Good Friends

Carrena. She is one of my best friends. I have some of the greatest friends in the world and she is one of them. Besides Sarah, I have known Carren the longest. We met at our friend Chris Barnes house when we were all single, well, Carren was dating Jon, but she was not married so she was single and we partied until all hours of the night. Or morning.......Carren and I did not become friends right away. It was like two cute dogs sniffing each other out (I know, fantastic scenario) - I was totally in her territory as she had been friends with Chris for a very long time and I was pretty new to the group. Well, new as far as Carren was concerned. I think I had been hanging out with Chris for a while before I actually met this person they referred to as Carren. And I was terrified of Carren because everyone kept saying how tough she was and she didn't take any one's crap. Well, I did not want to meet this person because I am usually into people who are funny, light hearted and love to hang out!

One afternoon I was hanging out with Chris's cousin Missy - Missy was a free spirit and invited anyone she met to be her friend. I think Carren asked Missy to a Falcon's football game and Missy then invited me. I said okay, but I was totally nervous. Carren picked Missy and I up at Chris's house and off we went. I would like to say I was quiet but really, I don't think I am ever really quiet but I know I was hesitant. Carren seemed like she was a take charge kind of person and I did not want to mess with her. First we stopped by Subway to get sandwiches - which was also connected to a gas station. Now, this goes against everything I believe in but I needed cigarettes so it was a good idea at the time and again, I was not in charge so I went along. I even remember what I ordered - a meatball sub. I had the hardest time swallowing that thing. I hate food that is connected to a gas station unless it comes in a tightly sealed package. I was asked to write the gas station/subway was not Carren's idea........

Anyway, I have no idea what we talked about but I was allowed to smoke in her car which was pretty cool. haa.aha!! I don't even remember the game but I remember having a great time and thinking to myself, you know, this Carren is not so bad. She is funny and laughs a lot. And laughs out loud which is even better. She is also pretty smart - she retains information like a sponge. I was glad to learn she was not so tough after all. She's a strong person and has a big heart.

We hung out a few more times and ended up getting along so well - we laughed at all of the same stupid stuff and I could get as crazy as I wanted and she was still my friend the next day. When I say I got crazy, I mean I would drink beer with our friends, laugh out loud, ran from the cops........another story for another time.........said funny & obnoxious things all night or whatever came to my mind and she never judged. I am pretty sure she didn't know what to think but I never felt bad - we just laughed about it the next day. Thanks for laughing with me CDawg!

Looking forward to summer

Last night was the last night of my art class until fall. I knew I would be bummed but I had no idea I would be sad. I was literally sad when I left last night. I will miss talking with my other class mates and oddly enough I will miss my instructor. I really liked him. I liked that he gave us a little history about what we were learning and even things we were not learning. He was fun to talk to. You could ask him 1 question and he would talk for 20 minutes, then end up on a completely different topic! On a positive note - at least I can say I will miss my class rather than I couldn't wait until it was over!
This will give me a chance to get back to running on Wednesday nights with my friends and get some more mileage in so maybe I will run another 1/2 by the end of the summer.
I will continue to draw and I am going to start Oil Painting. Very excited about that too. Sarah, I will most likely be calling you for art discussions and pointers. So, get ready sista! Aren't you so excited?! HA!

Another thing to look forward to is The Weimer-Taylor-Calamari Beach Trip!!! We are going to the beach at the end of July and having what I call a "Cone-Off". Rae had Allison send an email out about it today:

**A side note for my sister - she sounds just like my mom in this email......
Hello my siblings and non-siblings,
I have received special orders for our Birthday/Father's Day/Mother's Day party at the beach in July. Mom would like to have a "make your own ice cream cone contest" that will be judged by Trudy and her husband (drawing a blank on his name). Anyway, here are the tasks........

Jennifer -determine rules of the game
Jason - supply the winning prize
Paul/Allison/Peter-to determine themes. Themes will not be handed out until the day of the game.
You will go to Publix to buy "props" for cones. One rule mom has is that we are only allowed to use props that are edible! No extras! hahahahahah
Jennifer-am I missing anything?

