travel day! there should be a law that says:if you drive past the beach you must stop!

sooo...we woke up early the next morning to head up to orlando, but before we did,we sat on the balcony one last time, had some coffee, and relaxed (it was nice not to be too rushed). sabrina thought it would be a good idea to call and mess with lori (the adult version of 80's "is your refrigerator running? go out and catch it, hahahah)...i mean..i didn't stop her- but i'm pretty sure lori had to go take some blood pressure meds and breathe into a plastic bag in the corner...until finally sabrina stopped short and told her she was just joshin' (otherwise we might have had to remote call 9-1-1). #sorrylori

we checked out and figured out that the durango had its own nav system, so we figured that out, and as we were driving, i decided to play with some buttons on the dash, and sabrina gave me her best 'mom' look and said, "don't go pushing buttons-you don't know what they're going to do!"  (no worries, there wasn't an auto-eject button, nor was there a self-destruct-in-10-seconds button)...but we finally did figure out how to make it quit stalling-we think.

once we got to the ft lauderdale area, i was losing the battle of the bladder, so we pulled over by a sketchy gas station with an outdoor bathroom-with a door that opened to the outside-which didn't lock. but i wasn't worried-i knew that if it came to it, sabrina had my back-i have no doubt she would've pulled out her best football tackle and wrestled them to the ground. (i hope, right?)

at this point the coffee and power bar breakfast was wearing off, so we found ourselves a little natural burger restaurant.
lady at counter: oh, those large fries, they'll feed three.
us: oh...perfect, we're from texas.
i don't know three of what she thought they were going to feed...it was the perfect amount!

then we found a parking spot on the next block, where we could see the ocean just down the way, so we parked it.
change in the street--CHECK
pay the meter--CHECK
think we can walk to the water barefoot--CHECK
feel like my feet are blistering and the skin on my soles will completely peel off--CHECK
keep going to find "shade" in the dune grass--CHECK
being laughed at by the locals--CHECK

it doesn't get cheerier and more relaxing than that!

sabrina was wise enough to turn around and put her flip flops back on in the shade. but foolish me...whoever came up with the stupid motto no pain no gain was probably high on morphine, too. just sayin'.

finally we got to the cool, wet sand-and praised Jesus for it! we walked north until we found a spot that was slightly less populated. not that you need to know we were going north, but just in case anyone out there was wanting to really envision it, we turned left. there ya go.

the water was beautiful and refreshing! we spent a good amount of time just wading and enjoying. got some sun...one never notices it in the moment, but i definitely had lines.  at one point while we were out there, some idiot man brought out a bag and began feeding the gulls...mine.mine.mine.mine...for a minute i thought he'd break out in song with "feed the birds, tuppence a bag." umm that wouldn't be weird or anything...eventually we had to go in and move our belongings a little further up, so the rising tide didn't get them, and while we were sitting there, observing our surroundings and taking it all in, we were trying to avoid looking over at the couple in the water pretending to be....dolphins? dolphins expressing way too much pda? maybe. and then there was the girl on her paddle board with the watermelon slices on the boobs and buttocks (not real watermelon, that'd be on the strange-food-fetish side....nope, she just looked like she'd purchased a toddler bathing suit)...AND add to that she nearly ran into us on her board, when she turned around to make her way back and oops, there she was!

while there, i got a text from my dear friend, brandy, asking if i was in orlando-she'd gotten my letter. well, no, but we were on our way! so she suggested dinner and i said yes. sabrina was a trooper-she offered not to go so we could catch up, but i begged her to go because i really love it when people i adore meet other people i adore, because shouldn't everyone in the world be friends?! #justdoingmypart so after our long haul to orlando, we found our rooms, and sabrina got a business call before taking a record-breaking shower (must be a mom thing, but seriously impressive!) then we may have missed the turn..not once, but twice! my fault....probably both times...oops.

a little dark...and the lighting wasn't that good either ;)

appetizers were good, company was good-we got to help sabrina work through some things about her daughter wanting to go on a mission trip, laughed at some guys who were 'pea-cocking' like college boys..wait a minute..they WERE college boys, no wonder! after a wonderful, albeit too short of time with brandy, we called it a night. went back to the hotel and it was our last night, so we hung out on the balcony one last time...unplugging the overhead light, because it was so bright. good times, i tell ya.

it's getting long-more tomorrow-
julie

miami, whoever drew up your road plans must've been on a tequila binger...just sayin.

so we were in a hurry to get out of the airport and on the road...once we got started, we pulled off because we had to find a shady spot to put in the coordinates and figure out exactly where we were going! it's not too far of a drive, but once we got close, it was a lot of crazy turns..."drunk cubans made these roads!"

we pulled up in front of the hotel, and it was nestled into a little area near a mall. but all streets were like a little maze, with hidden little shopping areas that you'd miss if you didn't know. after signing in and dumping our stuff, we went out in search of dinner-we were looking for a specific place, and the lady giving us directions from the phone wasn't very helpful (google maps), she was about half a second after the turns...so finally we did a loop around the mall and settled on the cheesecake factory, because it was the only thing we really saw. and the guy who served us was just a little bundle of joy- a cutie. interesting little fact you might not not be aware of..they had little cameras at each table to snap chat guests...

