me on blast.

It is HOT here in Florida. And it is almost JULY. And I can't believe that. Usually the summer seems to drag on, but this year, it seems to be scurrying by... which doesn't anger me, but does concern me. I have found myself concerned with all sorts of intangible things lately.... which I guess can be termed "anxiety". Almost every day when I wake up, I feel a little sense of dread. What is that all about? My friends say I am too hard on myself, and that I need to stop to smell the roses rather than beat myself up about things that are outside of my control. Wait- does that mean I am controlling? I think that has to be one of the most despised adjectives used to describe a woman... next to "psycho". I'd like to think I am neither one. At this point, please keep it to yourself if you think I am one of the two, or God forbid: both. A controlling psycho. See what I did here? I somehow went from "it's hot outside" to "people think I am a controlling psycho". This is what I'm working with, people! I have to say, this is why I blog: I am now laughing, and I hope some of you got a giggle out of that as well. Putting your thoughts down... even in a stream of consciousness... can be very therapeutic! Sometimes I will come here and think, "Wow, I have nothing whatsoever to report," and next thing I know three pictures are up and the last four days of my life have been made public, in detail.

Anyway, tomorrow is my big "sign on the dotted line" day, and I am excited. I will get to meet some of my future co-workers, and take a few more steps to beginning my career. It's great to have a career in the works. Aaaaand, now I'm getting positive... blog therapy: success. I guess I'm an exhibitionist with my feelings... wouldn't be complete with my beloved voyeurs. (I read people's blogs, too... it's one of my favorite little hobbies.)

Here is what I look like today. What do you look like today?

good things come to those who wait.

Every morning for just about a month, I have grabbed my phone immediately upon waking in order to check my email in anticipation of receiving recognition from the Florida Department of Health and Pearson Vue (a testing company) that I have completed my nursing coursework and am APPROVED for testing. Well, this morning, I woke up and grabbed my phone and for a second thought I must be dreaming (I dreamed once that I performed this ritual and received the letter, but upon waking realized it was just that- a dream). I FINALLY received my letter today! Holy mackerel, I am so relieved! I am one of a few people that I know who were in the "late bunch" to receive their letters and I was convinced I must have done something wrong. For a second, I even feared that I had never officially graduated, and that since I hadn't gone to commencement, I was none the wiser. (The receipt of my diploma proved that theory false.) So today I had to choose my test date. I chose July 21st for several boring reasons (one that it gave me almost exactly 1 month more to study, two that it was NOT the 13th [which was also open], and three because it was the only date in July with a 1pm test time open [I am a morning person but I fear I won't get much sleep the night before my exam]). SO I have ONE MONTH to get a whole lot of nursing stuff into my head. I also found out that my start date for my new job is July 11th. I go to the hospital/HR this Friday to get my stuff... sign my papers, get my parking pass, peepee in a cup, etc. etc. If I get my badge, I'll be rather excited. I need to get some sun in case I do... that picture is going to be seen by many! ;-)

I know you can't really see, but ^ that's the email!

So just a little update about Friday night... we had a BLAST! Two girls who get seats at the bar can be a good time! My friend and I just chatted with each other and whoever approached us (there were some serious doozies). One guy was a super duper close-talker and was talking so loud he was making my eardrum vibrate. Uggh. Really annoying. I made sure to tell him he was in my bubble! My friend did call one of her friends, though- a guy who plays basketball for UCF. He was really nice and reeeaaally tall. People would come up to him and say, "Heyyy, PJ!" because they recognized him from the court. I asked him what it was like to have fans and he said it could be really strange, and that he could see why some people tend to get an overinflated ego. He was very modest, though, and handled the "fans" with ease.

I am 5'10", so you can imagine how tall he is! (I know I look a little close, but there was no flirting going on.... he's 21!)

