orlando/winter park, florida.

driving into florida, i kept ending up next to this man in a pt cruiser convertable who put the top down, took off his shirt to show off his greying chest hair, and lit up a cigar and that pretty much embodied florida. i couldn't escape that man for hours.

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i stayed with a friend of mine from california named niles, who i hadn't seen in almost a year. he is going to a school called full sail, studying show production and touring and let me just say how much i admire him for all his hard work and the crazy long hours he has and continues to put into this. he is really good at what he does and i respect him a lot. so, i didn't see him much because of his insane schedule.

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but orlando wasn't all horrible, niles took me to a really great park that looked like where the lost boys lived in "hook." it was pretty awesome. i went back there a couple times. i went to the orlando science center and saw the "body worlds" exhibit which was crazy, weird, amazing. i wandered around a lot, wrote some letters, slept, and watched "the godfather" trilogy. those are good movies. i did go to the beach one day and that was fun, but it was weird. i haven't swam in an ocean since i went to hawaii...three years ago-ish. it's salty! and the sun was intense; i got a sunburn, of course. i'm much more of a pacific-northwest beach person and that whole surfer town, long white sand beaches, palm tree thing just isn't my scene. but it was beautiful, and the first time i've been to the atlantic since i was 13. so that's fun. after a few days there, i was ready to not be doing stuff alone all the time. i love doing things by myself but i don't like it when i have to. niles is fun and good company but he was busy and i felt after awhile, like i was a burden. he was very hospitable though.

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so i left a day early and made my way up the atlantic coast to south carolina, where i find myself right now, to be written about later.