it's cold here

Just in time for me to have to wear a suit every day to work.  Not so fun for my weekend off though.  Saturday I decided to stay in and reorganize my closet, a project which was very necessary.  Unfortunately the power went out on my block right around dusk, and my closet reorganization came to a halt.

The project was harder to get back in to yesterday, and so here we find ourselves on Monday morning with piles of clothes on my couch in my living room.  At least I gained an hour of work this morning.
And I still managed to enjoy some of my day yesterday.  I went for a run and spied these bathing beauties:

There are a few things you can count on when the temperature drops.  Iguanas are one, snowbirds are another.

Hopefully they are going to come shopping soon.

Oh by the way, I forgot, here is your calendar page for this month:

my feelings exactly

A part of me just wants to lay down and give up, and yet, there still burns a fire in my eyes.

I spent the better part of my break today raging on the phone.  I have a feeling I can look forward to more of the same tomorrow.

I've forgotten what it felt like to have a normal life.

the new whip

Progressive put the final nail in the benz's coffin so now all that's left is for Mercedes to appraise it and tell me how much they are willing to give me for it.

Yeah.  sucky.

In the meantime I had to move on and get something to take me to work and back until I can get this all sorted out and get back on my feet.  So I'm a pickup truck boy now.

Incredibly this truck cost less than it would to replace the engine in my Mercedes.  When I pulled in to my parking spot at home just now the radio fell out and in to my lap.  But it runs like a dream!  A crazy beverly hillbillies dream.

And my bike fit in the back perfectly so I'm actually all set.  Now I'm just going to put my nose to the grindstone for the next 50 years until I recover from the loses I've had in the past 9 months.

two fewer wheels

I had just gotten to the beach and locked my bike up when there was a loud pop.  Everyone on the beach heard it and tried to figure out what it was, I didn't really pay attention.  I realized later when I got on my bike to head home that the noise was my tire popping.

The tube got pulled out by a good samaritan who saw me walking my bike along the side of the road and tried to fix it.  It's been nice during this past year to be constantly reminded that there are a lot of people who help for no reason.

But my bike could not be quick fixed, and thus I am left with only my two feet to carry me wherever I need to go.  Well, my two feet and my various friends who have helped me with rides.

I've got work tomorrow but I hope to have things more sorted out so that on Wednesday I can get started with the next chapter of my life.  Oh and tomorrow is my first day in Boca so that should be cool.  I still haven't even been there, so getting to see my new work environment for the first time will be fun if nothing else.

And I got to have lunch here today:

so at least my days off weren't a total wash.

and another

Many thanks to my friend Daniel B. for his helpful counsel this morning on the subject of my car.  As much as I would like to just go back in time and make different choices, I feel like I will at least be able to make the best choices going forward from here.

And in the midst of all this mess I haven't even been able to think about how I'm going to be up in Boca later this week.

I wonder if it's possible for my life to ever settle in to a routine.

why would today be any different?

I woke up this morning to the sun shining blindingly brightly in to my apt.  Finally, no more rain, back to life as we knew it in sunny Florida!

It was not meant to be.

I walked in to Starbucks with the sun on my shoulders.  I turned around after I ordered to discover that it had turned in to the end of days outside.

And it never stopped.

No like really.  

Notice the geyser of water shooting up from the storm drain.

By the time I took my break the water had begun to enter the mall:

By 8:00 pm the carnage was starting to show:

I don't know why I didn't see any horrible foreshadowing in this scene.

By closing time the tow trucks had started to show up.

And this is when things got out of control.

And as my luck would have it I had to abandon my flooded car in Aventura.  Will find out tomorrow if it can be fixed or if it really drowned.

fml.

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.

don't touch my stuff

I got really close to the wall today.

Getting out and seeing just how obnoxious I look always makes me think of this:

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Still, there are no dings in my doors.

take a long ride in the mercedes

Last week at Starbucks they accidentally made me two venti iced coffees so I thought I would have double the fun for my work day.  I put my second coffee in the back seat cup holder and totally forgot about it.  It wasn't until I was parking that I looked back and saw the empty spot where my coffee had once been.

