deep in the heart of alligator alley

It was a wild ride up to Sarasota today.

Before I even left Broward County I was in traffic with a guy who, alone in his car, was fist pumping at a speed and intensity that I've never seen before.  I'm talking sunroof open, full extension of his arm, at a frenzied pace.  I wasn't sure if he had friends in traffic with him somewhere or what, frankly I didn't want to hang around long enough to find out.

Then, in alligator alley, I start passing road signs proclaiming low visibility ahead.  No explanation as to why, just low visibility.  I began to notice a darkness on the horizon that looked like an impending thunderstorm, so I was surprised when none of the cars coming towards me had their windshield wipers on.  As I got closer and closer to the darkness I realized it was not rain at all.  Suddenly I was enveloped in a cloud of thick smoke, looking to the side of the road I realized I had found myself smack dab in the middle of a forest fire.  Like literally flaming palmettos at the roads edge, and trucks of firemen fighting the blaze, while traffic slowed slightly but continued on as normal.  I even saw a helicopter on its way carrying a load of water.

At the last leg of my journey I just hit completely stopped traffic on the interstate.  Another time when I was thankful for the map in my car.  I just found an alternate route of country roads and ended up finishing my drive cruising down the rural highways that wind through the orange groves.  It was actually quite nice.

And now I'm here, belly full of delicious Easter dinner, getting ready for bed with one of my best friends Miller.

Happy Easter!

I woke up this morning to this picture from Daniel.

: ((((

They are all so happy.

Definitely the right way to start off my day.  Now I've got to shower and wake up and prepare myself for a little road trip up north.  Hopefully updates to follow.

and it's definitely her best one

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When I saw this mugshot last week I was impressed.  Compared to all of her others, it's such a different look.  So much darker, but she looks great and totally prepared.

It wasn't until just now reading dlisted and this article that I saw her full outfit and realized her jacket is from my store!

It could use a good steaming but otherwise amazing.

It will take just the right kind of customer for me to be able to use the line, "you know, Lindsay was wearing that in her last mugshot" to which I'm sure they will respond, "Oh she looked great!"

a very sexy vegan

VOTE NOW

for my friend Jessie.  I mean, is it really twisting your arm to say he's a sexy vegan?

last day of staycation

This morning I got so wound up thinking about the errands I needed to run out west of town that I ended up just rallying to go get coffee and drive all the way out there right when I woke up while the traffic would still be bearable.  I needed to return something to an outlet store and then while I was in the area I decided to go to Ikea.  It didn't take long before I couldn't handle it though, at which point I called Daniel for help.  His immediate response was, "weren't we supposed to go do these errands together today anyways with one of the dogs?"

That plan made a lot more sense than me going alone and barely caffeinated.  As a back up plan Daniel offered that I could come down and walk his dogs with him.  I think he thought that idea would sound boring.  Quite the opposite.

I would much rather hang out with these nice guys than try to organize my life with cheap particle board furniture.  How is he so nice?  He just stands at that door slowly wagging his tail and methodically licking at the glass, as if it's a giant lollipop and he is making his way to freedom.  Sweet sweet freedom.

After dog walking (6 different dogs that each need to be walked individually so they all feel like they get special one on one time) we did make our way to lunch followed by the bed bath and beyond where I was forced to purchase things like fabric baskets to conceal my underwear.  I hate being an adult.

It was a good thing I had a support dog there:

He's so happy and just smiles all the time and doesn't ever bother anybody.  I love him : (.

While a part of me wanted to spend all day playing with the doggies I had also made plans with John to take a bike ride now that he's finally rolling in style on his own set of wheels.  I left Daniel and headed home, still not having showered or brushed my teeth from my unnecessarily rushed morning to run errands.

You can imagine my displeasure when I got home at 5 and discovered that my blue tire was once again flat.  I am not going to have any further comment on the subject as the good part is we still managed to salvage some daylight and get a good ride in.

It's just weirdly cold all of a sudden today and I would have preferred to have been able to ride more during midday.  Despite the chill it was a good time of day for sunset views.

And John even treated me to taco tuesdays for dinner.  The perfect end to my little staycation.  I'm ready for my haircut tomorrow, then heading back to work fresh and refreshed, ready to hopefully get my new uniform!

I got my beach day in

Yesterday I knew I had to take advantage of the perfect beach weather if it was going to be any kind of staycation that I'm on.

And it really was a great day for it, I have the slightly burned butt cheeks to remember it by.

The only thing that would have made the day better is if I had had a friend with me but it just wasn't in the cards.  I would say I was thankful that I finally got Jon to facetime with me but then I saw all the screen caps he took.  Apparently he was trying to imitate every dumb face I made when I would forget that we were facetiming.

