Catching up on life....
Alright, so, I suck at my life. I never did my Florida update... so I'm going to attempt it now, but it's likely that I will have forgotten things. Ah well.
I left on a Wednesday. My daddy got up and took me to the airport so that he could keep my car. The next day, he took a vacation of his own, a roadtrip to Colorado.
Wednesday
I flew from the QC Airport and flew to O'Hare, had a short, lovely layover, and then flew into the Tampa airport. From there, I picked up my rental car, a lovely red Yaris, and drove to Dan's (longbottle ) apartment. First impression... he was pretty much exactly what I expected, haha.
I chilled for a bit and took a rest from travelling while he called in a take-out order to his favorite chinese restaurant. We left and went to pick that up, saw his work, and then drove back. I will say, the food was AMAZING. We had far far too much in my opinion (he ordered too much, and then the lovely woman gave us some free extras), but it was fantastic. Everything was well made and fresh.
From there, we went and saw Race to Witch Mountain at a local theater (which was a fiasco to find!). I wanted to check out the competition (haha) and neither of us had seen it, so it seemed like a fun activity. The theater was similar to mine in most respects, and pricey as always, but the movie was much better than I expected it to be.
Thursday
The next day, we got up (late) and took ourselves to the beach. We drove out to Clearwater and it was beautiful. We spent a lot of time just walking up and down the beach, and then swimming, swimming, swimming. We went out and walked the pier, where some gracious, amazing dolphins decided to show themselves. I was so happy!!
On said pier, I bought Dan and myself matching shot glasses (his is tall, mine is short, much like us) that have dolphins wrapped around the outside.
We got a drink at the bar, watched the sunset, walked up the strip and back down the beach before going back to the car and heading out.
From the beach, we went to the grocery store and got stuff to make dinner. By the time we got back to the house, it was around 11:00pm. Dan made salmon, rice, and veggies. It was very good indeed - he came through on his promise.
Friday
Friday I got up decently early so I could drive down to Bradenton and get settled. Turned out, that was unnecessary. I got into town and called my Nanny, only to find that no one was answering at the house. I found out later that she was still at work, and Papa had gone to his cabin for a few days. So, since I couldn't get ahold of anyone I knew there, and I had nowhere to go, I went to Mixon's fruit farm and got an orange swirl ice cream cone, then stopped by Wal-Mart and bought a beach towel and headed off to the beach by myself. I enjoyed it, and it was lovely and relaxing.
From there, I parked in a parking lot near where I would be staying, rolled down my windows, turned up the radio, and read my book. Yay good weather.
Finally Pat (Nan) got home from work and called. I went and met her at her trailer. I assumed I would get to go settle down into my place, change, etc. Not so much. She insisted we go to dinner right away. I told her I should change (I was still in my bathing suit with raggedy shorts and a tank overtop, with saltwater hair), but she said it didn't matter, it was just dinner. She failed to mention that afterwards, we were going to visit (Aunt) Melody and her son Ronald and their family. Blah! So, I looked like crap, but I had a nice dinner, and had a lot of fun getting to see them again.
Finally, after that, I got to go back and hang out, then finally settle into the trailer I was staying in (Pat has two trailers in a retirement community - she lives in one and rents the other out to snowbirds in the winter, but it was empty, so I had my own place).
Saturday
Saturday I got up and did some exercising! I went running for about an hour, just so I wouldn't get too much out of the habit. It was great to have it warm and sunny and beautiful at 8:30am, and running was awesome.
I went to Pat's after that, and we went to lunch at Golden Corale, and then went to look at the house she is buying and fixing up with her daughter.
After lunch, her grandson ( who I always called my cousin, who I think of like a brother ) DJ came over, and he and I took off for a bit to catch up. We had a very weird conversation about his life, including what his sexual preferences are and what kind of drugs and such he has tried in his life. Very odd for a boy I consider my little brother, indeed. We just drove for a while, and then walked around a park, and that was pretty much it before he took me back to Pat's and took off for work.
After that, I had intended to hang out with Pat... but she kicked me out. She said it was too nice for me to sit inside with her, but she didn't have any energy to do anything, so I had to get out. So off I went to the beach alone.. again. Once more, it was beautiful.
Time for Crazy Guy story.
It was a good day for the beach in my mind... but not for a lot of locals or other tourists, I guess. It was just a tad overcast with a light breeze. I like it that way, but the beach was very bare. When I laid out my towel and things, there wasn't anyone near me for at least 40 feet on any side. I got in the water for a swim, but kept an eye on my stuff. I was watching as two guys walked on to the beach and laid their stuff down, and even though I was far out, I was pretty sure they were fairly close. When I walked back up to lay out and read, the edge of the closest towel was only about 3 feet from mine. It seemed odd, considering out empty the beach was, but I didn't really care. I spent the next two hours going in and out of the water, laying out, reading, etc. The two guys (Hott, and Cute) did pretty much the same thing, along with bantering about non-sensical things that I heard, but didn't really listen to.
After a few hours, the guys packed up their stuff and got ready to move away. Cute handed Hott all of the stuff, and he walked off the beach, leaving Cute just standing there, looking around. I noticed this happening, but really didn't care. Until a full minute or more had gone by, and he was still just standing there. I watched him for about 30 seconds, and then finally looked up and gave him a look that said "I'm confused... would you like me to help you with something?" At that, he gave me a half smile and walked over and put out his hand. I shook it, and he began a little speech (certainly not verbatim):
"Hi, so... I've been laying on the beach next to you for a few hours, I don't know if you've noticed (*I nodded*). But, I just needed to tell you... I'm a Christian, and I have a very close relationship with God... and I was laying over there, and He just kept telling me that I needed to come over here and encourage you. He told me that you are a person who has gone through a lot in life, but that you always push through, and perservere, and get past it. And... I don't know if you're going through something right now, or if you're struggling, or whatever... but I just need to tell you that you're supposed to just keep doing what you do, and push through this, and perservere, ok?"
