sign up for youth wresting starting at 5 years old! This is why a lot of the big-time MMA fighters today come from the northeast USA. They just have such a better wrestling background up there. Anyways, Mr. Fraga mentioned that his son is involved in the program, so he would be there tonight, and invited me to come by, as the coach is overwhelmed with the amount of kids in the program and is looking for people to help out. I can't wait! Rolling around on the mats a little will give me incentive to get back into shape!

So the school career options are looking up, now I just need to figure out how to survive in Key West until august. Tommorrow I have an interview at a very popular bar outside of town for a bartending job. Its a bit of a drive, but the place is always busy when I go by, and its a good way to finally get some local experience here. Sure, I'd have to drive up the keys a little bit, but its a gorgeous drive! I'd rather drive 25 minutes in the keys than on the Jersey Turnpike, or I-20 in Columbia. We'll see what happens. Tomorrow's blog entry will be "Bartender's Bash 2010", and there will be great stories and pictures! Check back then!

Matt

The Historic Seaport District...

So I've had a fun few days! Byrd and Mindy were in town from Columbia, and we had a great time down here. I was planning on doing a long blog entry about it, but I'm waiting for Mindy to send me the pictures from the trip, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Anyways, when they first arrived in town we planned on meeting at Pepe's cafe for breakfast. As can be expected, they were running on "island time" that morning, so I had some time to walk around and snap some pictures while I was waiting for them to get there. The first one is of Pepe's cafe, said to be the oldest restaurant in key west. Byrd had a funny story of a previous trip down here, he was at a bar downtown, and asked the bartender where the locals go to eat. One of our smartass locals was sitting next to him and immediately said "the locals eat at home"! Then the bartender asked if they had been to Pepe's, and he said no, so after checking it out, he's been going there ever since. Pepe's opened in it's current form in 1909, and before that it is said that pirates used to meet here and plan their plundering before going out to sea. Not sure if its true, but makes sense since its right across from the harbor.

The next is B.O.'s Fish Wagon. This is right across the street from Pepe's, and it is run by Buddy Owen, who is in his 70's and is still there a lot today. (Don't call him bo, he'll throw you out) He started out selling his fish sandwiches from his old pickup truck which is still parked out front. The city said no, to run a restaurant you have to have a physical structure, so he laid down a concrete slab and a tin roof over his truck, and the rest is history. The food is excellent, I get the grilled mahi sandwich when I go.

Finally, some pictures of the ships in the harbor. These sailboats make a ton of money taking tourists out for sails, the most popular of which are the sunset sails. For about $40, depending on the boat, they sail you a couple miles out to sea, usually they have an open bar, and some have food included. It really is the best way to see the famous sunsets out here!

Being that it is sunday, not too much going on today. I have my meeting at the high school on tuesday, where I'll meet with both the athletic director (I'm trying to coach wrestling, and maybe track and field, both of which I did in high school), and I'll see the principal, and figure out what's what in terms of open teaching positions for the fall. I'll keep you all updated on that! For now, its off to the gym, something I really need to get back in the swing of doing. I have been eating horribly down here, especially with Byrd and Mindy in town! There is so much great food to try, and there are some places off the beaten path that are very reasonably priced. Some great happy hour specials too if you know where to go! I'll weigh myself at the gym, and hopefully that'll make me wake up and start going every day. I go to Old Town Fitness on Truman avenue, a short walk from my house, and not as cramped as most gyms in Key West.

Till next time! I'll write either later tonight or tomorrow, whenever I get the pictures from Mindy!

Live from Windsor Lane

So I've been in Key West for 3 days now...so much to write about!

The first picture is Higgs Beach. Now, Key West is not known for its beaches. If what you're after is beautiful beaches, you would be much better off in a bunch of other south Florida towns. That being said, there still are a lot of great spots to go by the water. This one is called Higgs Beach, and its the closest one to my house. So far, my morning routine in town consists of getting a large con leche at sandy's (its a cuban coffee drink), then walking for about 5 minutes to the end of white street, where the beach and the white street pier are. The pier is a great place to sit and have coffee, and the beach, like so much of key west, has so much history to it...

