ah, florida, our time-much too short

this weekend i had one last chance to hang out with one of my friends before summer ended and she had to go back to school. we had quality bonding time over an excessive surplus of teaching materials and other stuff, but mostly teaching supplies. we sorted and arranged, and sorted some more...and threw away, and sorted some more...there was much purging of supplies! so now to see what her school will let her use, and to 'teacher-supply-graveyard' with the rest! it's probably best that she doesn't have storage at her place! (detrimental to one's mental stability). amidst all that, there was a necessity to make sure torchy's was still located in the same place, and about 5 hours later, a need to ensure that the twisted root on smu blvd was up to snuff with their shakes...i'm happy to announce that they are!

all this inspired me to spend some time on sunday clearing out some things at my place! i still have a way to go, though. ugh.

i got the boys' automatic feeders set up, and put up their pens so that they were separate and bruno wouldn't be eating chaco's food! pretty sure they knew exactly what was up.

feedandgo!

then i made my way out the door a little early so that i could grab kolaches and a donut for breakfast, as i didn't want to smell like bacon all the way to florida! halfway to the shop, i couldn't locate my phone-not in my purse, not in my computer bag. i obviously needed it, even more than kolaches...so i made a sharp u-turn,"ONLY NOT SHARP ENOUGH!" the curb laughed at me! i may have spouted out some colorful diatribe, letting the curb know exactly how i was feeling! concrete sarcasm..the worst! as my passenger tire crashed against the curb, i envisioned the tire exploding or slowly leaking on the way to the airport...and the axle buckling...thankfully this was not the case. the silver lining was that my bag slid off the car seat, exposing my phone! (phone was so embarrassed!). at the expense of nearly handicapping my car, i was at least able to redeem the moment by indeed getting my breakfast. and i still arrived to the airport early, although that did not translate to the flight arrival into JAX...flying through MDW was a little lame-such limited sitting space! grr...

neddy and pam had the opportunity to get well-acquainted with the JAX airport while waiting for me, because there was lightning, which basically involved some flying around in circles and waiting and ramp agents not being able to access the ramp (fortunately i didn't have to worry and wait because i didn't check anything)...at least driving around JAX isn't like Labyrinth with David Bowie-AKA: DFW under construction. ew. and when they pulled up, neddy was serious on the phone, she had no intention of driving, so me, it was...in the rain, making intelligent conversation (idk, maybe not intelligent, but at the very least, i was able to articulate what i was thinking). 

once i had settled quickly into my hotel room (handicap accessible, wide doors, bars on the wall in the bathroom, lots of space..), i was going out to look for the vending machine...i'm guessing there is a candid camera or something, because there were no vending machines. boo.

such a misrepresentation!

please note there are two 'peep-holes' sooo...in case of hobbits

we decided to go eat at the landing, upon the suggestion of a co-worker. we found parking just as it began to rain, with a little lightning off in the distance, and i'm fairly certain that pam would have beaten FLO-Jo to the covered entrance of the landing, #shehoofedit ...while neddy and i were a little less terrified-probably could've brought in the cast of singin' in the rain. we weren't sure what to expect when we entered, but we didn't expect it to be so dead. we found the food court-only fast food, and it wasn't what we were looking for, we prefer slow food. we saw american grill, and ventured outside to get to the entrance, but it was closed-which was strange, as we'd seen a group of people around a table downstairs eating. oh well..the only other thing we really saw that was open was hooters, and that really wasn't an option.

always thinkin' bout tom hanks!! 

so we took off in the opposite direction and found moxie's, which pam had looked up. it was a farm-to-table joint, and the food was magnificent!

the girls suggested chicken livers as an appetizer-that was a first! yummers.  and then on the way back to the hotel we stopped at cvs for tums (a necessity for my travel bag, as of late). when we returned to the hotel, i went up to look over the presentation with neddy and got a basic idea of what the day would look like. we were both excited that the presentation would be in spanish!

breakfast was a hit! the norm-coffee with some eggs, sausage and fruit on the side. we made our way to the site after grabbing the "goody-to-to-bag". of course we arrived on time, and wouldn't you know it, EVERYBODY ELSE DID TOO!! limited parking out front forced us to seek parking in the back, where there was ample space. as we walked across the campus, it was slightly reminiscent of academia los pinares, where i went to school in tegucigalpa...minus the mountain, awesome classmates, cool weather and green uniforms...ok, it was the pine tree. the pine tree reminded me of ALP. 

we located the room, got the equipment set up and ready to go (lacking only internet). we were completely ready for the all-spanish presentation. ends up they all spoke english just fine, and one participant- the instructional coach was straight up blonde-which OBviously means she can't speak spanish, right? (i OBJECT!) but still. she didn't, so  everyone was great with the spanish power point/ english presentation. it went really well, and they were so excited thinking about the possibilities and how this would cut down on time and help them plan, group and differentiate all in one fell swoop...or perhaps two fall swipes? (insert audience laugh/applaud sign here). accolades!  then we had to switch rooms, mid-training-unexpected (flexibility is necessity). and we may have craftily commandeered time that really wasn't ours...when given an additional 30 minutes, neddy figured out how to take 90...just keep them so engaged that they really don't lock eyes with the group they were supposed to be joining-it was apparent that they knew they were getting more from what they were learning about the program with neddy so they could use it for planning well.