At this point I just kind of looked at him and smiled..
"Yeah, that was creepy wasn't it? I'm sorry! "
"Haha, no, it's ok. It wasn't creepy... really, I think you're very brave for coming up and saying that to a complete stranger."
"Yeah, I'm sorry - I just, I've been sitting over there for two hours just knowing that I had to say it to you, but I didn't know how. My friend told me just to come over here and do it. Anyways, just be encouraged, ok? And have a great day."
"Yeah.... you too."
It has to be one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to me, haha. But, yeah, it was interesting for sure. I really didn't find it creepy, as most people seem to when I tell them about it. I found it kind of oddly sweet, in the weirdest possible way, haha. So yeah, that's my crazy guy story.
After the beach, I had hoped to hang out with Rachel, but never heard from her. I went back to Pat's briefly, but she had already had dinner and was kind of vegging for the night, so I went to Wal-Mart and picked up some snacks, then went back to my trailer and vegged, watched tv, chatted on my phone, and ate more than I should have. What a very eventful Saturday night for vacation, eh? Haha!
Sunday
I got up Sunday morning and went to Samoset First Baptist Church... the church I attended for 3 years while I lived with Nan, the church where I was baptized... the church I loved. It wasn't what I expected, for sure. I'm not going into that.
After church, I went with Nan and Papa to lunch at Golden Corale with (Uncle) Timmy and (Aunt) Deedee. Had a great time chatting with them and catching up again.
After lunch, I went to meet my friend Jessica from High School. I was meeting her at the mall, but got there too early and made a restroom stop. Somehow, my phone fell out of my pocket or something... and in the minute or less it was out of my posession, someone else picked it up, and quickly turned it off... cool.
I tried to get past the fact that my phone was just stolen, and went out with Jessica. She wanted lunch, so we went to Chili's. While there, she realized I had nothing to do for the rest of the day, so we decided to take the drive back up to Tampa. We drove up and chatted along the way, then toured the USF campus for a while. We met up with one of her friends briefly and made dinner plans, but had some time to kill before that. So we went to a local place and played a couple rounds of miniature golf. We went and picked up her friend, and then went to a *fabulous* thai restaurant, where I had some delicious duck soup. Yummy! Then we dropped her friend back off and drove back to my car at the mall. I drove back to Pat's and spent another hour with her looking at pictures and such, and then went to my place to sleep.
Monday
Monday was a crazy day. I got up and went to the mall and got myself a temp phone (bought a go phone and a replacement sim for my account to put in it), called the insurance and got that taken care of, and then went to Panera for some free Wi-Fi so I could chat, check my email, facebook, etc.
I went from there to Pat's work so I could take a tour of her office, then went back, got dressed (or undressed, I guess) and headed off to the beach for one last visit. It wasn't the best weather, but it was good enough for me, and I really enjoyed it. There were a lot of big waves that day, which I really enjoyed swimming in, so it was very cool. I spent a lot of hours there, and it was the only day I actually took any pictures (not that they were very good). I was hyper relaxed at the end of it. I also saw some dorsals off in the distance... a nice goodbye to my possibilitiies of seeing any real dolphins any time soon.
From there, I went back to the trailer, showered, packed everything up, and cleaned up after myself. I stopped briefly at Nan's to say bye to her and Papa, and then made the drive back to Tampa and Dan's apartment. Got there, and then went out to dinner. For the life of me, I cannot currently remember the name of the restaurant, but I can tell you that it was beautiful, built on a pier over the bay, and had absolutely delicious food. It was a lovely dinner indeed.
We went back to the apartment and watched a ridiculous amount of Big Bang Theory, a show I very much enjoyed, and need to download more of.
Tuesday
Tuesday we got up and cleaned up, packed up my stuff, and then spent more time watching BBT. Finally, I had to go, and Dan had to get ready for work anyways. So we said our goodbyes and I headed to the car rental place. Returned my car and got to the airport in plenty of time to sit around and wait, haha. Did that, then flew to Atlanta, and got on my connecting flight.
I got home around 9:00pm, where my Lissy girl picked me up at the airport. We went and had some Taco Bell and chatted while we ate in a parking lot, and then she brought me home. I stayed up just long enough to say hi to Dad when he got home from his trip around midnight, and then I crashed hardcore before having to work the next morning.
And that was my vacation. Not super thrilling, not very exciting. I was relaxed, but dissappointed at some things too. It was a vacation full of mixed feelings and weirdness. I'm glad I went, but at the same time, I'm not sure how soon I will be back, either.
And so, there it is, nice and boring. Don't you just love it.
Since then, I took a short trip to Kansas City to see my baby brother, his wife, and his new house. Had fun, for sure, but it was a REALLY long trip. And I came home to a flooded basement and soggy carpet, and am currently living on my laptop on the upstairs couch, instead of my desktop and my own bed. So yes, out of place.
Thursday, I'm having a luau. Which in my world, really just means a pool party with grilling, possibly some pineapple, some hawaiin music, and some really cheap plastic leis and such from the dollar store. Yeah, it should be a good time, with hopefully a lot of people.
And now, it's really late, and I have to get up about 8 hours from now and have a very long day of errands and work ahead of me. So goodnight, LJ world, I assume you won't hear much from me for a while!