i won the flying lottery

Exit row completely to myself?!  Unbelievable!

Too bad it was only an hour and a half flight from Beau Fleuve to JFK.

Here's hoping I can get on the next flight to Trampa.

shady lane

We had to run an errand up in glamorous Tampon yesterday which is where I found my two new favorite establishments.  Above is what I can only assume is a 5 star spa judging by the totally not sketchy exterior. I also like the name, it might as well say "money laundering front".

Across the street is the store that Tayisha Busay willed in to existence:

The creepiest part was that the headless mannequins were gently swaying and turning in the breeze.  It was like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Xanadu.

I feel like this street is the Rodeo of Trampa.

lapping at the peen of America

It's monday morning, back to life, back to reality.  I took Dan to the airport yesterday morning, came back and slept for the rest of the day.  I'm not kidding.  I did wake up in the evening and managed to watch the new episode of celebrity apprentice (i'm obsessed), but otherwise I didn't have the energy to do anything yesterday.  For as little as we actually did while Dan was here, it was an activity packed weekend for me.

The picture above is from Lido beach when Scott took Dan and me there to watch the sunset on Friday night.  I was pleased that Dan's mind immediately went to celestial bodies and how we are but a rock hurtling through space.  After watching the sunset we ended up here for dinner where the three of us split a dinner called "Nirvana" that was basically more seafood than you'd believe.  And delicious.

Now, I can't really talk about Dan's visit without mentioning the Tervis tumbler factory store.  Twice.

As I've mentioned before in my blog Scott and I got these amazing cups that we were all excited about using when we had guests over:

That's strawberry lemonade in my Florida palm tree cup.  If you want the full scoop on them you can go to the source but basically they are really well insulated durable cups with fun embroidered decals inside.  Now, as Dan pointed out numerous times, I tend to say that I can't really describe the amazingness of things on my blog very well but I'll have to say it again.  Even after having seen my posts about the wonder that is Tervis tumblers Dan still had no idea what he was in for when he took his first drink in the pink flamingo cup.

I'm going to save us all a lot of "he said, she said" here and just say that of the three full days that Dan was here in Florida we spent the better part of two of those days driving to, and shopping at, the Tervis Factory Store in glamorous Osprey, Florida.

I will say, it was totally worth it because Dan overheard me saying how much I liked this cup and secretly bought it for me:

That was an "always the perfect temperature" iced coffee in my nice fish cup.  The handle seems a bit superfluous since part of the appeal of the Tervis tumbler is that it's insulated so the outside of the cup never gets too hot or too cold, but I think I like it for that very reason.  I'm all about unnecessary accessories:

source

Thankfully Dan's trip was not ALL driving up and down Highway 41 betwixt the house and the Tervis Factory store, we did manage to fit in a few other fun things.  There was our first day at the beach, starting at Siesta but eventually setting up camp on Lido.  The water was brisk for me but Dan went right in no problem.  I did end up swimming a bit but the best was laying in the sun warming up after.  Thinking back I'm not sure there's much we did that day besides go to the beach, eat lunch, and watch Burlesque on demand.  It was such a different experience to watch it at home with Dan where we pretty much talked the whole way through it.  Or sang.  I'm glad we watched it on the first night as it appropriately colored the rest of Dan's visit.

Dan was rightfully cautious about sun exposure so we ended up spending a decent amount of time around the pool and under the shade of umbrellas.  One afternoon even featured an in-pool game of yahtzee:

We were experimenting with dropping the dice in the pool but they were a little too small.  You'd either need bigger ones, or like floaty ones.  Either way, let it be known that I came up with the idea and wrote about it here.

The final night of Dan's visit we actually made it to the opera to see La Boheme which my sister has been in the pit for.  It was the last performance and I still hadn't seen it so I was glad it worked out for us to go.  Here's my picture I took of the outside, though it pales in comparison to the one that's on their website:

The performance itself was so amazing.  All of the performers were on point, the sets were perfect, I thought it was one of the best performances I'd seen in a long time.  In fact I found my mind wandering during the performance to all of the shows I've seen in nyc and how most of the time the things I see outside of the city ends up being so much better.  Of course I'm sure I am a little partial to this particular performance since my sister was actually a part of it but I can own that.  I like going down to the pit during the intermission to see her and say hi.  It's a perk of knowing somebody in the orchestra.

The program for the performance was actually just a booklet program that they must pass out at all of their performances.  It had all of the performers for the season and the directors notes and whatnot.  It also featured a certain headshot which, along with the line, "you aint got nothing on me Goody Proctor"  became the Tweety Bird Pez Dispenser to my Elaine.

Thankfully we were not sitting that close, and most of Sarasota is deaf anyways so I didn't cause a commotion that required me to leave my seat, but let me tell you, I was having a hard time keeping it together.

The other gem from the program was in the producers list.  Almost all of the pictures were of a husband and wife all dressed up, there were a few pictures of people alone, and then there was this woman:

I love her!  That is exactly what I would do.  I want to think that her husband wanted no part of the opera so she took that picture with her cats to spite him.  Or, she's like me and wishes that the opera would be more accepting of feline patronage.  It would be very nice if I could bring the detective with me to a night at the opera.  He's always black tie ready, and I could get him a pair of opera glasses!!!

Either way those are two of the nicest little guys I've ever seen.  I'd really like to meet this woman and shake her hand.

So that's pretty much all she wrote.  Dan's visit was a whirlwind of drinking, listening to Beyonce, buying cups, laying in the sun, and opera.  I think Dan was sufficiently impressed with Sarasota, and hopefully, as his plane took off from Trampa he looked down at the diminishing coastline and thought, "It's kind of like the waves are lapping at the peen of America"

backwards

source

I'm at the airport waiting for my flight to nyc where I will spend a few days on a mini vacation before returning to my now real life in Florida.  This feels very unnatural.

The best part so far has been that I had to get body scanned at the Sarasota airport.  I haven't gotten scanned any of the times I've flown out of JFK, i've never gotten scanned at Burbank or LAX, I've never gotten scanned at Tampa, I didn't even think that Sarasota had full body scanners but apparently they do now, and I looked like a prime target.

After standing in the scanner I had to wait in a holding pen until the guy got the clear that I didn't have anything on me.  The TSA guy on duty was an older gentleman who was clearly just doing his job. At first he seemed surprised when I asked him if anybody was going to see me naked but after considering it for a moment replied with, "not hardly!" which made me laugh out loud.  Apparently he's seen the body scans and he'd like a little more detail.

Maybe I should get a job with the TSA.  I wouldn't mind a little T&A at work.

But anyways, my plane is about to board.  Next you hear from me I will be neck deep in snow.

lunch

Scott and I went to lunch at the Pier in St. Pete the other day and this was our view.  Well this was the view from the outside deck that we couldn't sit on because it was too windy and cold, but I did go out and take pictures.  This would be another example of when I wish I had a better camera because you should be able to see Tampa on the horizon but I don't think the quality is good enough.  Either way it was a beautiful view on a beautiful day.  The Pier is kinda touristy but it's worth it for the drive out there and then being able to look out over the Gulf like this.  The problem with Florida is that it's so flat you hardly ever get the opportunity to see sweeping views of the ocean like this unless you're up on a bridge or in a condo on the water or something.  As much of an eyesore as most people probably think the Pier is I still enjoyed it.

And we valet parked the car because we didn't have change for the meter.  ooh la la.