I set off for the AMC 24 to see a couple of movies. The problem with going to the movies in a town that is not your own isn’t what happens after you get there, it’s what happens on the way there.

What happened to me was that I took a wrong turn, which then led to me telling myself that I could wait a bit to see movies, and maybe I would just drive, once again, over to look at the gulf coast. Three hours later, I was at the theater.

What’s great about vacation is that time belongs to you. You can do whatever you’d like, whenever you’d like, and there’s no one telling you to be anywhere.

I like being the master of my own destiny. I was driving along, in the sunshine, looking around at “stuff”, happy as a clam (whatever that expression means) today.

It doesn’t take a lot to make me happy I guess. I’m pretty easy. A day off, a missed exit, roads to travel I haven’t been on before, finding my way in a strange town, a couple of movies, popcorn, and a nice bed and someone to share it with when I got back to the hotel.

Life is good…

I am a stowaway. Sort of. I have been hiding out… at the Grand Hyatt Tampa. I’ve lost my own identity and have become someone else. I’ve become the person whose name is on the registration. That name is not mine. I experience a series of daily events in which I am called by that other name. I call for room service, the room service is delivered, all with greetings to me as my other self.

When one is a stowaway, it is important to keep hidden. The “Privacy Please” sign is on the door, always. I take it off only when I sneak out of the room and away into the world for awhile. It is during this time the maid comes. She never sees me, though I’ve seen her. At all other times, I am here… watching movies, writing, taking naps.

No one ever said the life of a stowaway had to be miserable. It’s not. I’ve found that a person could probably live this way for months. Everything I need is right here, a call away, or a stroll away. No one would ever have to know the real me, or even that I exist at all.

The problem with it is that I forget myself. My only contact with the outside world being this computer, the occasional visit from a room service delivery person, or when I decide I need to see more of the world than is available to me through the view from the window, and I leave.

So, though stowing away does have its advantages, I think tomorrow will be my last morning in hiding. I think tomorrow I will set myself free and venture out into the world, pick up my own name where I left off, and take up residence in the world again.

I know I’ll miss it, at times. There is a sense of freedom in stowing away. So, though I’m going to give it up tomorrow, I may in the future, hide away in some luxury hotel again, once again give up my name and live with a secret identity. For now… I will go in, take a shower, get ready to leave, look both ways for the maid, take down the “Privacy Please” sign on the door, and head into the world, hoping that at least one time today, someone will call me by MY name. A reminder of who I really am.