Sweet Times in Cocoa Beach

View from our room at La Quinta Oceanfront in Cocoa Beach

Before leaving for our cruise, we spent a day and a half in this shifty little beachside town. We met the nicest people - everyone wants to talk with you, at length, from the store employees to the front desk people to the shuttle drivers and bartenders.

Our plane was late coming in but the day got better from there. After a 40 minute ride to Cocoa Beach from Orlando, we checked into our hotel and headed over to one of the bars on the pier and had lunch and $1.50 beers. Amazing. That's like free.

One of the reasons we chose to stay at La Quinta Oceanfront (there are two in town, and the other is not desirable) was its close proximity to Publix. When you do a Disney Cruise, you can bring your booze on board with you so it's good to be near a place where you can stock up. I didn't realize we'd be in Publix more than six times in a day and a half. I also didn't realize we'd end up with one of their shopping carts in our room, which took me back to my college days. It was pretty handy as a drying rack for bathing suits before we returned it on Friday.

Thursday we loaded up on booze for the cruise and room, then spent the evening drinking beer in the pool and shooting the shit. Frank, Eric and MFD hit the town and all the ladies hit the bed early.

Friday involved Dunkin Donuts (also walkable, very key, mama needs iced coffee), a manicure, more Publix, and a trip to Ron Jon, a huge surfshop on A1A. I was singing Ice Ice Baby for two days running since we were right off of A1A.

The mile walk to Ron Jon was hot as hell but worth it. I've been looking for a new beach bag for years and finally found one I love. I also got a new pair of Sanuks, and we got a magnet (required travel purchase for us) and a long sleeve T to share. MFD got a new bathing suit, Reefs and polarized sunglasses.

He ended up working most of the day Friday while I went down to hang at the pool with the rest of our crew. When he was done, we headed over to O'Shucks for happy hour. It's right on the sand and reminded us of The Carousel in Sea Isle. There were more $1.80 or $1.50 beers, plus a smattering of Happy Hour apps - steamed shrimp, fried mac & cheese, snow crab clusters, and ribs. It was awesome. Everyone else eventually joined us, and a good band started playing. The lead singer sang Stevie Nicks better than anyone I've ever heard.

I wanted to take those stools very very badly. They don't seem like they'd be easy to get on a plane. FedEx would definitely be called in.

Our friends left to hit Ron Jon, and a woman came up and said she wanted to buy MFD and I a drink because she's a people watcher (much like myself!) and noticed that we were having a great time and seemed like such a great couple and in love. That was pretty cool. We ended up sitting with her (Hello Mary from Chicago!) and her sister and had a ball.

So I ended up being that girl who went to the bar for Happy Hour in her bathing suit at 5 p.m. and was still in it on the dance floor at 10. What is it the kids are saying? YOLO, y'all.

Cocoa Beach, it was good to meet you.

Resilience

We all know exactly where we were, what we were doing, the things we thought, and how we felt eleven years ago today. We'll never forget the images we saw of towers and planes coming down, dust in the streets, first responders on the scene. What we heard, read, and learned in the days and months following: of the last phone calls, the missing notices, the flag raised at ground zero, people converging on New York City to search, "Let's roll" from Todd Beamer on Flight 93, a nation sharing its grief in candlelight vigils, on the radio and Internet and tv, through music, in newspapers and on street corners.

We also saw a nation showing its strength and unity; its desire to help each other, heal each other, and protect each other.

Thinking back on all of that, the feelings of loss, grief, disbelief and sadness seem as fresh today as they did then. Our hearts remain heavy for those who lost their lives, for families and friends who lost loved ones, for heroes who died or returned forever changed from desert lands in the years that followed. We still tear up seeing images of that day, hearing tributes, listening to Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights go out on Broadway) and remembering Billy Joel performing it for NYPD and FDNY.

Perseverance and resilience have always been cornerstones of this nation. They were reinvigorated with a vengeance by a terrible attack on innocent people that will forever haunt us.

In a politically polarizing time where there's finger pointing and lots of talk about what's wrong with America and how bad things are, let's remember that out of a terrible day in our history, a renewed sense of patriotism as well as a fierce appreciation for and protective feeling of the American way came about. We stood together. This is a day that renders politics useless and lays waste to party lines and rhetoric. Today is purely and simply a day to reflect, remember, and honor together as citizens.

Every year we say never forget, as if we possibly could. Those who lost someone never will, and those of us who watched our fellow citizens and our way of life come under attack never will either. As construction continues on the new World Trade Center site, we see plainly that we are built of strong stuff, individually and collectively as a people. They are a symbol that America is resilient, and she rises.

The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit. 

Instead we have emerged stronger and more unified. 

We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic and religious freedom, 

the rule of law and respect for human life. 

We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom.

 --Rudolph W. Giuliani. December 31, 2001

Time to refuel

This actually is a burnt out light bulb. 

MAN. My light bulb is burnt out you guys. I'm busy at work, I have a zillion errands to run, I can't catch up on hausfrauing, my mind is going a mile a minute all the time. I'm feeling the pull from many directions, and pressure to do and be from all sides. My brain seriously felt like it might fall out of my head yesterday.

This morning I thought about the small things that made me smile over the past week and it helped me relight my fire enough to switch it into gear and finish this week out in ass kicking style.