Anyhow, today was a pretty great day. I made chili from scratch (it's pretty dang good if I do say so) and cleaned a bit and am thinking about how I am going to pack all of this stuff up for our move. Other than that, I am ready to buckle down with my studies and walk into the test nice and confident a month from now. I don't think I have had so many big things coming my way all at once before, so the next 30 days should be really interesting! Stay tuned! :)

the right side of the bed.

To kick off Father's Day weekend: one of my favorite pictures of Dan, Dad, and I

I woke up this morning knowing it was going to be a good day. I haven't felt like that a lot lately. I am aware that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, really-- "smile and the world smiles back" kinda thing-- but today I really felt it. I had absolutely nothing planned aside from studying (I've been a lot better about that this week!), so I really didn't know what could make this day great, besides what I myself decided to do.

Since there was only one thing on my agenda, right when I opened my sleepy, puffy peepers, I started going over Kaplan questions. Sometimes I find myself going over them as a chore, and other times I notice myself kind of enjoying it and learning from it. Maybe that has to do with the level of difficulty I am dealing with subject matter-wise, but that is neither here nor there--today I was enjoying it.

After a bit of studying, I cleaned a little. I looked out from the kitchen and there was a big, blank canvas staring at me. I felt like it was saying, "C'mon... gimme some love!" (Inanimate objects speak to me this way since I am single and all.) I realized that one of the blanks I had was 30" x 40"- a perfect size to hang above my bed. I am really excited for the white walls in my new apartment, so I wanted something bright. I decided to paint some poppies and I think it will look cute above my bed. It took me about 8 hours! I was exhausted and shaky once I finished.

One of my girlfriends called and wants to meet out for a drink, and I think that after my week of being a good Kaplan student, I am gonna go for it. I have a good feeling about tonight, just as I did about today! I'll letcha know how it goes... ;)

movin' on up to the eastside!

Today Dan and I got to go look at our brand spankin' new (to us) apartment! I am so excited to move. The place we live now has been great. I've been here for three years and haven't had many complaints, but for what I pay here, I can get more bang for my buck!

I am excited about the following features at New Place:

• A screened in porch
• My own garden bathtub (right now only Dan has one, and we don't share bathrooms)
• Valet trash service (rather than shlep it to the dumpster ya damn self)
• A Gate (I'm no snob, but we have gotten some doozies on our doorstep here)
• Living RIGHT next to the pool
• No visitor parking (my friends can park anywhere they damn well please and there is no risk of being towed from my OWN apartment like I was here once [p.s. that was the worst day ever... if you're ever interested, ask me in person])
• Living walking distance to a Starbucks AND a Target! (eeek!)
• So many other things...

Sparkling waters...

The gym

There's also a better community gym and pool at the new place, which are a big bonus. There seem to be a lot of "amenities", but I've found that once you live somewhere, you don't really use half of them.

When we were in the office with the leasing agent (who is an angel and dealt with my millions of questions and one-liner emails), the maintenance man, a guy named Miguel (maybe I'll call him 3M) came in and asked her which unit we were moving into. When she told him, he got this big smile and informed us that one of his buddies was painting and re-carpeting the place that very moment! He even took us to the window to show us that the golf cart was right outside. Such nice people at a nice property... I don't think I'll be disappointed! I'm too excited. :) New places are like new cars... which I hope to be purchasing in the next 3 months or so, too! Shoot... my 2 favorite NEW things... I am a lucky gal!

surprises!

Another fun week on the books. Thursday I met up with two good friends, Andrea and Sofia in Thornton Park for lunch. I am in love with Thornton Park, as are most people in Orlando. It is this nice, quaint, accessible downtown area with brick streets and big trees and old houses and cute boutiques and restaurants. Everything has character. I keep trying to think of a great idea so I can make a bunch of money and own one of those old brick-street houses. Nothin' of note yet.