So rude.

hanging out with Daniel, Yeti, and Neko

Yesterday I picked Daniel up from work with the intention of going to look at a nice little doggy that needs a home, but after a full day of everyone except Jon talking me out of it I ended up not even going to see him.

Instead Daniel let me play with his dogs for the afternoon.

Yeti is a little easier to photograph being that she's so white and fluffy and happy.

Neko, while just as happy, was much harder to capture on film.

Only partly because of his darker coloring, it had more to do with his need to nibble.  He would get so excited that he would open his mouth and kind of swing his head back and forth until something went in and then he would gently chew on whatever it was.  Sometimes it was my arm, sometime it was another dogs face, most of the time it was the contents of my pockets.  Once it was my butt.  That's when I learned not to turn my back on Neko.

I love them, they are two funny nice doggies.

finally a reason to get the wii u

I better start saving now.

from my father

Or Robda, or Boughta!

I will say that as much as I've grown to love my name there will always be a part of me that wishes my initials were BEN.

seen in Miami

Gala and I were on the phone yesterday talking about serious no fun adult business when all of a sudden she started freaking out, telling me to hold on because she had to take a picture.

Apparently he's a bit of a local celebrity around Miami and Gala didn't want to miss another opportunity to get a picture.  Such a good picture too!

It looks unreal.  How is he so nice that he doesn't just step out of the backseat whenever he wants?

: (((

I want a nice doggy like that.

like a pop up video!

Thank you Eliza for sending me this.

The email subject line was, "Did you know Jay-Z changed his name, too?" and contained simply the link to that page and the comment, "such a modern couple!"

They are, Rush Limbaugh doesn't know what he's talking about.

why?

When I first got home he was just screaming and screaming at me.  I went to try and pet him or pick him up and he would run just out of reach, screaming all the way.  I ended up following him, hunched over, arms extended, all the way in to the bathroom where he went under the sink.

I gave up and stopped paying attention to him.  About two minutes later this is where he was.  You can't tell but he was obnoxiously flipping his tail, while otherwise looking completely dead.

And he doesn't even know about the little errand I am going to do tomorrow.  He's going to be even angrier!

definitely Jon

I'm pretty sure Jon moved down here without telling me and I caught him in traffic this morning.  Jon always said he wanted a scion tC in black, and those bumper stickers are pretty damning.

Besides they were driving like a maniac.  So Jon, now that I know you're here, lets hang out ok?  I'm going to go ahead and compile all of my Cher on to one playlist in preparation.

spring has sprung!

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And that's exactly how I greeted it this morning when I left my apt for work.

So many changes in such a short amount of time.  I can't wait for this new season to start.

And thank you Eliza for suggesting I do a first day of spring post.  Mostly, you just reminded me that there are people noticing that I've been really terrible at posting.  I apologize.

Its just, whoa, March 2013, tough times.  But I got a few big things checked off my to do list in the past week so I'm ready to greet April with open arms.  And a nice pair of high waisted black pants too maybe?  We'll see.

Because I know you are dying to watch it now, here you go:

haha yes, Dan and me

GOING OUT from SRSLY. on Vimeo.

The only difference is that Beyonce plays a role in our evenings.  The closest they got was the clapping and shuffling part, which did remind me of trying to do the Single Ladies dance with Dan one Halloween.  We definitely enthusiastically talked about taking the classes in town that taught you the choreography.

And for a moment I miss NYC, but then I remember that I had my windows down on my drive home and there is some sort of flight delaying ice rain going on up there right now.

So Dan, thank you for sending me that video, and I think you need to plan a vacation to Miami.  I can take you to all the coolest places, and by that I of course mean watching music videos on youtube all night long.

more effortless flawlessness

Thank you Jonathan for sending me this picture.  I guess Lindsay went to court again and somebody threw glitter on her again.

I'm inclined to agree with Jon that she probably told her assistant to do it.

I mean, for a picture like that?  It was so worth it.

all done ok?

I'm finally completely moved out of the downstairs unit and in my fancy new upstairs unit.  Can you tell?

There were a few snags along the way today that kept delaying the process.  Mostly just my own inability to focus on anything.

It really didn't help that I kept having to take breaks to chase that bad cat down after he would run bolt out the door.  One time when I caught him outside without even realizing he had gotten out I went after him and he ran to the downstairs apartment and tried to get in.  I feel sorry for whoever moves in there, I feel like he will continue to terrorize them.

He's angry about the new place, and the fact that I still haven't put things in order.  He's laying on the exact spot where he would be laying on the couch if it were there.

