coffee and bagel memoriesm ,,,,,,,

I gave myself a lot of safe time this morning - that lovely time between waking up and getting into my car for the commute. I start late anyway but I have an hour and a half to kill. This would be the perfect morning for going out to breakfast. I've learned though that at my 10:00 o'clock meeting there'll be bagels AND coffee (which is a miracle). However, neither will probably be very good. And that's when I must tell the world how much I miss my old job in Tampa. Not necessarily the job but definitely the morning camaraderie and quality of both coffee and pastry. Cuban breakfast sandwiches, maybe a danish, coffee we ground on the spot and brewed with cold spring water. It was a heavenly time. Now, there's something else I must tell the world: librarians are a cheap people. This is fine, I totally get it, we aren't paid tremendously well. I myself am thrifty, but not to the extremes of those I tend to find in my profession. This is another reason why I miss my old library job - we weren't cheap - we splurged on little luxuries practically everyday.

To depart from that - I ran three miles this morning. I feel so so good.

sore bum = no posts

Blog neglect! Report me to the authorities. Oh wait.

Bad news: speeding ticket. I've been pulled over FOUR times since last April.

1. expired tag (in Steve's truck, grrr!); no ticket, no consequence
2. red light running; ticket
3. speeding; no ticket (82 mph in a 65)
   
4. speeding; ticket (87.5 mph in a 70)
   

SHIT! I went 27 years with an impeccable record.

We saw an awful movie on Saturday night. It was 88 Minutes. In a swift maneuver, we took a strange staircase that led us through the theater and dropped us behind-the-scenes, so it turned out we did not pay to see this awful movie. And in all the innocent maneuvering, we walked past two policemen hired to thwart these types of things. This is probably why I get traffic tickets. Karma police / arrest this girl.

Also on Saturday, we took in Showtel. Fabulous!

And before 88 Minutes and Showtel, we freaked out at Mounts' Spring Plant Sale & Hibiscus Show. All day long, we were high on fresh-squeezed lemonade, plant shopping, butterflies and hibiscus so huge + exotic you could have easily worn them as hats. I love me some plant shows.

And before the plant show? Thrifting! Steve and I yielded some great fruits, but especially Steve. A 35 mm camera of which I cannot remember the name (something German) for $25.

I've started running again - okay, so I've only been twice but my entire body aches. My triceps are sore, even, from being held in a foreign position. Phew. I'm just happy to be starting. Again.

vizcaya

Today we drove down to Italy Miami and visited Vizcaya (<---- short history lesson).



Steve said this "ship" was for play dates:






Rad orchidarium:









Has bad statue breath:


Tomfoolery:


Michelangelo not available for comment:






Doh! Me attempting the two-second timer:


Oh, one more place to cross off the list...I really thought the place was a beauty.

crime mystery ghost

1. get yourself a bulletin board so those little bits of inspiration have somewhere to go
   
2. spare your iron the filth!
3. recycle magazines - sorry, this is sososo hard, but it's time; you're spilling over
   
4. mail the utility bill
5. souvenir plates? either get crafty with 'em or get 'em gone
6. donate other heaps-o-crap from office
7. start calling home office "the den"
8. return DVDs to library
   
9. part with all the useless trinketry you've collected or put it to good use (see: kennebunkport key chain. fill with quarters; stash in glove compartment for rainy days)
   

hater

I have a lovely friend who loaned me a copy of Juno for the weekend. She held it close to her heart before she gave it to me and said, "I love this movie. If you don't like it, I can't hear about it." Because of that and

1. the hype
2. the preview I saw
3. the cast
   

I *assumed* I too would hold this movie close to my heart. Ok, then I started the movie.

And then, Juno speaks. Help! All that overboard teen slang, the half-words, the I'm diff, I'm clev, the awkward way she said dude and silencio. It drove me bananas. It felt like I was listening to someone read Perez Hilton out loud. The story itself was decent but I wish Michael Cera was the one who got pregnant and that Ellen Page (damn you!) was the back story.

1. don't believe the hype
2. slick previews are usually better than movies
   
3. Allison Janney is still the greatest

Out come the teeth!

many drafts

How's it that I haven't blogged since Thursday? Unbelievable. Again, the blank auto-saved drafts have accumulated.

And even the real posts are accumulating without much substance.

the celebration, the shin, the orchid

Some exciting, toast-worthy news: I passed my one-year probation at work. While not difficult (I rule, people, I really do), I have the tendency to put my nerves on eggshells for these kinds of things. You know, I was that asshole who got A's but was always like, "Gee, I don't know...I think I failed the final exam." I'm kidding. I mean, sometimes, I was that asshole. However, my one-year perks? Key to the building (ooh la la), more vacation hours, cha-ching, and clout.

Steve and I played racquetball tonight and afterward, I thought it would be awesome to swing my shin directly into the trailer hitch on his truck. It was a horrible moment and I cried.

Now, an uplifting moment:

Remember this?



Now, it looks like this:

cleaning up

I'm relying on library books to get me through my slump of doom and the messy room of gloom (oom!).  Some from 747, 796.42, and a wildcard from 613.71 (boot camp abs something-or-other).  There are many DVDs in the free library queue (Atonement, Into the Wild, Waitress, 3:10 to Yuma - which we watched last night, more Old Country, and others I can't remember) for the weekend (which begins in three hours, two minutes). 

 

I have some fiction, too, which I can't wait to sink my eyeballs into (esp. Tobias Woolf's Our Story Begins). 

 

Anyway, that's the library report. 

ugh

Unfortunately, because I cannot keep anything neat or tidy beyond twenty minutes, my home office has become a place I least like to "be." I'm reminded, in here, that I'm a messy person that never sews, reads, creates, etc. Instead, I'm a collector of useless papers, chairs, baskets. It is enough to make me want to throw my head against the wall and seriously ask, "What the hell happened to you?" I'm disgusted! I should take a picture of this crap vacuum:



Look at that! Help! It's so depressing.

betes betes diabetes

april showers

All the posts come at once, don't they?

Below: I love this color combination; Steve hates it! It reminds me of Oregon and Sunset:



That was taken at Mounts Botanical Garden and so was this - an herb garden:



And this too:



Whoa! It's stormy out there tonight!

Little need-tos:

*Madge, start reading again! WTF!
*Start listening to music again! WTF! (Any recommendations?)
*Finalize Graceful Envelope!

friend owl

It was at a water conservation festival that I came to know a rescued owl with 1.5 wings named Ping (Spinning Girl probably knows what kind of owl this is; I should have taken better notes).







He was so adorable; I think I fell so hard in love with him because he reminded me a lot of!!:

afternoon: a veuve-ish affair

article of the moment

• Just Go to Helvetica (Or at least to Verdana. Because without a signature font at the moment, you'll never be letter-perfect.)

my gardenia tree still loves me

blogger = einstein of push-button publishing

I thought I was nearing my 800th post, until I realized I was counting in that number 54 abandoned drafts (which you cannot, by the way, batch delete - grrrr). There were some good thoughts in those drafts, but most of them were blanks.

Racquetball! It's my new favorite.

Saturday, we're headed to Waterpalooza.