And so it begins...

Here comes the greatest week. It started last night with a b-day dinner with E. We went to a place called the Flying Fish at the boardwalk at Disney (of course). The decor was pretty fun, check out their "flying fish".


I had a great salmon dish, but the dessert was the high point. I had a sorbet that had three flavors: lychee, cassis, and blood orange. MMM..... It was amazing!!

I've been pretty stressed with work lately. Can't seem to stay motivated and can't sleep well at nights. I've tried to decompress. I headed out to feed the ducks at my pond. We have baby ducks and they are so cute!!


The other day, we also had a roseate spoonbill among the ibises.


It would dip its bill down to the bottom of the water to catch all of the crumbs dropped by the other birds. Pretty smart fishing!


Still excited for Kate to come. That's about it!

Countdown

In four days, I will wake up and be 27. Holy cow! When did I get to be 27! I think that makes me in my late twenties. Which is almost thirty, and you may as well round that up to 50, which is almost dead. So, I guess I am almost dead.

In five days from now, I will be waiting for Katie to call me from the airport. She's coming for a visit and I am sooooo excited!

In ten days I will be back in NE. YEAH! I'm ready for a trip home. Haven't seen my friends for over 6 weeks and I am getting antsy.

It's going to be a good two weeks.

Mad driving skills

This weekend E came over from Orlando. She got in about 1 on Sat and we decided to relive a little Lincoln magic by heading to Old Chicago. It is 20 miles away and it took us about an hour and 45 minutes to get there. We got about two miles from the apartment and were waiting to turn in one of two left-hand turning lanes onto a major highway. The arrow turned green and the I moved forward with the car on my right. Out of the corner of my eye I saw an oncoming car that showed no evidence of slowing headed right for us. I stepped on my brakes and layed on my horn as it flew in front of me, barely missing my bumper and smashed into the car on my right.

E and I headed around and waited to be witnesses for the cops. I would guess that due to structural damage and the fact that the radiator split wide open that the car would be totalled out. The oncoming car was driven by a girl that admitted she simply wasn't paying attention. There was barely a scratch on her car. However, the driver of the other car sustained neck injuries and had to be taken away in an ambulance. While we were waiting for the cops, the kids in each car called about everyone they knew. By the time the cop arrived we had two sets of parents, a grandmother, a wife and child, two buddies of the other driver and three firemen there to increase the gawking component of the situation. E and I took pics of the accident site for them and by the time the officer was taking statements he simply informed us that since she confessed to not paying attention, we would not need to make statements. After standing in the 85 degree heat for nearly 40 minutes at 2 pm and having not eaten all day, we didn't even need to stay. Well at least there was a cute fireman to look at.

E and I then drove down the coast for some nice scenery and watched Ocean's 13. Got up on Sunday, hiked at Hillsborough River State park again and this time we made it to the lodge for pancakes. They have griddles in the middle of the table and they give you a pitcher of pancake batter with blueberries, bananas, choc chips and pnut butter chips. It was a good time. Too bad the trail was covered in mud and even underwater in a few places. That makes for some messy hiking.

Not much else. Pretty much the accident was the exciting part of the weekend. I surprised myself by being a good defensive driver and as E put out, if I hadn't stopped she would have hit me directly in the driver side door without even slowing from 50 miles an hour. Thank God for small miracles.

This is what happens when you meet people

So, Tues night I am sitting at Bennigans visiting with Mike, my new bartending buddy. I walked in (this is the fifth or so time that I have stopped over to visit him). A man came in and sat down next to me. In the course of Mike and I's convo, he said "well, you are from Nebraska", a common slam from him. The man next to me asks where in NE? I reply: Lincoln. "Ah, so are you a football fan?"
"Have you meet anyone from Lincoln that is not?"

We continued to chat. He sells voice recognition software to hospitals and used to have the NE account with Methodist, St. E's, and Bryan. Then it all went downhill. First, he tells me that he has two twin daughters. I chat him up about that. They are 12 and we started talking about how my sister and I did not really lead separate lives until college. He goes off on how he is going to make sure that his girls are going to be individuals. They are not going to be grouped together so that they could grow up to be confident. SLAP! Did he just miss the insult that he delivered?

