I can’t resist posting about my eventful day and sharing some of my shots (choosing which one is the hard part).

Mitch’s mom took us to the airport, and his g/f came along as well. I initially thought she either hated me or was just really antisocial, but after our bonding time in the terminal, I’m over all that. We actually have a lot in common, and I get along with her really well. I think she may just be a lil shy, which by most definitions, I am too and thus I’ve also been cast as antisocial. I’m glad to know her a lil better tho.

The flight was awesome. We were apparently the first direct flight from Indy to Sarasota, which had the entire cabin cheering. Pleasant flight…got in half hour early. Picked up our rental cars. Mitch went first and got a Dodge Charger. I step up and the guy’s like “If you’d gone before him, you could have had a Charger, but now you have a Neon.” I was like “yeah, that sounds like my luck.”

So I puttered down the road and arrived at the hotel. It is a nice hotel. Mitch got 5th floor. I got 2nd floor. ooh balance is restored. But then, I try calling my client, but I get voicemail and he never calls me back, so I’m freaking cuz I was supposed to get a time set up for the next day. Very restless sleep…get up extra early, make some calls, finally track down my client. Apparently, all cingular voicemail is messed up. He’d left me a message 3 hours before I’d tried calling him the first time. I didn’t get it until 17 hours later. Anyway, he said he’d take me to breakfast and he’d be in a black Mercedes convertible. Sweet. Mitch asked if I offered to drive my Neon instead hehehe.

So basically, I’ve spent my entire day eating and taking pictures. We started the day off at a $1M waterfront condo, which aside from the view, was not all that different from ones in Carmel. And even then, there are some waterfront views there too, just no palm trees.

Then we got to the good stuff…$3.5M homes. They were mainly model homes, so they were decorated very nicely. Of course, they all had the “wow” factor, but they were just really high quality. I mean the front doors were like 12’ and 2.5” thick…solid. They had huge ceilings, cute wine cellars, theater rooms, beautiful patios with outdoor grills and bars, lovely libraries with the lil balcony & staircase, and bathrooms that were just insane. Seriously, this one shower had a showerhead on each side of this big open stone area, and it had a window all along one side with a privacy wall about 2 feet beyond it. I mean it looked like you were showering on a big rock out in the jungle. Just all the lil details that were really nice. It was an experience. Unfortunately, most of the really cool houses I saw we were just looking at for fun, so I couldn’t take pics. It’s really too bad. They were beautiful.

Anyway, we had lunch with one of his friends, who used to be Colin Powell’s dentist when he was in DC. This guy was very cool. I liked him a lot. He bought our lunch at this nice lil Italian place where I had this monster sandwich that I devoured.

The client is very cool. He’s really friendly and casual. And it seems we share good taste in music. He said he shook BB King’s hand once…years ago at Beef & Boards in Indy (he’s orig from Carmel), he was front row at BB’s show. BB went up to him and reached out his guitar and said “Do you want to touch Lucille (name of his guitar…fyi)?” He was like “Really? Yes!” and BB replied, “Heck no boy, what you thinkin?” and laughed and shook his hand. Now that’s a cool story.

We also raced a Porsche down the interstate, because it was identical to the one he used to have but he claimed his new car could kick its butt so he proved it hehe. We also got to do one of those screeching pull-outs across traffic. He said once in his Porsche he did that and it just spun in a complete circle and then kept going straight. He was one lucky bastard that day, as he was inches from 4 other cars as he spun.

So we had good times. I felt at ease the entire day even though these people make more in a month..or a week than I do in a year. Everyone I met was really nice.

But yes, he apparently has a beachfront condo at Siesta Key that’s available, so…I *might* get to chill there the rest of the week or at least go & hang out. That would be sweet. And he thinks I’m cool, so anytime I wanna visit, he said he could hook me & my friends up with a condo for a week.

I filmed my first video testimonial which was scary, but for the most part, I think I did well. It kinda got exciting when I did the hand held candid footage. I felt like a pro hehe but my filming clearly shows I’m not.

Anyway, it turned out to be a fantastic day so I can rest easy tonight. It seems I may not be getting to join in on the cocktail party tonight at the polo club, but I think my day was much better than Mitch’s, so it’s just karma keeping things in check.

I’m looking forward to seeing Siesta Key tomorrow though…I hear it’s quite amazing with nearly white sand. Hoping for blue skies.

P.S. You might note I discovered the location of the standard Microsoft desktop. woo I win. And hmm, i need a travel category…maybe