Oh and he's already sat down in the bathroom sink so I guess that change didn't upset him too much.  He's pissed about the bed situation though.  In my old place there was a built in bedside table thing that was attached to the wall and dictated that your bed had to be put next to it in a certain way.  This apt doesn't have that so I have my bed pushed in to the corner so it's touching the wall on two sides.  Now the detective's favorite place to sleep is in the corner which he does not do.  He needs to have the freedom to drape himself over the edge of the bed.

Last night was my first night sleeping up here and it was nice.  I mean, I was so exhausted that I'm sure I would have slept as well regardless of where I was, but I definitely didn't wake up to any noises.  And it's so nice to be able to open my blinds!

It's back to work tomorrow so we'll see how long I can live with this clutter before I go crazy and have to deal with it.  For now though I am going back to sleep.

the transition has begun

It's really weird.

I did a little cleaning before I started moving my things upstairs and about halfway through I forgot I was cleaning a new apt because the process is exactly the same as cleaning my old apartment.

Then I actually started moving things, picking up my plant from the counter downstairs, walking upstairs, placing it in the exact same spot on the exact same countertop in my new apartment.

So bright and clean!

Thank you Daniel for coming and helping me with the heavy lifting today.  Now all I have left is clothes and dishes.   Oh and the detective.  I don't want to break the news to him that it's a different bathroom sink so I'm leaving him down there to enjoy his old place for a little longer.

effortless flawlessness and perfection

Thank you Jonathan for sharing this picture with me.

I don't need to know what's actually going on in this picture although there are a couple scenarios that are going through my head.  One of them involves ballroom dance lessons.

I can't stop staring at it.  She's like champaign and fireworks.

still here

March 2013 is proving to be a rough month for me, in case you couldn't tell from my slacking with the posting.

There's been a lot of banging going on upstairs so I think I am almost going to be ready to move up there.  They finished the construction at work too so I am back in my territory.

Just have to deal with a few more life chores and then I'll be ready to get on with my life.

In the meantime the most interesting thing I have to report is that the cat is still weird.

me when they announced we were closed

While they are doing construction on our area at work they have us shoved in a random back corner with no computers, phone, or register.  It's terrible, we're so cut off from the world.

The only good part is that no computers means no end of day paperwork, so when it was closing time I was outta there before the customers were even gone.  As nice as it was to get home at 10:24, I am still anxious to get back to our old space.

I've snuck a few peaks at the construction and what they've done so far looks cool.  I think the end result will be as fantastic as the absurdly dramatic curtains foreshadow:

I can't wait to see the carpeting!

this guy

This morning my coffee moments were interrupted by Heather knocking on my door.  She wanted to draw my attention to this guy.

She named him Hank.

By the time I was leaving for work Hank had seemed to have found a home with my upstairs neighbors and I say good for them.

It's already a full house around here with the detective.  I will admit Hank is pretty cute though.

all I've ever wanted

Having really only ever driven 2 door cars, I was always envious of my friends and family members who had control of 4 windows.  Oh the possibilities.

So this morning I took a moment of appreciation that I finally have something that I've always wanted.  And you know what, it's as good as I thought it would be.

And the child lock?  Oh, the power.

he strikes again

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Marty indeed.

It looks to me like a certain detective following a clue.

stuck waiting

There's so much change and excitement on the horizon, I feel like I've been doing nothing but waiting.  Consequently, I didn't even realize how many days had passed that I hadn't done a post.

SORRY.

It doesn't help that it's been bitterly cold (60's) down here so all I've wanted to do was sleep and eat.  But tomorrow should hold many fun activities.  Namely, hanging out with some nice doggies all day.

Until then I'm going to be cleaning and listening to Van Halen.

rabbit rabbit rabbit

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Jon came down to help me move (which didn't happen) so I asked him to help me pick out the rabbit picture for today.  I eventually had to put an end to it and pick this one for him, otherwise we'd be here all day still looking at pictures of adorable bunnies.  "Just keep scrolling down, just a little further"

It's been fun having Jon here, especially since we didn't end up having to do anything in particular.  As you can imagine there has been a lot of this:

Stink face all around.

We did manage to get off the couch though, we even met up with my friend John and went for a bike ride.  I took some pretty great photos, I present them to you without comment.

It's really worth zooming in on his face for most of those, but I didn't want to cut out the beautiful scenery.  It's like biking through an episode of the golden girls.

It sucks that it's been so gloomy and cold for Jon's surprise vacation but at least I got the afternoon off of work today so I could enjoy his company for a bit longer before he heads back to Boston.  Hopefully he will be back very soon to help me move for real this time.  For now we're going out for lunch though.

I hope you enjoy March's fat cat as much as I do: