On the Border of Winter

I know... I know... another post about weather. I have issues with cold weather. Lots of issues.

Lately, though, it's more of an issue with drastic back and forth weather changes! When I got back on Monday from FL, it was in the 50's (raining, granted) and crept up into the 60's by Monday night and into Tuesday morning. And then a free fall happened! By Tuesday night, the weather had changed by 35 degrees, putting it in the 30's with snow on the way. Do you have any idea what these change can do on your sinuses??? I had a headache all day yesterday as the pressure changed. And now it's been off and on snow all day, the temperature continuing to fall - we're not even supposed to hit 20 for a high tomorrow!

And this isn't the first time this winter this has been the case. It's been happening almost every week this month... I was even in short sleeves one day earlier in the month, only to bust out the full length wool coats a few days later. It really sucks. I know better than to get my hopes up about it staying warm... but I just wish it would stay one way or another.

But that comes with the latitude we're at. We're right at that point, where we're too far south for the constant lake effect snowfalls and weather that comes with being in a true northern state, and too far north to get excited about an occasion 'winter day' of snow like you get from Kentucky, south. I remember when we got those few snowfalls at Auburn or when I lived in Atlanta... we got excited!! And the City closed down, which let you actually enjoy the weather. Not get out in it like it's a normal part of life (which it shouldn't be).

I just want to go back to Florida right now...

Social Media Fubar

I have a bone to pick with social media, and it's been bugging me for awhile. I almost feel like a bit of a hypocrite for feeling this way since I'm so anti-political correctness, but I just think it's an issue, none the less.

I've noticed that people get so caught up in their own status, that they fail to think about how it might affect someone else. What I mean by that is people will openly broadcast something about themselves or something else on their mind with no precursory to what it's outcome will be. And then get upset and they don't get the response (or lack of response) they 'expect' to get, since it's so meaningful to them. It's something they won't typically broadcast in person, except to maybe those closest to them... if that. What's more is that social media has started to numb to people to these same type of 'life statuses' that used to be reserved for more of a inner circle of people - one can only care so much about little Jimbo (son of a mere acquaintance) pooping in the potty... on a video.

Don't get me wrong - I love that I've regained contact with so many people from my past. But those posting these videos and pictures... have you ever thought about the impact that might have on someone who lost a child recently? They might not get to see that moment, and seeing a picture of a sweet child hitting a milestone can be devastating to them! And it goes beyond things about kids... it hits some of the hot topics of the moment, whether it be politics, religion, or even employment. Don't complain about all the overtime you 'have to work' some weekend... there are probably some followers that would trade places with you, just to have a job!

I get that people get excited about life events of their family or are passionate about some topic of the moment, but in my mind, some of these moments are supposed to be personal to the family, not broadcast for the world to see. It kind of loses the 'special moment' feel when so many people can see it happen. I'd almost rather Facebook just be plastered with drunken moments. Keep those videos and pictures restricted to the inner circle that should be seeing them, not shown to all your 'friends'. After all, not all of your 'friends' are actually friends, just people you're met somewhere along the way. Not someone you'd call up on a whim to crash in their spare room when you're in town.

Something to ponder before you post something, whether it just be a status update or a picture. I know I'm just as guilty of doing stuff like that, but I know I find myself pausing before I hit that update button more often. And I feel better about things because of it.

South Florida and Beyond!

I know it seems like I was just there, but it was time for another trip to Florida for me! Eric is 'stuck' in south Florida for work, so I went down to see him this past weekend. Rough, I know. But the timing couldn't have come better - I left Indiana on Friday and it was snowing!

I actually arrived in Florida in around 3pm, so Eric still had some work to do before the weekend could really begin. But this really didn't bother me one bit - I was just thrilled to have some warm sunshine on my face! I was just loving the mid-70's accompanied by a warm breeze. I was home! You can take the girl out of Florida, but you can never take the Florida out of the girl!

Friday we had a nice dinner to wind down the week. Kept it simple and went out to a restaurant on the water.. well, the intercoastal, anyway. It was perfect, actually. Good food and the view of water... one more way to ground me and bring me home. After dinner, we went for a drive through South Beach, just to take in the scene. I love the neon and architecture, and at night it looks completely different than the day. How can you not love that atmosphere?

Saturday morning, I got some sun time by the hotel pool - just want I needed. It felt so wonderful to have the sunshine on my skin. I even got warm enough to jump in the pool to cool off. In January. Love that! Saturday afternoon consisted of a little shopping at the Town Center at Boca Raton, just for fun. And of course, a quick run to Ikea. We didn't dare wear ourselves out, though... we had a night in South Beach ahead of us.