At night I have a few favorite spots. Saturday night, went to Captain Tony's for a few beers before bed. Captain Tony's became famous in Jimmy Buffett's song "Last Mango in Paris". When Jimmy was just getting started in music, he used to play for tourists at Captain Tony's for 10 bucks and a 6 pack of beer a night. Every time a big-time celebrity comes in, they put his/her name on a barstool so you can tell people something like "I'm sitting on Jerry Seinfeld right now". The walls are covered in business cards people have left there over the years, and its fun to look at some of the older ones from the 60's and 70's.

Last night I went to the Rum Barrel for dinner and to watch the Phillies game. The Rum Barrel is owned by Pat Croce, who is a legend around Philly. He spoke at my elementary school in Jersey when I was 9. Because if this, the Rum Barrel is the location of the Southernmost Phillies Club. During the game, I tried the philly cheese steak, which is actually the recipe from Geno's in philly, apparently Pat bought the rights to use the recipe in Key West. As anyone from philly knows, a real philly is made with cheeze whiz (thats right), fried onions, and served on an italian hoagie roll. Nothing else...no peppers, etc. It was excellent! I thought I was sitting at Geno's again. A great way to watch the phillies! And we won 11-5.

And last but certainly not least, tonight I went to perhaps my favorite place in town, the schooner wharf. The schoner wharf is at the end of the marina, right on the water. I absolutely love he atmosphere of this place. Its mostly locals who hang out there, so I went down there to mingle and take in the view. I ordered the seafood sampler, and WOW! It came with a mahi filet, caught right off the coast in KW, unbelievably fresh! Also 4 fried and 4 grilled shrimp, which key west is famous for. Last were 2 conch fritters, and they were the best I've had so far. There are a lot of places you can get fresh seafood, but conch fritters are unique to key west. There are several places here that claim to have the best, but so far schooner wharf is the winner in my eyes. Good food, good company, just a great time!

Thats about it for tonight...I'm calling it an early night because I actually have to be productive tomorrow! Goodnight everyone! I'll leave you a picture of windsor lane, taken from in front of the house, looking toward the cemetary at the end of the street.

Finally here!

Its been an exhausting day of driving and moving, but I'm finally settled in. I was gonna go out and explore a bit, but I'm feeling like being lazy for a little while!

I got up bright and early in Ft. Lauderdale, went to Einstein's for a bagel with Jordan, then off I went. Got to Key West at 3:00 or so and found the key John had hidden for me by the door. Sidenote: both of my housemates are named John, so for future clarification, this is how I'll differentiate;

1) Chef John : The guy who owns the house, he's also the chef at the golf course here. He was telling me when I first met him how the recession had particularly hit luxury services such as catered meals at country clubs, and as a result, he had been working very part time for the past few years. He said business has picked up tremendously recently, so much so that he's working 12 hour days for most of this week, then going to Islamorada for 4 nights for a super catering job. Good for him!

2) Writer John: The guy who is renting the other room. He's in the process of writing a book right now and stays in his room a lot. Hopefully whenever I talk to him next I'll find out what its about!

So I got all settled in, and then went for a quick late lunch/ early dinner at Guy Harvey's. Some of you have probably seen the Guy Harvey shirts everyone has nowadays, with the fish and stuff all over them. Well, Guy Harvey opened a restaurant down here, so I wanted to try it out. I wasn't in a beer drinking mood yet, so I started with an iced tea and a cup of their seafood chowder. The chowder was great, it had full shrimp and bitesize chunks of several fish in it. I recognized snapper and grouper. Then I got a half-pound of steamed shrimp. Key West is famous for its shrimp, and these did not dissapoint. Plus the place is very reasonably priced, especially for Key West. All that stuff for $15.50 plus tip is almost like Columbia prices. Anyways, if you ever come down here, I'd highly recommend Guy Harvey's.

Thats about it for now. I'm about to take a walk over to Captain Tony's for a quick amber draft and then its back here to go to sleep. Captain Tony's is my favorite bar on the island, and talking about it could take a whole blog entry to get through. And I'll be sure to write about it tomorrow!

