New Life Lessons

They say you learn something new every day. I know this to be true and I even spend time each night before I go to sleep to think back upon my day and remember at least one new thing that I learned. Usually, if you really pay attention, you'll find a few lessons each day. Life is a treasure trove of new lessons - good and bad.

First
It's possibly harder to make a left-hand turn in Florida than it is in New Jersey. Anyone who has driven in NJ knows that all your friends and family are required to live on the right-hand side of the street, or else you'll have to wave to each other across the street.

Second
The parking lots here are all one-way lanes. So there is one aisle that goes "up" the parking lot, and the next aisle comes "down". They alternate and the parking spots are super-angled so if you do happen to mess up (oops, that would be ME, the newbie), you cannot park your car without a 15-point turnabout. The aisles are extremely skinny which makes a driver-going-wrong-way-trying-to-park-in-an-angled-spot the asshole of the parking lot (again...me...every day).

Third
Speaking of parking lots, when you go to the grocery stores here, most of them do NOT have a cart return bay/area. We have one store that does have one, and I've sort of glammed onto that store. I feel comfort knowing I have an easy place to put my cart when I've finished unloading. The really "nice" high-end store here in town has NO cart return. So you would think that customers (being the high-end hoitey-toiteys that they are) would return the carts to the store lobby. Nope! They leave them rolling through the parking lot, rolling into the drive lanes, throw them up onto the landscaping islands, etc. Really, people? This, I cannot tolerate. Little things like this get me flustered.

Fourth

We're in Florida. People retire here. A LOT of them. So you will drive through town, cruising on a 45mph street and having very little traffic, loving life. Then you see flashing lights and flags and signs that kindly inform you that you are entering a "Senior Zone". Senior Zones are 35mph. All the time. Just because. If the Seniors are moving slow, then everyone else must move slow with them. Ed got a warning for speeding in a school zone a few weeks ago. Those kids demanding all this slowness don't deserve an actual ticket. Get caught speeding in a Senior Zone? You better cash in the insurance policy, because the Po-Po are gonna get ya!

And the Fifth lesson...

...the most poignant one for me right now…buy a beach towel and umbrella to keep in the car. Better yet, carry a purse big enough to carry them both. I went out to run errands today and the skies were starting to cloud up. That’s totally normal for this time of year. We get that dinner-time t-storm which can be a shortie or an all-nighter, we just have to watch the radar. So this afternoon, I went to the grocery store and a storm came upon us. Me and a slew of customers were waiting out the storm outside the front doors, under the overhang. I had nothing frozen or even cold, so I could wait all day if I had to. The HUGE storm just got worse. We had lightning bolting down into the parking lot, huge wind picking up the store’s furniture displays and tumbling them through the parking lot. The wind was making the automatic doors stay open and the hail was rolling and blowing into the store. Everyone outside left their carts and ran into the store for cover. So, from now on, I’m gonna carry myself an umbrella everywhere I go.

So, in summary:
1. Don’t turn RIGHT.
2. Don’t drive UP the DOWN lane.
3. Shopping Carts sleep where they lie.
4. Slow down.
5. Towel & Umbrella in the car…always.

I'm sure there is more to come...stay tuned.

Make Believe Boulevard

Isabelle's new school is called "The Learning Experience". They only had a 3-day program spot available for now so she goes Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Summer camp starts next week and she'll start the 5-day per week program (hooooorrayyyyyy!!!!).

Summer Camp there is uber-cool, there are 2 water days every week (splish splash, not swimming in a pool). They have themes every week so the kids will learn while they play and play while they learn (I love it!).

She will probably continue there in the Fall for her PreK-4 program (TBD based on where we buy a house). But this place is pretty amazing. It has this room/area/town called "Make Believe Boulevard" which is a mini-replica of "Main Street USA". They have a Fire House, Police Station, Restaurant, Grocery Store, House, Doctor's Office, Gas Station, etc. etc. etc.

Each mini-building is two-stories tall. The "street" has a staircase on the far right side so you can go "upstairs" in each of the buildings. If you keep walking along the corridor "upstairs" then you get rewarded with a curved sliding board at the end of the street that lands in a ball pit for extra giggly fun.

They don't get to go to "Make Believe Boulevard" every day, I'm learning it is used as a reward for group good behavior. So I'm hoping they get to go more often because Isabelle loves it and talks about it all afternoon after a trip to the big MBB.

I wouldn't mind hanging out there myself one of these fine days. I need me some make believe right about now.

Trolleys, and Gators, and Cheetahs, Oh My!

As our crazy whirlwind Florida adventure continues, we decided last minute to hit the beaches for Memorial Day weekend. The weather was supposed to be decent up until Sunday night when parts of Tropical Storm Beryl were possibly gonna rain down on us. So I tried Priceline and Hotwire with no luck. I searched the various travel sites and found nothing. All the beachfront hotels wanted a 3-night minimum and their prices were triple the norm. So I went over to Craigslist and found a hotel for $100/night including taxes. Sold! It was off the beaten path but a really cute place that served our needs (a couple beds to rest our weary sun-drenched bones).

Saturday was all beach, all day with our friends, Dawn and Carl. They have a son, Mason, who Izzi just adores, so it was a great day all around. Perfect blue skies, warm Gulf temps, and small to no waves great for the little ones (and me, if I’m gonna be honest). We had a light dinner early with them in Clearwater Beach and then they went home while we went back to our hotel to shower and get ready to head out for some music, drinks, and maybe some dessert or a late night snack. We decided to hop the trolley to John’s Pass which is a cute area with a boardwalk and tons of shops, restaurants, and nightlife.