okay, not really...they were to make sure diners weren't stealing silverware...okay, no, no, no they were installed by jason borne to keep track of the shifty nsa agents who gather there...(stop me, i could do this all night..and drive you crazy like someone saying the same joke over and over when it's funny the first time, but not the 81st...) no worries, sabrina clarified and explained what they were really there for, and i am not going to lose any phalanges over it.

we stopped by the publix (affectionately not dubbed publix by sabrina, which led to a stupid story of my own which will just remain in the durango), and that was where we purchased some power bars-which would be our sustenance the following day for training, because let's just face it, it's easier than going out and rushing a lunch meal. it was a beautiful evening, so i joined her on her balcony (the pool and hot tub were just so far away!) we hung out for a long time with scintillating conversation. pretty sure at some moment there were some texts and a call with julie k (their friendship is precious!). we solved some of the world's problems that evening, i only wish we'd written down the answers! #sabrinaforpresident

the following morning, we made our way to the nova site, detouring only for starbucks...parking in a compact lane (durangos are compact, right? i guess more compact than a semi...maybe a girl had to walk through the bushes and maybe another lady missed the entrance because we weren't as compact as a push-over smart car, but i got one word for them: dealwitit) and at that point, we were second guessing the start time...shoot..8:00...8:30? we got there 5 til 8, hoping we weren't going to walk into a room full of attendees...and sigh of relief, there was no one. so we set up and found the tech peeps to say "let there be sound!" but they had some difficulty...finally after some fidgeting and changing computers and the sound-on the finicky dell, we had sound.

we were trying something new with the sign in, doing it digitally. soon thereafter, the lady arrived with some magical panera goodies-yum. (and coffee!) and our participants began trickling in for the morning session. great group! one of the ladies from the morning session was previously living with her family in dallas and had worked for the disd, so we had a fun connection and talked about that for a minute. when lunch time rolled around, we did indeed stay for the changing of the guard, and met the new crew as they came and settled in. the afternoon was quite the talkative group (as most bilingual tainings are--it's in the blood, processing through vocalization!) sabrina handled it very well, and truly, it's not an easy thing for many teachers to deal with when you are used to having a fairly quiet attentive class...the difference is that truly they are attentive, they just reiterate and converse about it to solidify the information and clarify.

then BOOM, no more than 7-ish minutes into the presentation, the shift. this training was not going to take the same path as the earlier session, so it may have thrown the handful that stayed for round two for a loop! the questions began. from the same lady-every time. not a bad thing, she just wanted answers, so sabrina was reactive and went with it to avoid total shutdown. so yes, our motto for the afternoon: there is more than one way to reach the goal-line, and by golly we were going to take the scenic route this afternoon! i know it felt less organized to sabrina, but they received the information they needed, it was just packaged differently! one of the troopers who had been there for the morning session was less than impressed with all the questions the lady in the back had-she had the eye-roll and faces to prove it! she was funny! and i knew exactly who she was talking to when sabrina said, "you're killin me smalls!"

i was the door monitor for a minute or two, as it was automatically locking behind them when they went to the restroom...finally i broke a fork and jimmied the opening so that i didn't have to be pendiente (alter ego-mcgyver for those of you who need to catch up). some of the participants had to leave early due to a hail storm that was brewing, and they lived a ways up north and had to pick up their children and something about traffic (because of the crazy, drunk, cuban highways)...so anyhoo, just a couple left, and we kept on swimming! upon finishing, we made our way back to the hotel-did i mention that our durango had issues? well, it kept stalling when we were at the stop light..to save energy? whatever, yo! it's too hot to be pulling that crap! we tried threatening it, we pushed a button, that didn't work, so we just dealt with it. quick dinner at chilis, people-watching, because that's what we do! why is everyone else so strange? the family with the boys who looked like chunky, not-your-brightest-crayon twins...maybe not, they just both seemed equally unbrilliant...and the two older men-one a dad, not sure about the other, and then a lady...mom? sister? kim cardashian of the latina world? again..not sure.

and THIS is why we were on HER balcony...mine was about wide enough for me, and looked out at another building-boo

it had gotten too late and dark too early, so we ended up not trying to hit-up the beach, instead we ended another evening on the balcony watching the sunset and the lightening gracing us from afar. i was off to bed at a fairly decent hour so that we could be up and on our way in the morning to spend a little time at the beach on the drive up to orlando for the next training.

 funny how God works to bring friends together...at some point on this trip sabrina told me that at first she wasn't sure about me (as far as friendships go-she liked me for the team, but wasn't really convinced until we hung out in colorado-which truth be told we didn't get much time there). that said, we're a lot alike as far as the whole "outgoing introvert" aspect, and she (and julie as well) is one of those i could sit with for hours and talk (or not) and be refreshed/energized. i love people who don't drain me! my inner circle has expanded a bit...and i'm okay with so grateful for this!

and then there was orlando...then being not tonight...
julie