This is part of my room....I love all the artwork on the walls. The house has such a cool "Old Key West" feel to it.

2 days left...

2 more days till I leave!! I decided I wasn't going to work at the school this week...too much to do during the days! I tried to go to Jiffy Lube today to get my oil changed and get the car serviced before I leave. Now, the name Jiffy Lube would imply quickness, right? There were 3 other cars there when I arrived. Not 3 cars waiting, 3 cars total. The guy saw me pull up, walked over to my car, and said it would be at least an hour before they could get to it. My first thought was, "wow, those other three cars must have some serious problems if it'll take that long." I wasn't about to sit in their waiting room for "at least an hour", which in car-speak means about 2 hours, so I left. I'm gonna break down and bring it to wal-mart later, where if I have to wait, I can at least walk around the store and keep myself occupied.

On a positive note, I switched my car insurance from SC to Florida today, and to my surprise, my rates actually went down! I was always told that SC was the lowest insurance anywhere. Cool!

Anyways, still on the agenda today is packing some stuff, trying to figure out what to do with my furniture, the car service, and trying to change my address on everything important. Speaking of which, my new contact info in KW is:

Matt Frankel
705 Windsor Lane
Key West, FL 33040

I'll keep the same phone number for a little while for simplicity's sake.

The next time I'll update, I'll be down in the islands and I'll have more interesting things to say!

Reflections on the Ale House...

Only 4 more days till I hit the road! I just finished my last weekend at Ale House, and it went pretty well. Working during the UFC fights is something I definitely WILL NOT miss about the job. Sure, the place gets busy, but you get the same 4 tables all night long (people actually start showing up at 6 or 7 to get a table for a PPV fight that runs from 10-1), and a good portion of the people don't really spend any movey during the fight. I had one table this past week who drank rootbeer, didn't eat, and took up one of my 4 tables for 6 hours. Their bill was a whopping $8!

As much as I bitch about it, I really will miss that place. First of all, as far as waiting tables goes, you're not gonna find a place where you make more money in Columbia. I've worked at a total of 4 restaurants in the area over my college career, and trust me, there really is no comparison. As long as you don't mind late night hours, having your legs feel like they're made of Jell-O at the end of a friday night shift, and cleaning up puke on occasion, its the best serving job around. There's a reason that there was about a 6-month period where we didn't hire one new server. Nobody left, and that kind of low turnover is unheard of in most restaurants!

Money aside, there are other reasons I'll miss the Ale House. For one, there really is (for the most part), a great group of people working there. Of course there are one or two people I could do without, but I have made so many friends there and I hope we all stay in touch over the years. A lot of them say they'll come visit me in the keys, and I hope some actually do!

One thing I'm not looking forward to down in the keys is job-hunting. I absolutely hate not only looking for a job, but having to go through the initial period when you're trying to prove yourself as a good worker to everyone so they stop treating you like a newbie. With my experience and education, I'm pretty confident that I will find a job pretty easily, its just a matter of whether I'll like it or not. For those of you who remember, it was a random job search that resulted in me working at Damon's. God, that was awful!

On a side note, I'm planning to apply for a bunch of jobs in the next few weeks, both in restaurants and in education-related jobs. I could really use references, especially from those of you I've worked with and those who have know me for a while. If anyone finds the time to write me a short letter of reference saying how I'd be a good employee to hire, that would be the best going-away gift I could ask for! It doesn't have to be anything elaborate, just a few sentences with your name and contact info at the end. I would greatly appriciate the help, and if you are willing to do this, let me know! Thanks a bunch!!

matt

One week...

One week from today I'll be heading south on 95 toward the keys. I'm definitely starting to get nervous and excited at the same time. Today I officially changed my address on my bank accounts, car insurance, etc, and the move feels a whole lot more "real" now!

