My 4th

After a LONG day at work we decided to just stay at the mall and watch the fireworks from the roof of the parking garage.  We were sitting in the back of my truck when this family stood directly in our line of vision.  I thought it was nice.

After fireworks Nori drove us to a bar for a drink and curly fries.

She was supposed to be practicing driving stick shift in preparation for getting her new car today.  As of me writing this at 7:45 she still hasn't replied to my texts, which leads me to believe she's still asleep.  It's possible.

I actually plan on going to sleep shortly.   I am so tired from this week and I am off tomorrow.  I am excited for a good nights sleep tonight.

I'm also excited to see the blog post that Mike is going to do about our 4th of July.  I'm anticipating that he's working on it today and will post it tonight or tomorrow.  Link to follow.

I enjoyed work this evening

After all of the heartache the past few weeks it was nice to have a peaceful day at work for a change.  Props to Noriko, in all the ways my name has been misspelled (Banjamin, Benajmin, Benhamin, etc.) I don't recall anybody ever doing Beanjamin.  I like it.  My family called me Bean for a while in my childhood, and sometimes still even to this day.  Yet nobody thought to go for the full Beanjamin until this evening.

After work Noriko and I practiced driving stick shift in preparation of her getting her first car this coming Saturday.  I'm super envious that she's getting a super cute cabriolet, so I'm giving her stick shift lessons in hopes that she will let me ride shotgun in her cool new ride.  I'm going with her next saturday to pick it up because she thinks she needs me to bail her out if she can't end up driving it home.  She'll be fine though, there is no way I am letting her go in her mom's car so she can give up and make me drive her new car home.  For security I'm bringing Mike so we can take my truck and then I plan on riding with Nori in her new car and making Mike drive my truck back to her apt.  Muahahahaha.

All in all she did pretty good with her lesson this evening.  She's definitely better than she was last year:

07/02/13

We drove around the parking lot for a while, which was hilariously busy on a Sunday night.  Seriously, it was an empty parking lot at the mall but for some reason there was some angry woman in a BMW around every corner, raging at Nori for her experimentation with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears.  Once she got the hang of it we moved on to the traffic circle around the mall.  That lasted us a couple of laps before she was getting a little too cocky.  It was time for the starting on a incline challenge.  

"But why do I need to learn how to do that?  We live in Miami, there aren't any hills!" she said.
"So what are you going to do when you get stopped by a drawbridge and the person behind you pulls up right to your bumper?  Call me? "
"Yes.  Or I'll call a tow truck."

She figured it out though.  There was only a few moments where I worried we were going to roll backwards through the cement and over the edge of the parking garage.  Only a few.  But she got the hang of it eventually, and then when we drove home she was a regular Mario Andretti.  We only got one horn honk and one car passing us on a double yellow.  All in all, I think she's going to be A-Ok.

It was fun to have fun at work today and after.  My life at work lately has been best described by the scene I walked in to when I went to the bathroom tonight:

There was a moment when we were driving Nori home that she was asking me about the mini cooper.  We both had a good laugh about how our job security is so uncertain.  : /

At least I have the day off tomorrow.  They can't fire me over the phone.  Can they?

wtf is this window?!

I was walking through the mall today when I saw this and literally had to do a double take.  I was so focused on figuring out what was going on I didn't even look to see what store this was.

I mean really though, how did anybody think this looked attractive?!  She's holding a champagne bottle behind her, which is what the butterflies(?) are shooting out of, because that makes sense.

Everyone I showed it to thought the same thing I did, that she was having some kind of explosive bowel movement all over the other mannequins.  Even the way she is standing supports that theory.  What's the most disturbing is that the other two are facing in to it.

That's some kinky shit right there.

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.

I can only imagine

This was parked at the mall when I arrived for work yesterday and I literally did a double take.  I read it as I walked past but it didn't really register right away.  I ended up walking back and taking a picture because it was just too unbelievable.

I can't believe that there is a big enough market that they would manufacture license plate frames that say that.  I also can't believe anybody would be brave enough to put that on their car.

It was a really nice benz though.  Like really nice.