And She Was...

Florida has, as many states do, a variety of speciality license plates, with the money going to support various causes. I have, on my car, the Support Education tag on my car. I'm fine with paying a few extra dollars each year to support education.

But some of them, they bother me. I'm all for doing things like supporting reaosnable environmental causes, memorializing astronauts, demonstrating pride in a university or sports team, showing pride in military service or contributing to health promotion efforts.

But some things, some things just cross the line.

Like the Family Values plate. It doesn't express my family's values, for one, but that's pretty obvious. While that makes me uncomfortable, that's something that I can live with-what crosses the line for me, however, is the organization that the fee supports.Sheridan House Family Ministries. (Extra angry points because the state is collecting money for a faith based organization...doesn't matter whether it's one I like or not.) And then there's the Choose Life plate. Money raised by this place supports Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Maternity Homes and not-for-profit adoption agencies.


Okay. Cranky aside. Need to go figure out what's wrong with the cat's eye.

(Bob/Jen, I'd like to post this in VP, let me know if you want me to post it in the V-Day discussion post, or if I should just make a separate post about it.)

Hoohaa Monologues???

( We decided we would just use child slang for it. That's how we decided on Hoohah Monologues, )

fj or veryfineredwine or anyone else...what does the immigration physical actually entail? zedrikcayne has his scheduled for tomorrow.

We've had some birds I can't identify in the yard lately. I enjoy watching them, but I'd love to know what they are. The body shape is similar to this but they have longer, thinner legs (I can't tell if they have webbed feet but I don't think so), they're all white, and they have narrower, pointier beaks. There's also a similar looking bird that comes around but with a longer, narrow, curved beak, which I'd wonder about being a heron, but we're not that close to water. The ones with the pointier beak,

Does anyone know which newspapers Diesel Sweeties is running in?

Funny, but despite the elevated temperatures, I don't have the usual crankiness that I get. I've been hungry like crazy though. I don't think I stopped eating yesterday, though most of what I ate was fruit or veggies. And I've been drinking lots and lots of tea.

Time to consider lunch, though I don't think there's anything interesting to eat.

Also known as "life in Florida"

I'm not one to freak out over bugs, but the roaches here...the people eating roaches just gross me out.

I do love the idea of owning a house. It's a great thing, the whole equity equation, and being able to paint the walls as I want without thinking about what a landlord would say, or worry about holes in the walls or all sorts of other things that one thinks about when renting a place.

But there's a downside. A very serious downside. A very serious and personal and difficult downside. It's not about money, or space, or the Home Owner's Association or the stress of moving. I hate that someone here thought a political ad that says "Sorry, Charlie. Only Jeb Bush Conservatives get to be governor" was a good idea. It's about being here.

I hate Florida. I hate it a great deal. I hate the weather. I don't like the politics. I don't like the people. I don't like the lifestyle. I just don't like it. It's the best place for zedrikcayne to be though, in terms of his career and his goals. And in his field, once you get to EA, there aren't many other places to go.

I've held out a little bit of hope that Cayne would spend a few years here, in Orlando, and then we'd move on to another division of EA-and there are lots of options; the Bay Area, Vancouver, Montreal and NoVa, just in North America. I can't do that anymore. I can't pretend that this isn't a long term deal. We're here, and we're staying, for the forseable future. And that's really hard for me.

I would like to be in a place I loved, a place where there was a real job market for me, where the things to do were more interesting to me, where I liked the people I met, where the political climate were more to my liking and so on and so on. And I do try to make my own happiness. I just feel very stuck.

We're here. It's not what I'd have chosen for myself. I share my life with a partner I love, and who I wouldn't give up for anything, and three wonderful cats. I have a pretty house. There are in fact good things about my life. That whole seeing the forest for the trees thing.

I hold out hope that it will get better. I'm not seeking sympathy here. It's life. It's the life that I (mostly) chose, and it's mostly satisfactory. But it's hard to be truly happy when you don't like the place you're at.

The movers called to see if we wanted to go tomorrow instead of Wednesday, because of the weather. We're not going to be ready to go tomorrow.

And they issued an inland tropical storm watch or warning (not sure which) for us earlier today. They're moving the Space Shuttle off the launch platform, I think, and predicting three to five inches of rain around here.

Now, I'm not one to go crazy over this. But does it have to happen when I'm in the middle of moving?

(And if my head is any kind of barometer, and it usually is, we're in for a storm.)

I would love to live in a place where simply stepping outside my door didn't result in becoming sweat soaked, without evaporation, for half the year.

We've been here a year, and I'm uncomfortable driving in the afternoon downpours. Yesterday, I was on the highway and couldn't even see the brake lights of the car in front of me. I don't like that.