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely ready to be done with this insane work schedule I've been putting myself through these past few weeks. It has definitely been worth it though, in my year working at Ale House, I have never done as well as I have been doing lately. Not just on the weekends either..I mean $190 on a monday night, $175 on a wednesday, etc. Over the past 2 weeks, I've been able to stash enough cash for my travel expenses AND first months rent. I want to be able to leave my savings untouched for as long as possible once I get there! My goal is to make about another $350 or so over my last 4-5 shifts at Ale House, which would be my spending money for the first few weeks there, and to work every day, monday-thursday next week at the schools, so I'll have a nice paycheck coming in mid-May.

On a family note, Drew graduates from USC this coming week, and I'm very proud of that. Without going into personal business, college has been a struggle for him at times, and to see him not only finish, but do very well grade-wise, is quite an achievement. About a year ago, long before I decided I was moving to Key West, I booked us on a Carnival cruise for a graduation gift, by far the most elaborate gift I have given anyone thus far in my life. Ironically, the first stop is Key West! So, I have to drive to Miami, get on a plane to Jacksonville, and get on a boat just to be taken right back home. Sounds funny, but I'm sure we'll have a great time, and I look forward to showing my friends around my new hometown. Ryan, Lindsay, Chris (best friend from high school) and Ryan's family will also be on the cruise, so it'll be a great time!

A few things that I need to find time for this next week before I can head south. I need to get my car inspected and serviced...it would suck to get halfway through florida and break down. I need to figure out what I'm going to do with all my stuff here, since I'm renting a furnished place down there. I'll need to figure out what to bring and what not to bring. I really shouldn't have that much stuff...no furniture, kitchen stuff, winter clothes, etc. Just my warm-weather wardrobe, bedding, computer, and a few random things should do it!

Thats all for today, no new pictures yet! Wish me luck, and I'll keep you posted!

Matt

Counting the days....

Happy Sunday to everyone!

So I'm still in Columbia for the next week and a half....

I figured it would be easy to get through the three weeks before heading back to Key West, but it has been anything but easy so far. I'm trying to set aside some extra cash by working all the shifts I possibly can, and its definitely taking its toll. This past week, between both jobs, I have put in close to 80 hours, and I am exhausted! My work schedule is slightly lighter for this coming week (only working 5 nights at the ale house!), but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The tentative plan is to have my last day at AH and the schools be thursday the 29th. This would give me another 8 or 9 shifts at AH and would let me work until the end of the pay period at Richland 2, giving me a full paycheck come May 15. I would get on the road friday morning the 30th and drive most of the way, maybe visiting Jordan in Boca again, that seems to be about my 1-day driving limit, about 10 hours. I would wake up on saturday the 1st, and drive the rest of the way (about 4 hours), and get to KW in the early afternoon, so I'll have time to unload my stuff and get settled before dinnertime. Lets hope the actual moving goes that smoothly!

On a side note, ever since the trip earlier this month, I have been very slack with the diet and exercise plan. It may have something to do with having literally no time to go to the gym, but excuses don't make champions (at least thats what my old wrestling coach liked to say!). I haven't put on any weight, still around 165, but I can definitely notice a drop in my energy level and in my mood throughout the day. When I work out in the afternoon, even though I'm physically drained, I feel great for the rest of the day. On that note, I'm not getting in any better shape by sitting here typing, so I'm off to the gym! Thanks for reading, and I'll write again soon!

I have been craving a 22oz. Captain Tony's Amber draft for days now!

....and some steamed shrimp from here....

Matt

Update and new blog title

First of all, you may notice that the title of the blog has changed from "Matt's journey to the keys" to "Life on the island". If this is your first time reading my blog, I can now finally make this public information, since both of my employers now know I am leaving! Since my last post, I went down to KW to explore, look for jobs, meet some locals, and to just get a feel for the place. Everything about this trip validated my plans to move down, so I decided to start looking for jobs. I had success with this on several fronts...

1) Key West High - As april is an awful time to be looking for school jobs, this trip went as well as it could have. The school year is 2 months from being over, and they are still at least a month away from knowing what vacancies they will have for next year. Having said that, the principal (who is retiring and won't be doing the hiring for the fall) suggested that if KW High was truly my first choice that I should volunteer a few hours a week in the school for the rest of this year. This would give me the chance to meet the right people to know for the fall, which would give me a tremendous advantage over anonymous people looking to relocate. As I've said in other posts, I can also substitute-teach for the rest of the year as well.