We weren't heading to South Beach for the party scene... we were heading there for the foodie scene. And some more shopping, since it's there and all. There are some really cool shops there, unique to the area and the US, in some cases. But our main destination was SushiSAMBA! I'm sure you've read about this place before on my blog - this is one of Eric's and my favorite restaurants! We usually go to the one in Chicago when we go up there (we even took Darian last summer), but the first one we went to was this one in South Beach. You have to love a sushi restaurant that has a DJ in house after 10pm. And just as our past experiences, it was awesome! Again, the whole night was perfect. This little weekend was turning into a full on vacation for me very quickly!

Sunday = Funday. I grew up in Florida. In high school, I only made it as far south as Fiesta Key (just south of Islamorada)... but that was it. And I can honestly say, I felt like I was missing something as a Floridian. It took me about 20 years after my first trip to the Florida Keys to finally make it all the way to mile marker zero... the southernmost point... Key West! Yep... Sunday we took a drive down the Keys.

We left pretty early - the sun was just coming up. But since we were just doing a day trip, we wanted to make the most of the day and get as much in without feeling rushed. It worked out well, too, because we had very little traffic until we were about half-way into the trip. And even then, it only picked up because we started making stops along the keys. First was a Publix on Marathon Key to grab some more snacks and drinks. We didn't grab as many as we thought before we left (the downfall of leaving early when you're still half asleep!). But from there, it was just fun stops.

Our next stop was Bahia Honda State Park. This was a cool stop, especially for an engineer, since there was a historic bridge to view. The Key's have quite a history. As a brief summary, I'll just say the railroad came before the road, and then the road just went where the railroad was... until modern day highway design came through was built. This left the old bridges to be demolished or turned into fishing piers. Well, the particular bridge that connected Bahia Honda Key to Spanish Harbor Key was a narrow truss bridge instead of deck bridge - this was the only bridge in the Keys like this. So while they were able to simply put a road deck on the old rail bridges elsewhere, the trusses posed a dilemma here. So, they went up and over the trusses, which made for a higher bridge deck and they had to build approaches. At this point, if you're not an engineer, you bored, so I'll stop. We actually got a personal history lesson from one of the park employees, which definitely added to our experience there. I wouldn't have know half of this without that little sidebar. I thought it was cool, at least.

Our next stop was just a bit further down - Deer Key. Well, Deer Key is know for, you guessed it, the Key Deer. Crazy, I know. Everyone knows you shouldn't feed wild animals because you don't want wild animals to become dependent on human handouts (or get 'bad food' not meant for animal consumption). They have it well posted here, as well. But a little birdie told us that the Key Deer like lemon drops, which I found odd. But I like lemon drops, and I bought some anyway, figuring I'd eat them up. So Eric and I are driving around Deer key (we were told NOT to go to the visitors center/viewing area - it's better to go deeper in the Key on your own). The first deer we saw was standing next to the side of the road... next to a parking lot for storage units. Kind of funny, actually. We kept driving and were about to give up and start driving back to the main road. That's when we saw one dart across the road. By the time we got to where we saw it cross, it was far back in the woods. So we keep going. We then saw another one, just eating at the edge of the woods by the road. I made Eric stop so I could take a picture. I figured it would run, so I tried to snap a few quickly and then tried to get closer. Well, to my surprise, this deer was quite friendly! He came running towards me!!

I was actually sucking on a lemon drop at the time... did he smell it??? He came right up to me - I probably could of reached out a petted him. Instead, I took the lemon drop out of my mouth and tossed it in his direction. He snatched that thing up like it was the last thing to eat on earth! And chewed it up - I heard the crunching! It was so weird! I snapped a few more pictures and then went back to the car. Eric laughed because he saw the deer coming towards me and then he didn't see me (I squatted down to take some pictures) and he thought I got attacked by the deer. It was a cool little experience. But we were now back on the road!

Finally... we get to Key West! It's a busy little little key! We drive down towards Duval Street (since that's where everything is) and find a parking spot on one of the side streets. Time to explore. Since we were near the south end of Duval Street, we decide to go over the the infamous Southermost Point buoy/marker. I knew there'd be a line for pictures with it. But it was a little long to wait in, even for me. So we jumped over to the side where you could get just as good of a picture. After snapping a few pictures(and checking in on Foursquare), we started to walk up Duval Street.

