Its the little things

Do you remember, as a kid, how the ice cream truck was the greatest thing in the world?  You'd be playing outside on a hot summer day and hear the bells down the street, and all the kids would run out to the street to meet it? 

 Well, today I found my modern-day equivalent.  I pulled in to work after a long hot shift, and what do I see?  The starbucks truck.  I love my job (she says while sipping a mocha frappuccino).

Getting back to normal

I've been in florida a month and a half, and finally it seems as though life will start getting back in order. I'm officially finished with training at work and tomorrow is my first shift as a cleared Florida/Pinellas County Paramedic. At 5am. That part hurts a little. But thats ok, its a day shift – and the fact that I'm getting any day shifts at all is better than they told me to expect. This week I'm filling temporary hours, and later this week I'll bid for a permanent shift to start next week. There's a 5am open, but between getting ready for work and the awful traffic here (even before 5am), I'm actually considering a night shift. (You guys better bookmark that, you'll never hear it again). We'll see what happens. When Adam starts working his shifts will be all over the place, so for at least the next four months we'll rarely have the same schedule no matter what I do.

Speaking of Adam's job, he graduates from the Police Academy on June 1st! I'm so glad for him that school is almost over – he's been bored senseless since February. His whole family is coming to town for the event (and Keri's coming a week early – can you say beach!?!), then he gets two weeks off before starting his orientation at the PD.

Last weekend we went up to Baltimore for Keri's graduation. Once again my unbelievable luck with flying kicked in and both our flights were delayed. The ceremony was really nice, Bob Costas was the speaker and he was really funny! The actual graduation part took about two hours, but I came prepared with some sock knitting (the same ones I've knit and torn out two times now trying to find the right pattern). I'm trying a toe-up pattern for the first time, and I made it all the way to the heel before I realized I left the pattern in the hotel room (oops!). All was well though, I just started the other sock instead and made it halfway up the foot.

(Here's where I tried to insert a harlot-style sock picture to prove that I actually have picked up my knitting in the last month and a half…but as usual, wordpress won't let me upload a picture.  Or maybe its firefox.  Either way, just imagine a sock in front of a palm tree.)

So between work and jetting off all over the east coast, I've been pretty busy.  I have managed to pick up some of my irish knot shawl (a grand total of 16 rows since I got here), but there's not enough progress to warrant a picture (or rather, a picture attempt).  When I get to the halfway point of the center knot pattern (in 50-60 rows) I'll post with the update.  Tonight I'm being Susie homebody and making lasagna, cleaning the house, and getting ready for my nobody should be awake at that hour really early shift tomorrow.  

After much anticipation…the big update.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I promise…I finally got my pictures off my camera and found ten minutes to update, so here you go!

Florida is fantastic. I still can't get over that I LIVE here. The weather has been beautiful, the people are nice, and my job is going very well. Here's a picture of Tampa Bay out my car window:

Today we went to a new beach south of St Petersburg called Fort Desoto. The north beach (where we were) was the #1 beach in the country in 2005 and I wasn't disappointed. I managed not to get any pictures of the beach itself (good job Lisa) but the wildlife was pretty cool. Out about 200 feet from shore the water is only about waist deep and we found dozens of sand dollars – live ones! I'm apparently a sheltered New Yorker because I had no idea that live sand dollars are dark purple/blue, and they don't turn white until after they die. (Grandma – the shell situation looks pretty good out there but I have to go early one morning when the tide is out. I'll let you know.) We found hermit crabs in the tide pools as the tide went out:

OK, wordpress and my computer are no longer cooperating and so my pictures aren't uploading.  Off to work, the computer can sit in the corner and think about what its done until I get back and hopefully then we'll have pictures again.  Coming up: more nature, trip to Delray beach last weekend, more about work, and perhaps even knitting?