My Dinner With Geronimo

Dear Citizens:

As a business traveler, it's not uncommon for cities, airports, hotels, conference rooms, and restaurants to blur together. Not Miami. It's multi-cultural, flavorful, and unexpected no matter how generic you try to make it.

For me, it all starts while boarding a 767 and not the usual DC-10 at DFW airport. There are no self-obsessed men in suits. Not a blackberry in sight. Instead there are vacationers clutching Group 4 boarding passes attempting to board with First Class and Executive Platinum. In my best flight attendant persona, I attempt to assist confused elderly passengers dressed tragically head-to-toe in pastel polyester and struggling with unsuitable carry-on baggage. There's a language barrier. They don't speak Texan even though I assumed "y'all" was universal. Smiling and hand gestures help.

We manage to get on the airplane. I am seated in an emergency exit aisle located next to an off-duty junior pilot. He reminds me of Leonardo DiCaprio in "Catch Me If You Can" and I begin to wonder if like Leo, he's a fraud pretending to be a pilot and whether he can really open the exit door in the event of an emergency.

At some point in the flight I remember to mind my own business and we land in Miami. I'm there to mediate a negligent security case. I immediately notice that the Miami airport has "negligent security" written all over it. Airport employees are few and it takes 55 minutes for the conveyor to shoot out the checked luggage. Not expecting to see my Samsonite ever again I had already said good-bye to my favorite pajamas and broken up with my dressy sandals.

Of course, the glorious weather totally makes up for it. Also I know of no other airport where you can get a Cuban sandwich to go with your cafecito at 8:00 a.m.

I usually stay downtown but mediation takes me south and I stay at the Hotel Indigo in Dadeland. The cab driver, originally from Haiti knows exactly where to go. He drops me at the hotel near a tree chocked full of wild parrots. I count at least 30 and they create a noisy ruckus knocking seed pods, leaves and small limbs from the tree. Several parrots are lined up on the hotel's roof as if on security patrol.

Hotel Indigo, a boutique-y Holiday Inn, promotes itself with Haiku. The Haiku at the front desk states:

"Colorful locales
Refreshingly different
Adventures Await"

There are haiku posted in the room that speak to bathing, the environment, and room service.

Inspired, I decide to compose a haiku about the wild parrots:

The Hotel Parrot
Wild Nesting and Foraging
Complimentary

I have dinner at Fleming Restaurant - A Taste of Denmark. I consider a Danish dish - the Frikadeller Dinner - A Danish meat patty served with sweet and sour red cabbage and a side of champagne cream sauce. I decide to forgo the meat patty and order Japanese-inspired sesame seared tuna. Because it is included in the Sunset menu, I have tiramisu for dessert. This is Miami. You never know what to expect.

The next day proves to be very good for mediation. Passover Seder and impending sundown motivates the mediator and 7 of 8 attorneys to settle the negligent security case in a timely fashion. I assure you that without Seder we would still be there arguing every inconceivable issue. The lone attorney passing Seder invites me for dinner at an outdoor bistro with his wife and their (his) dog, Geronimo.

It turns out that Geronimo is a well-trained German Shepherd. Geronimo is his American name. His German name sounds something like "Gesundheit" We meet. He is a bit aloof but sniffs and licks my hand. A good sign for such a serious dog. One sniff of Geronimo reminds me of my grandfather's garage and hunting dogs. I realize my eyes are closed and I'm 8 years old again. It smells just like Geronimo plus grease and oil.

At the "French Bistro" and still going with "anything goes", I order churrasco - as recommended by the Portuguese waiter and my dinner companions. It is served with all-American peas and carrots. Geronimo keeps a lookout from our table and drinks iced water from a high-tech, portable, fold-out water dish. He also shares the churrasco - without the cilantro-infused olive oil on the side. Geronimo dislikes sauces. I learn my companions' daughter, a Harvard-educated physician, also shuns all condiments. She doesn't eat salad dressing, mustard, jelly, or champagne cream sauce. She prefers basic food - even in salsa-spicy Miami. Go figure.

Geronimo consumes roughly one-half of the table's churrasco and drinks from the portable dish. A strong, silent type, he is as relaxed as possible. He skips dessert of fruit, ice cream, and pigeons. He is trained not to eat pigeons except on command. Impressive.

I head back to my poem-inspired, parrot-squatting hotel and try to sleep despite the wall-size seascape mural in my room. I want to phone the front desk and report that Jellyfish, other blobby sea creatures, and Haiku can cause nightmares. I don't.

The next morning I leave Miami. My work is done.

CitizenB