Yeah, this is going to be a Griswold's Beach Trip...........much like everything else we do. But as odd and silly as we are we have fun and more importantly there will be drinks involved. Rae loves a good margarita on the beach.

Art Class

Last night was my second to last art class until I can find another one in the fall. I am totally bummed it is coming to an end. I love this class so much! There were only 4 of us last night which was pretty cool because I missed the week before and those of us that had missed a class were able to catch up. Three of us needed to catch up on some things so the instructor went around helping each of us. I got a lot out of last nights class - I missed the cross hatching class. Man! Is this hard. I was telling Guy, the instructor, how heavy handed i was and some of the other students said they were as well. Guy was explaining that it takes a lot of practice to use a delicate hand so the cross hatching does not look like large patches. If you get it down it can look really cool but most of my work last night looked like blocks of cross hatching and instead of giving my figures dimension and shape like it should they looked like figures with dents....HA!!

I told Guy I was going to miss being in a class with others because I learned so much from them. My first two classes I compared my work to the other students and it was not until I was comfortable in my third class that I was able to look at other pieces of work and actually learn from them. I noticed that every student looked at the same object in totally different ways. Their view of shadow was completely different than mine which was cool because I could take that point of view and try to apply it to what I was drawing. I love the constant learning.

I am looking forward to the fall when I can find a painting class and add to my collection.......I think I will look for an oils class. I would like to try sculpture and nudes after that.

Beach Pictures

Here are some pictures from the beach!

Todd and Jason chilling out at the table

Jason enjoying a swim

Emma and Jaimee waiving to Todd. They are so cute.

Todd. Too cool for his own good.

Me.

A picture from the pool looking at the beach.

Emma Pants!

Last but not least, and I am sure Emma will wish bad things on me when she is older, but here is Emma NOT wanting to go home. She was having too much fun at the pool. Hilarious!

For Chris and Nat

Well, there's really not much to write about the Bon Jovi concert - it was a great concert but we did not see all of the big-hair and tight jeans that we were hoping for. Turns out Bon Jovi has grown with the times and his music is a lot softer which kind of sucks but whatever. He did play the following songs which I totally rocked out to:

Blaze of Glory

Bad Medicine

Livin' on a Prayer

You Give Love a Bad Name

J.B.J. still Rocks hard and Richie Sambora sang a solo which was pretty funny. He looks rode hard and put up wet - that guy needs a few days, months at rehab or some place out of the sun. He is going to look as good as Keith Richards pretty soon.

We tried to take pictures with our camera phone but those suck so as usual I don't have picts.

Hopefully for Christmas I will get a NEW CAMERA hint, hint. One that is small and starts with the letter CA and ends with NON.

Sorry this post stinks but but I hope you enjoy the pictures below....

Which is your favorite?

Time Flies

Its been so long since I last posted I don't even know where to begin. I guess I could start with the beginning of the month.....

The first two weeks of May were pretty busy. I am working on a loan which is great so I am busy at work! Last week Jason and I went to the beach for our anniversary. Our actual anniversary is April 15th but when we went last year it was still a bit chilly so we decided to wait a month and turns out that was a good decision. It was warm and sunny all week/weekend long. We got to the beach Wed evening around 7:00 pm. We stopped at the liquor store and grocery store thinking we had enough time to get some shopping done before we went to the condo, unpacked then go to dinner. Wrong. All restaurants close at 9:00 pm near the condo so by the time we went to eat, nothing but Publix was open and I was not happy about that. Jason said he would cook dinner but that did not make me very happy either. I wanted to feel like I was on vacation damn it and cooking at home was not the answer! Oh well, once I was done throwing a fit Jason made dinner and all was good. We watched some tv then went to bed.

