Monday

Today was rough. I woke up at 6 since the shuttle to the conference was coming at 7:15am. Now anyone what knows me knows that I don’t get up at 6 unless my bed is on fire. I am not a morning person at all. If I make it to work by 9am, that’s a good day.

The conference went ok. There were a lot of nice people. Apparently, there was a reception last night, but I didn’t know about it. They sent out an email Friday night, but I was already here. Looking around the first day, I see that I am the only black person at the conference. It’s like being back at school in Indiana again. The first person to speak to the group was the island’s Minister of Finance. He’s a tall black man that has a kind smile, a commanding voice, and an air of dignity about him. Maybe it’s just the accent. :o) After his speech, he walked out past me. He made eye contact, gave me that “go ‘head, girl” smile and a squeeze on the shoulder as he past. People on the island have told me so much that they are happy to see a sister doing what I do. AF has the same wherever she goes. The manager/owner, a black woman, of the hotel where the conference is held made sure to speak to me and find out how it went afterwards. She and I met this morning and she seems to be looking out for me. The talks were good at the conference. It’s basically a bunch of computer geeks who wrote papers and are presenting them. The audience is pretty much the same. You wouldn’t believe how many pants pulled up 3 to 4 inches above the waist line and shorts and black socks pulled up I’ve already seen. These are not people I would willingly hang out with. And that’s why I’m skipping out on the reception tonight.

After the conference, I had a drink at the hotel bar waiting for Essie to call me. The crew and I were supposed to go over to her house just to hand out. It was their lat night. Unfortunately they spend the afternoon at the island’s rum factory and weren’t really up for hanging out. Plus, no one had packed yet. So Essie, AF and her hubby, and I went out to dinner. AF and Essie got invited to Cap Juluca for dinner by the head chef. He is Essie’s cousin and he knows AF from filming earlier in the week. He is a world renoun chef that runs 5 restaurants on the island and he is a local, born and breeds. The place was absolutely fabulous. It was so beautiful inside. It was right on the water and the whole place was white. There were these fabulous Moroccan looking cousins on the chairs and the most beautiful fabric on the ceilings. Plus the food was so good. It was fabulous. The chef sent out some appetizers for us that he just thought we’d like. He also sent out caviar since he knew it was Essie’s favorite. The crème Brule was so good! Essie loves to cook, so we were analyzing it a bit. It had a hit of nutmeg in it that made it taste fabulous. This was probably the best meal I’ve EVER had. All of the seafood was so fresh and even Essie’s duck was great. The chef spent time talking to us and even picked up the tab. He was very nice. He gave me his card and told me that he comes to Miami a lot. He’s also cute and single, but anyone that knows me knows my tri-county area rule. For those of you that don’t, I refuse to get involved with anyone that doesn’t live in within the tri county area of Miami/Dade county, Broward(ft. Lauderdale) county, and Palm beach county. If I’m dating someone, I want easy access to them. I don’t want to have to make a plan just to see them. Anyway, there was another guest at our dinner. It was a woman who works for the tourism board. She is the one that introduced AF to the Chef. She mentioned how her husband is an engineer as well. We talked for a while and I told her to have him get me a job! Wouldn’t that be great? I also spent some time with Essie and her cousin, the chef, talking about food and she was telling him how I love to cook. He was cute. He asked me if I wanted a job. After all of this, we went back to Essie’s house and hung out for a minute before coming back to the hotel to go to bed. I have to work in the morning, remember?