I found the cup on the floor of my backseat, and some coffee residue on the carpet but otherwise was baffled by where my coffee had gone.  Apparently there are drains underneath the seats, and thank goodness for that.  It's those kinds of things that make it a Mercedes Benz.

Anyways, the point is, I ended up having to make an appointment to get the carpets shampooed in order to rid my car of the rancid smell of old soy milk.  The only available time they had was this morning, ironically the day before my judgement day.

So I got it all cleaned, top to bottom, inside and out, and now I can hopefully go the next six months without spilling anything, tearing anything, or otherwise getting in trouble.

To celebrate I made John take me on a pleasure cruise in it tonight.  One last time before it will only be able to be driven by me.

Not looking forward to tomorrow.

if you're from africa, why are you white?

This is what my car's GPS said this morning.

I was trying to use it to navigate  but it was giving me all kinds of attitude so I finally gave up and just used my phone.  It wasn't until I was on my home that I glanced at it and saw that it had me somewhere off the coast of Africa.

I wish!  Well maybe not in the actual ocean but it would still be cool to be on the other side of the Atlantic.  Sadly I am not, my car is apparently just a little confused, and I am going to have to accept it.

Or move to Africa, you know so I can use the map.

Either way, the lesson I learned today is that you can't just ask people why they're white.

classy

I had to drop off my car for its official service since I've had it and I unexpectedly was given a loaner car for the day.

It had to be white!  And because it's newer than mine it has the fancy LED fog lights, as well as a feature inside that I never figured out.

In between 10mph and park was a little picture of a coffee cup.  At first I thought maybe it had cup holder warmers so I kept sticking my hands in the cup holders and trying to decide if they felt warmer or if I just really wanted them to feel warmer.  After to and from work I decided the cup holders weren't heated.  Now that I'm home and can use the magic of google I find that I am not the only one baffled by the coffee cup icon.  Apparently it's to inform you that the "Attention Assist" is on which monitors your driving and alerts you if it thinks you are falling asleep at the wheel.  I still don't really get the coffee icon but it's an interesting feature.

Mostly I just couldn't get over the color.  White mercedes make me think of this:

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and make me regret not getting my car in white.  But then when I really think about it I've never been a Samantha anyways, and I've always thought my color was more of a Blanche Devereaux, to whom I think I relate much better.

So even though it was fun to ride in style in the sedan I was still happy to see my car at the end of the night.

2 for 1

Since I suddenly found myself with the day off yesterday Sarah took me out for two for one beers and dinner.  Those are actually two, two for one beers that were brought to me after much confusion.  When I found out that they had Guinness I asked the waiter if I could have a black and tan and if that was included in the two for one.  He had never heard of a black and tan and after I explained to him what it was he said, "oh let me go see if they can make it".  I don't think he quite got that it was just mixing two beers together and that as long as they had the two beers they could definitely do it.

Anyways in all the confusion the bartender ended up making two gigantic black and tans so I ended up getting four for one.  It's a good thing I was making Sarah pilot the benz.  Hahaha she got angry at somebody in traffic and then she was like, "See when I get all crazy in this I just look like a bitch in my mercedes.  If I saw myself in traffic I'd be like, "calm down, you're in a mercedes, you're fine"

It is kind of true.  The tinted windows help though.

I'm terrible

For many reasons, mostly for missing the past two days of blog posts.  I would have gotten one in for Sunday but I chose to hang out with Elliot after work and missed my deadline.  It was worth it:

But this post is not about sparkles though she remains, very nice.  It's about how I'm terrible, and the equally terrible picture above of the Blount license plate I saw driving to work just minutes after I had posted this.  I stuck to my resolution of not risking anybody's life by trying to get a good picture while in moving traffic so the result is too blurry to even realize it's from Blount but believe me, it was.

