i’m sitting at Pasion del Cielo and two guys sitting behind me are talking about how they’re gonna move their business into Puerto Rico (one of them lives there and has been some sort of satellite consultant for a couple years now).

after discussing something about needing to “bring some CPAs on board,” the Puerto Rican guy starts talking about the work he’s been doing for other businesses in Puerto Rico over the past few decades, and how it’s brought him finally to the point that he’s actually conferring with government officials, in private, about his business affairs. little maneuvers are being made in politics at the behest of this guy and his constituents.

this kinda stuff blows my mind. like i’m reading updates on the impeachment hearing as they’re being reported by CNN, and it seems like stuff of that caliber is happening on another planet. to think that these larger systems are made up of human beings who go and get coffee and make offhand remarks about their marriages while picking things out of their teeth is just…the weirdest thing to me.

i was equally blinkered to learn the other day that one of my old friends, somebody i haven’t seen for a few years since he moved to Manhattan to do some ultra-complicated money-shuffling work, is partial owner of a bar in downtown Miami that i sometimes go to. he’s 29! he owns a bar and it’s not even his full-time job!

meanwhile i’m over here talking about my dick into a microphone and hoping to get hired at a nearby restaurant before the end of the month.

different strokes.

(it’s also totally possible that the Puerto Rican guy behind me is lying about how much clout he has so that he’ll seem more impressive to the much-younger dude he’s talking to.)