Worried about the family in Zimbabwe

I married a man from Zimbabwe.  When I met him I was introduced to him by friends who had already told me about him previously.  They told me he was from Zimbabwe and I knew that it was a country in Africa, but not much else.  I was impressed with him from the start, his mannors, his accent, and of course… his good looks.  A few months later when he asked me out, I looked up Zimbabwe  prior to going because I didn’t want to feel stupid that I knew absolutely nothing about his country.  I found where it was on a map and a few statistics.  None of them very good, but certainly not as shocking as they are today. 

In the six years since I met my husband, I’ve heard terrible news after terrible news from his relatives over there but have never been myself.  His family has come here but being that they must buy US dollars on the blackmarket and they have an inflation rate of over 100,000%, travel has gotten very difficult for them.  I wanted to share this picture story that I found on MSN for those of you:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18298169/displaymode/1107/s/2/

My mother-in-law grows her own vegetables and fruits and bakes her own bread.  She sent me an email the other day that she had written four days earlier but couldn’t send because he hadn’t had phone service in a week.  Going without electricity is a normal thing for them.  People about flipped out down here when Wilma came through and we were without power for a week.  Can you imagine that being the norm?  And not just the scaricity issue either, their safety is threated on a regular basis. 

They have an unopposed election run-off election today because the current dictator… ahem, excuse me, I meant President has intimidated the opposition (who actually WON the original election, just didn’t have a majority) into quitting.  Since the election in March he has been jailed, beaten and tortured and is now taking refuge in the Dutch Embassy. 

Sorry to go on and on.  I just feel so helpless and worried about my in-laws over there.

Woman sues Victoria Secret over a defective Thong

*This post written Wed. June 18, the old fashion way…. paper and pen* 

I’m sitting at the HartsfieldJackson International airport jotting in my notebook because I’m too cheap to fork out $8 to connect to the internet, I hear on the news “Woman sues Victoria Secret over what she calls a defective thong”

WHAT?
You should have seen the snickers.  I, along with just about everyone around me, stopped and looked at the screen.  Not surprising that they didn’t say much more than that before going to commercial.

Hartsfield-Jackson… you are what?  the second largest airport in the world?  Can’t fork out the cash to offer wi-fi?

ok, so, commercial over, two more teasers then the 30 second spot on the woman injured by a thong.  Not that I think the story deserves anything more than that, just ironic that the buildup is longer than the story itself.
So it seems that a sequin popped off when she was trying it on and hit her in the eye, damaging her eye.  She had one of those red dots in thewhite part of her eye.  Her lawyer, Jason Buccat, said if it had been a millimeter or two over, she would have become visually impaired.

Geez, I had a one of those red spots in my eye once from a branch hitting me in the eye when my drunk ass went diving into some bushes for fun.  Maybe I can sue the landscaper, or the bar who served me, or maybe Budweiser for producing the beer.

Security on airplanes… can’t bring a sealed bottle of water

*I originally wrote this post the old fashioned way, paper and pen last Wednesday on my way to eBay Live.

On the flight this morning I flew out of Melbourne Florida.  The great thing about smaller airports is the ease of getting through the airport.  The security line had about 10 people in it.  Not even enough time for me to mentally prepare.  The bad thing is how it is much more expensive.  Lucky me, my American Express points paid for the trip.

The no liquids thing is annoying.  I realize that there are real safety concerns and that it is a  preventative measure but it is annoying.  As I was leaving my cousins’ house she offered me a bottle of water.  Cool. I knew that at some point in my travels today I would end up buying a bottle and already having one would save me two or three bucks.  I’m holding i in the the security line as I’m taking out the 1 oz. bottle of lotion I had in my backpack.  I wonder to myself, should I chug it our should I leave it sealed in hopes that having a sealed bottle is ok.  The woman in front of me is traveling extremely light.  Only a book and a bottle of water.  Sweet.  I ask her, she said she hopes she is alowed because she just bought it and points at the cafe/gift shop.  Two seconds later the security people tell her that she cannot take it on.  She hands them her unopned water that she just purchased.  I’m too much of a cheapskate for that.  I step out of line and chug mine.  I know it is just water and that my cousin probably bought it at costco and it only cost her a few cents.  It doesn’t matter.  It is the princlple of being wasteful.  I’m a big believer in the power of keeping hydrated and hate to waste so even though I wasn’t thirsty, I chugged it.  Now I’m on the plane for a one hour and three minute flight needing to pee.