I had put it out of my mind until I was walking to my car during my break and spotted this monstrosity parked UNNECESSARILY CLOSE TO ME:

You can imagine the look on my face when I saw the license plate.  I was only in my car for a moment to pick up an application I needed to drop off for a new job (details to follow hopefully) which I thought a shame as this was the perfect opportunity to interact with a person, or possible family, from Blount.

After dropping off my resume I went back to my car to retrieve my soda pop from lunch that I had left. Had I not, I would not have seen the four South American women looking all around while the lights on the chevy next to my car were flashing.  I would never have seen the driver open her door directly in to my door.  And I certainly would have never gotten a crisp $100 dollar bill for bitching about a ding in my door and threatening to call mall security.

What I did not do however was ask them about Blount.  I figure it must be a rental, but still, why?  Maybe I should have asked them what rental car company they used so I could write them a letter.  Although I didn't get the impression that they would be forthcoming with information after I held the drivers door open while I inspected my car for the ding that I did eventually find.

I think they learned their lesson, but I am no closer to learning the sickening truth about Blount.

Also I'm terrible for making the past three posts about license plates.

why didn't I think of this?

That plate would look way better on the back of the roadster.  Grrr, shame on me for not thinking of this.

And since I can't get cat butt I'm already losing this battle.  I feel the same way about choosing a tattoo. I can never come up with something clever on my own, just see what other people do and wish I were that cool.  And they even got it with the endless summer plate!  That's the one I have always wanted for the roadster:

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It looks good against the black too.  I've always thought it would be sharp on my car.

I've also always wanted this one:

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But I feel like the endless summer looks the best on a convertible.  The question remains, what should it say?

Suggestions are appreciated.

nothing better to do

After a weekend of heavy rain I was excited to be a sun worshipper once again yesterday.  I wanted to take the roadster out so I was glad when Sarah wanted to hang out down in Miami Shores.  One of the good things about being friends with your coworkers is that you are usually rich or broke together.  This Friday being our payday we were both in the broke boat together yesterday.

Sarah went on groupon to try and find something for us to do which led to the depressing realization that we didn't even have enough money for the groupon things.  The only thing we came close to was $50.00 for an hour of tattooing that we would have been able to pay for if we pooled our money together.  After a few RUDE suggestions back and forth of what tattoo we would get we decided that maybe the tattoo wasn't going to happen.

So we went with the old fallback activity, happy hour.  It's nice to be able to go somewhere with a nice view, even when you're broke, and still be able to have a relaxing afternoon.  I was just trying to think of what similar thing we would have done in new york and the only thing I could come up with was drinking on the roof.  I guess I had some good times on various rooftops but still, it's nice to have your money go a little further down here.

Either way it's always easier to find something to do when there's nothing to do if you have a partner in crime.  As I approach my 1 year anniversary of moving down here I am pleasantly surprised to realize how many friends I've managed to make in this short amount of time.  I appreciate it, thanks guys.

omg SO GOOD

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So the much ballyhoo'd Triumphant has been released to listen to on mariahcarey.com and I do enjoy it, I do.  ESPECIALLY because they mention being in a James Bond two seater beemer and while they are probably talking about this:

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I am going to imagine that they are talking about this:

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But back to Mariah.  She released this song on her website earlier this week and then followed it up with the announcement that she had already done a remix as well.

And oh, its good, it's real good.  I am definitely putting this on my running playlist, and by that I mean I am just going to put it on repeat for my entire run.

I'm also really excited that this song is so good because the hope is that it will become her 19th #1 single.  I feel like everyone is so distracted at her 18 million dollar contract with American Idol that they aren't realizing it's all about publicity so she can finally get to the top of this list:

Most number-one hits

• The Beatles (20)
• Mariah Carey (18)
• Elvis Presley (17) (Pre-Hot 100 charts and Hot 100)
• Michael Jackson (13)
• Madonna (12) tie
• The Supremes (12) tie
• Whitney Houston (11) tie
• Rihanna (11)^[25] tie
• Janet Jackson (10) tie
• Stevie Wonder (10) tie

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I can't wait to see her first interview when she gets her 21st.  "I don't know who the Beatles are".  No, she would never, she'll come up with something amazingly classy to say I'm sure.