Then, he asks what brought me to Fl. I give him the whole "I'm young, I'm single, I'm exploring the world" speech. "Single? No guys here?"

"Nope, they are just trouble. I still haven't shaken off the last guy in Nebraska" This demonstrates my witty bantering ability that is usually found endearing in response to the single status questions.

"Well, don't take too long. I mean really, you shouldn't wait too long to get married and have kids. What about these guys?" he motions to the bartenders.

"Well, one of them I don't know and the other is married."

"Well, really, don't take too long."

arrrrggghhhh!!!! This is literally the first outright bad reaction I have ever received to my decision to move to FL. Everyone else has thought it to be adventuresome or brave in some manner, even if they are family members who wish that I did not do it. What a jerk!

Then, when he asks where I live, I reply "Across the street"

Oh, He's STAYING at the HoJo across the street. Well, it's not really across the street. Across the street is the grocery store that my apartment is behind, then the Sonic, then the stripclub, then the HoJo. All of a sudden is he checking me out. Staring at Little Miss Sunshine stretched across my t-shirt and everytime I turn to talk to Mike and turn around he it oggling my butt. Do you suppose he thought I meant the stripclub was my home? Really, there is just no excuse. By this time I have already asked for my check, feel horribly insulted and have the funny idea that he is wondering "Don't strippers have to have bigger boobs?"

I say, "It was nice meeting you, I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay here in Tampa." with as little malice as I can possibly muster.....

Men.

wordless wednesday

Things I learned today

If you go into Target for headbands, you will end up spending $60 minimum.

Getting help at Best Buy is very easy if you are wearing a tube top. Seriously, I about had to beat them off of me.

If the handy man does not tell you that he fixed the leak in the apartment above you and just paints over the water mark, be dang glad that the leak is over the shower.

Sex and the City is not good on TBS. Never has been, and still is not even if there is nothing else on at midnight.

Put aloe on your sunburn even if you think it is minor. It will still go away faster.

If you come up with an idea, it is mutiny. If your boss has the same idea, it's genius. Shut up and go with it.

Watched Chocolat again. The moral of the story is this. Every woman should have a little Johnny Depp to console her when she comes to a horrible realization about her life. Or at least some amazing chocolate.

The cutest pic ever

Hating life

I give up

I've been working on the same project for about 8 weeks now. Finally, I am getting back on track with it, but I have let other work slide. I was just posted on the "naughty" list twice for late analysis and am tired of dealing with it all. Then, I get recommendations from a coworker to change my report and a "let me know if you need any help".

Didn't know how to do it so I asked her to do it for me. She called this morning and WALKED ME THROUGH THE STEPS, then abandoned me to add it to the report. Thanks. That helps so much.

I feel like punching a hole through a wall. I'm so frustrated that I am having minor meltdowns all by my lonesome here in the apartment. Booooooooo......

PS- I apologize in advance to mama for the photo, but it is obviously photoshopped. No kittens were hurt in the production of this photo.

New reform

So, got invited to a wedding with lots of old friends in attendance. By old friends I mean guys that screwed me over or lied about our relationship to their friends. This is not until July, so that means I have plenty of time to get in amazing shape and to find a perfect dress. The first step of this was to throw away my scale. I had become to reliant on it to enable my laziness. My weight does not fluctuate easily. When I had been working out steadily, I did not see a difference. However, when I did nothing, I still did not see a difference. Not a good way to measure my health.

I also just started a 6 weeks to a 5K running program. No real goal like a marathon or anything, just want to have a plan. I need to ease back into running due to my bad knee. Pretty much I run 5 miles four days a week in some random pattern. I also got my GPS watch up and running. Found out how far I actually have been running. That will help me to remain a little more motivated.

So. speaking of marathons, here's a little website for you all. My brother found it and shared it with us all at Brett's b-day trip.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

This blog is a humorous list of things that white people love. For example:
#88 Having Gay Friends
#81 Graduate School
#54 Kitchen Gadgets
#27 Marathons
#15 Yoga

Just check out the full list and you will never feel more like a stereotype. Enjoy!