My First Month in FL

Well, it's been almost a full month since I've been down here, and I wanted to use this time to reflect upon the last month. And let me warn you before you continue to read...this is pretty much all about driving.

So far, I really like it down here. The weather has been perfect (40s-50s at night and 60s-70s during the day), the city is bea-u-tiful, and living with a boy so far hasn't been too horrible. We've finally got the apartment almost fully finished, aka we spent too much money at IKEA and got all the furniture put together, and I think we've got the living/dining room set up the way we would like.

We still need:

• liquor cabinet/bar
• bed or futon for spare room
• door for my hallway project

BUT we've spent so much money over the last month, I think we're going to try to wait to get those.

This weekend was Valentine's Day, and Travis and I celebrated our second holiday together. And since we've spent too much money, we decided to stay in and bring The Melting Pot to our living room instead of going out. I recently found out about this meat market by work that has fantastic deals. For example, we got 24 coconut shrimp, 2 NY strips, 2 filet kabobs, and 4 hamburgers for $37! And so far it's all REALLY good meat! We used the coconut shrimp and the kabobs for our fondue. We also made cheese fondue (if you ever make your own, do not use mustard powder...it's very overwhelming) and we also made a peanut butter chocolate dessert, which was fantastic! Travis even had flowers delivered to the apartment and they're so pretty! He got me lilies and tulips (since I think roses are overrated) and the lilies are making the apartment smell so good.

I have also started making friends! Mom told me I forgot to mention all my creepy friends in my last post, so I'll start with them. My very first day, I was at Subway and I was putting my hair in a ponytail when this guy comes up behind me, puts his arms around my waste and whispers "hey baby" in my ear. I whip around, because God knows, I know nobody here yet and if I happened to run into someone, that would be such a coincidence. The guy turned about the color of my hair and started apologizing profusely. Apparently he mistook me for someone else. Lesson #1, never go up behind someone you don't know and touch them in any way unless you know FOR SURE it's the person you think it is. My second friend I made was while at the store. I walked up behind this man, and he turned around and looked at me and asked me how tall I was. After responding, he told me I was an Amazon and started telling me about my "tribe" of tall women. On a serious note though, I have started making friends at work and we've made friends with a few of Travis' co-workers. I did have my first night of home sickness though last weekend. I wanted to have friends over for a game night, only to realize we didn't have many friends yet, and that I really missed my friends. So those of you at home, I've been thinking about you!

So now on to what I promised from the beginning...the drivers...

I knew drivers in Florida were bad, but I didn't know they were this bad. Having a 45-minute drive to work, I have the pleasure of driving with these awesome drivers every day. We went to a comedy club a few weeks back, and the comedian made a joke that the snow birds don't know how to drive, however, I think they know exactly how to drive, it's the FL drivers that don't. The first example: they don't know how to merge. I run into traffic every day multiple times per day because drivers refuse to allow drivers to merge. When drivers are merging, drivers on the highway are supposed to move over and allow new drivers the space onto the highway, however, everyone is just trying to get to their next place as quickly as possible, which then results in brakes being slammed on, which then results in backups. Then my next favorite thing is when you let drivers in, or they completely cut you off, they don't waive. I've always thought it was polite to thank the person who allowed you over or allowed you to "cut the line" so to speak. Most of the time though, all that happens is I get honked at for allowing someone in front of me. SOOORRRRRYYYY for being polite and merging properly! Assholes. Drivers also like to honk at you when there are red lights. Because again, God forbid you follow the laws. I've been honked at multiple times for not turning right on red lights when it is a "no turn on red" area. I'm sorry that 9 out of 10 lights down here have cameras, and I'm not going to turn just to make the jerk behind me happy and then get a ticket. No thanks.