Thoughts On San Juan

Today is Tuesday January Nineteenth Two Thousand Ten. I just returned from a successful trip to San Juan Puerto Rico as evidenced by my babbling about it for most of last week. It was an impulse trip, one that I could make because I am sober. Would have never had the cash for it last winter and if I did I would have spent it and the weekend high on dope not wanting to face work on Tuesday. In fact last year at this time I had woken up drinking my pop's wine just about this time and was making the arrangements to get my fucked up ass into detox and rehab. What a difference a year makes, my god some of the promises that AA blabs about actually come true. Who would have known that hard work. honesty, follow thru, and dedication will get you places and rewards.

I love Jet Blue. Not only are the fares astoundingly inexpensive but the flights are convenient, many are non stop, on time, and I can actually sleep fairly comfortably in their regular coach class seats. The majority of the employees are helpful and I have not had any bones to pick with them yet. I am sure that at some point there will be a problem and as long as its either weather related or mechanical I don't really mind. I don't mind waiting for them to fix something thats going to bring me thousands of feet up in the air even if they are not certain that something it broken. Better than assuming the shit works and then get a whoops at thousands of feet up in the air. The weather, well you just have to get lucky in that department. I have not really gotten all that shafted with the weather yet and its probably due to the fact that most of the traveling I've done in the past ten years has been in the summer. The direct tv and satradio are cool options but all I do it fiddle with it for an hour or so and then crash or read. I did really like the little tele when I was flying back to Boston after the tsunami because my bro didn't have an idiot box at his house and I was way more into doing crystal meth than surfing the internet during that disaster. What memories.

The place I rented for seventy five buck a night in San Juan was awesome and worth every penny. It had a sweet bed and bathroom but what was really cool was the outdoor sunken kitchen where I was able to prepare breakfast and lunch. Not that my culinary skills were on display much; oatmeal, toast, fruit, and hot dogs but it was super handy-dandy. The host who lived there with his bobo was attentive without being annoying and told me all sorts of shit about San Juan that I wouldn't have known. The pad was in a somewhat shady part of San Juan but thats just an american talking, not someone who lives there. I felt fine walking around at night and there was a bus to Old San Juan about two blocks from the casita. The beach was about a twenty minute walk and the supermarket was on the way. Museums, galleries, theatres, and all sorts of other cool shit was within walking distance. I can't say that I would have had a better place to rest my head for double the cost and this place absolutely rocked and I will stay there again. Oh, the largest straight disco and the largest gay disco were also right around the corner, with a tranny bar placed around for good measure.

I really enjoyed myself even if I was a bit lonely at times but I was able to combat that in a few ways. I went to Old San Juan and checked out this crazy street fair as well as the two forts that the Spanish had built to protect their investment in the new world. I spent some time on the beach even tho I am not really a beach person but it was cool just to check out the ocean. Everyone kept talking about how it was raining so hard and how that was not normal that time of year but it was still eighty degrees and ninety seven percent humidity. I saw enough sun to make me happy and I enjoy seeing stuff from a locals perspective even if its just walking around town people watching. I found that I don't really like the majority of Puerto Rican food, lots of deep friend starchy goodness combined with red meet. I know it sounds good but I've been eating so well that I am just not used to it anymore. I did manage to eat a skirt steak as long as my forearm and a filet the size of my fist so I was ok in that department. I went the casino last night and won $3.25 on slots in about three minutes which was about as much time as I wanted to spend in the casino. I am a super high roller, five bucks in and $8.25 out !

San Juan is very much like NOLA when it comes to drinking. People seem to drink at all hours of the day and it appears that open containers are encouraged. I saw some signs in Old San Juan that said that a section of the city was closed for the public consumption of alcohol but it was all in Spanish and I didn't wholly understand what it said. There was a daily AA meeting in the morning about a mile from where I was crashing so I went three times. The people were very friendly and welcoming and it was a really good way to plug into the local scene from a alcoholic's perspective. I think that Puerto Rico would be a hard place to get sober because their main source of cash is tourism and where there is the white man tourist there is booze. I was walking down the beach on Sunday when I had this tremendous jones for booze. It wasn't as if I was sad or upset, I just wanted to get a bottle of rum and drink it. I thought to myself, who would know ? What would be the harm ? Well, I would know and the harm would be that four days before my year anniversary I would have drank and thrown a good run of sobriety down the drain. If I wasn't depressed before I drank I sure as hell would have been after when I woke up hungover the next day. I told myself that if I really wanted a bottle I would but a pack of marbys and smoke all of them and then of I still wanted to drink then I would. I ended up not drinking or smoking for that matter and it felt really good.