St Pete 7

Sept 9 - 10, 2012

Sept 9
For the last 32 years, I have been a Unitarian Universalist.  It's a liberal religion with no dogma, but with the responsibility of searching for my own religious truth.  There is no UU church in Costa Rica, and I miss being part of a UU community with like-minded thinkers.  So I was really looking forward to going to the UU St Pete church, where I went in December, and really liked the minister.

Today was the start of the church year, and a new minister was in the pulpit.  I was underwhelmed.  She mumbled and dropped the ends of her sentences, and her sermon was abstract and erudite.  Not the stuff to make a new congregation fall in love with.  I am going to look around for another UU church or fellowship.  But in the meantime, I saw the Spanish contingent - Luis from Costa Rica and Mike and Elena (she's from Nicaragua), whom I met in December.  They invited me to join them for lunch at an Asian restaurant.  And in the evening, we all returned to the church to watch a documentary on Mexican migrant workers in the US.  It was enlightening and I enjoyed the heady and intelligent conversation that followed.

Sept 10
The rental car was due back this morning.  I did some last minute food shopping since I won't have wheels again until Friday.  Then I let my GPS guide me to Enterprise Car Rental in Pinellas Park.  Then I got a ride to a nearby shopping center, and took myself to the movies.  I hardly ever go to the movies in Costa Rica.  I saw a new release ($8 matinee price) called The Words.  I'd give it one hanky, but I don't know if anyone who isn't a writer would enjoy it.  It was about a story within a story within a story.  Then I took a bus back to within half a mile of my condo (I had researched how to get back).  And jumped into the pool.  I like having a swimming pool 50 feet from the front door.  I lay on the chaise longue and grooved to Miles Davis on my iPod.