Today I am attending a funeral...

On Thursday, my friend was killed in a car accident. It doesn't feel real yet and I keep expecting him to knock on my door. I have never liked attending funerals and he knew this. I am someone that is always talking but can never find the right words when I really need them.

One of the first conversations I ever had with him was an argument. I knew then that we would be friends. He never wasted a moment of his life and I envied that about him. He made everyday feel like a party and I loved that about him.

He insisted that the catwalk that connects the building we live in to the condos across the couryard was only to be used on sunny days. In his mind, it was mandatory to run across the courtyard to visit on rainy days. One day, I asked him why he insisted on doing this and he simply answered, "Because it's fun." He then went on to lecture me on the joys of walking by the water when it's raining with no lightning.

His death was quick and dramatic as he would have liked. His funeral will be small and private as he requested.

It is supposed to rain today and that feels right because today I am attending a funeral and when I return home; if it is raining, with no lightning, I will walk by the water...

http://www.4shared.com/file/68313479/3cafb7da/Life_10-25-08.html

Blonde Moments

Yes, I am a natural blonde. When my friends tell me a blonde joke, I try telling them that it's the fake blondes that give us a bad rep. However, mornings like this tend to prove me wrong.

I didn't have to go to school today so I got to sleep in and it felt so good. I woke up and immediately wanted to get my day started. Getting all kinds of things out of the way today means I don't have to worry about them over the weekend. Going to the grocery store was at the top of my list. I hate fighting the crowds there on weekends. When I tell you that there is a crowd at the grocery store I'm not kidding---one of the downfalls of living in a tourist area.

It took me about five minutes to find where I left my keys. Of course, they were right where they were supposed to be. LOL! Then I didn't have my resort pass that lets me get inside the gate where I live. I know I used it last night to let myself in one of the walking gates and it should have been where my keys were, but it wasn't. After searching the only places it should have been, I gave up. I decided to take the chance that when I was ready to return home, there would be a guard at the back gate that remembered me from one of the other thousand or so times that I didn't have my pass.

I go to get in my car and it wasn't parked where I thought it was parked. You see, I forgot about running out last night and returning to the parking garage to find that someone else had taken the spot I had vacated. When my car wasn't on the second level of the parking garage where I thought I had last parked, it took me some time to find it on the fifth level.

A friend told me several years ago that I should always try to park somewhere on the same level so that I'll always have some idea of where my car is. Of course, as today proves, I haven't taken his advice yet. LOL! But all is well, I made it to the grocery store and returned home to find a friendly guard on the gate that knows me. Now if only I could find that resort pass.....

Here's a goodie for all of your blonde moments...

http://www.4shared.com/file/68160238/c614ec0f/Blonde_10-24-08.html

Letting Go

I know a teenager with a broken heart. She has announced, in that dramatic way that only teenagers can, that her life will never be happy again. He was the best thing that ever happened to her and she isn't ever going to date anyone else. Well, her father was rather happy with the last part of her announcement. LOL!

She is sad and we tried not to let her see us laugh as she told us all that there was no way we could ever understand or when she checked the caller ID on a phone that didn't ring to see if she had missed a call from him. However, I'm pretty sure she heard the laughter after she stormed down the hall and slammed her bedroom door.

We weren't laughing at her. We were laughing because we have all been there. We were all just as dramatic. We were all just as sure that we would never recover from the heart break. We were also laughing because we were on our second pitcher of Margaritas, but she doesn't need to know that. LOL!

I want to tell her that she is going to be fine, no, better than fine. She is a young, beautiful, intelligent lady and she will know an endless amount of happiness in her life. The unhappy days that have been and that will continue to be sprinkled throughout her life are the days that will ultimately lead her to the places she needs to be so that she can know what true happiness is.

I want to tell her that maybe he is the best thing that has ever happened to her, but he is not the best thing that will ever happen. She is at the end of one road, but there are other roads to travel down and they each bring new adventures. What she considers "the best thing" at seventeen won't hold a candle to her "best thing" five years or even just one year from now.

I want to tell her that, much to her father's chagrin, she will date again. She will date and she will fall in love. Sadly, she may know more heartache. She may even cause someone's heart to break. But she will live to date another day and she will date even cuter guys. LOL!

I want to tell her that someday she will look back on this day and smile. She won't forget the pain she feels now but the sting from that pain will fade and only the memory will remain. She may look back and see her "what if" guy or she may look back and see an "OMG! What was I thinking" guy. Either way, she will smile.

I want to tell her these things but I think I will wait. I am going to wait because she is seventeen and sad. I am going to wait because right now these aren't the words she wants to hear. I am going to wait because I know she will just say that I don't understand. I am going to wait because like the saying goes---When you're seventeen, it's hard to see past Friday night.

