As my friends know, a few months back I got married. And my
wife is wonderful; there is no doubt that I married up. Dawn’s inclusion into
my life has brought a number of positive influences to it, and one in
particular –
I have met my neighbors.
I am not very sociable when I am at home. After a day of
work in the bustle of downtown Miami, I just want to retreat to my little slice
of Gringoism where I hear no Spanish & no one cuts me off in traffic. This
city is crazy, so I prefer my home time to be relaxing with as few outside
influences as possible.
But Dawn moved here from a rural area of Alabama knowing no
one but me. She had to make friends, and I am happy to report: She has. And, through
that, so have I. Now, you would think that, this being Miami, she has met a
bunch of Cubans. Not true. By my count she has only met one – the elderly lady
who lives around the corner who doesn’t speak a lick of English. But besides
her, here are some bios of her, I mean our, new neighbor friends –
Ricardo – Ricardo is a 24-year old University of Miami student
from Venezuela, where he and his mother fled from when Chavez assumed power.
There are a lot of Venezuelans here in Miami who did the very same thing.
Ricardo is nonstop chatter, and very gay. Friendly as hell, with a wide-eye
sunny view of the world. I smile whenever I see him.
Ahmed – Ahmed is a 23-year old UM student from Saudi Arabia.
Chain-smokes. Very thick Arabian accent, and when he talks on the phone with
his mother, it sounds like Jihadists plotting a terror campaign. But Ahmed is
anything but. Ahmed is a bit reserved, and avoids eye contact, but when you
engage him he blossoms with talks of his dreams. His main dream is to have sex
with as many American women as he can. And when we talk about, well, whatever,
you can tell that America is influencing him. A typical Ahmed rant is something
like, “I call to order pizza. Dees fucking Cuban on phone say he can’t
understand my English. I tell dees asshole same thing.”
Molly – Molly is the elderly German lady who lives upstairs.
She has been here in the apartment complex for 23 years. Very thick German
accent that has obviously never left her. She is very hard to understand, and
her sentences are peppered with “und” instead of “and.” Molly stays up all
night watching Fox News and conspiracy shows. She is convinced that Armageddon
is around every corner. But she brings us food. So that’s nice.
Scott – Finally, an American! Scott is, well, he’s Scott. He
has been everything and knows everyone. Says he used to play guitar with Jimi
Hendrix. Has written novels. His father founded Burger King. His dream is to
move to California and sell his screenplay to Hollywood executives. Hey, go big
or go home, right?
Brenda – Another gringo. Brenda is originally from Michigan,
but has been in Miami for a very long time. This is evident by her leather-like
skin that is about ten shades too dark for a typical Caucasian, and straw-like
bleach-blond hair. Brenda lives at the pool. Molly says she uses the pool to
bathe herself.
So thank you, or curse, you, my lovely wife for introducing
me to these people. But given that they all live within a nine iron of where I rest
my head each night, I guess I need to know these things.
Which reminds me. I have to go give Ahmed a golf lesson.
There are no golf courses in Saudi Arabia.
This should be interesting.