2) Bar/restaurant jobs- This is what I would do for the most part during the summer. I had good talks with the management of several places that would be great to work at (most notably, Louie's Backyard and the Westin resort). After hearing my experience, they all said "It sounds great, come talk to us when you actually live here". I plan on doing just that :)

3) Florida Keys Community College- This one just came out of nowhere! While browsing the education websites in the keys, I saw that there were several summer classes with no teachers and they are actively hiring adjunct professors to teach math courses. They have 2 classes with no teachers for the second summer session (June 21-July 30), and after seeing my qualifications, they said I would be perfect. While this will be very part-time (each class meets for 2 hours a day, 4 days a week), the pay works out to about $32 an hour, not to mention a GREAT addition to my resume.

So thats the job front. With the college job, volunteering at the HS, and the abundance of bar/restaurant job openings, I decided after a lot of thought to go ahead and chase my dream. It was then time to look for a place to live, and after 2 days of searching, got a callback from a guy with a room for rent, so I went to look. Now, this was advertised as a surprisingly inexpensive place for the location (right in the middle of Old Town, 2 blocks off Duval, and smack in the middle between the Atlantic Ocean and the Seaport district). The house is great, a 3 bedroom conch house, and the roomates are a mid-50's Australian chef, who has owned the house for over 30 years, and a mid 30's writer...very nice people. I asked why the rent wasn't higher (its not cheap by any means, but low by KW standards), and he said for a few inconveniences, he didnt feel he should charge more. The house is unrenovated with old appliances and such (who cares?), no washer and dryer, but there are laundromats everywhere in old town, and he wants to keep a quiet house, meaning very few, if any, overnight guests, and no loud music, etc. On the plus side, the room is fully furnished, air conditioned (a must in KW), and includes all utilities, and is a month-to-month lease so I could leave relatively easily if I had to. I loved the area and the house, and get a really good vibe from both of the guys, so after checking out a couple more places, I decided to go with it. My official move-in date is May 1st, so I'll be loading up the yellow beast and heading down US1 then. Now that life is getting more eventful, I'll update this blog much more often, so please sign up to subscribe if you haven't already! Now for some pictures..

The house, on a quiet street in Old Town in the middle of everything.....

Sunset in Key West...this alone is worth the trip!

The famous sign at Ft. Zach beach.......

The harbor district, as seen from the top of the Crowne Plaza

Thoughts....

So I didn't get the job at HOB....the principal said they all liked me, but as I expected, they don't want to hire a first-year teacher in the middle of the school year. Makes perfect sense, but dissapointing nonetheless. I'm contemplating my options at this point....The big statewide teacher recruitment fair is in May, and I'm told that with certification in both math and science that I'll get a job pretty much wherever I want. The lease on my apartment is up at the end of this month, and I really don't want to be hopping from place to place for a while, trying to find something permanent, so the way I see it, there are a few scenarios that could happen.

1) Go ahead and move to KW now. I have enough in the bank for moving expenses, a couple months rent and living expenses. There are plenty of people renting out rooms and apartments on a month-to-month basis, so worse case scenario is that I find a teaching job somewhere else for the fall, and have to move to another part of south florida in August. I know I can substitute for the school district for the time being, and I'm pretty certain I could get a bartending or serving gig down there pretty easily. This is by no means the safest option, but it is definitely worth considering in my opinion.

2) Stay in Columbia until I find a permanent position for the fall. My sister has already said I can crash with her for a little while, which would allow me to put some more money aside, and keep working the jobs I have now while I look for something better. Plus, as a safety option, Richland 2 has already offered me a permanant position for the fall at any of the 4 high schools in the district. This would be a very practical option, but the negatives are that I would be sleeping in my sister's living room for a few months and I really like my privacy, and more importantly, its just not what I want.

I'm sure there are other options, and I am open to suggestions at this point. However, a decision needs to be made soon for obvious reasons (living situation, giving notice to the employers, etc).

