100 things #35 I have a brand new favorite poem ...

David and I went to Clematis by night tonight, like we do so often on Thursday. We love the fresh air, large crowds, live music and just watching people enjoy themselves.

For the next 3 weeks the event is being held in the court yard at the new library while the construction for the new Waterfront Park is completed.

But this entry is not about Clematis by night, it's not about the band it's not about the white beaded bag I bought at a favorite consignment shop for my mom to use next weekend for her banquet, it's not about how quiet our favorite 5 corners is while construction takes place ... it's about my new favorite poem.

After we left Clematis street we took a stroll through City Place, David brought the book he just finished reading with him to share a few things with me about one my all time favorites. I don't guess I would call myself a Parrot Head per se, but I do love Jimmy Buffet. How can you grow up in Florida and not be in love with Jimmy Buffet?

Anyway ... David has taken to reading Jimmy Buffet books, this one is "A Pirates Look At 50". When ever he reads a book I often get the privilege of having him read excerpts to me (I soooo love this about him). Tonight sitting at a quiet outdoor table under the stars at City Place, he read the following poem out loud to me and I loved, loved, loved it so much that it is officially my new favorite poem.

The Double Life By Don Blanding

How very simple life would be

If only there were two of me

A Restless Me to drift and roam

A Quiet Me to stay at home.

A Searching One to find his fill

Of varied skies and new found thrill

While sane and homely things are done

By the domestic Other One.

And that's just where the trouble lies;

There is a Restless Me that cries

For chancy risks and changing scene,

For arctic blue and tropic green,

For deserts with their mystic spell,

For lusty fun and raising Hell

But shackled to that Restless Me

My Other Self rebelliously

Resists the frantic urge to move.

It seeks the old familiar groove

That habits make. it finds content
With hearth and home dear prisonment,

With candlelight and well loved books

And treasured loot in dusty nooks,

With puttering and garden things

And dreaming while a cricket sings

And all the while the Restless One

Insists on more exciting fun

It wants to go with every tide,

No matter where… just for the ride.

Like yowling cats the two selves brawl

Until I have no peace at all.

One eye turns to the forward track,

The other eye looks sadly back,

I'm getting wall-eyed from the strain,

(It's tough to have an idle brain)

But One says "Stay" and One says "Go"

And One says "Yes," and One says "No,"

And One Self wants a home and wife

And One Self craves the drifter's life.

The Restless Fellow always wins
I wish my folks had made me twins.

So ... don't we all feel like this in a way? Yes ... this is so my new favorite poem.

100 things #34 I saw a spinner shark leap from the ocean today ...

I did have my camera there but I just wasn't quick enough. The life guard (in red) and the chair guy (in blue) both saw it too, they speculate it to be about a 5 footer.

The water was warm and smooth as glass obviously the shark was feeding, not that spinner sharks are all that dangerous to humans but the swimmers were asked to get out of the water for a bit as a precaution.

It didn't take long for things to settle back in ... swimmers re- entered the water, the lifeguard went back to his post

the chair guy went back to his chair to call his friends to tell them about the shark

I went back to my blanket on the greenest grass in town ...

under the palm trees, with a big glass of ice water and a story or two from "Other Colors" a book by Orhan Pamuk. I love the way this book is written, it is a collection of short stories from his own life in Istanbul. Some stories include quick drawings ... it reminds me very much of the way we journal here.

Being able to get out a little in the morning and still have time to go home and write about it before going to work in the afternoon is one of the advantages to this crazy, crazy work schedule of mine. Living in beautiful South Florida doesn't hurt either.

Look how beautiful our beach is and have you ever seen greener grass growing so close to the ocean before?

For 12 quarters (gotta feed the meters) I got to spend 2 hours at one of my favorite beaches in the world ... Seldom does a day go by when I do not recgonize how beautiful South Florida is and how lucky I am to live here.

I grew up on this beach and it is where I feel most alive and most at home.