We started out at Dexter's, which is a restaurant/bar. We had a couple drinks and split an appetizer. We had brie with apples, grapes, and strawberries on toasted french bread. Delicious. After we were finished, we had to decide our next move. It was about 4:30, and both Andrea and Sofia had plans for later on... but it was too early to just go home! Soon enough, their plans were out the window and we were headed for happy hour. We went to several bars, having a cheap drink and moving on. On Wall Street, we were got so lucky! First with the free chips and salsa (thanks to Cantina-- by the way, apparently they have free chips and salsa everyday, so keep that in mind!), then with FREE tickets to the Orlando City soccer game the following evening, which Marco (Sofia's husband) and I had planned on going to anyway! Not only that, I got a free scarf! Marco wanted it really bad, so I begged the promoters to PLEASE "save me a beating" and give us another one. After some reluctance, the guy promoter relented and gave me another one. SCORE! :)

Marco and I with our free SWAG!

The night ended at Ember, with the MAVS beating the Heat in game 5. Awesome! (We true Magic fans don't switch to Heat fans just because they are from Florida!)

Friday I was exhausted from all of our fun on Thursday, but I had made plans to meet two friends at my pool, so I had to follow through! Plus they are two of my favorite friends, so I was happy to oblige my commitment. We had fun chatting and listening to music while the sun kissed us a little. Later that afternoon it was time for the big game! Orlando City lost 2-1 against Antigua, but it was fun anyway. I think I am becoming a bona-fide Orlando sports fan! I guess after 7 years it makes sense.

Saturday morning I got up and got ready to head to my niece's recital in Jacksonville! She is only 3, as I mentioned in my last post, but I couldn't wait to see her on stage. Her dance studio has girls from 3-18, so the recital was full of girls dancing at all stages. She was dressed as a baby lion and it was SO freakin' cute. Anyone with two eyes and a soul would have given her a falsetto "awwww"! I was really into the first act, and we anxiously awaited Evan's performance, which was slotted to occur right after intermission. Intermission came and Evan went backstage to get ready with all the other baby lions. We got a soda and stood around, waiting... only to find out (flick, flick) the lights went out... in the ENTIRE building and in all of the surrounding buildings! There were about 400 guests and I would guess about 100 dancers, at least, so of course chaos ensued. No offense to any of the "dance moms" out there, and I think they'd agree, but the majority of them are a high-strung bunch. I kind of wanted to hide as all of this was going down. After about 20 minutes of chaos, a representative from the theater informed us that the performances scheduled for after the intermission would be incorporated into the 7:00 showing (that's right, there were 2 showings of the recital!), which meant we would have to leave and come back. Long story short(er), we came back and saw Evan do a really cute half-summersault-headstand-thing. She wasn't nervous or anything! She was so proud to be on stage and smiled the whole time. The only sad part was that I could see her looking for us where we had been in the audience the first time around, but since we had to come back we had new seats and she didn't know where to look for us! :( We were waving like crazy, and I know she felt the love anyway.

Baby lion! Wish I had pics from the performance, but it wasn't allowed (I blame the high-strung dance moms.)

Sunday we had a slow morning, just enjoying one another's company. We ran a couple of errands, and soon enough the day had slipped away. I packed up my stuff and was ready to head out of town, when I texted a friend of mine to see what she was up to. It was one of our friends' birthdays, and I decided I really wanted to surprise her. I am IN LOVE with [good] surprises. I got surprised on my birthday last year TWICE and it was the best birthday ever. So, I had to pay it forward. My friend said surprising Dana would be the best idea ever, so I was sold. (Sidenote--I was supposed to already be out of town, so it wasn't really like I was ditching Dana by not being there in the first place.) I was so nervous, just because I knew she would be happy and all of my other friends would be surprised too, yet I didn't want to take the focus away from Dane. I told one friend I was coming so that I wouldn't end up at the wrong place, but otherwise no one knew. I walked in and everyone was so excited! I love my friends, they are the best. Katie looked like she was about to burst into tears-- the reaction was priceless. Dana was really happy and I was so happy to be able to give her a big hug on her birthday. I think giving surprises might be better than getting them-- if not, they are really really close in awesomeness.

Erin with her party hair and me with my birthday sticker!

Some of the best people in my life.