The first time I had ever heard of or read a blog… boy have things changed!

I absolutely love blogging and have been having so much fun with it.  As a kid I kept journals, well, I started to keep journals and usually lost interest after a month or so.  Blogging has the good qualities of journaling except I don’t have to physically write.  That is the part I hated about journaling. I hate my handwriting so I would always want to keep my writing nice.  The drawback to that is that you can’t get your thoughts down fast enough if you are having to concentrate on your spelling or handwriting.  Now, typing… I’m good at that.  And spellcheck is my best friend.  I adore that little ABC with a checkmark icon.  I panic if I post on a board or somthing that doesn’t have spellcheck.

Ok, back to the subject.  Tonight, I’m not sure why it popped into my head, but I was thinking about the first time I had ever read, or heard of, a blog.

First, a little background info.  I had just moved out of my first husband’s house after our failed two month marriage and my best friend had just kicked out her live-in boyfriend. I did the therapeutic thing and moved to a little bungalo on the beach.  My friend had come over to my house and we walked down the beach bar-hopping along the way.  We spent the evening trading stories of how horrible our ex’s were and making fun of them to make ourselves feel better.  Then, back at my apartment she tells me that her computer geek ex publishes a website with all of his personal thoughts and poetry.  At the time, the idea of doing that was so completely foreign to us that we had to fire up the old dial-up service to check it out. 

This guy was a D&D junkie and a computer geek so alot of the stuff that he wrote about might as well have been written in another language.  Now that I look back, I think it is funny that we were just flabbergasted that someone would post such personal stuff out there on the web for anyone and everyone to read. 

Boy how times change.  I just read all the gory details of my friend’s recent childbirth experience on her myspace page!  Talk about posting personal stuff up on the net.

Lawn Seats at the Pearl Jam concert in West Palm

On Wednesday we went to see Pearl Jam at the Cruzan Amphetheatre in West Palm.  It was awesome, but as usual, I over-did it to the point of not being able to remember much of the actual music.  We went via chartered bus so we didn’t have to worry about driving.  I would highly recommend this to anyone trying to go to a concert an hour drive away!  Get about 30 people involved and it is dirt cheap.

We had beers while we were waiting to load up, beers on the bus and of course, beers at the concert, then more beers back in town before going home.   All that equals an entire day for this 32 year old to recover.

We had tickets on the lawn.  I love the lawn in West Palm because I hate being tied down to an assigned seat.  Of course, the pit is always preferable but not all of the artists even offer it, and most times I can’t afford it.  One of the things about lawn seats is that I always feel sorry for the folks who get there real early and lay out a blanket.  In theory, it seems like a smart thing to do, however, it almost always ends in disaster.

Here is how it goes.  They get there early, lay out their blanket in a good spot.  Call or text all their friends letting them know where they are parked.  Take turns with their friends all afternoon “guarding” the spot.  Everyone is cordial with one another and polite.  Then, the concert starts.  All the people that spent the afternoon hanging out by the beer vendors and the late arrivals start filling up the place.  Things start out ok, people politely walk around the blankets and try not to stand in front of their view.  Then, as the sun sets and the headliner takes the stage, all bets are off.  The die-hards who were trying everything they knew how to do from giving dirty looks to asking politely, have given up on their “seat” are now standing.  The smart ones pick up their blanket, the concert rookies try to stand in front or on top of their blanket. 

So, really, there is no point.  Might as well do what I usually do.  Arrive just as the opening band is hitting the stage, politely work your way in to a reasonably good spot and enjoy.  Or, splurge on the good seats.  No use trying to swim upstream.

