Rainbows

On the way home from work, its not unusual to see rainbows dotting the sky, especially now that we have rainstorms in the afternoons.  Its the one good thing about thunderstorms. The one yesterday stretched across the road.  I've only ever seen an entire rainbow a few times before in my life, but the everglades are a perfect backdrop to display all the colors and sometimes double rainbows.

not the best picture but you get the idea!

Rain

Today is a perfect summer day.  Warm + sunny + breezy.  The weather though has officially changed and we are getting the afternoon thunderstorms almost every day.  My mom bought me some rain boots so that I won't get soaked walking back and forth between buildings at work.  

Love Bugs part II

Yesterday morning I was washing my hair when all of a sudden I could see something black on my face out of the corner of my eye.  I reached up and quickly wiped it away.  I looked down and saw a big black blob on the floor of the tub.  I looked closer.  LOVE BUGS!!  A wet soapy blob of love bugs!  After I screamed for about a minute I realized that they had apparently been in my hair since the day before when I stupidly sat outside for lunch.  I spent the entire lunch hour swatting the slow moving- constantly mating bugs out of my face.  I guess I didn't swat them all away. There are black clouds of them right now on the reservation and everyone keeps telling me that they'll go away soon.  Not soon enough.  Why do you hate me so much Florida?

hello?

The other day at work I went to click on the internet and realized it wasn't working.  I clicked on the network...no luck.  I asked around and everyone else seemed to be having problems too.  Then someone realized that their cell phone service was gone and I ran back to my office and all of our landlines were dead (insert Twilight theme music)

Hmmmm...Here we are in the middle of no where Florida and have no way to contact the outside world.  For the next 3 hours I felt completely cut off from society, wondering if anything important was happening out there.  Everyone started going stir crazy, clicking on the internet every 2 minutes, picking up the phones and listening for a dial tone.

Hello?!  HELLO?!

Our connection to civilization wasn't fixed until after we left work.  It made me realize how reliant we are on technology.  No one could find anything to do without the computer and my co-workers were going insane without their iphones.  Crazy.  Its nice to be reminded of simpler times, when we could occupy our time by using paper and pencil. 

The Forts of Florida

The past few weeks I've had the chance to explore some new cities of Florida for work.  The history of Florida is made up of military occupation and war Forts.  Two in particular: Fort Myers and Fort Pierce, both Seminole War Forts.

I went up to Fort Pierce to visit their local county museum to view some of the Seminole War collections.  It is located right on the water with a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The museum, a historic house

Not a bad view!

This weekend I went to Fort Myers on the west coast for the Florida Anthropological Society annual conference.  Some of my co-workers were presenting and it was good to get out and support the office.  There was a banquet last night and the key note speaker was a famous Florida anthropologists/researcher/curator.  I got to sit next to him at dinner!  His talk was on an incredible collection of photographs of South Florida taken by a father and son during the turn of the century.  We had a wonderful view of the sunset over the Caloosahatchee River which feeds into the Gulf of Mexico.

  

 Its been fun to see the different coasts and explore South Florida.  Maybe next time for work I'll be sent to the Bahamas...

Mommy

Happy Mother's Day!  I have the best mom in the whole world.  She is loving, understanding, comforting, supportive and creative.  A teacher, a doctor, a quilter, a chef and a friend.   I hate that I'm so far away from my mom now.  I don't get to go home on the weekends or have her come over and visit for the day.  I try and talk to my mom as much as I can during the week to update her on whats going on, to hear the latest Redente news.  Usually I have nothing important to say but just want to hear my mom's voice.   Love you Mom!

You can do IT!

The other day when driving home from work the wildlife was very active.  There were birds flying left and right, barely missing our windshield.  There was a 6 foot gator on the side of the canal waiting for some dinner.  A huge wild turkey was standing on the side of the road and as soon as we got close it spastically ran out into the road with his long legs trying to get him across as quickly as possible.  After almost having wild turkey for dinner we saw something large and dark starting to move across the road.  It was a huge leather back turtle who had just decided that it was safe enough for him to cross the road.  I just wonder what was so important on the other side of the road.  Is the canal nicer?  Is the grass tastier?  What was so important that he was taking such a huge risk against speedy Florida drivers?  My co-worker slammed on the breaks and swerved, barely missing him.  We all sighed in relief, but then realized the poor thing was not out of danger yet.  We looked in the rear view mirror as another car off in the distance was approaching fast.

"HURRY!!!! HURRY turtle!!!" 

He was sloooowly reaching the middle of the road..."MOVE YOUR LEGS FASTER!!! HURRY!!!"

I was turned completely around in the car, shouting in vain through the back window as we moved farther away from him.  There was a bend in the road and then I couldn't see him anymore.  I felt sad, so sure that he had gotten smooshed.

The next day I over heard somebody from my car pool talking about the turtle to another co-worker.  She replied, "Oh yeah!  We saw him.  He was just crossing the road into the grass"

I quietly walked away with a big smile on my face knowing the turtle had made it.  Hopefully the alligator didn't eat him.

I should always think twice...

I've been known in my life to say stupid things out loud.  Some of my most memorable ones:

"Does the 4th of July ever fall on the 8th?" (I was 8)

"Wait...Male deer are not Elk?" (I may have been 22)

The other day I did it again.

Me: "I've seen coconut trees around here but where are all the Pineapple trees?" 
Coworkers: laughing for 5 minutes

In my defense I grew up in Colorado and I just assume all tropical fruit grows on trees.  Who knew they grew on bushes.  I bet none of you knew that.

no more excuses

Its time!  I've made enough excuses, felt sorry for myself and given up too many times to count.  I've never been the super skinny girl and I'm by no means obese, but I've let pasta and laziness take over my life and now I am paying for the consequences.  I'm not sure why its so hard for me.  I've never liked the attention on me and I've slowly melted into the background and now I'm not sure I like it very much.  I've never been athletic and I'm not competative.  I don't like to run and I don't like to wear shorts.  But I also don't like the way I look now.  Everyone has always told me that I'm pretty...sure sure, but I don't feel pretty now.  I'm not looking to be a super model, but I need to boost to my confidence. So I'm really going to do it this time.  Promise.  Ok Billy Blanks, do your taebo magic.

Slowly but Surely

My mom just sent me a gift card to Target to buy some new patio chairs!  My patio was quite sad with just my little beach chair and if I ever met any friends we would never be able to sit outside.  Luckily that hasn't been an issue...

With gift card in toe, Bobby and I went out to Target to see if we could find some new patio furniture.  We were very successful finding everything on sale: two new chairs and a little table!

We took our new purchases out to the car where we spent the next 25 minutes trying to stuff them in my car.  Bobby tried every way to get the chairs into my back seat.  "Its not going to fit" he said.

After watching him, and realizing he was doing it all wrong, I took things into my own hands. "Of course it will fit, you just don't have it at the right angle"

Even though everyone who walked by was staring and whispering at us for buying something that would obviously not fit, I was bound and determined to cram it into my car.  No luck.  I guess Bobby was right.

Luckily Target held the chairs for us while we could run back home and get a screw driver to take apart the chairs.  And of course they fit after spending another 45 minutes at 10:30 at night with the allen wrench.

But now the patio is looking much nicer and I can finally enjoy summer which suddenly appeared yesterday in all of its glory and humdity.  Now for my twinkly lights.

    New comfy chairs

Thanks mom