We went out and had an AWESOME time. As one friend said, it was kind of like "high school good times". Yes, that fun. There is really something to be said for close groups of girl friends. I have always said don't trust a girl without girl friends. Same goes for guys, really. Through thick and thin, we have all been friends for several years and anything rarely gets between us. There have been tiny bumps along the road, but nothing really huge. At the end of the day, we all love each other very much and there isn't anything I could think of happening to change that, given the personalities and the character of the girls. There is no jealousy, no malice- what ya see is what ya get! There is nothing worse than a friend who secretly has somethin' to say about ya when you aren't around... that is one surprise I do NOT like and I do NOT give!

OH YEAH! Look at this other surprise I got in the mail yesterday!

Poor quality cell phone pic, but you get the idea!

Friends-A-Flying

OHmuhgosh. The past week has been a whirlwind... a whirlwind, I tell you! Wow. It has been action packed. I have been from suitcase to suitcase to bag to suitcase and back... and I have good news: I am finally home for a few days and all of the laundry from aforementioned suitcases is washed and hanging delicately in my closet, fearfully awaiting its next packing. I will be going to Jacksonville briefly this weekend to see my little baby niece, Evan, dance and tumble on stage in what I'm sure will be a ridiculously cute recital. She is three and funny as could be... and is a human Shazaam App! She can name so many songs and artists... it's unbelievable! In a restaurant or in the car, she will spontaneously drop knowledge on you: "This is Taio Cruz", or "This is Benny and the Jets"! It's amazing! I can't wait to see her... and heaven knows- if that girl knows the lyrics to the recital song, she WILL be singing as well as tumbling and dancing! She's awesome.

Angel Evan

So on Saturday night/wee-hours-of-Sunday morning, I got home at about 1:30am from babysitting. I tried to go straight to sleep, but of course (since I had to be up at 9am by the latest), I couldn't fall asleep, so I went to bed around 2:30am. As sure as the dawn, my good and always ready-to-go friend, Kaleen, called me chipper as a chipmunk at 8:45am. She and three of my other friends from Jacksonville were on their way down to Orlando for a hairstylist expo called Orlando Premier Beauty Show (I think). It was held at the Orange County Convention Center, and it was HUGE! I didn't get to go in (and neither did Kaleen) because I don't have a cosmetology license, but the venue was gigantic and there were hairstylists everywhere.

While the girls were at the hair show, Kaleen and I hung out around Orlando, spotting all kinds of hair "styles" that I'm sure many overzealous gals consider art. In my opinion: there is a rather thick line between hair art and hair flop which many stylists with too much time and dye on their hands confuse for a thin line... and proceed to overstep. I saw everything from pink and purple chunks (and I mean chunks- we ain't talkin' peek-a-boos) to rhinestones in the hair to downright questionable haircuts. Many "hair show alerts!" sounded that day. I mean, honestly-- don't these styles exist to get attention? Good news for anyone seeking attention with this stuff-- you got it! Congrats! As long as you like your style- that's all that matters! I know that.

Sunday night, the girls and I went downtown to enjoy a tail or (eeehhhh) two. We bounced around to a few bars and had a blast making fun of each other and hugging and laughing and doing all the stuff good friends do. I love them so, so much. They all possess characteristics I wish I had- I think we all compliment each other well.

Yayyyy! Friends!

Kaleen, Theresa, and I

Monday morning came too soon for all of us, but the girls had a class to attend and wanted to pick up some good deals on the last day of the hair show, so they had to hurry off to the convention center. Katie assured Kaleen and I that they would be quick and that we should pick them up at noon, which gave Kaleen and I about an hour and a half to run some errands (I had to go to the bank and she wanted pickles from Publix. I intervened on the pickle run because it is just too weird and she doesn't eat the pickles, she just drinks the juice [barf], so we didn't do that... call me a bad friend, whatever.) Noon rolled around and I called Kate and she said they would need another half hour. Kaleen and I were driving around aimlessly at this point, so we went to International Drive to see what tourist traps would snag us. LOW AND BEHOLD: Helicopter Tours, $20. Sold. SOLD SOLD SOLD! We went in thinking it would be a long shot, or that we weren't dressed right, or that the $20 gig was a tease. It wasn't. It was all true and the girl behind the desk informed us that the whole process would take about 30 minutes. WHAT?! PERFECT! All we had to do were sign our names on the dotted lines and get weighed! Done deal.

