sleepy

I have so much to write about.  I was up in our country's capital this weekend visiting two of my beautiful friends.  But I am too tired to write.  Traveling makes me tired and even though I was gone for only 3 days, I am still recuperating!  That's what lots of laughing, walking, eating, laughing, story telling, and more laughing will do to you.  Till tomorrow... Good night.

Can you build this for me please?

Dear United States of America,

Although you are a terrific country I am upset that you do not in any way come close to providing us with really old and Amazing architecture.  Have you ever taken a look at what England or Italy has to offer?  In comparison, not your best work.  For my future wedding I would like to get married in this church so please work on building me something from..oh lets say the 1200s, so I don't have to have one of those crazy "destination" weddings.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kate

morning

All day long should be morning.  I love the mornings.  Its quiet, peaceful, cool (85 degrees is cooler than 100), birds chirping, the sun rising.  

Because my job is far away I have the joy of waking up waaaay too early.  Even though I love the mornings I have a hard time rolling out of my warm comfortable bed.  But once I'm up I get to enjoy the peace and quiet of the day that is just waking up.  When I walk out my front door I am the only one awake in my little cul-di-sac.  The birds are singing loudly and the baby dragonflies are waking up and flying sleepily around my head.  Looking towards the coast the clouds are usually big, tall, and pink.  As I wait for my "I hate the mornings" carpool companions I enjoy the beautiful morning- a tropical sunrise.  

What a nice part of the day.

bzzzz

I crawled into bed around 3pm this afternoon.  I am almost finished with my book Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen (he writes about all the quirks and weirdos of South Florida--so I can relate) and I am eager to find out the ending!

The thunder started and I could see the clouds rolling in.  My eyes got droopy and I felt myself nodding off for a nice afternoon nap.

Bzzzz

My eyes popped open. 

BZZZZZZZZZZ       

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I jumped out of bed, grabbing a shoe from the floor.  My eyes slowly made their way around the room, searching for the evil bug that was disturbing my lazy afternoon.

Then I saw IT.  A large wasp trying to escape through the closed window.  My shoe was no match for his giant stinger.  I ran down the stairs almost tripping over the "take upstairs pile".  I ran smack dab into the corner of the kitchen counter, but even that didn't stop me from grabbing the can of RAID.  I sprinted upstairs, holding my bruised side to find the wasp now prancing around the windowsill, acting like he owned the place. 

For a moment I felt bad.  But it only took a moment to sweep the guilt aside, shake the can of RAID and fire. 

Don't be fooled by the little black blob.  It was more than likely a Killer Bee

Now the rain has officially started and I am off to enjoy an uninterrupted afternoon nap.

Gator Wraastling

Gator wrestling has become a tradition with the Seminole's.  It was done and is still done for tourists and today at the museum it was done for 100 elementary school kids.

I hadn't yet had the opportunity to see some good ol' gator wrestling (pronounced wrastling if you are from the south).  It was amazing!  Alligators are not the type of animal to mess with.  They are extremely strong and faster on land then in water.  This particular alligator was captured in the wild the other day and was not very happy to be the center of attention for the screaming school children.  Mr. Walker is a pro and it was more than impressive to watch.

 ***

Yes-- The gator's mouth, full of razor sharp teeth, is being held shut by Mr. Walker's chin

After he "tamed" the alligator they taped his mouth shut so no one would lose any limbs.  I can just imagine the school teacher having to call home to Jimmy's mom saying, "Ummm...Jimmy lost his finger today.  It was bitten off by an alligator."

***

As soon as they taped the gator's mouth shut, it made a sprint for the picnic tables.  There was a shockingly loud scream that came from the kids, all of them big eyed and mouths wide open.  But Mr. Walker took care of it ( I secretly think he let the gator loose on purpose.  Nothing like a good scare to straighten out a misbehaving kid).

 ***

The alligator was even put into a trance when he was rolled onto his back and his belly was rubbed.  His arms and legs were moving wildly in the air and all of a sudden they just slowly fell to his side and he relaxed. Just like a puppy.

***

The kids even got to take photos with the alligator.  I bet he didn't wake up today and think he was going to end up on some 5th grader's Facebook page.  His 15 minutes of fame.

