Where in the world am I?

Should I make it like a game? And you have to guess? Maybe another time, I’ll just tell you. I am back in Florida. Just for a week. A work week, Monday-Friday. Why you ask? Do I need a reason? Because I don’t have one. I have no idea why I’m here. I got a notion, go to Florida, my notion said. And I ignored it. But it wouldn’t go away. Whatever, I said. It’s just old Go to Florida stuff stuck in my head. I don’t really need to go to Florida these days. I’m happy in Pittsburgh, in my apartment. But it just wouldn’t stop so I said fine, and here I am.

Wouldn’t it be a great idea for me to just go someplace, when I get the notion/nudge, and then write about it? Although I’m not sure what I can write about Florida that is newer than my previous years of writing about Florida. One thing that is different is I’m still working my Pittsburgh job while I’m here. Working from home, but home this week is Florida. I had big plans to get up early and sit on the beach and write my morning pages (brain dump before my day) but it’s FREEZING out there. Okay not Pittsburgh freezing, but freezing none the less. I am NOT going to go out and sit in the cold sand. This morning I stayed on the couch with the heat blasting but by the afternoon I changed from long sleeves to shorts and sleeveless and by 4:30 after work I changed back to long sleeves and a sweater for a long walk on the beach and subsequent sunset. That is a great way to end a work day.

Here’s a wonderous thing that happened at lunch time that I can share. I went for a pedicure. But wait there’s more. I had not had a chance to get one in Pittsburgh before leaving since this was a very last minute idea so anyway as it turns out there is a place right up the street, walkable and yesterday I made an appointment for today to go during my lunch hour. I almost cancelled as I wasn’t really feeling it, but figured, what the heck. So not only was it a really nice pedicure, this older woman who works there (probably mid-70’s) brought out a piece of homemade cake for us all, which was delicious and a nice surprise. She went on to tell us how she made it. One box of any cake mix, 3 eggs, and a can of any pie filling flavor. I had banana and raspberry. I mean the combination ideas are endless. We all spent a long time talking about that and what flavors we would like. And then, there’s more! Then I noticed her doing something with these plastic bags. She was ripping them into strips. They were the bags you get from Giant Eagle, Publix, Walmart, you know the ones. So I yell across the room, What are you doing there? Because now we’re like BFF’s so I can do that. Anyway, she tears the plastic bags into strips and then crochets them into smallish beach bags. She said people like them for the beach because they’re plastic, can’t hurt them, doesn’t matter if they get wet. If they get dirty put the bag in the dishwasher. I bought one. I mean it was awe inspiring. The whole idea of recycling. She said her church started crocheting beds out of them (mats I guess) for the homeless. They would put the mats under the blankets as they again are waterproof, but she said she liked the idea of the purses. So this pedicure, that I wanted to cancel, turned out to be the highlight of my day. The cake, saving the environment and I got a new bag and a couple new best friends.

Although I’ve been to Siesta Key many times over these past 6 years, I am staying at a different end of the “key” so it feels like I’m someplace new. New restaurants, new stores, new streets but the same great beautiful white sand. I was too cold to walk on the beach last night but tonight the wind died down and I was dressed for it. And what a lovely walk it was. Here are some pictures

Notice my “light” photos.

That’s been my day. What a day. And I have 2.5 more days. Maybe I’ll take some more photos and write some more tomorrow. I mean who knows what great things could happen tomorrow. But it will be hard to beat banana raspberry cake, plastic bag purses and beach sunsets.

Stay tuned.

xoxox