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Like I said, I can't wait.  In the meantime I am literally listening to this remix on repeat, and intend to for the rest of the day.  I suggest you do the same.

I just noticed this

The roadster doesn't have a spare tire, both because there isn't space and because there are two different size tires on the car, so instead they threw this in the trunk.  It's basically an air pump and then there's a can of spray sealant.  Very James Bond.

So in all the times I've been in the trunk and seen this air pump I've never bothered to read what it says. It's that first sentence that I can't make any sense of.

"To be filled easily visible for the driver."

What?  It's troubling because you get through most of the sentence feeling like it's going somewhere logical and then it all just kind of gets mucked up at the end.  I am not filled with a lot of confidence by this, especially as it brandishes the BMW logo so brazenly.  So this was clearly printed by BMW, do they not have proofreaders?  Much less proofreaders, wasn't there anybody at the plant who read enough English to notice this and point out that it doesn't make any sense?

Speaking of, maybe one of you who speaks german can read the bottom part of that and tell me what the translation is trying to say.  Perhaps it's just one of those lost in translation situations, there's no way to really capture what they want you to do with the air pump.  Rest assured though, the tire will be filled easily, and it will be visible for the driver.

rabbit rabbit rabbit

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Aaahh August.  It seems to have come so quickly but I anticipate it will take a while to get through.  Not as bad as September but still, a pretty gruesome month.

I resigned my lease but only for another 6 months.  So while I will not have to spend my August searching for a new place to live as I previously thought, I will have to spend my August knowing that I will have 6 more months of listening to my upstairs neighbor move furniture at all hours of the day and night.  And it's another 6 months of having to figure out how to park two cars.  Or I could just bite the bullet and put up a listing for the roadster online.  Meghan, this is what happens when you drag your feet, that's all I'm saying.

Speaking of, I feel like it's time for me to stop dragging my feet and decide what I'm going to do for the next adventure in my life.  I am coming up on my year anniversary of moving down here and things have settled in to a decently comfortable routine.  I want to start something new but I'm not sure what.  My mind keeps wandering back to my first months out of college when I got my yoga certification.  I want to do something like that but I'm just not sure what.  Suggestions?

On an unrelated topic, I don't necessarily agree with this month's Barbie:

I mean she's fine, she's whatever, I just don't believe that she is the August Barbie.  I mean, where is she headed in that dress?  Unless she got booked doing the print ads for a prom dress catalogue I can't think of a legit reason for her to wear that dress in this month.

I will give her extra points for the amount of taffeta used.  That's what that is right?  Dan?  I need your expertise as usual.

it always happens like this

Looks like a beautiful day for the beach eh?  That's what I thought too.  In fact, I started preparing for my beautiful Saturday off as early as Friday evening when I unwrapped the roadster and got it all cleaned up.

You can imagine my displeasure sitting in the beach parking lot where the view out my passenger side was the one above, and the view out of my drivers side was this:

In that Florida style, the rolling thunderheads were nowhere to be seen on my entire drive to the beach. As soon as I parked, however, they blocked out the sun and brought that cold wind that often heralds the impending storm.

After some consideration I decided there would be other days for the beach and I gave up on my grand plan.  I instead spent the day cleaning.  The good news is that I have clothes to wear to work now!  The  bad news is I didn't get the golden tan I was hoping for.  When I travel to other places how will people know I live in South Florida?!

I guess it only takes a brief conversation to figure out somebody is an insane Floridian.  And sometimes, it doesn't even take conversation, as this man learned recently.  Since I'm not tan I'll have to use that as my topic of conversation with strangers I may meet in the coming days.

It's either that or talk about the weather.

rude dudes

My phone was dead when I discovered my saran wrapped car the other night but THANKFULLY there is a video of the nefarious deed being committed shot by none other than the infamous Eduard.

As Jon said, "his giggling".  It's haunting.  And for the record, you saran wrapped the benz not the beemer, you FOOL.

And Chris, I'm glad you had such a great time helping Eduard.  Don't think I will forget this.