The right thing to do

Last night my husband found an ipod on the street.  He doesn’t already have one, he just runs in silence (how is that possible?) so he was very excited to find it.  He found it in a neighborhood and said that it was in between the sidewalk and the street.  He did the right thing.  He knocked on both the doors of the two hourses that it was in between to check if it was theirs.  It wasn’t so he thought it was a bonus and it was now his.

Finders Keepers

I was jealous because this ipod is better than mine.  But, I couldn’t let him keep it just yet.  We did the right thing and posted on Craigslist that it was found.  Obviously we didn’t describe it because you never know what kind of responses we might get.  “Found… $100 dollar bill” yeah, right!

So, we’ll see…. we may just get to keep this ipod after all.

I’ve got the answer on how to cut back on gas consumption

Turn on the radio, the television, listen in on conversations between friends & coworkers, it won’t take long to hear someone bring up the subject of the price of gas.  There are all sorts of theories on how to get the price to go back down.  How to cut back, conserve.  Well, I’d like to share my solution. 

Quit using your air conditioner in your car.

Try it, I DARE you.  Try it for one week and you’ll see, you will cut back your driving! 

My care doesn’t have AC, and as you can see by the name of this blog…. I live in South Florida.  Right now it is 10AM and 83 degrees with humidity in the 90 percent range.  Inside my two door honda with black interior, it feels like about 130 degrees.  Needless to say, I don’t drive unless I HAVE to. Today I need to go to the grocery store and the bank.  The grocery store is a mile and a half away and the bank, just under two miles. Should torture myself and my child in the car or should I ride a bike? 

We will be getting some exercise, not contributing to global warming, getting some fresh air AND saving money on gas. 

So, if you take me up on my dare, not only will you drive less, you’ll save gas when you do decide to drive!

Do you ever find yourself making up things “to do”?

Right now I should be listing items for sale on eBay.  Well, I’m not.  I’m instead writing my second post in this blog today.  I’ve already posted in my personal blog, checked all my emails, updated my cousins website, re-arranged my desk and read all the more recent blog posts of my friends. 

This is the drawback of working for yourself and making your own hours.  Sometimes I find myself making up things to do because I just don’t want to do the things that need to be done. 

I took a consignment job that I am totally not excited about.  Actually, I’m the opposite of that.  So now, in order for me to re-claim my workroom I have to sell off all of this woman’s stuff.  She’s got some good stuff and some not so good stuff.  I really need to learn how to say ‘no’ to the junk.  So, now, I’ve got to photograph, weigh, measure and write creative descriptions for stuff that I know won’t sell or even if it does sell, the money is going to be minimal.  Ugh. 

ok, no more excuses, back to work.

Blogging about south Florida

I’ve decided to start a new blog.  I have two others but just can’t seem to get enough of blogging.  One of mine is a private blog about my family where I post pictures and personal stuff for my relatives who are scattered all over the world.  Basically, it is just my way of being lazy.  I can post a story or pic once and then I don’t have to talk to anyone on the phone or send multiple emails and attach pictures of the little one.   (I must admit… I hate the phone)

Keeping that personal blog got me hooked on blogging.  I decided to start a public blog where I write about my work.  I’m an eBayer who actually does just that, selling on eBay full time.  Yes, I do it for a living and after several years of selling as a hobby, finally figured out how to actually make money doing it.  So, I blog about it.  That blog is powersellerdaily and if you are into eBay you may want to check it out.

But, I’ve discovered with my experience in keeping those two blogs, it just wasn’t enough.  I sometimes come across things that really don’t fit into the personal family blog or the work blog.  Now that I’ve gotten regular readers to both, I don’t want to bore them with random rants and sometimes the fiction that I feel compelled to write.  Thus, the purpose of this blog.

I’ve named it Sunny South Florida because that is where I live.  I figure whatever I choose to rant, rave or spill about will more than likely lead back to so Fla because I am one of those rare-breeds, a native Floridian.  A “conch” actually (that means I was born in Key West) which makes me an even rare-er oddity.

-Cheers