lunch was d.c. and snacks. we met with admin, which was slightly delayed, due to the fact that they had to deal with a brand new just-off-the-plane-luggage-in-hand-i'm-here-on-your-doorstep-what-now new teacher. remember what i said earlier? flexibility is necessity! so, when they arrived, they'd already heard from the teachers in the previous session how impressed they were, so they were excited to hear what istation brings to the table from their vantage point! it was a very productive/positive meeting/training time.

once all was said and done, we said our goodbyes, and at some point we were talking scuba diving masks. don't know. anyhoo, neddy and i google-mapped our route, stopping somewhere in between for fuel. it was not the correct location. sketch...there was no card reader at the pump, so we went into the store, and the guy in the window, cage, security thingy said it was cash-only, and i'm pretty certain the guy walking passed me cursed at me in his mumble-voice. mmmm. we made our way to the other side of the interstate, and crazy enough, it had a card-reader! we were confusing the heck out of the google maps lady. she started sounding a bit cross, until finally we got back on 95. eventually we arrived at the airport-turned in the rental and made our way to security. the lady at security looked at my ticket and said, "oh! you go down this middle line!" because it was business select...the thing is, security was a ghost town, and i felt a little silly going through the 'fast-lane' when the guy going through the regular line arrived to the tsa agent at the exact same time. yep, it went quickly. and at that point, i was ready to eat my own left thigh, i was so famished #firstworldproblems ...fish tacos! good-but not TIDE TABLES in bradenton by any stretch of the imagination! our flight was about 30 minutes late-delayed due to wx/lightning...ramp closed...this is not a good precedent to start-people are going to start talking! anyhoo, good thing the DAL flight was delayed as well, so i was able to make the conx home! thankful!

11:50 pm, laboring up the 3 flights, i had to verbally remind myself to lean forward, lest i fall over backwards, negating all forward progress...plus, that would just be a moronic thing to have to explain...

good day!
julie

my balcony is only good for one thing...one day of the year...for 30 minutes.

here's the thing: my balcony is the worst. it faces the complete wrong direction. it does not face the fountain...it faces the garage (the BACK of the garage, at that, so people-watching and developing nancy drew mystery conspiracy theories is out) and the small parking lot. it gets no sunlight, so i cannot grow anything...ever. it doesn't even face the right direction to get satelite t.v. (i tried when i first moved in). so..the only day of the year that it validates itself is july 4th from 9:30-10:00 pm. addison kaboom-town. the 'kabooms' were far enough away that it really didn't bother the boys.

i did make them take their independence day pic...chaco wasn't excited about it. and today on the radio, he heard the dj's asking for people to call in about a time they had family pics, wedding pics, prom pics, etc., after being injured, but had to take the pic anyhoo...he wanted to call in so badly, but i wouldn't and he couldn't (lack of opposable thumbs...) besides, i told him, no one would understand his yapping.

balcony shots:

so, yes, great shots from the balcony...and shortly after it was over, we went to bed. and lo-and-behold, there was a huge thunderstorm, which really brought the kabooms! that  got the boys going. maybe i should invest in a thunder shirt for chaco...although, i could probably just cut the ends off a sock and pull it over his body and it'd do the same thing. i'll bet he'd love to be swaddled. if he were a real-live-boy, he'd be the one wearing skinny pants and the skull t-shirt. bruno, on the other hand, would be wearing the preppy pastel plaid shorts and polo...but i digress-it was quite the storm!

pretty sure i've been sleeping wrong, or something, because yesterday my shoulder and arm hurt (like a sprained rotator cuff-not like i've ever experienced anything of the sort, but i imagine it would've felt something like this)...then in the middle of the night last night, i tried to adjust, brought both hands behind my head, and something clicked. i broke my neck. (no i didn't)...but i certainly did SOMETHING wrong, because my back and shoulders were stiff ...tight ...ridiculously miserable. but i had decided last night that i was going to get up early this morning to go grab breakfast because i'd been too lazy over the long weekend to get the eggs, bacon and fruit.

i'm glad i did choose to get up and go, because there was an awesome rainbow after the storm 

it seemed the safest, closest and i knew i would get back home fairly quickly. (they're predictable like that)

breakfast was great-and i was ready to get started when i got home. i have plenty of reading and i did a lot of cutting and preparing teacher resources.

alright, so i don't know if you're all aware or not, but there was a terrible amount of flooding in sealy, tx back in april. one of the trainers i work with was a victim of this flooding, and i got to hang out with her last week at our conference. neddy never said a word about it, and had such a positive attitude; i didn't realize this had happened until they gathered the pd training group together and said they were creating a go-fund-me-page. she broke down in tears...i cannot even imagine being in a situation where everything you own is damaged and lost.  "Neddy has received very little emergency assistance, and at a "mature" age, is literally starting completely over."  i've been blessed, so i will be contributing. i would love for you to consider this, if it is within your means, as at a certain point in our lives we are all called to be a part of community. while she may not be in your immediate community, you could certainly bless her by displaying compassion in a tangible way! i don't often post things like this, but it struck me and i hope this blog can serve as a tiny means to help out! please check out the page here.

alright, time to call it a night-may the fireworks of life never end (but all that noise can stop about now).
julie