It's baby lizard season. I see them all over the place. they're kind of cute, and for some reason, the baby lizards remind me of dinosaurs far more than the adults. A few weeks ago it was baby frogs or toads (I can't get close enough to identify which ones they are. The skin appears dry, but I can't get close enough to see the feet or eyes to differentiate.) I do like what our friend Nick has had to say about the bugs down here..."You can't expect to defeat the bugs down here, you just have to learn to coexist peacefully with them, and try to keep them at bay." This is a good attitude, I'm just not sure I like it. We stopped at the house the other night to check on something and there's no food in my house, and a giant, people eating roach crawled right across the stove. I'll set some roach and ant traps, and probably add some of the roach gel-I just need to be careful with the cats. I suspect also, based on the state of the house (not dirty, exactly, but less than clean) there may be a good bit of grease behind the stove. I think we'll probably pull it out and give a good cleaning back there before we move in, or upon moving in.

Speaking of moving, we're down to about ten days. I want to go check on how much of the work is done, and confirm with the movers. Also need to set up landline and cable at the new house, and find a non-explotative housecleaning service, to clean this place when we're done here, and to clean the new house before we move in. And becaues every weekend seems to be filled with moving related stuff-the cable company is supposed to come tomorrow to add wiring to the rooms that we need it in that don't have it, and Pier 1 is having a sale on a few of the things we're looking for, so we'll probably buy the table and chairs we liked-on sale, plus I've got a coupon. Today we stopped at the mirror store to look at frames for mirrors.

I am however, looking forward even more to going to the August Stomp at Lakeridge Winery. It's pretty much what it sounds like; envision the whole grape stomping thing on "I Love Lucy." And I think we need to try it.

But now, one more LJ post and then I should start supper.

We spent last weekend taking advantage of the tax free back to school shopping...bought some clothes for both of us (clothing under $50 and school supplies under $10 were tax free.) Cayne looks really good in his new shirts, too.

We also did some furniture shopping. I'm still not sure what color to paint the living room...I could paint it the same color as the family room or the master bedroom, or something completely different. We tried to go to the paint store on Saturday but they closed earlier than I thought, so we'll have to try again. The colors seem to be blues and greens so far, but I'm just stumped on the living room.

Tonight we're going to a public meeting about the Wekiva Parkway, which is an extention of one of the highways near our new house, and will connect the north end of the 429 (which is about three miles from the house) with the north end of the 417, which is sort of the other end of the region. It has the potential to be really fantastic, but I'd like to know the proposed route, and be able to make a comment, if there's time available. It's not a hearing, so I'm not sure how they're going to handle public comment, in fact. We'll also stop at the new house to pick up some things I have there for my sister in law, and measure the space in the front hall for a table, and in the family room so we can look for a sofa.

This weekend, we're going to begin scouring antique stores for a telephone table, like the one my Mom has in her kitchen. We need a nice small table for the foyer, and that would work. I've seen some cute new ones, but I'd like to see what the antique stores have to offer too. (Does anyone know if it's appropriate to haggle over the price, like you would at a flea market or yard sale, or is it expected that you'll pay the price as marked?_

Hrm. I think I've posted all my news links for today.

Tomorrow is the follow up ultrasound-first one since April. I don't think I'll get answers tomorrow-I have a follow up next week, but if you could spend a moment thinking good, healthy ovaries it's okay to try and get pregnant again thoughts or prayers (as you choose) I'd appreciate it. Driving the car with a full bladder to get the ultrasound=No Fun. And I can't just go early and drink my water in the waiting room, since I've got the first appointment after lunch.

Friday, I have a meeting the local ASO that I'm dreading. Because last month, the meeting went on for many, many hours, with nothing getting done. It also failed to start anywhere on time, because people had been given three different start times, plus, no one had bothered to arrange coverage or cancel HIV testing, so peope kept leaving the meeting for significant amounts of time, which meant we kept having to rehash what we had done. And I won't get started at the incredibly unprofessional behavior of one of the department heads and the exectutive director, who spent quite a bit of time reaming out one of the other employees in front of me, for a serious error in judgement that did require addressing, but it should never have been done in front of me, at the end of the meeting.

Cayne's trying to get an appointment with a sleep specialist, too. I'm feeling mostly relieved. It will be nice to be able to share a bed with him again. I miss a warm body. All of my fear and concern and communication though, not what pushed him over the edge. Realizing he fell asleep at work...that pushed him over the edge. We're waiting for them to call him back. It's interesting to read the "bed partner questionaire" though.

And that's the news from Lake Woebegone.

Stuff to get used to about Florida:

Carry out service at the grocery store. They'll carry my groceries to the car for me.

Umbrella bags. I go into various stores and they have little plastic bags for umbrellas in the entryways.

Stuff I have gotten used to:

There's construction going on at the apartment complex, and occasionally loud noises come from the construction site. Sometimes the noises are similar to the daily storms...I don't check to see which it is.

Stuff I don't know if I'll ever get used to:

The torential rains. I had to run out yesterday for some things, I dropped a Slurpee at Cayne's office and then headed out for errands. As I left Cayne's office the sky opened up and drenching rain fell. So much rain that I couldn't see the car in front of me, or know how far behind it I was. I thought about pulling over to the shoulder, but worried that if I did, another car would be doing the same and hit me. The storms are short, this one lasted only a few minutes but it was still difficult to drive in.

Maybe I should go for a swim before the rain.