Let's Try This Again...

Due to popular demand, I decided to give this blogging thing another shot. A lot has happened since I last wrote well over a year ago. To follow up on my last post, the oil spill wound up having no effect in the keys whatsoever.

Allow me for a minute to briefly update everyone back home on what's new down here. My teaching career is now well underway, and I am proud to say I am in my second year as a high school science teacher here. Just before last school year (2010-11) was set to begin, I got an unexpected last-minute phone call asking if I would be interested in a Chemistry teaching position that had suddenly become available. Of course I took the job, and wound up having a very good year. The powers that be decided to open the first charter high school in the keys this year, and I was given the opportunity to develop and teach the science program. I am now THE science guy at Key West Collegiate School, which operates on the campus of Florida Keys Community College (FKCC).

I am also in school myself, once again. Now that my teaching career has begun and I realize I want to do this for the rest of my working life, I decided to better educate myself. I'm taking classes in Educational Leadership through Nova Southeastern University in Miami Beach (go sharks!). I should have my M.S. in Educational Leadership by this time next year, and will start the PhD program immediately afterward, which is another two years. This will eventually allow me to move into administration. However, even though I go to Nova, I am and always will be a Gamecocks fan!!

Last, but certainly not least, I am in a very serious relationship with my beautiful girlfriend Kathy and we are buying a house together here in town! She works right across the street from me at the hospital, and I could not be happier!

Kathy and I on my balcony by Smathers Beach

The new house, we close on December 1st!

In Miami

On a party boat for my 29th birthday

So, life in Key West has been good to me so far. I promise to try my best to keep up with the blog, and I hope to see you all down here in paradise very soon.....

Till next time....

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.