Out and About

So far living in Florida is kind of like living in the 90’s.  Now, of course economically speaking, Jacksonville probably isn’t doing as well as in the 90’s (the latter half at least) which is evidenced by a lot of defunct businesses and the droves of ‘For Sale’ signs that adorn homes all along the beaches.  However, there is one company that is still going strong here in Jacksonville and that is Beall’s.  I’m not just talking one Beall’s, I’m talking one Beall’s in each major shopping center.  I’d even go as far to say that Beall’s is the anchor store for some of these strip malls and today, I saw a Beall’s outlet.  Now, for all I know Beall’s has really great clothing, but in my mind they have all the same clothes as when I stopped shopping there (which coincided with them going out of business in Austin) in the early 90’s.  This theory is evidenced by the fact that a lot of Floridians also dress like they shop at my Beall’s.  Maybe one day I will stop in to see what they have to offer, as my friend Caitlin suggested, maybe it’s a super fancy Beall’s.  I think I just like saying Beall’s.

This past weekend, we saw neighbors that seemed more our style at our neighborhood farmer’s market which is walking distance from our house and held every Saturday.   We bought local strawberries, tomatoes, string beans, beets and fresh stone ground yellow and white corn grits.  Now, I don’t think of myself as much of a southerner, but I LOVE GRITS and they serve them everywhere here.  The farmer’s market is coordinated by the same group that runs the community garden in our neighborhood which is where Clayton and I felt we could meet people with similar interests (even though neither of us are particularly well versed in the art/science of gardening).  Much to our pleasure, we noticed a lot of young families with kids around Ella’s age at the farmer’s market and I was pretty relieved to find that we will be able to make friends with someone not wearing a Dan Marino-era Dolphins T-shirt.  Then I realized I probably looked like a total creeper staring at these families like I wanted to eat them.  Oh well. 

Our house is still a work in progress, but we are getting settled in.  Donovan (the cat) is settling in to his routine of howling in the middle of the night and peeing on our furniture.  So, we have accommodated this behavior by covering every upholstered item with furniture blankets leftover from the move.  Ella has taken to hugging the cats every chance possible and it is probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen (see below).  She has also started imitating me.  So now, she puts her nose on everything to see if the cat has peed on it.  Not as endearing, as it means that I smell a lot of cat urine. 

Probably my favorite part of our house is the backyard.  We have these huge, beautiful mature trees.  Some are oak trees and the others are beautiful red pine trees.  Clayton and I are fully embracing our new community comprised largely of octogenarians and are jumping on the birding bandwagon.  Not really, but we did buy a couple of bird guides and discussed buying binoculars.   The bird watching really just started in our backyard.    The first day we were in the house I heard a knocking and found that it was a woodpecker.  We have seen him every day since and with the help of our bird guide have narrowed him down to one of two types.  Unless the woodpecker lets me measure him, I’m pretty sure it will remain a mystery.   Everything else in our backyard is pretty standard- cardinals, squirrels, gulls (normal for beachy areas and not particularly fascinating).  That is, until this afternoon.  Ella and I were out in the yard just walking around.  I was daydreaming about what I would do if a rabid squirrel tried attacking us when all of the sudden I heard a huge commotion coming from the roof of the house (which was behind us).  Of course my first thought was that we were being air attacked by a gang of rabid squirrels, so I scooped up Ella and turned around.  Just thirty feet in front of us, swooping down below the roof line of the house was a huge hawk in pursuit of an unidentified black bird.  It probably would have given an age appropriate bird watcher a heart attack.  The black bird got away and the two birds were out of our yard within seconds.  However, the hawk settled on a branch in front of our neighbor’s house and I had to get a closer look to be able to identify the bird in our new guide (did I mention I’m a huge nature nerd?).   By the time we got over there the hawk was gone.  In order to not look like a total weirdo staring into my neighbor’s front yard, I decided to check the mail.  HELLO, JC Penney’s catalog!  What year is it again?

I just love this.

Road Trip

We finally have the internet!  I’m sure this post would have been a lot funnier if I could have written it right after the road trip, but luckily I made some notes along the way and will be able to recall the important stuff.  For those of you that don’t know, Clayton and I packed up the car with our two cats, Kaya and Donovan, and drove from Austin to Jacksonville.  It is about a 17 hour drive if you don’t stop to sleep which, as my mother-in-law was kind enough to point out, we aren’t as young as we used to be so we had to stop to sleep.  It turned out to be about a 20 hour trip.  Ella flew out with Clayton’s mom and step-father a couple of days later.