• Sleeping with the windows open
• New nail polish
• Catching Overboard on tv
• Staying up late to finish a good book
• Sleeping in
• Laughing so much my cheeks and stomach hurt
• Dreaming about soft ice cream
• Found money

• Seeing lots of sweet mullets in person
• A successful new recipe
• A coupon for a free iced coffee
• Two vats of iced coffee in my fridge 
• Spending time with my BFF 
• Hearing one of my more obscure favorite songs on the radio
• The arrival of US Magazine in the mailbox just as the weekend is starting
• Leftovers from my neighbor =  don't need to pack my lunch
• A cheery little pitcher
• Drying lavender
• Kisses from my dogs
• Getting a video of my brother's first college soccer game from my mom since I couldn't be there
• A funky bottle adds a little disco to dish doing 

• Fruit in a bowl
• Turning off the Republican National Convention and going to bed
• A shopping trip with MFD
• The smell of baby powder
• Brother's Pizza
• Getting veggies from my uncle's garden
• Brie
• A three day weekend looming in the not so distant future

What's getting you over the hump today?

p.s. I mentioned coffee twice in that list. That calls for another cup. Cheers. 

No apologies

There are times in life when apologies are necessary - when you hurt someone's feelings; when you want to convey your sympathy for the situation someone is in, when you spill red wine in someone's lap; when you forget someone's birthday.

Then there are things you shouldn't apologize for, and the things you know you won't ever apologize for...what are yours? Here are mine:

1. Thinking Beverly Hills 90210 is the greatest show to ever air on television. My car is named Kelly Taylor. That's right.

photo: sharetv.org

2. Laughing in inappropriate situations, or laughing at farts and people falling.

3. Liking something too quickly on facebook. Sorry to disappoint those who think I'm creeping on them. I'm not going to read something and think "Oh, I have to remember to go back and like that later so I don't seem like a creeper now." Live in the moment, people.

Photo: boston.com

4. Being organized, thinking and planning ahead, labeling shit and being prepared. It's served me well, and to those who say I'm anal, I say toodleoo and why do you care if I'm organized? I don't care that you're disorganized.

photo: undeniablestyle.com

5. Demanding silence when I am trying to fall asleep. I need quiet and dark.

6. Being hungover. I drank too much while having an awesome time, what's it to you?

7. Being a feminist. Women don't get paid the same, women are still victims of abuse and rape and discrimination, women's health/safety/reproductive rights are still threatened both here in America and around the globe...we are so far from equality I can't even see it on the horizon.

8. Treating my dogs like furry children, letting them sit on the furniture and sleep where they please, even if it is on top of my head.

9. Refusing to read 99.9% of nonfiction books.

10. Saying no to invitations even when nothing is on my calendar - I am very easily a victim of my own over scheduling, so now I schedule in free-time.

11. Liking my alone time. I love MFD, but I also love being alone in my house to putter and daydream.

12. Calling bullshit on someone.

photo: dailykos.com

13. Liking stupid movies. Keep your fa fa The English Patient movies. I'll take Moving Violations any day.

14. Having my mood be directly related to the quality of the nail polish on my nails.

15. Being me. I am always working on myself, seeking better ways to be and do, vacuuming negativity out of my aura, sucking knowledge in daily, but at the end of the day, I am myself. Warts and all. If you don't like me, that's totally ok. But that's your issue, not mine. Don't expect me to apologize for being me.

I hope you all list #15 as something you'll never apologize for, being you is your very essence. Swim in it.

Cause down the shore everything's alright...

If I could live anywhere, I'd live at the Jersey shore - not the fist pumping Jersey Shore shore - but Strathmere, Cape May, Ocean City? I'd live there in a second. I grew up going to Ocean City, and through the years migrated to other shores: Sea Isle, North Wildwood, Cape May, Strathmere. Some of my best memories were made down the shore, and not to be new agey, but I feel very much myself there. MFD feels the same way, which is why we chose to get married down there.

The shore is laid back, easy, no fuss. Throw some clothes in a bag and go. I pack my beach bag with a big hat, long sleeves for when the wind turns between 3 - 4 p.m., sunblock, two books, crosswords, twizzlers, and plums or nectarines, and I'm content to be at the beach all day.

I like it when it's sunny or overcast. I like the beach in the spring, fall, winter. I like it when it's raining.

I love to travel to places I've never been, but when it comes right down to it, I'd choose the shore over any other destination. Every time I go down, I'm reminded of so many great times shared with people I adore. Since I'm heading down this weekend, here's a little through the years kaleidoscope.

The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.  

~Isak Dinesen

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

- e.e. cummings

hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea, and feel the sky 

let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic...

~Van Morrison

A beach was a fine place to come to terms with all the cycles of the universe. 

~Pat Conroy, Beach Music

To me there has never been anything more evocative of 

summer and wildness and bittersweet joy than a sea wind. 

Anne Rivers Siddons, Outer Banks

In still moments by the sea life seems large-drawn and simple. 

It is there we can see into ourselves.

~Rolf Edberg

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is 

the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, 

that is the interior of the soul. 

~Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, 

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, 

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, 

Let me forget about today until tomorrow. 

― Bob Dylan

The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps. 

It defies all attempts to capture it with words and rejects all shackles. 

No matter what you say about it, there is always that which you can't.

~Christopher Paolini, Eragon

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

-- T. S. Eliot

We'll be making more shore memories this weekend with Amanda and Frank.

It's nice to have something to look forward to in the middle of the week, no?

Wishing you all a stellar Wednesday,