Even in the middle of the day, I could see how this would be an absolute party scene at night. It was bar after bar after bar. With some t-shirt shops scattered in between. And then you'd come across some nicer cafes/bistro and art galleries. It definitely had an appeal to a wide range of ages. We walked the entire length of Duval Street, taking in some sights off of Mallory Square on the north end, before stopping for some lunch at one of the cafes we saw - Eric had this awesome lobster grilled cheese sandwich and I had a Key West version of fish tacos. They were both pretty good, but I think Eric's was a little better. We strolled back down Duval Street, trying to catch a few more notable sights before heading back north to the mainland. Caught a glimpse of Ernest Hemingway's house (would've loved to do the tour - maybe next time) and drove through some of the historic neighborhoods before leaving. There's something about the 'traditional' Florida house with the metal roof that is just cool.

By 4pm, we were back on the road for the four hour trip back to Boca Raton. But what a perfect day trip this turned out to be. It couldn't have been better if I planned it out by the minute. Which actually would've made it worse because then there would've been the pressure of a schedule...

I had a 6:15am flight out of Fort Lauderdale this morning. So early... alarms should not go off that early (3:30am). Not sure how I managed to get home, still go to work for a bit, and still awake now. I think I'm typing this in a sleep mode. Oh, well. The weekend was well worth it.

Too Cold!

WARNING!! THIS BLOG IS JUST A BUNCH OF VENTING ABOUT THE COLD WEATHER!

Yeah... so this week has been way too cold for humans to be outside. Shoot, too cold for just about any mammal! I know some people laugh at my views on what cold is, but seriously... I don't get the appeal of cold weather.

Monday started with an unexpected blanket of snow at rush hour. They said there might be scattered flurries, but it was much more than that. It was coming down pretty heavy at some points.

Yesterday was brutally cold! I'm talking wind chill factors about 10d below zero! No one should have to endure those temperatures! The high never even hit 20d!

Today wasn't much better. A little less wind, but still super cold! Though I guess is did break the 20d mark, at least.

It's not a big deal if you don't have to go out in it - I AM glad I don't have a job where I have to be outside a lot! But it's not very pleasant even going to/from the car! And it's not very fun when you have an old house that doesn't have snazzy double paned windows and insulation in the exterior walls.

I'm so looking forward to spring already. That, and maybe a few trips to FL will take my winter woes away.

Stuff in the News

It's been awhile since I did one of these... my thoughts on current topics of interest (of mine, at least) and things in the news...I'm not looking to get into a debate or ruffle anyone else's feathers... I just gotta get it out.

First topic - Lance Armstrong. Yes, he did steroids during his amazing reign over the Tour de France. But guess what.. a lot of athletes were doping up in the late 80's and 90's. It was kind of the thing to do, then. His doing steroids is a blip on the radar. I would be willing to bet some of the people racing against his were, too, but since they didn't win, they have been long forgotten about. At the end of it all, he became famous for winning a race (multiple times). Lets not look at how he got there, but what he did with his fame. He started an amazing charity that helps cancer patients and their families. That should be his legacy, not that he took steroids to win a race. He didn't something good with his fame. He didn't go the route of other famous athletes... he didn't cheat on his wife or run a dog fighting ring. He didn't fade away into he rest of the world because he spent all of his money and, in general, became washed up. No... he took his fame and his very public cancer battle and started something to help many others.

Next, gun control. Or more specifically, a ban on automatic of semi-automatic guns. People are up in arms about this! It's not a ban on a hunting rifle or a basic handgun used for personal protection. It's on weapons that can shoot multiple rounds within seconds! Why does anyone, not in the military or law enforcement, need one of these? You can't tell me it's for hunting - where's the sport in that?? I think when our Forefathers spoke of the Right to Bear Arms, they never imagined a weapon that could discharge multiple rounds quickly. They still had to hand pack each round in their guns. I don't think they'd want these automatic weapons in households.

Oh, and the thought that strong/more consistent background checks will solve the issue we have. Um, no. The Colorado shooter had multiple checks run as he bought multiple guns. No issues for him because he had no questionable history. And the guy in Connecticut - he took his mom's guns! You look through most of the mass shootings, and one of those two things are usually the case... it's never someone you'd expect. It's someone that's never shown any signs of doing something like this.

Those are the two big ones, right now. I could ramble on about a few other topics, but I won't. This time. I could definitely complain about the weather for awhile... I hate the cold weather. But I'll spare you for now.

One Month

One month down, 199,000 miles to go. Well, close to it, anyway. I didn't quite drive Tuscany a thousand miles in this first month. And I wasn't trying to baby her or anything... just drove as I normally would drive. Though I guess there was the Christmas break in there...

So... how do I feel about my new baby after a month? Love! I'm still discovering neat features, too. And discovering the benefits of the ones I already knew about, like heated seats. I've never had leather seats, before, so I never knew how COLD they get in the winter!! Heated seats are a must, just because the leather is too cold to sit on! I also love that I never have to take the key out of my purse to unlock the doors or start the engine! Now if only I could get that feature on my front door locks - I'd never have to worry about losing my keys again!

