the sunshine state

yup...florida.
flo rida? apple bottom jeans? boots with the fur?
not exactly.

it never gets cold enough here for boots or jeans even.
in fact, IT'S STINKIN HOT HERE ALL THE TIME.
even at night. last night i was in the car and the temperature outside was 82 degrees...at 9 PM!

i flew in on sunday and since then i've just been settling in, getting aquainted here, and trying to find a job....which, isn't going so well...apparently people do things backwards in florida: summer is their OFF season.

really, florida? really?
(to quote jess pugh)

soooo businesses typically need less people during the summer months.
i've gotten a lot of "come back in october, we'll be hiring then."
yeah, ok.

on a brighter note...
mom took me to the beach today! my first time in the gulf of mexico, at a beach in florida.
the water was beautiful and clear...you could see everything on the bottom...including the huge swarm of tiny minnows and a school of larger fish mom and i were less comfortable standing next too. a coworker of my step-dad's said his kids were swimming and saw manatee, went up to them, and they allowed the kids to hold on as the swam around! how cool is that?
so hopefully i'll see a manatee soon, considering we live in MANATEE county.

also, i am dying to go parasailing...i think that's what it's called...a boat is attached to and pulls a big parachute that you hang from :)

i'm gonna go google it and find out how much it costs...