I came back to the hotel and was feeling better. I secured a 2nd appointment and did a realtor meeting over the phone. I made my way back downtown to catch the “jitney”, or local bus, to the grocery store. I tried to make it to a mall beforehand but that didn’t work, a nice lady at a pharmacy I stopped in gave me a ride there on the way home. Another one who told me to be careful. Maybe I don’t look as bad-ass as I feel. This manager was very friendly, just like the one I encountered the day before when I started surveying the wrong grocery store (damnit!). Going home I had the taxi take me to a Japanese restaurant located next to my hotel. I had been told to check it out and I was so happy I did, the sushi was heavenly. I mistakenly ordered lots of sashimi. But that’s fine, it was fresh-off-the-boat quality and I just had to turn a corner to get back to the hotel. So much unlike last night. I had walked a long way in dangerous quarters to get my fried chicken and conch. (Conch is hugely popular here… kinda like calamari. I want to know what a live one looks like!) I’m still up at 315 am. Partly because of the irish coffee I had to top off the night, but partly also due to being scared of this hotel. Maybe if I wasn’t all the way in the corner it wouldn’t be so bad, but I keep thinking someone is going to appear at my window (and can see right in too). Ugh I’m going to stop thinking about it now and try to get some rest.
I was exhausted today since I didn’t fall asleep until about 5 am! So I woke up exhausted and started making phone calls at 10:30am. Things were going quickly, thank goodness, so I took a little 45 minute nap. My body clock was amazing because I had completely forgotten I had a phone interview at 1 pm (10 am California time) and hadn’t set my alarm; I started having nightmares that I was missing this interview and finally woke up (still exhausted) 5 minutes before I had to make the call. I was so impressed with myself! I finished the rest of the calls around 5 and jumped in the shower in preparation of starting a new grocery store, yippee! But, I arrived at the store and the manager told me I needed to call the head office tomorrow and then panic set in. It was only 6:30 pm and I had told my taxi driver to come back at 9 pm. And, I didn’t have his phone number. So, I mosied over to the liquor store (and after dealing with a creepy white owner who looked me up and down a few too many times), did as much as I could there, then the drug store, and then with everything else closed I decided to go back to the grocery store and just do what I could do before a) it was 9 o’clock or b) they kicked me out. It worked out fine, no one said a word to me and the manager was clearly aware of my presence. He didn’t seem too pleased that I was there though. I was happy to get out of there since I knew I wasn’t welcome and my taxi friend came to get me and whisked me off to the Hilton where I wanted to get some food. I ordered lamb chops which sounded delicious but was only so-so and extremely expensive, and I paid a $6 cab fair to go about a 5 minute walk because I was done with walking at night from the downtown area to my hotel. I decided it was the only safe option seeing that I had no other form of transportation to get around. Sorry AIRINC!
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