Sunday, November 28, 2010

Floridians don't have a right to be cold.....no one told me about this rule.

Discloser: I'm 100% sure I've posted this before but it's that time of year when this kind of stuff starts to get on my nerves so just bear with me.


I have a love/hate relationship with snowbirds. They're great, they come to Fl this time of year and stay until the end of spring. They're usually in a good mood at first but are lacking in Southern manners, (which I am not only accustomed to but prefer) so they also bring a certain pushiness and sense of entitlement with them that I can usually overlook because I know they're not from here and mean well.(was that a run on sentence or was that a run on sentence)By the end of SPring they've pretty much worn out their welcome because I can tell that they too are beginning to get sick of the slow South(which is ok, sometimes I do too) and start complaining to anyone who'll listen which is usually me because I'm too polite to say that I don't give a f-. If I hear, "Well in (insert city) people don't blahblahblah" one more time, I might dig out my own ears with a shovel. If I wanted to know what people do or say or act or buy or eat or read or whatever, I would go there.


Why is it that if I say I'm cold, people assume it's time to start a contest of who's colder,as in "HA! That's nothing! It's 30000 below zero over in (insert city), Wimpy!"

I'm not trying to start a new Olympic competition of who's colder, I'm just saying that I'm cold. Obviously I'm not an idiot so I know it's colder in (insert city).....THAT'S WHY I DON'T LIVE THERE. Just cuz I live closer to the equator, doesn't mean I don't have a right to be cold or say that I'm cold or that I've just taken the first move in the "who's colder" contest.......just sayin'. I think I'm going to just start carrying around gold medals to hand out to people in the winter for winning the "who has more right to be cold" contest that no one told me about.


When people complain about how effing hot they are in the summer, I don't jump out of my skin to keep my head from exploding so that I can berate them about how "it's a thousand degrees here(insert snooty and disdainful laugh)" or that "we all sweat buckets at night so shut up and stop complaining because you don't have a right to be hot". My usual reply is,"Yeah, well it's summer. You'll be happier when it cools down this Fall." These are the same people who can't take air conditioners set below 85. I don't get it.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Beach Sculpture

We're having a warm month and the Thanksgiving weekend tourists must be thanking the stars for the good weather. I actually saw some kids swimming this morning. Of course I was in jeans and long sleeves.

I do like when tourists leave art behind instead of pollution:


Happy Thanksgiving Internets :o) Be safe.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

There's no such thing as "back to normal"

....after a tragedy such as this.

 I know it's been pretty depressing over here, but I've never been one to hide feelings.  I am making an effort  to be myself again.  I do want to show my nephew that he can be happy again someday so I try not to get emotional in front of him.  He's 21 years old but he'll forever be my sister's first baby.  The baby I used to hold on a rocking chair and change diapers for.  Who followed me around and called me "Ann-shell".  So watching his face today as they put her in the ground I almost lost control of myself.  I told his friends to keep surrounding him.  They've been great and I'm thankful for that.  I'll take him to bring some flowers to her grave sometime this week.


I was thinking about maybe organizing a sign waving event.  Like a "Don't Drink and Drive" poster waving group at the place where it happened one weekend or 2 as we get closer to the Holidays.  I'm not exactly sure how much good it will do since by now I've known 3 people who've been affected by Drunk Driving. But it might be something healthy to do instead of focusing on how angry we all are.  I'm not sure, I'll have to think about it.  I wouldn't even know where to start but it's been on my mind.  I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, my gosh,  it's the Holiday Season.  People will be celebrating at parties and having a good time, I don't expect us all to adhere to new prohibition laws.  It was just something I was thinking about maybe doing that could get our energies focused on something proactive instead of all the negative thoughts that we're all having.  Anyone have any ideas let me know.....


Other than I don't have anything to report.  I have a routine blood exam starting on Monday with Thyrogen injections(for an accurate reading without the misery of going off Synthroid) but I'm not even worried about it. All signs have been pointing to good health (except for my damn ankle!) for over 2 years now and my doctor doesn't expect any changes.  Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great weekend and I'll be blog visiting and catching up as much as I can this week.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

In Memory of Mai



A beautiful girl was taken away from us by a drunk driver. I want the world to see how full of life she was. Words can't describe how broken hearted we all are. Her family will always have a special place in our hearts and prayers.

Please Don't Drink and Drive.