First and foremost, traveling with cats is a nightmare.  We had decided that we should get them a crate large enough to be comfortable for a cross country trip, but when we got to the pet supply store the clerk informed us that you don’t want something too big otherwise they will go to the bathroom.  It hadn’t even crossed my mind that they might NOT go to the bathroom for over 17 hours, but apparently if kept in a small enough space animals will ‘hold it’ as not to mess up their living space.  This turned out to be false.  Donovan peed before we got to Houston.  Needless to say, the smell of the Louisiana swamps was a welcome relief from the rancid scent that is cat urine.  Aside from Donovan peeing, the cats did pretty well and by that I mean they are still alive despite Kaya’s incessant attempts to squeeze her head through 1-inch spaced metal bars for hours on end.  Kaya’s endurance was impressive, she howled almost all the way to Alabama; only stopping when the car stopped.   For some reason Clayton thought this would be the perfect time to call the various internet and cable providers in the Jacksonville area to set up services.  I can only imagine the horror on the faces of the call center representatives when a monotone, low and slow talking man calls to inquire about internet and TV bundles while he is surely killing cats.  The only thing funnier than imagining what the representatives at AT&T thought, was the look of terror on Clayton’s face every time we smelled something horrible in the car.  He was utterly terrified that the cats would poop in the crate (they never did).  Once we got to Alabama we gave the cats some canned food and they slept the remainder of the drive.  I know you’re thinking that maybe they were just hungry for the prior 12 hours, but I’m pretty sure it had more to do with the fact that Clayton slipped them a little bit of Benadryl.  All in all, the trip with the cats was horrible and we kept naming people we knew in the various states that we could drop them off with, but we didn’t.  And now we are in our new home where Donovan is marking his territory on every piece of furniture we own.  NEAT.

As I mentioned before, we had to stop to sleep.  We didn’t leave town until after 4:30 PM, so it wasn’t surprising that we only made it to Baton Rouge before we had to stop.  Up until this point I had been thinking about where we would stop to sleep.  The side of the road seemed sketchy as did any rest stop.  Everyone knows if you’re looking to get murdered then you should sleep at a rest stop.  So when we saw the sign for Love’s truck stop it seemed perfect.  People sleep at truck stops all the time, they are well lit, so it must be safe.  I would like to take this moment to thank Love’s truck stop for being safe enough to sleep outside of but not actually safe enough to go in to.  Maybe it was the fact that it was a combination truck stop, Arby’s, and casino.  Or maybe it was the fact that it was right across the street from a strip club.  All I really know is that we saw a girl at 2:30 AM buy a bag full of stuffed animals then go pump gas and smoke a cigarette at the same time.  Stay classy Louisiana. 

Next, we rolled into Biloxi, Mississippi where I picked up Aunt Flo.  As if sitting in the car for that long after eating a steady diet of beef jerky and Red Bull wasn’t uncomfortable enough.  Oh and did I mention I rode the entire trip with a small ice chest between my feet because the back was too full to fit the food and drinks we packed?  My back was killing me.  However, the people in Biloxi were some of the friendliest people I’ve encountered.  This is especially surprising since my hair was ratty from sleeping upright in the car and I was wearing the faint scent of cat piss, I undoubtedly looked like a drug addict coming down from a bender.  I wouldn't be surprised if the gas station attendant prayed for me after I purchased that box of tampons.  We decided this was a good time to make more bad decisions and stop in for breakfast at McDonald’s.  The guy working the McDonald’s drive thru at 5 AM was hands down the nicest fast food employee I’ve ever interacted with (I’m sure much to the chagrin of the patrons waiting behind us in the drive thru line).  He asked us if we were moving and where to, then he told us about his cross country move, and then he asked if there was anything else he could get for us and, Clayton and I are both pretty sure, he offered us some strawberries.  BUT we are also pretty sure that isn’t what he offered because I’ve never seen any fresh produce at a McDonald’s.

 

After filling up on our wholesome breakfast we got sleepy again and decided to pullover somewhere in Alabama until the sun came up.  Then we headed back on the road.  The rest of the trip was pretty boring.  Breakfast numero dos at around 8:30 AM consisted of Diet Coke, Fritos, and Bean Dip.  It should also be noted that the religious right has a firm grip on billboard advertising in the panhandle of Florida which really prepared me for the surplus of camouflage, rhinestones, and floral print that Florida residents brandish. 

For all the trouble moving was, that first day on the beach with Ella was exquisite.