I woke up pretty early Thursday morning - the air conditioning guy had to fix something and he was knocking at the door around 8:30 am. I got up, let him in and made some coffee. It was such a good feeling to wake up while it was quiet (jason was still sleeping) and drink coffee on the patio. The patio faces a pond and there are always fish jumping, turtles swimming and we even saw a gross black snake. I worked for a little bit then went to see when Jason was going to get up. We went for a run and we were going to ride the bikes but the his bike had a flat tire so we hit the beach instead. We laid in the sun for a while, watched the water, read our magazines & books then went for a walk. The water was not too bad but the tide was rough so we didn't actually get in the ocean.

Thursday night we went to dinner in St. Augustine. We ate at Saltwater Cowboys which was interesting to say the least. I would describe Saltwater Cowboys is a rickety old house that has been turned into a restaurant. The description on line states the following: Cowboys interior is reminiscent of a turn-of-the-century fish camp with handmade willow twig furniture, old wooden floors, rusted tin ceilings with gator and snake skins hanging on the walls. Either way, it's old but cute.

The hostess asked us if we would like to sit inside or out? Outside of course! She walked us through the dinning room to the deck outside that faces the marsh on the inter coastal. There was a nice breeze and the sun was starting to set so it was very relaxing. As we sat down on our plastic chairs (like the ones we have at our house but these were green) I noticed a cat just below us sitting in the sun. He was surrounded by oyster shells (hundreds of them) and some trash which odd. Then we noticed another cat and another and a few others! They were all orange so we knew they were related. There were about 6 to 8 cats laying down or playing right next to us! They we cute. Well most of them were cute. Some of them needed major repairs. They would jump up on the porch and walk or zoom past your table - really you didn't want them touching you because they were living in filth but still some of them looked pretty well groomed for scrounge kitties. Jason tried to feed one and I think it must have swatted at him because I saw Jason jump......haa.haa!!

As we were eating our dinner someone came out to the porch and threw a bunch of cooked shrimp tails over the deck and they landed right next to us. So all of the cats were now trying to get a piece of those tasty morsels. The cats were so close I could have reached out and touched them. A little weird but funny. Jason and I still enjoyed our dinner and just laughed at where we were eating. As we were finishing our meals I noticed something moving in the marsh. I thought it was another cat, but not so much. It was a Raccoon!!! And it was not cute at all. It just came out of the water so it's butt was wet. The waiter said it's name was Stevette. I guess there are two of them. Steve and Stevette. Anyway Stevette kept walking closer to the deck and it totally freaked me out. I did not want to get rabies on my vacation! There was nothing between me and that raccoon and I did not like it. Stevette eventually walked toward the back of the porch which was fine with me.

I don't think I could ever describe the scenery enough to do it justice but it was an experience we will never forget.

Friday I went for a run. I walked 1/2 and ran the other 1/2. It was so humid and it felt like I was carrying a wet blanket the entire time. I was happy when I finished though. Jason and I hung out at the beach and pool all afternoon. That night we drove to the Flagler Fish Market - the food there is soooo delicious!! Its so fresh and the people that work there are super nice. We purchased some scallops and shrimp & took them home to make pasta and seafood. It was so good and I personally think way better than the meal we had the night before. Granted, I did have some tasty hush puppies Thursday night but you really can't compare those to the best scallops in the world. Or Universe for that matter.

Anyway, around 10:30 pm our friends Todd and Jaimee got to the condo. They brought their 1 1/2 year old daughter Emma with them but she was sleeping. Todd, Jaimee & Emma live in Tampa so we don't get to see them that much. It was really great they were able to come and hang out. Saturday we all headed to the pool swam around, laid out and drank some beers. Around 1:30 or so Emma took a long nap which gave us a chance to have some adult time and eat some lunch. When she woke up we went to the beach then back to the pool for a little bit longer. Emma is talking up a storm - she repeated everything a 100 times and it was pretty damn funny. She would also try to talk in complete sentences but the only thing that comes out is "blah, blee blah, blah blah blah"? Then she smiles really big and shows you whatever is in her hand or points to something and repeats. Dolly, dolly, dolly, dolly, dolly, shoe, shoe, shoe, etc.....It was a great weekend! We can't wait to do it again!

I will post pictures tomorrow - something was messed up with Picasa this morning so I couldn't download them.