Our helicopter, which we named Choppy

Spontaneous Kaleen, anxiously awaiting our adventure!

Next thing we knew, we were flying over Orlando! (Laughing as I type.) We were so obsessed with ourselves for being so spontaneous. It was so fun and I think the helicopter pilot wanted to nose dive into I-4 because all Kaleen and I could do the entire 3.5 minutes (that's the $20 deal) was say, "OHHH MYYYY GODDD!!!!". I think we both saw most of the tour from behind the screens of our cameras, because truly all a 3.5 helicopter ride is, is a "GUESS what I did" kind of thing, and of course you need photographs to prove it. Well, we have the pics to prove it, my friends- and it was awesome. I told Kaleen that I will know I met my dream guy if I am still living in Orlando and he says on our first date, "Okay, we are going on a helicopter tour of Orlando!" (Only that time, it has to be one of the better tours... Sister has done the 3.5 minute one and is ready for the $325 extended edition!)

Ready for liftoff!

What fun. It was a great weekend. Time to get back to studying for my boards. Waahh-wahhhh.

Deep Breaths

Hello, friends. I have been a bad blog mommy this week (again) and I am sorry. I feel like I have been all over the place for the past week and a half, and I kind of have been. I am starting to feel an incessant angst regarding my current "limbo" stage, and I have been away from home a lot lately and not able to get a ton of studying done (at least, not nearly as much as I wanted to)--or blogging for that matter, and I found out this week that there was a delay in the processing of my application for my nursing license. Uggh! Dealing with these types of things can be ULTRA difficult and disappointing and I really feel like I have no control whatsoever. Deep breaths, deep breaths...

On top of that, a good sweet friend of mine hooked me up with a possible pediatric nursing job- I got the interview and everything and about 5 minutes later, the recruiter called back and basically said there was a mistake and that she was really sorry, but they wouldn't be needing me. :( It's a cruel world! Not really, but that wasn't the highlight of my week. (I do have a job- just not in peds.)

I think my anxiety was compounded by missing my dad and family. :(

The last meal we had with dad. AMAZING Indian.

I did do some fun things this week, though! Some friends and I went to an Orlando City pro soccer game. It was really fun and the weather was unseasonably cool and pleasant! I met a lot of new, fun people and had a good time.

Dan with the flag at the Orlando City game

This weekend, I have been babysitting my favorite kiddos. "Playing mommy" again! :) So far, the weekend has been full of movies, Justin Bieber, and swimming. Yesterday as I was waiting in the carpool line, I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I was very honest with the principal and other administrators running the carpool line about my lack of knowledge. Turned out the kids were at extended day anyway. We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D today and it was really cute. Thank heavens for whoever writes movie material that adults can appreciate. The premise of Kung Fu Panda is really deep. There are some good lessons in there!

Annabelle and I playing with Photo Booth

Belle spilled milk and wrote me an apology letter. :)

On the way home from Kung Fu Panda, we were sitting in traffic at light and I looked over and there was a girl bawling her eyes out in her car. I felt so sad for her. I think most girls have done the ole bawl-n-drive and it sucks. Not to mention, it's very unsafe. Anyway, a guy in a red truck pulls up next to her and she rolls down her window goes completely ape. She was screaming at him like there was no tomorrow. Looked like a "you cheated on me!" screamfest to me. Arms were flailing, sunglasses went flying into the passenger seat... a real spectacle. I'm glad none of the kids saw it, actually. It was kind of scary. I sure hope that girl is able to take some deep, cleansing breaths! My week wasn't that bad.