Doug and I bought a new couch.
We've never owned a new new couch, so we decided to dip into the giant amount of savings we had from the no-fun year, and treat ourselves to a couch. Our current couch is an almost new Ikea couch that we bought from a co-worker of mine when he relocated to Spain and was not taking his furniture. We lucked out. New guest bed (and one of he most comfy mattresses I've ever slept on) and this couch, which has done fine for us.
New couch arrives June 8th. Can't wait.
We are going to set up a living/reading/TV zone downstairs, mostly so Geoff won't have to come up here to watch TV while we're trying to sleep, and there's something comfy to sit on down in Office Land. Geoff won't have to watch wrestling and Archer with the sound turned all the way down to a low level, to keep from bothering us. It'll be a nice extra TV room.
The only big news is I went to Florida with C, enjoyed a girls' weekend. She has a new house and we were there to receive furniture delivery and ... chill. I regretted not spending an extra 2 days or something all to myself there. I had to work on Friday, I agreed to cover a meeting Friday morning so I got to do it from her kitchen counter.
Work from home is work from anywhere.
Maybe I'll plan another time to go, and I can work the whole day, or a week of days,and then just fall in the pool periodically between calls.
That's the life. That first picture, that's the pool, at night.
Nightswimming. Deserves a quiet night.
We went to the beach, C rented 2 deck chairs and an umbrella. The fact that we didn't have to schlep all of our own chairs and umbrellas and everything to pitch camp, this was just easy. Genius.
We spent hours there, a lot more time than I thought we would. I thought we'd take a long walk but just being there in the sun with the water and the shade, chatting, and loving the breeze, it was so wonderful.
Swimming in the Gulf was delightful.
Now I can say I've gone swimming in the Atlantic, Pacific, and the Gulf. Kind of cool. It was lovely.
And we should have gone back in one more time.
I can't remember the last time I swam in salt water so it was really great. We should have sat there for another 4 hours, waited for the sunset. Oh I'm sure the gulf sunset is something to camp there for.
Next visit....
We watched birds dive bomb into the water, and children swimming without adults, which always makes me a little nervous. I knew where their adult was, but she was very sleepy and relaxed. I'll always be a mom deep inside. They were fine. But I watched and just ... watched.
I ended up having a real nice chat with the mom and her friends. I made them laugh hard saying that this was the beach for me when I realized I wasn't the biggest one there, so I could feel totally comfortable. I can't do skinny girl beaches like Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. They were howling and they knew what I meant. I'm not fat phobic and I know that I am who I am. I just don't like being surrounded by thongs and really skinny chicks with perky boobs. So older women! Big women! I'm there.
These ladies thought I was drop dead funny. One of them said I should do stand up. I'm not that funny. But it was a delightful time. They asked for dinner recommendations like I knew what I was talking about. I told them about a place we tried to go to the night before but they were booked solid so I told them to call NOW to check in on a table. C agreed. I told them I wasn't sure about the kid menu situation and they said that "we'll just give them water, they'll be fine." So then they were the ones who should be doing standup.
I know she'll kill me for this. But I grabbed this shot of her, and I love her. I love this picture. I love that she humored me and stood here being silly for a minute. There is so much serious and so much work, and in the end, I look at this and I'm like for sure she's my angel. since 1986, a staple in my life. I can say anything to her, and she can say anything to me. Beach, pool, wine, grocery store, dry cleaning, laundry, fighting with the Rooma, swiffering, everything we did was just perfect.
She was telling me about another friend of ours who came to visit her in Florida, Dave, and we all realized we all love Triscuits. So we are now "Team Triscuit." If you aren't down with Triscuits, you can't roll with us. Go over there. Go. Bye.
There are fewer people I know as kind and generous. And funny. I'm so glad to have her as a friend and have so much fun with her. Looking forward to seeing her again, hopefully in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed.
Finally, the above picture.
In the guest room at her house there are some sheer curtains but not a solid blackout curtain. I sat up in bed the first morning around 7am, and caught my shadow and the window curtains, on the wall. It freaked me out for a second, but then I was incredibly impressed with how wild this was.
I played with my hair, tried to take a bunch of selfies of the shadow, but this was the only one that came out to my liking. I picked up the glass by the bedside that I had water in, and held it up to make all kinds of crazy fractured light shine through.
This is one of my favorite things. I love it.
Anyway, a couple other posts to come. I want to go back to Florida just to work from the kitchen counter again. And to spend time with C.
More to come.