I've about got the perpendicular parking thing down. I was comfortable driving the larger vehicle within the first week and I parallel parked during the test drive, so those items were relatively easy to adjust to. But the perpendicular parking... I think it's mainly the height different that throws me off - I can't see the cars in front of me as I pull in. Depending on the car, I may very well not see any of the hood/truck if I'm pulled in all the way. That's a hard thing to judge still.

I've been trying to take care of her as best I can during these harsh winter months. That means lots of drives through the car wash. She stays clean for the most part, except on the days when the salt spray is constant. Or dirty rain/road splatter.

So my goal, as it was with Bleu, is to make it to 200,000 miles. That means keeping her for at least a decade, which is no problem, in my mind. Especially if we get the garage built in the next year. I think keeping her out of everyday elements when you can is key. I guess only time will tell!

Yoga

I started doing yoga a few years ago, after buying a Groupon for a local studio, Cityoga. Before that, my only exposure to yoga was a kind of introductory class that one of my companies brought in for us to 'try out' in the office.

I liked it well enough to try the Groupon next, where I would actually get the experience in the studio. It was a basic Groupon - not one-on-one sessions or anything... so the first thing was to figure out what kind of yoga I wanted to try. Yup... for those who don't know yoga, there are different kinds of yoga. When most people think of yoga, I think they envision basic Vinyasa. But even Vinyasa has different levels and paces. But it is the basics of all yoga, I guess... you learn the poses and the breathing techniques, which are the key components to yoga.  But all those crazy photos you see of yoga - those aren't your standard poses - those are way advanced, and I haven't even thought about getting to that level!

In fact, I'm the polar opposite, it seems. I've been drawn to and have acquired a taste for the Yin style, stress relief yoga. It differs in the fact that you take positions and actually hold them for a minute or two, and just breathe deeper into them and, in essence, stretch those muscles, tendons, and ligaments that tend to 'get stressed' and hold tension. You'd be surprised some of the areas that hold tension - it goes way beyond your neck and shoulders!

Anyway, this class is the ultimate relaxation. I kid you not, you feel totally mellow and 'down' when you leave - it's almost like a drug! Seriously - there have been times where I didn't think I should be driving home from this class! Eric can always tell when I've been to yoga, even if it's just over the phone. It's like a total body and attitude adjustment!

Thought Yin has become my favorite, I do love the basic, slow-flow Vinyasa. I haven't done the Hot Yoga yet - which is Vinyasa in a hot room - but I've heard it's after-effects are similar to Yin. You sweat out all the toxins in your body while going through your poses, giving you an overall flush of refreshment when all is said and done.

I guess the point of this whole blog is to say Yoga absolutely rocks! If you've never tried it, it's worth it. And no worries if you're worried about being able to do a pose - there's always an alternate version for those just starting out or not as flexible (or well balanced). At least my studio has options. Guess I can't speak for other studios, but I can't imagine, in this culture, they'd force you to do something uncomfortable. And I've been watching quite an increase of guys in the studio.. and not young ones just wanting to watch girls in tight clothing - there's a lot of older guys, likely there to relieve stress after wearing a tie all day, as well as guys a little younger who understand the benefits of yoga. And I've even seen younger kids and teenagers in there, doing poses I could never do since they're so flexible still! Yoga really is for everyone.

New Year, Same Stuff, Different Day

So here we are, four days into the new year. A new year supposedly brings an opportunity for a fresh start. Hence, everyone makes resolutions, usually to 'make themselves and better version of themself' or something along those lines.

But here's the thing... how are you supposed to make a fresh start if everything around you is the same and out of your control to change? Sure, you can make all the resolutions you want to make changes to yourself or improve your immediate surroundings... but there's so much more out of your control. How do you make a truly fresh start when so much is the same? Unless you decide to up and quit your job and move to another state (or country), you really don't get a full 'fresh start' with everything.

Yes, the best place to start is with 'you', and that's why resolutions make sense. But why make that a once a year thing? You should be making a pretty regular evaluation of yourself and constantly improving yourself, making a 'better version of you' as you go. So why put so much pressure on yourself that one time of year (probably the worst time of year to do it)?

I don't know... maybe it's just me. I've never been big on making new year's resolutions. And I am, by no means, perfect. I've typically been known to just go do something if I want to do it, whether it be organize a closet or start a new workout regimen. But alas, no one else is me. So if it takes a new calendar to get something done, then so be it. I'll make what I want to happen when I want it to happen. Sometime later in the year.