The only good thing about walking Bella on this cold, dank, miserably rainy day is that there are no other dogs in the park to contend with, meaning Bella is calm and my shoulder won’t be yanked out of its socket. You’d have to be crazy to walk on a day like today, but if we weren’t all crazy, we’d just go insane. It’s not really the only good thing about the day, though. The thing I like best about a rainy day like today (besides booze in the blender) is the way my imagination runs wild and takes me to another place and time where I can blissfully daydream about living another life as I defy gravity. 

Most times I escape to a place that’s usually South and mostly sunny.  White, sandy beaches, clear blue water, good music and happy people dancing in honky tonk bars.  No shirts, no shoes? No problem!  Today I’m wasting away in Margueritaville on the cozy little island (or is it?) of Key West. Cozy isn’t really a good adjective…crazy, maybe…would be more fitting. Tonight I’m dancing to an Eagles wanna-be band at the Hogs Breath Inn where a flirtatious man with a cute smile once whispered in my ear that he’d dance with me in a heartbeat if he weren’t there with his girlfriend…WHAT?!?! Naughty…

I stroll through the quaint streets and little shops surrounded by lush, colorful vegetarian. (Damn, I just blew out my flip-flop!) I visit Hemingway’s house and run my hand along the walls of his little studio above the garage where he wrote his classics.

I breathe in the musty air, hoping a bit of his brilliant spirit will enter mine. I pet the descendants of his many cats and wish I had a home such as this where my cats could meander about safely and freely. I close my eyes and dream.

I’ll toast him in his old haunts tonight…Sloppy Joe’s…and while there maybe enjoy a cheeseburger in paradise!

Later on I hop a boat that takes me to an island with an outdoor bar and restaurant on the sand lit by tiki torches.  I sip unusually decadent mixes of exotic cocktails and enjoy the faint music playing in the background highlighted by steel drums.  I remember a story I once heard about a man who worked as a powerful but stressed-filled CEO who gave it all up and ran away to become a bartender at a beach bar.  Brilliant idea, I think.  I wonder if the man serving me my drink is him.  I wonder if I could get hired…

I stroll the promenade in the moonlight. People are coming and going…all at ease and having fun, unwinding on this tiny key lime slice of tropical paradise. I go back to the house, which is painted in brilliant colors, adorned with tropical furniture and artwork.  I’ll have a house like this of my own some day. I sit out on the lanai closing my eyes and listening to the sounds of the night and then wake to the annoying “cock-a-doodle-do” of the roosters that roam aimlessly about.

Bella barks abruptly at a squirrel she spies scaling a tree (or is it a rooster?!) and rattles me back to reality.  She splashes in the puddle, transforming me into a muddy mess. Reality bites…

So pardon me while I search for my lost shaker of salt. I’ve learned that if life gives you limes, make margueritas.  Sail on…sail on…sailor…