Please comment, as I am very indecisive at the moment!! I'll leave you with some more random KW pictures.... The view while driving along A1A

Me in a few years :)

One of the best bars in the world......Smathers Beach at sunrise.....how nice!

News on the job front....

So, today I got a phone call from Horace O'Bryant Middle School in Key West to schedule an interview for this coming monday (the 15th). One of their science teachers apparently just up and quit, so there is an unexpected vacancy. The job would start April 5, the day after their spring break. Wish me luck!

I'm really hopeful....teaching in the Keys seems like it would be such a cool experience. Here are some HOB Middle teachers taking the kids on a field trip to the Dry Tortugas in the middle of the Carribean!

In other news, I am now down to a cool 173 pounds, and I've been very good on my diet. I almost forget what fried food tastes like! 13 more to go...once I'm down to 160 I'll post before/after pictures! Till next time!

Long Overdue Update...

Wow! I can't believe its been a month since I wrote last! Its been a busy month, a lot of work, and preparing for future work. I've done the substituting thing just about every day, on top of working 30 hours or so a week at ale house. I'm very proud to say that I've been able to put a good bit of money aside for moving expenses, in a separate savings account that I have set up for the sole purpose of paying for moving costs, a new apartment, etc. In addition to getting my tax refund, I haven't spent money on almost anything that wasn't absolutely neccessary. I did buy Jimmy Buffett tickets (which is almost neccessary), and thats really about it!

Speaking of which, Jimmy Buffett is playing in Columbia this tuesday and I can't wait! I last saw Jimmy in Charlotte last may, and his shows are truly a great experience. I'm meeting up with some friends to tailgate when I get finished teaching, and we're going to enjoy some landsharks in the parking lot before heading in. I don't care if its 30 degrees out, I'm wearing my hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts!

Also, on the diet/exercise front, I have now lost 15 pounds since christmas, and more importantly, the weight training and cardio is starting to show, and I feel great. Much more energy than I had just a few months ago!

Thats about all for right now, I promise to update again very soon, with pictures from the concert!

Week 1 Progress Update

Well, its been a week since I started this blog, so here's a quick status update. The diet and exersize plan is going well, I've only cheated on the diet a few times. I'm still at 178lbs., but I feel good and I can see a noticeable difference. Today is my back/arms workout, and I'm meeting Ryan at the city gym for a little change of pace. A friend told me that one of the secrets to making a diet work is to constantly change your routine, so I'll be working out with a bunch of cops this afternoon.

After the gym, I'll be working the 5-Close shift downstairs at the Ale House. Business has picked up a little since USC is back in session. Also I've had better luck finding substitute teaching gigs for this week. There wasn't anything available today, but I'm working at Blythewood High School tomorrow, then doing a half day at an elementary school on thursday. This will be my first time in a non high-school setting, so I'm kinda glad its only a half day so I can see if its something I want to do in the future. As I've said before, everything I make from substituting is direct deposited into a savings account for the sole purpose of moving, so I'm trying to take as many assignments as possible.

On the family front, my mother turns 50 a week from tomorrow, and hopefuly I'll be able to make it up there for a visit. She's doing fantastic in Simpsonville, and looks great for her age. No one would every guess that she had a 27 year old son, or 3 kids who have given her as much stress over the years as we have. Love ya Mom!

Beerfest!

Well its been a long and exhausting weekend! On saturday the World Beer Festival came to Columbia. I had been reading a lot about the festival since it was announced, so when the folks at the Ale House (We are one of the festival's sponsors) asked if I would help out in exchange for a free ticket, I jumped at the chance.

The World Beer Festival takes place in a handful of cities across the country, and it just so happened they picked Columbia for this one. It is hosted by All About Beer magazine, and I have to admit, I was very skeptical at the thought of $50 a ticket to drink some beer at the Convention Center on a saturday afternoon. After this weekend, I can honestly say that it was worth every penny.

