chugging along

I knew I wouldn't be consistent with this...sorry mom :)

The last week or so seems to have flown by. I've been working out every other day and I've been feeling great! It's really nice to feel good about my body again. I won't lie...I'm the weakest one in class but I can feel the improvement. I'm getting stronger. Pretty soon I'll look like this:

I'm being really good about my sunblock use :) We went to the beach on the 4th and I surprisingly didn't get a burn! I'll give myself a little pat on the back for that...although a few days later I missed some spots on my arms when we were water skiing...doh. So now I'm splotchy.

The beaches are beautiful and the water is perfect. It's warm but cool enough to be refreshing. We spent the morning with John and Jenna, two of Cheryl and Jay's friends...and now mine.

And of course my lovely hosts...

I'm really happy I'm not the only pale kid in this town :). Thanks Cheryl!! This must be why so many people ask if we're sisters.

 The beach was beautiful. Daytona Beach, while nice, is obviously pretty touristy. Drive 15 minutes up the coast and the crowds disappear.

There are some genuinely beautiful scenes...and a few awkward ones.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that they bought the crosses with the intention of bringing them to a church for decoration...and not that they were carrying them around as a statement.

A pretty amazing statement, although accidental, was found in a local Irish dive bar.

I mean who wouldn't vote Vagina!!

I've been feeling a bit homesick lately. I miss my friends. I miss the familiarity of my neighborhood. I've been having a lot of stress dreams lately. I don't read into dreams beyond the idea that they are subconscious feelings. My typical stress dream usually involves choices (packing clothes for a trip, filling a tray of food from a buffet, etc) but not these ones. These ones seem to involve swarms of cockroaches attacking, people losing their memory, or people here being mean to me. I think it means I'm confident about my choice to move down here but I'm worried I won't succeed or be accepted...but then again that's just silly because I'm delightful.

On a positive note, my vault arrived this morning. I'm oddly excited to have all of my stuff. I think it's going to solidify my position down here and help make it more real and more safe...if that makes any sense. I'll move into the condo this weekend and focus on unpacking and settling in next week.

I'll be happy to not have to think about security systems in my place. Yesterday morning was quite eventful in the security world. While I was sleeping one of the employed dwellers of the home set the security system. When I let Caramel out to pee the alarm went off. I put in the code but for some reason it didn't work and the alarm company was alerted. When they called for the alarm code I gave them the only one I knew...which was 100% wrong. A few minutes later a grandfather clock started to chime...turns out that was the front door. As I sat at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, I saw three cops creep around the corner and look into the window. Luckily I have an innocent face and they believed me when I said I was staying here. It was quite the morning. It even tired out the poodle:

This week is a busy one one that's not going to slow down anytime soon. Busy is good.