Here's a goodie for anyone else that knows the pain of letting go...

http://www.4shared.com/file/68020068/863bb941/Letting_Go_10-23-08.html

1 apology and 2 Thank yous

I am so sorry but the Life is a party wordart had a mistake on it. I've fixed it now and reloaded it at 4shared. Thank you Kelsey for letting me know!

You can get the corrected version here...

http://www.4shared.com/file/67994131/aaa718f0/Life_10-21-08.html

My second thank you goes out to Christine. I don't always read my email before leaving in the mornings, but today I did and I am so glad! You will never know how much your short message meant to me. My spirit needed a lift and thanks to you it got one.

Here's a goodie for everyone in your honor...

http://www.4shared.com/file/67996441/49248457/Life_10-22-08.html

I can only make a quick post today. I've got lots of things to do and I am behind on all of them.....by that I mean that I haven't started any of them. LOL! I have candy bar wrappers to design for a 10 year old's birthday party, Halloween treats to make for my friends, patterns to trace for tomorrow's art center, a Halloween bragbook page to make for a swap I'm in and I need to design voter registration cards and ballots for the great GPES election of '08. I wonder who will win----ice cream or pizza. Thank goodness I've got a long weekend coming up!

After reading back over my last couple of entries here it looks like I've been in a very serious mood, but it's actually been quite the opposite. Have you ever noticed that it's when you are the busiest that you are the happiest and the most creative? Right now I'm so tired that I don't know if I'm coming or going but I've got a hundred ideas flowing through my brain. Maybe I'm coming out of that creative rut I've been in.

Enjoy your day! Here's a goodie for you...

http://www.4shared.com/file/67879449/6bf071f7/Rules_10-22-08.html

Life is a party

***If you downloaded this on or before 10-22-08, please check below and make sure you have the corrected version. Kelsey, thanks for the heads up!


Have you ever heard of Lincoln Road on Miami Beach? I live within walking distance of this popular place for trendy shops and restaurants. My friends and I like to go out at least once a week and visit. Ususally we'll end up sitting at one of the outside tables in front of any of the restaurants along Lincoln Road. It's fun to sit there and discuss our day while we people watch. If you've ever visited Miami Beach, you know that we've got lots of people to watch. LOL!

We've been having such beautiful weather here lately that we just had to go out and enjoy it. So there we sat Monday night, drink in hand, sharing stories of everything that's happpened since we had last sat at that same exact table four night earlier. We laughed, we made plans for the weekend, we laughed some more, we walked home.

It sounds like a simple night spent with friends and that's what it was. Yet, it was also so much more than that. It was a party. A small party, but a party just the same and I am so glad that I was invitted. But I'm even more glad that I chose to go and not sit at home.

Will you accept the next invitation you receive or will you let it pass you by? Here's a goodie for you while you think about your answer...

http://www.4shared.com/file/67994131/aaa718f0/Life_10-21-08.html

Then and now

Yesterday, I had someone from my past contact me. It was an old boyfriend. He was my "what if" guy. You know, the one you think about and wonder how different your life would be if you had stayed together. We had kept in touch through Christmas cards and the occasional phone call every year or so, but we hadn't seen each other since right after college. So, when he called to say that he was in Miami and would love to see me I was shocked. Mostly, because he had always said that he hated Miami. LOL!

I met him for dinner last night and we did some sight seeing. We laughed over stories from our past and caught up on our current lives. His son turning sixteen, my still having a North Carolina accent, the divorce from his wife, the fact that I still can't speak spanish, the new job that brought him to Miami, my love for this city that keeps me here, the chances of him visiting again...

Well, it was good to see him and the sight of him still makes my heart skip a beat. He has grown into an even more wonderful man then he was all those years ago and he was pretty wonderful then. His life is full and happy and I am happy for him.

After I left him at his hotel, I smiled all the way home. We had shared a wonderful night, but (didn't you just know there would be a but) I wouldn't trade the life I've known since we parted for the life I would have had if things had worked out for us way back then. Staying with him all those years ago would have meant never meeting Charlie, the real love of my life.

It's been almost three years since Charlie passed away and they've been rough years. I miss him everyday, but the years that we had together have given me the strength to get through. My life is not perfect and it isn't the life I used to dream of, but it's my life and it's a pretty good one to have.

My life may not be perfect, but I do have perfect days and if those Dolphins had been able to pull off a win, yesterday would have been one of them. LOL! I can't wait to see what today has in store for me!

How are you going to spend your day...

http://www.4shared.com/file/67581680/4667fed1/Today_10-20-08.html