Day 118

This is being written on the plane flight home from Naples. Last I left you, it was a cloudy Friday morning. We did a little shopping in the morning and had lunch overlooking a bay to kill some time before the sun eventually came out in the afternoon. An aside – I stopped at Ben & Jerry’s for ice cream on the way back and had maybe the best ice cream flavor I’ve ever had (I know P – I use that phrase way too loosely about everything). It was Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. For those of you who like Oatmeal cookies, Ben and Jerry’s has managed to captured this flavor in ice cream. They sell it in pints as well. But I digress. We spent the afternoon out by the pool getting more sun and reading. My Uncle Bart left for me the new John Feinstein book “Last Dance” which is a behind the scenes look at the Final Four experience. I couldn’t put it down. It couldn’t have been more up my alley. Around 4:00, Leah stayed at the pool and my mom and I played tennis. This was quite an experience. I was a pretty good Tennis player in my time. I played in tournaments, took clinics and lessons probably 4-5 times a week and played in high school before quitting my Junior year in a dispute with my coach. I pretty much never picked up a racquet again until this past summer on our trip up to my old camp. My friend Brian and I hit balls on old court #1 for nostalgtic purposes and it was like they say about riding a bike – you never forget how. It was strange; I hadn’t played for close to 12 years and I just loved it again. My mom is now taking lessons (she hadn’t played in over 20 some years) so we both brought our racquets down. I’ll say this, for someone who was out of practice all of that time, she was pretty good. She is a natural athlete. I was all over the place. One minute, I am pounding forehand winners like I did when I was 16, the next I am hitting the ball of the frame of my racquet over the fence. We played a set. Mom jumped out on me 1-0. I won three straight games to go up 3-1. Mom won three straight to go up 4-3, I took the last three to win 6-4. But it was a battle. I forgot how competitive I was since I haven’t really played in so many years. It all came rushing back to me, and I was playing against my mom! I hated to lose then, and clearly, I still do now. But it was a lot of fun playing with her. I don’t love golf like she does, but this is a sport we can play together. The exercise is tough as well. I forgot how tiring Tennis is. We had dinner down in the historic district at a place called Chops. Another great meal and solid atmosphere. Solid Filet’s, good calamari teaser, good wine.

Saturday was Golf Day for my mom and I and a leasure day for Leah. We played at a course at The Strand with Paul and Cookie Joseph, the parents of my cousin Debbie’s husband Steve. I shared a cart with Paul. After 4 hours with this man – I have a new favorite person. The guys is rock solid. He reminds me so much of his son. Both big, laid back guys with good hearts. I got some solid insight into the world of the scrap business and heard some great war stories. My golf game, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. I can do everything, just usually not on the same hole. One hole I drilled the side of someone’s house off the tee. Luckily, no damage was done. I thought it was funny. They didn’t. We were back around 3:30 and I met Leah at the pool for about an hour. The day was mostly overcast and because of this, she didn’t put as much suntan lotion on as she should have and got a little fried. Two days later, looking at her, you would never noticed. It all turned into tan. But it was painful for her nonetheless. We took a little bit of a nap and headed down to a different area, 3rd street, for dinner at Campiello’s. This restaurant unlike the two we had gone to previously, was more Florida. Very bright, white walls, people eating outside. We spilt all thin pizza for a teaser and had pastas for dinner. Nothing was appetizing for us on the desert menu (and of course I was in a rush to be home by 9 for the KU/Texas game which turned into a disaster for my Jayhawks), but we stopped at DQ for Blizzards. Solid call.

Yesterday the weather didn’t cooperate so we went and had an early brunch at the Ritz and went to a Movie. We saw Firewall with Harrison Ford. My review? Skip it. It was about an unrealistic as a movie could possibly be and somehow seemed long for a 1 hour 40 minute movie. Throughout the week. Leah and I were wondering if there were any poorer sections of Naples because it seems like the entire city is inhabited by millionaires who are age 60 and up. “Blue Hairs” was the term of the week. They were everywhere. After the movie we dropped my mom off and went to a mall in Naples. Here is where we found that group we hadn’t seen. I swear when I tell you walking from one end of the mall to the next was a creepy experience. It was white trash and Cuban central. We felt like every single piece of trash and Cuban was inhabiting this mall at the same time. It was so odd. We couldn’t get out of that mall fast enough. Had dinner last night with Sondra and Tom Cristal at their club where they live. Carvery night buffet. Tom Cristal is another one of my new favorite people. He has been coming to Maples in the winter for 30 years now. He had a great line. Talking about a place he used to go frequent, but doesn’t anymore, he said the average age of people dining at this restaurant was dead. That was the perfect line to sum up that town. Leah and I felt like we were the youngest people by 30 years everywhere we went.

Overall, the trip was great. We got some sun, had amazing meals, stayed at an incredible condo, and got to spend quality time with my mom, something we never really get to do much of. I cannot begin to tell her how much we appreciate this trip. I just hope that we can spend many more times like this together in the future. Now back to reality….I have one day at home this week, two days in Detroit, and the Robuck’s coming in this weekend. That and the fact that I have 3 days left in my 20’s……

Song of the Day: “Why?” by Jadakiss