observations from a florida girl

I'm a nerd & I know it.  I proved it to myself today again.....I've been downtown last week & the last two days for classroom training.  I met a friend for lunch today at a Vietnamese fusion restaurant (really good, by the way).  We got out a little early for lunch and I had time to sit in the square across the street for a little while until I walked down to meet her.  I, of course, took in every second of the walk from where we are to the restaurant...the weather, that I'm wearing dressy flip flops, the sunshine, then noticed the homeless people and was reminded that a very cold winter is here in many states in our country & this is the season that we see homeless numbers rise in west central Florida.  Ever want to help somebody and realize how close so many of us are, realistically, to living like that?  Makes you want to help them more.

Enjoyed lunch with a friend...had meatball pho at Fusion Bowl...try it if you get a chance!  People watched a little on the way back and made my way up the elevator and back into my seat in the classroom with the window that looks out at Tampa Bay.  Making me smile.  Tomorrow I'll be in the Itty Bitty, but today I was downtown and felt like That Girl.  :)

On the Crosstown a little after 5:00 p.m. and drove to B-Town...to my mama's to work on grown up'ing some more, then to the house.  Pizza for dinner, garbage is out, I'm tired.  Have a good night, y'all  :)

football weekend

Long weekend for Thanksgiving and driving to work this morning makes a tired Mandy...thank you, McDonald's, for large coffee with 8 cream & 5 sugar.  In the classroom downtown today...training is so good!  And people watching is the bombdiggaty downtown.

A really good weekend, full of laughter & love & smiles...Thanksgiving was a little different, but good...the kids spent most of Thanksgiving weekend with their dad's family...

I met new friends, watched Alabama win, watched the Bucs lose but play well...they keep getting better.....spent the weekend with one of my favorite people and I'm smiling...and watched the Denver game.  Denver won.  :)

Life is beautiful

trying my hardest

Didn't pack lunch today so my oldest daughter brought lunch & I got to have lunch with her.  Southwest chicken salad for me, burger & fries for her.  And McDonald's sweet tea for me...it has crack in it.  It has to.  CocaCola for my oldest daughter.  Laughing, eating outside, a bee tried to get us, and the hour was too quick!

Picked up my high schooler from practice and then to my mom's for a hug for her and my oldest daughter...then to the house to make what I think is a pitiful dinner...I love to cook and coming home tired at 6:30 p.m.  makes meals quick.  Chicken & macaroni and cheese.  

Got on pinterest & realized how much I used to look at facebook & pinterest and think I was failing somehow.  Everybody doing so much and me hanging on by a thread literally.  I thought about it & I saw that I was never failing...I was always doing my best.  And I still am.  And my life isn't anybody else's and anybody else's life isn't mine.  And I'm good just like this...wanting to make me better.  Not a lot that isn't cool about me.  :)  Improvement?  Yes.  I can improve & I want to.  But I'm good!

I'm going to be okay  :)

    

rush hour in b-town

Week two of being a working woman outside the house!  Going good...I like it a lot.  :)  Thank you to all of my family & friends for your constant support on this ride!

Today was sort of not busy for the first time...if you know me, you know I don't sit still much.  And where my station is, customers can see me.  I don't want to look like the county employee that's sitting there not doing anything.  While customers look at me like, "wth?".  They're there for driver license or title or something else and I'm trained on registrations for now...they don't know that.  I feel like I should go to the lobby and say, "I'm trained on registrations".  :)

Off work at 5:00 p.m. then to the high school to pick up little man from wrestling practice.  I forgot he's now staying after practice to shower because he has the fear of ringworm in him, so I waited there for 30 minutes.  Then sat on Hwy. 60 in traffic.  Tired, hungry 14 year old who just got done at wrestling practice in traffic with me.  He was too tired to complain much.  :)

Laundry tonight.  The rockstar life is for me.

sandwiches

Up at 5:30 a.m.  Get ready & coffee.  Get the 14 year old ready.  Take the 14 year old to school.  Thank you to my good friends for getting the 13 year old to school.  Get to work.  More coffee.  I like people, and customer service is my thing...it's fun to talk to people all day.  If you know me, you know that I got the "make friends with everybody" thing from my dad.  I get to help people, giggle, and make friends at work.  I like my job.  :)

After work went to the high school to pick up the 14 year old from practice...he's liking it a lot!  I'm excited for him and can't wait to hear every day what he did at practice that day.  Today he got his first slam & pin!  I heard about it the whole drive home & couldn't hear enough of it.

13 year old asked for Subway...I'm broke, so she bought.  I owe her off my first check.  :)  I love to cook, so I'm going to have to figure out this being tired shit.

Laundry, and I think my 18 year old is coming to the house tonight...I texted him earlier that his little brother got his first slam & pin today and I don't think he has class tomorrow, so he's coming to high five his brother.  :)

Y'all have a good night  :)

tired

I'm a working woman!  Working outside the house.  :)  Day one was orientation and training...day two was training and then I was on the counter!  I already have a couple of funny stories and am really liking the job.  :)  I really like my trainer, she's really good.

One of the most important things was found out yesterday morning - where's the coffee, who's in charge of the coffee, and how do I get coffee.  I did take a cup with me in case they're all strange and don't drink coffee, but as I suspected, they're human and have coffee.  

Wendy Williams was the program of choice in the breakroom at lunch and all I could think was, "Mom would love lunch here."  :)

Had today off for Veterans Day and feel the tired...like the last two days just went, "Yeah, you're working outside the house now."  :)  I feel some independence, too, and it feels good...because I love to read and write, the saying "new chapter" fits for me...not a new book, I like my old chapters, even the ones that hurt, because I learned something, but a new chapter.  I told my trainer yesterday "I could write a book" and she said, "I'd read it."  I like her.  :)

Chicken and yellow rice and peas for dinner...13 year old on dishes, 18 year old and 14 year old on clean up from the dog, laundry trying me but I'm staying ahead of it, and I'll likely go to bed early.  There is Italian ice in the freezer...I might have to have one of those before I lay my tired, dragging, eyes dropping self down.

grateful

I am so grateful for the every day things, little things, that are my life.  Big events happen, happy and hurtful, and they seem to mark us in a big way forever, but the every day things are the things that, for the most part, give us happiness or some hurt, help us grow as people, give us lessons, and, most importantly for me, make us smile.  The every day achievements, disappointments, hugs, friendship, laughter, moments of quiet...I'm so grateful for all of these every day things.

Grown up'd pretty intensely this week...  :)  I'm really liking me, and I'm really liking who I know I want to be and can be.  Good and not good.  All of it.  I won't go on and on with cliches, but you know what I mean.

I start my job Monday!  And we celebrated my youngest's 13th birthday this week!  I now have 4 teenagers!  What???  And I got to meet some new people, had high tea Kennedy style with my daughters, my mama, my sissy, and my sisters by heart, watched Alabama win, celebrated another birthday with a very special family, and smiled.  Today I'll watch the Bucs win big and smile more.  :)

The last couple of months I've had to take steps forward, and some painstakingly backward, with a lot of patience, and I think it's been good for me.  The old pieces of me that I ask you to walk past when you see them are haunting me less and less and I've left them where they fell.  The new pieces of me feel so much better.  I'm grateful.