bienvenidos a miami.

the luggage was a wedding present, barely used so far. that, plus his laptop case and my black garment bag proclaiming banana republic screamed money. i wished i hadn't worn the khaki trench coat on the plane. could i stand out more on a city bus full of homeless people in the middle of the night?

the plan was to spend as little money as possible and still make a mini-vacation out of the necessary trip to miami beach for the first of a string of residency interviews. we flew in too late saturday night on the very cheapest flight, printed copies of the metrorail schedule in hand. soon, though, i was wishing we'd blown an extra hundred bucks and decided to cab our way around. instead, we perched like scared rich kids near the bus driver, an island of shiny new things huddled close around us.

i suppose 'poor' is a relative term anyway, but i am ashamed that i have used it to describe myself . we are too 'poor' to stay in a nice hotel, too poor to take a cab from the airport, too poor to eat 3 meals a day while away from home, and way too rich for our poor asses to be safe on a bus at 1am, with people who know what poor really means. i am spoiled rotten, and i forget that too often.

the bus driver graciously refused to drop us off at the stop for our transfer; thereby saving at least our wallets and maybe our lives. the alternate route took a good half hour longer to get us there, but by the time we finally got to our two-star, dirty carpeted hotel, it looked like the ritz.

i doubt i'll end up moving to miami when all is said and done, but perhaps the trip was less about an interview and more about a need to regain perspective. no matter how much money i don't have to spend on things i want, i always have enough for the things i need.

next time, my list of needs will include cab fare.