We found a waterfront table, got some drinks, Izzi got a strawberry smoothie that was delish, it tasted like ice cream (more milkshake than smoothie). She also said she was hungry and got some fried mac-n-cheese nuggets that were so very tasty. Ed & I nibbled on some stuff but weren’t very hungry. We were pretty wiped from the beach day so called it an early night and headed across the street to the trolley stop a little before 10pm. This is where things went downhill fast. First Izzi had to pee, and she had to go BAD but refused to go in the grass b/c we “were in public”. We couldn’t leave our post to find a bathroom for fear we’d miss the trolley, which was already running late. They claim to run every 30 minutes, it had been about 40 mins so far. By the time we hit one hour, Izzi was crying so I grabbed her and made her go in the grass. Under duress, she relieved herself even if she did splash us both. Awesome!

Another 15 minutes or so go by when another couple walks up asking if this was the trolley stop. We THINK so but haven’t seen a trolley in over an hour. They informed us that all the cab companies were claiming a 90-120 minute wait to call a cab and even then they can’t promise it wouldn’t get picked up by someone else. What was going on here? We had meanwhile seen about 6 trolleys going the opposite direction during our wait. So why are they all headed Uptown but none were coming Downtown? We waited. Izzi cried. She was so overtired that she was going into full meltdown mode. Her stomach hurt. But then, this is her go-to complaint when she wants attention. We didn’t believe her, until she hurled all over the ground in front of us. Awesome! This time, we all got sprayed. And the puke kept coming. And coming. She hurled for about 10 minutes when finally the trolley arrives! Awesome! Normally, I wouldn’t get on a trolley with a vomiting child but in times of trouble, you gotta do what ya gotta do. I was absolutely not letting this trolley leave without us. So we carried her onto the trolley. Meanwhile, our kid has a major motion sickness issue. This should be fun. Did I mention the trolley driver was drunk? Oh yea he was. Awesome!

Thankfully we had bought Izzi a new dress tonight (which she was wearing) so I had a dress of hers in my purse. That, and about 3 small tissues were gonna have to save the day. Ed held her in his lap, with her dress up in front of her face. And this little piggy went puke, puke, puke, all the way home. Awesome!

It didn’t stop there, Izzi made a very large black man retch from the sound and sight of it all. Izzi fell fast asleep when we got back to our hotel but puked again in the middle of the night all over the one bed in the room. Awesome! Thankfully there was a spare set of sheets in the room. But we all had to sleep in clothes at that point since our one set of PJs now were wadded up in the hallway with the rest of the chunky clothes. I worried that our weekend was a total bust. We had another night reserved at this hotel and had planned on much more beachy fun but those dreams were fading fast, as we all finally drifted off to sleep.

Sunday morning was a new day, and Isabelle felt 100% fine. Whew! It was food after all and not a stomach virus. Let’s rock and roll, sistah! She and I hit a street festival early (by accident, how fun?). We went back to wake up Daddy so we could go get breakfast. Then we went back to put our suits on, pack for the beach and headed to mini golf since it was still a little cloudy in the morning. We got to feed alligators at mini golf! So cool. So very very cool. Can’t wait to go back and do THAT again. Then we found a smaller, quieter beach and hung out there for a few hours where Izzi got some more boogie boarding lessons from Daddy. She’s quite good, actually.

Sunday night we found a waterfront place within walking distance. We are NEVER going on that damn trolley again! It was a fun night, beautiful sunset, great music, cold drinks, and fun was had by all.

We went home Monday morning after a quick stop for breakfast and while it rained in the morning, it kind of burned off and got semi-sunny. We still had a few hours of holiday weekend left and I was trying to rally the tired troops to go back out and find something fun to do. How about Busch Gardens?!?! We just got our annual passports so we can go over, if it’s crowded we can just leave. No biggie! Well it was NOT crowded and we spent almost 5 hours there having a blast. There weren’t lines at any rides, we literally walked right onto all the roller coasters. Ed & I had to ride solo, obviously, but it worked out fine since there weren’t lines and they do offer a kid swap thing anyway if there was, where one parent waits with the kid and then gets to board the ride without waiting in line after the first parent returns. We finally got to ride the new coaster called Cheetah Hunt. Wow, what a ride. I’m glad I didn’t know anything about it because there are surprises on it that you probably have never seen in other coasters. I was surprised anyway. And it was a good surprise. Can’t wait to go back, maybe without the kid next time so Ed & I can ride together.

Other than those few sketchy hours on Saturday night, it was a great weekend. I’m glad we found that last minute steal so we could enjoy another fabulous Florida weekend in the sand, sun, and surf.

A Day of Firsts

Today was a good day of new adventures in the Siler household.

Ed and I agreed on a house! We went to look at houses for the umpteenth time in the past month and Ed & I agreed that we loved two houses. That's a good thing. The bad thing is that I liked one house more, and, of course, Ed liked the other one more. The struggle goes on.

Izzi hit her first tennis ball! Pop-Pop Bill finally got Izzi out with the little tennis racket he made for her. It took many attempts, a little cajoling, and a lot of instructions, but she knocked one clear over Ed's head and got a piece of a handful of others. She said she's ready to get to the courts tomorrow to give it another whirl. We'll see how long this attention span lasts.

Izzi swam un-assisted in the deep end tonight! After a sweaty tennis lesson, Izzi asked Ed to take her into the deep end of the pool tonight so she could "really try to swim for real this time" (her words, not mine). And she did it! She asked Ed to let go of her, which he did completely. And she did a crazy doggy paddle thing from where they were over to the love seat. It wasn't far, and it could hardly be called "swimming" or even a doggy paddle but we all had a very proud moment...most of all, Isabelle. She starts an intense three-times-a-week swim lesson program in two weeks. We think she is more than ready.

We have lots of firsts ahead of us on this new Florida adventure, and we're only getting started!