Mandy was here for Mothers Day and we all went to Hillsboro Beach for the afternoon I heard her tell David that anytime she was in trouble when she was growing up I would take her to this beach at night and we would talk and talk and talk until we had things straightened out. She's right, we did that dozens and dozens of times. So ... does that mean she was always in trouble?

Happy Wednesday all.

100 things #33 When I need a real creativity fix ...

I spend some with my sister and her most creative staff and I did just that this week ...

Thursday she coordinated an enormous event with an East Indian theme, I took the day off work to photograph her staff and the environment set up process.

The house where the event was held was magnificent and the grounds were a perfect backdrop for the occasion.

Now that my neice has graduated college and has become full partner with my sister she is making enormous progress in taking what my sister has worked so hard for all of these years to the next level.

I am so proud of all of them, the sky is the limit on where they go from here.

100 things #32 I'm so glad he came to say good-bye yesterday ...

5/27 much the same way he did when he graduated highschool and went off to college. This time was different though … the boy has grown into a man. He stood taller than he did 4 years ago, with much broader shoulders but with the same adorable face, good humor and genuine smile I’ve always known. He is a little younger than my own son, he’s actually the same age as Mandy and I haven’t been able to help watching with quiet admiration over the years as his parents raised him.


The boy was raised right, of course he had many advantages that our kids didn’t have but I watched as he had work for the things he has wanted over the years. I remember when he wanted a new video game as a child he would have to work for the money to get it. Before he was in high school, he started a computer repair and upgrade business of his own, he did web master services, started his own lucrative web site specializing in cigars and during hurricane season he would line up jobs for himself putting up shutters and plywood for people.

The summer he got his first car he came to work with us to pay for gas and insurance, he did that for a few years, his parents cut him slack in the fall so he could focus on school and baseball. The kid really loved baseball.


He had different jobs throughout his 4 years of college including one summer back with us doing confirmation … so nice to have him around, really ... it was nice to have him around.



Last year though he took a PT job as an assistant with a company that recruits minor league baseball players and worked real to hard make himself valuable. Now that the person he was assisting is moving on and he has graduated college , they have offered him an amazing opportunity to come aboard.


This week he is moving to Orlando into a house with 3 other guys that work for the same company, they will be sending him on an extended trip to Africa on assignment. I think I heard of plans to take a safari as well as to see the pyramids while he’s there.


No doubt the next 2 years will bring amazing opportunity his way and then it will be time to focus again on school for at least another 4 years. I think that eventually he will end up back with us … the earning potential in our company is enormous for people in that family and when he comes back he will bring with him his new real world experience. So glad he came by yesterday to say good-bye.

100 things # 31 I just found out that I'm going to be a grandmother...

for the first time!

Willow Tree

Mandy is pregnant, my baby is having a baby. She lives in Atlanta (that's such a long, long way from home). I know she will make an excellent mother and Kareem will be good to both her and the baby but it doesn't mean that I don't wonder how they are going to afford it and whether or not they are ready.

I guess there is no perfect time, if we had to sit around and wait for the perfect time ... not to many of us would have ever become parents. I've had a few days to get used to the idea and I'm starting to get more and more excited for her. I'm sure this won't be the last time I write here about the Grand Baby To Be.

100 things #30 I know that sometimes less can be more ...

but sometimes only more will do.

This weeks photo challenge "things that float" was a perfect opportunity to go for more. This is my second entry.

Floating Chihuly Art at Fairchild Gardens ...

More floating Chihuly art ...

Lilly floating ...

Floating Pelican ...

A boat that used to float ...

Floating leaf in Atlanta ...

Floating Man of War ... or many men of war

Floats that float ...


More floating floats ...

100 things #29 Sometimes when presented with to many choices ...

I choose to take them all. That's what happened when I read this weeks photo challenge. "Things that float."

This is the perfect opportunity to give a small sampling of the artwork from my sisters party decorating business, I'm going to do that here. There are also several random "things that float photos" I want to post in a separate entry.

These are definitely things that float.