Monday, November 15, 2010

How do you say goodbye, how is goodbye possible

Maida M. Sy

August 1,1991- November 15,2010
Today I watched a mother beg the lifeless body of her to daughter to wake up knowing that she will never wake up.  Today I saw a beautiful 19 year old girl lay in a hospital bed with a machine breathing for her and a tube sticking out of her skull.  I kissed the sweet face of a girl who loved my nephew and called me Auntie as if I really were her Auntie.  I too begged her to wake up, I begged God to wake her up.  This life was taken away from us by a drunk driver who walked away from the accident with his life and will now have to live with the consequences of his actions.  I am supposed to believe in forgiveness. This event is really testing my belief system and I pray not for myself but for her family who lost their only child, for my nephew who lost the love of his life, and for the world that lost a beautiful, sweet, loving, talented, bright, ----there are not enough words to fit this post to describe her. I am not ready for forgiveness.  I don't feel hatred in my heart but I have no compassion for this person either.  I won't feel sorry for him when they lock him up.  I won't feel bad about him missing his family. I don't feel bad about the fact that he will spend the rest of his life in jail and miss out on the joys of getting married, having children and celebrating Holiday with his family.  Because a face that I looked forward to seeing at my dinner table this year will not be there all because he thought it was ok to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking all night.  This beautiful face, that beautiful smile in this beautiful picture that I took with my own camera last Easter out our "karaoke" party will never sing with her sweet voice on this Earth again.

I am as heartbroken and heartbroken gets.  But come hell or high water I will be at her service next to my nephew and try not to ask God why this had to happen.  And beg Him everyday for the ability to forgive her murderer.  Because that's what he did when he got in that car drunk.  He committed murder.


Our Mai was a kindred spirit- an artist and a curious book worm who always wanted to poke through my art supplies and my books when she came to my house.  I was planning to buy her one of my favorite field guides for Christmas.  The last time I saw her, the 3 of us took a walk on the beach at dusk and  watched the sky turn colors and laughing in the dark.  She danced in my living room and we practiced speaking French because she wanted to visit France one day, like me. Not only did she speak French but English and Tagalog, the home language of my mother's giving her extra brownie points.   I always saved my make up to give her whenever I got a buy one/get one or if I changed my mind and thought it looked better on her. I sent her a facebook message just the other day telling her I wanted her to record a video with me for my youtube channel.    She would come to my house full of stories about how it was to be raised in by Filipino parents who didn't recognize their American daughter because she knew I had been there done that.  We would laugh together about it and I would imitate my mom for her.  They brought her here so that she would have a better education and a better life not so that they could bury her.  I loved her not only because she loved a boy who is as dear to me as if I had given birth to him myself but also because of who she was and what I saw in her heart.  I want the world to know how sweet she was and how much we all loved her.   I want the world to know that a piece of goodness and beauty is gone from it.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Daylight Savings Crime and the Joy of Fall in Florida

When it's time to "fall back" people always relish in the extra hour of sleep they'll get.  I dread it not just because I wish it could be daylight savings time all year round but because no one ever seems to tell Peanut it's not 8:30am.  He'll wake up at at 7:30 and stare at my face until telepathically I hear his mental whining and have no choice but to get up and stagger out the door.  How this is possible I don't know but he's always been able to wake me up that way.  Of course once we get outside he has no interest in quickly  peeing in the bushes and going back to bed like a dog who LOVES ME would, but instead prefers to pull me across the street to look for snakes and chase bunnies.  I feel sorry for anyone who happens to look out the window at us or dare walk by and say hello because I'm a bitch in the morning.  Yes I said it, I'll say it again, I'm a bitch in the morning.  This will go on until we "spring ahead" and I can finally wake up at a decent hour.


MrPea's dog walk shift starts at night time so at dusk I'm usually the one to take Peanut out, usually to the beach.  I'm a little freaked out ever since a couple weeks ago, at dusk we saw a bobcat looking at us through our back window.  I wish I had had the time to grab my camera because she was beautiful.  I'm not sure why I think it's a female, I just do. We live just a few feet from the marsh and there's an empty wooded lot right next to our building so there's plenty of room for a varmint such as that to sneak around in.  At first we thought she was just a big house cat until we looked closer and saw her big paws.  She looked at us with glamorous and cold eyes for a few seconds and then nonchalantly sauntered away down the marsh path towards the water, I'm guessing to catch snakes. I saw those eyes hiding in some bushes the next evening watching me and Peanut cross the street to the beach path. I got a little scared because, well, it's a wild bobcat big enough to eat Peanut and maybe my leg but I know I shouldn't be.  I haven't seen her since then so I wonder if she was afraid  of me.  I hope the alligators don't get her, I'd love to see her again next fall.  I've read that people can live in Florida all their lives and never see one so I feel privileged that Mother Nature gave us a glimpse.