Basically, the festival attracts approximately 6000 people from all over the southeast, as well as pretty much every major producer of beer in the world, from big-names like Budweiser, to microbreweries in the midwest, and everything in between. All together, there were about 300 different beers to sample, and most people there tried their best to get to them all. Since the convention center in columbia has two equally massive ballroom spaces on two levels, they divided the festival into two "Beer Gardens", and the upper level was the Carolina Ale House Beer Garden.

Quite a turnout, and a very diverse crowd! There was also live music, seminars on beer tasting, and some of the best food in town. When I arrived, I worked at our booth for a while, handing out menus and trying to get people to come to the Ale House after the festival:

After I did my duty, I set out to walk around the festival and try some beers, have some food, and mingle with the other sponsors, like Zingo. What an amazing business idea this is! If you are out on the town, and feel you are too drunk to drive home, call Zingo and they will come to you on their little scooters, fold up the scooter and put it in your trunk, and drive your car (with you in it) safely home. Sure beats a cab ride, since the next day you don't need to go get your car. For about 20-25 bucks, well worth it in my opinion!

After the festival ended at 4, I headed straight to the ale house and worked a very busy shift until close, not leaving until 3AM. Went home and slept for a few hours, then went right back in on sunday morning to open the store at 10AM. This is part of my newfound desire to work as much as possible to put some money aside to move. I have also stuck to my goal of not spending money on things I don't need. The only non-essential things I have bought for myself in the past 3 weeks were bought with gift certificates from the holidays. Even though it was bought with a gift card, a sattelite radio to listen to Howard Stern is a borderline essential item :) I've had some unexpected expenses lately like $500 in car repairs, but all I can do is pay that and move on. It sucks not being able to treat myself for the time being, but it is a means to an end. I know that it will pay off once I'm down on the island!

I had no time to go to the gym saturday or sunday, but I stuck to my diet very well. I'm down to 178 pounds, right on schedule! Tomorrow I am off from both jobs for the MLK holiday and I'll have a bootcamp-like session in the morning! I hope everyone has a great day off work tomorrow, and I'll update again soon!

Day 3: Calling all Parrotheads!

Today I'll just do a quick update....

First of all, Jimmy Buffett is coming to Columbia on February 23rd! Tickets go on sale this saturday, and I'll be getting up bright and early to get good seats. If anyone else is interested, let me know! I saw Jimmy in Charlotte last summer

and it was a great time! It won't be quite the same in the winter, but I'm sure the loyal parrotheads will be out tailgating nonetheless.

Today is cardio day in the gym, and quite frankly I've been pleasantly surprised with how well I've stuck to this diet/workout plan so far. Today I'm going to do 45 minutes of various cardio (bike, elliptical, treadmill), and then some core exercises. If my legs are not in severe pain later I did something wrong! I'm on a 6-day a week workout schedule which goes as follows:

Mondays and Thursdays: Cardio Days

Tuesdays and Fridays: Chest workout

Wednesdays and Saturdays: Back and arms

Sundays: Rest

I'm being very good on the diet too. I had my usual light breakfast with Drew at the bagel shop downtown, and will have my protien shake after my workout, and a salad for dinner tonight.

I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to put away some cash to move with for some time now. Key West is considerably more expensive than Columbia to live in. Looking at houses, the average 3 bedroom rental is about $2500 a month. In Columbia, we pay $890 for a very nice 3-bedroom apartment! I've tried to save some, but it seems like lately I can't blow my nose without someone else needing 400 bucks from me for something. On the bright side, I'll be getting a nice tax refund in a few weeks thanks to President Obama who decided that as part of the stimulus that anyone who payed tuition in 2009 gets a refundable tax credit of at least $1000, so that will be added to the moving fund. I've been trying to work more days substitute teaching, but none of the teachers in my district have been taking days off lately! I suppose they just got back from winter break and are nice and rested, so hopefully this next week I'll have more to do. Ale House has been even worse, with the holiday slowdown. Restaurants in Columbia simply die when USC isn't in session!

Its gonna be a tough transition leaving Columbia, but unfortunately, there comes a point when its necessary to move on. I'm nervous about having new roomates, since I've had the same one since 2004: