I’m currently in south Florida for a family thing.  My father’s side of the family is mostly in this area and he grew up in Miami so there are a lot of people to visit with.  Some of whom I haven’t seen for quite awhile.  I actually didn’t even realize that it had been five years since I was here last.  That was while I was still in college and before all of this poker business stuff.  I was actually playing a decent amount online at that point.  Anywho, it’s good to see family and I’m going to make an effort to visit here more often than once every five years.  I shouldn’t have let it slip that far in the first place.

In other news, we’re staying at this golf course/hotel place.  It really isn’t much of a hotel.  More like a low lying typical Miami motel on a low quality golf course.  But it’s the closest place to where the rest of the family is so my parents often stay here simply out of convenience.  It definitely isn’t nice on the inside but it looks way worse on the outside.  I can’t stop thinking that it feels like I’m on a Dexter crime scene set when I’m here.  Here’s a pic:

I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Dexter. Or how many of you know what Miami is like. But this place is totally straight out of Dexter.

Also, Hertz gave me an utterly ridiculous rental car. I have a huge maroon Cadillac Escalade. I took a picture of it:

I actually laughed out loud in a front of a bunch of people when I saw it at the pickup location. I’m sure they thought I was weird. But this thing is just LOL. It’s got all sorts of goofy features (such as “approach lighting”) and it’s freakin enormous. It’s surprisingly easy to drive and the engine definitely has a good kick to it when you need some power. But it’s incredibly cliche to roll around in Miami in a maroon Escalade covered in chrome while listening to 99.1 (local hip hop station).

I am actually certain that I’ve been quasi-racially profiled by a cop at least once. I was driving north from the Miami airport and a cop pulled up behind me at a stoplight. I proceeded to follow all rules strictly for the next ten minutes or so until I got back onto a highway. The cop followed me in a very deliberate manner the whole time (ie, changed lanes behind me just as I changed lanes, etc) and then finally pulled up next to me on the highway. Then I think he saw I was white and then he shot off. I couldn’t believe it was that obvious but I guess you hear about racial profiling all the time. And I always knew it was real in many situations. But it’s still kind of shocking when it actually happens to you. Even though I suppose this is more like “car profiling” as a pre-cursor to racial profiling. I wonder if it’s even illegal to profile a vehicle? Like to take a closer look at chromed-out Escalades and Navigators as opposed to a Toyota Prius — assuming the cop hasn’t seen any occupants yet. Anyone know?

Either way, my very first thought when I saw the car was this picture:

I’m definitely stuck on internet culture aren’t I?

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1. South Africa Arrival
2. AA331
3. I’m in Grand Cayman
4. General Update
5. Aruba