***

Just a typical day at work

Orange you Glad

Today for my afternoon snack I enjoyed a nice orange on the office deck.  It rained ALL day except at 4pm so I decided to get warm from the way too cold air conditioner and sit outside.  As I peeled my orange I glanced at the sticker. It read Summer Citrus.  That sounds nice.  And then I kept reading...South Africa.  South Africa?  My orange is all the way from South Africa?  I live in the state of oranges.  There are oranges on my license plate.  There are hundreds and hundreds of acres of orange groves down the street from my office and the only oranges at the grocery store are from thousands of miles away? 

I wonder what Florida is really doing with all of their oranges...

Well, thank you South Africa for coming through with my delicious snack.  At least I can count on someone.

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Rainy Day

The usual afternoon thunderstorm decided to come early today.  Its been cloudy all morning and I could see the storm moving in.  Big booms of thunder and lots of rain.  Bobby is at work which means I can watch one of my many chick flicks I've recorded.  

I'll start with When Harry Met Sally.  Then maybe Father of the Bride next.  I'm cuddled up on the couch with my favorite lunch.  Staying dry and enjoying a lazy Sunday.  

Maybe the rain will last a few hours and I can put off going to the grocery store and cleaning out my car just a little bit longer.

Time disappears

I looked at my pretty Charlie Harper calendar on my office wall today.  I t s A u g u s t .  How is that possible!?  Where did the time go? 

It has been almost a year to the day that I got on a plane and flew to the unknown of South Florida to interview for a collection management position.  Its where I rented my first car, stayed alone in a hotel by myself and navigated the death highway I-95.  When I woke up in the morning of my interview my stomach was in knots.  I gave myself a pep talk,

"You are AWESOME!"  "They will LOVE you!"  "You are very good at what you do!"

I turned on the morning news and saw there was a rainstorm headed our way and got even more nervous.  Rain?  I'm not so sure about living in a state where it actually rains...

I made my way to the reservation, only slamming on my breaks twice to avoid a giant turtle and some lazy birds.  I called my twin sister.  Its strange because I have absolutely NO cell service on the reservation.  But for some reason on that day God knew I needed my little phone to work so my sister could tell me everything was going to be ok.

My interview only lasted for 25 minutes.  I felt I had done fine, not great.  I left the interview committee with why I wanted this job.  Something about how I had worked since I was in 7th grade to get to where I am today. 

I left feeling a little down.  Not sure if this was even the right place for me.  The middle of the Everglades.  The farthest away I could move from my family. But I knew I wanted the job--  It was a perfect fit.

On my plane ride back to Denver the next day I checked my messages during my layover in Kansas City.  I had a message from the HR guy asking me to call him back.  Oh no.  This could be bad.

HR: We'd like to offer you the position!
Me: YEA!!!!
HR: If you would like some time to think abou--
Me: NO I ACCEPT!

I sat by my gate making a million phone calls to everyone I knew.  First my parents, then my sisters.  Then Bobby.

Me: So guess what...I got the job!...so I'm probably going to have to move to Florida because the commute would be brutal
Bobby: Ok.  I'm coming with you! (thanks Bobby)

And so began my whirlwind journey to the hot and sweaty state of Florida.   

The view from my hotel room

Thats not natural

I spent the afternoon on the Florida Atlantic University campus in Boca Raton.  If you've never heard of FAU don't feel bad.  There are only 5,000 universities in South Florida.  I was meeting a professor there to talk about zooarchaeology collections.  Don't be jealous!

As I was walking by the manicured tropical flowers and palm trees I reminisced about my college campus, the beautiful University of Colorado in Boulder.  Remembering my college days, the classes, my friends, the buildings, the secret study areas in the library, the smells and sounds.  Sometimes I miss those days.

I also remember all the campus wildlife...mostly the squirrels who weighed 20 pounds and on more than one occasion bullied me out of my afternoon snack.  I started looking around the campus for any Florida squirrels (they are tiny and gray) when I saw this thing moving slowly across the sidewalk

****

  Not exactly your typical campus critter

I also noticed that there wern't any students enjoying the shade of the trees.  I used to sit under trees on campus all the time and read.  Maybe it's because of the fire ants.. or possibly the giant iguanas passing through on their way to their Biochemistry class.