Just Go With It – J.I.L.L.

New Normal

First, let me apologize for not posting for the last ten days or so. I went on vacation and am just now getting back into the swing of things. Well, really, moving forward into a new normal.

I saw this Christmas display on my run this morning. And I thought it was a great analogy for where I’m at right now.

Life in Florida is my new normal. It’s not the same as Pennsylvania. It doesn’t have the same feel. But it’s good. Just a little awkward still, and downright silly at times.

I’m still not really settled. I’m not acclimated to my new life and new role yet. To be fair, this is a transition period still so I guess I shouldn’t be expecting too much.

I start my new waitressing job in full force tomorrow. I’m looking forward to that. I can remember being so ready to be done working nights, weekends, and holidays. Sixteen years later, and I’m loving the idea of sleeping in until it’s actually light out and am impartial to working nights and weekends. By the way, why is it so hard to find a long sleeved button down collared black shirt?! Whatever happened to stores that had mens dress shirts aplenty?!

Anyway, with change comes discomfort, uneasiness, awkwardness, and difficulty. With change also comes excitement, opportunity, and growth. I’m doing my best to stay optimistic and not too hard on myself about acclimating to my new normal. I mean, Santa on a jet ski is pretty fun even if it’s not necessarily traditional, right?!

¹²Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,¹³for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.¹⁴Do everything without grumbling or arguing,¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. Philippians 2:12-15 (NIV)

A little rainy

Today was unexpectedly rainy, but still warmer than back in PA. We started our day seeing a stork by the pond out back. He was cute, standing on his tall legs with his wings at his sides. He looked much more stork-like once he took to the air. Here’s a picture of the view out back, no stork in it though.

Then we went and had coffee and pastries at the 1420 Coffee Shop. Delish!

From there we ventured to Round Island Beach Park, where we were hoping we might see some manatees. No such luck with that but we did enjoy taking in the serene sights and other fauna like birds, lizards, and jumping fish.

The rain held off just long enough for us to spend some time at the park. As the rain picked back up, we drove north on A1A, all the way to Sebastian Inlet State Park, taking in some local beach sights.

After some rest and relaxing this afternoon, we had a delicious meal at Italian Cousin before taking BA to her hotel near the Orlando Sanford airport.

I got one final big hug from Betty Anne as we said goodbye for now. I’m so grateful to her for joining me on this journey. She was great company and a good sport all along the way. Who would’ve thought, when she said several months ago she wouldn’t let me drive to Florida alone, that this is how things would turn out. God is great. And so are amazing people, like Betty Anne.

Gator Day

Today Betty Anne and I went on an air boat ride! We saw gators and birds and lots of beautiful flora. I’ve been on this tour once before, in late June. At that time, since it was hot, you could only see the gators’ nostrils and eyes popping up slightly out of the water. Since it’s “getting colder” now, the gators are moving up onto land areas so you can see almost their whole bodies.

We spent some time driving around Vero, laying by the pool, and napping. Then we went for dinner at Captain Hiram’s in Sebastian, which is the next town north of Vero Beach. It was a lovely day again.

Vero Beach, FL

We made it!!!

8+ hours and we’re finally in Vero Beach, FL! We had another leisurely start to the day, especially because of turning the clocks back.

Our first stop was at Buc-ees. Holy crap. What an experience. Steve told us we should stop there if possible – that it’s like a Cracker Barrel combined with a Sheetz on steroids – and boy was he right! It was an experience in and of itself.

It was another lovely day for a drive. Traffic was okay most of the time. Waze took us another way than we had planned, saying it was 24 minutes shorter, and it worked out okay. I’ve learned to trust Waze. It’s a pretty great app. About an hour after I told BA people don’t really abuse the app to put incorrect alerts out, we started getting a bunch of nonsense alerts. Oh well…

We tried stopping at Cracker Barrel. Waited 20 minutes for a table. Then, after about 3 minutes at the table, we decided to leave. It was super busy, one table near us was complaining to the manager, and another table near us was sitting waiting for their waitress (and had been seated ten minutes before us). Although it was a shame to waste half an hour, we were glad we left and didn’t waste any more time.

Three and a half hours later, we made it to Vero and clinked our glasses:)

We had a nice (and crazy) dinner with family and now we’re settling in at my mom’s place. She and BA are getting along swimmingly:)

Plans for tomorrow… mimosas and the beach!!!

Bristol, Virginia

Well, we are on our way! We left Pennsylvania today and crossed through Maryland (very briefly) and West Virginia to land in Bristol, Virginia. Fun fact, Bristol is on the state line so half of it is in Virginia and the other half is in Tennessee.

What a beautiful day for a drive! It was sunny with happy clouds and the trees in lovely fall colors. We listened to 70’s Light Rock on Pandora. Traffic was relatively light and although BA used the holy sh!t handle a few times and offered to flip somebody off, there were no serious curse words, no true a-holes on the road, and my driving was solid.

We started off only a smidge rough. We had to return for some forgotten snacks, forgot to ask someone to take a picture of us, and forgot to take a picture of the car. Fortunately, it only took a few moments for us to realize this. So we stopped on a random street in Palmyra to snap a selfie. There was a light up goat decoration in the yard where we stopped. Seemed perfect!

The quote of the day: “You see, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know” (courtesy of BA) and followed up later by the caveat, “but I do know hot buns.” We had delicious hot buns, Cesar salad, steaks, and sweet potatoes at Texas Road House. Can you guess whose drink is who’s?

Now we’re settling into our room to get a good night’s sleep. Good night! Thank you for the prayers and well wishes! I’ll share more tomorrow!

Plans

Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans. Yep. How often are we reminded of that wise saying?! And I guess one of the best (and most cliché) responses to that is, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Now, I don’t think you can always turn things around so far as to make lemonade. However, you can certainly just accept the lemons for being lemons (and not the end of the world). Maybe squeeze them into a glass of water? Or zest them around the room for some clean fresh fragrance? Or use them to keep your avocado from turning brown?

I say this because my car is in the shop with a screw in the shoulder of one tire. Yes, two days before our big road trip and not only do I need to get a new tire but I’m also without my car for over a day, ruining my practice packing plans. What to do?

Well, I’m grateful the tire place could get me in today. And I’m grateful they can get me new tires in time for our planned departure. And I got some bonus extra time with a friend who helped me drop off my car. Plus, I got to eat fresh hot Chick-fil-A tonight instead of 20-minute old Chick-fil-A.

These are all good things. So much for my plans! Things are turning out differently and just fine anyway.