There's also a Red Shouldered Hawk who used to hang out on one of the dead palms behind us that I haven't seen since Spring.  I may have got a picture of him(yes obviously I think it's a male but I'm not sure) somewhere in my desk top but I'm too lazy to go upstairs (for reasons you'll understand in my next post).  I will get a good shot(with my cam of course) eventually but he's always so damn jumpy every time I've ever gone out back to take a closer look, he flies away! I so appreciate the pretty feathers he leaves me.  One day I'll have to take pictures of all my treasure and post them.

 I started this post to complain about Peanut and all his short comings and then somehow started thinking about winter coming and all the changes that take place outside.  People think that Florida has no seasons or that we just have 365  days of summer but unless you live in the Keys, after a couple years, you notice the seasons.   Of course our Falls and Winters are softer on us than the rest of unfortunate souls who are damned to not live in what is as close to heaven on Earth as I can imagine.  But trust me, we have 4 seasons and I am in awe at what I get to witness during all 4.  Fall brings the morning fog and flocks of millions of birds that would scare Alfred Hitchcock himself, slow snakes looking for a warm place to pass the winter, and a southern dolphin migration so vast you feel like you're in a Discovery channel documentary.  In the winter the sea looks angry but gives me the gift of shark teeth after a NorthEaster.  The birds around the feeder are greedy and loud and sometimes on a clear and flat day a Right Whale sighting will remind me of how small I am on this Earth.   So am I bummed that summer is over?  Of course.  But  when Autumn comes I get ready for my own "hibernation" and  "renewal".  Like everyone else I get out my blankets, buy the hot cocoa, light the candles, stock up on some books and we create a little cocoon for the 3 of us here in our home to wait for the Spring.  And keep my eyes open for the "show" whilst feeling sorry for anyone who doesn't live here.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Then and Now


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This is one of my and Neenee's favorite pictures of us together when we were little so when I went up to visit we decided to re-enact.  You know how I love re-enactments. Of course we got it wrong.  That's me in the yellow and her in the red in the old pic and in the new one she is wearing my pink hoodie.


BTW I'm not sure why but my profile no longer shows up on my side bar, this was going on even before I changed the template.  What's up with that?  I tried to fix it but, I don't even know how.....

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Just Some Random Pictures

I haven't really been looking for shark teeth much this year(and I'm suffering from withdrawal too!) because this summer I really wanted to make exercise my priority.  I don't really get any cardio from staggering around the beach inch by inch with my eyes to the ground.  When I got home from visiting my sister a month ago, made myself a promise that I was going to look for shark teeth everyday for a week.  But lucky me I caught a cold!  Then when I finally felt better two weeks ago I twisted my ankle.  It hurt so bad I really thought I was going to pass out.  It's two weeks later and it still hurts.  I know it's not broken so I've just been trying to stay off of it as much as I can but last night I re-twisted it, isn't that wonderful.  So i don't know when I'll be able to look for shark teeth or go jogging again.  Hopefully soon cuz I'm going crazy.  Anyway I found a few pictures that I wanted to post:

I took this one on Sanibel Island last year.  I just thought this tree looked interesting


because it was a Palmetto with a Ficus growing on it.






As much as I try MrPea hates having his picture taken but Peanut doesn't mind.  This is the beach near my house.


This was a cool rainbow in a cloud that I took a couple months ago.


I may have already posted this one before but I like finding these kinds of crab shells because these two colors are so pretty together.
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And I think I forgot to show you guys this one.  Remember all those sea turtle nests I was crazy about over the summer.  This is one that hatched.  You can see the trails the baby turtles made as they crawled to the water!







There's a marsh behind our house and sometimes this bunny comes for a snack.  In the spring he came in the morning but at the end of the summer he started to come at dusk.  I like him because he has short ears.



And since it's an on going thing for me here's another dead cannon ball jelly.  Have to keep up with tradition!




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