All Around the Sunshine

Tallahassee was a great visit. I can’t really find a better way to kick it off other than that.

I headed to Gainesville on Sunday, with Kara and her mom in tow, and we met up with my mom for lunch and touring. It was the first time our moms had ever gotten the chance to meet, and we both came away feeling accpmplished in the day. My dad was sick with the flu, however, and didn’t make the trip.

We started off at Macaroni Grill, which I’d never had before (still prefer Olive Garden) and had a nice, relaxing lunch. Everyone got the opportunity to get to know one another better, and then we headed off to The Swamp. Kara’s mom isn’t a particularly big football fan, but she wanted to see a Florida campus, so we started off showing her around the athletic areas, including a walk into the stadium.

My mom then parted and headed back to Tallahassee and I took the mother and daughter on a drive around campus. We stopped and took a brief walk around Lake Alice where I assured them I’d find a live alligator for them to view, and lo and behold we ran across one! It was awesome seeing one of these guys in the wild.

After a stop at Coldstone, we parted ways and I made the journey north, and they headed back to Orlando. It was a bit strange to be in Florida at the same time as Kara, and not be together, but I wanted to give her and her mom time together, and figured it’d be a good opportunity to visit with some friends.

Unfortunately, Monday morning my aunt called and told my mom and dad they needed to come to Orlando because my grandma was being put in a hospice. My mom told me to stay in Tallahassee as I planned to visit with friends, but to come see them as soon as I got back.

After they left, I headed over to Sean’s house to hang out and we spent a good portin of the day playing the PS3, before heading out to Po’Boys for dinner. Joining us there was Virgie, Patrick, Natalie, Jon and Wes.

Much to my dissatisfaction, Po’Boys seems to have gone downhill, and fast. I hadn’t eaten at the Pensacola location in over a year, and not only has the service been flushed away, the food was less than amazing as well. It was a bit of a disappointment, but I still had a great time with my friends.

All of us aside from Jon then took off to Patrick and Natalie’s place for the night. The night was wasted away playing XBOX, cards, listening to music, catching up and capped off by a 4hr Wii Bowling marathon that lasted til about 5:30 in the morning.

Obviously, everyone slept in the next day and when we awoke, it was more hanging out. We ordered some pizza, played some Rummy and had a great day. Patrick and Natalie headed out to my house that night to watch the Florida-Tennessee basketball game, and we gorged ourselves on Wing Street wings.

It was an amazing two days, and went far too quickly, but I’m so glad that I got the chance to go home and see a few of my friends, although I wish there was more time to see others.

Wednesday I left and headed back to Orlando, and went straight to my grandparents house. My dad and I then went to the hospice where we spent about three hours with my grandma, mom and uncle. Seeing my grandma like she is was pretty hard, and it truly was sad to see. Unfortunately, she was unconscious the entire time we were there so I didn’t get to speak with her.

My dad and I left around 7 and went to TGIFridays for dinner where another less-than-stellar dinner was had. Its really unfortunate that all of these places I love to eat at are going so far downhill. After dinner, I headed back home to spend the rest of the night with Kara and her mom, as she was scheduled to fly out early the next morning. When I arrived, they toured me around the apartment, showing off all the new goodies they bought to spice things up. I especially liked what they did with the bathroom, as we had problems finding a good mix of things we liked.

It was sad seeing her mom go, as we all had a great time together. Her mom is so nice and thoughtful, and I’m really happy we got to spend time with her and show her around Florida.

Yesterday was another crazy day as dad and I spent every minute crawling the city trying to find me a nice, new suit. After hours of store-hopping, we finally settled on something we agreed was attractive and multi-functional. Once finished, we headed out to the Give Kids the World Village where Kara showed us around her office (house), the entire Village, and we played a game of 7-hole putt putt. It was an awesome experience, and I’m glad my dad got to see it.

So now, its another chilly day in Florida and I gotta get ready for a job interview…and will probably follow that up with a trip to SeaWorld for hopefully some good luck.

Much Accomplished

Everything that’s gone on since the last time I posted has been pretty much a blur. When moving, even when you think everything is done, it really isn’t.

We thought we were settled and had everything ready to let us just kick back and relax, but that proved to be far from the truth. Monday morning, Kara had an interview with the company she’s wanted to work for her whole life; her dream job, in other words. She felt the interview went very well, and based on the events leading up to it, I never had a doubt in my mind that they would select her. It wasn’t until Thursday night that she heard back from them, when on our way to dinner, she got a call back congratulating her on the new position.

I was, and still am, so proud of her!

The rest of the week was spent finishing up around the apartment, Kara getting a new drivers license/insurance, and running more errands. We spent a lot of time exploring the area, looking in pet stores (I’ve got her convinced to get a Corgi!) and checking out home stores. We’ve managed to find a whole bunch of stuff we want at Best Buy, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and IKEA.

Our “free” time during the week was spent checking out and enjoying the amenities of our apartment complex. One particularly fun night, we battled it out playing billiards (I won 2-0) and then moved on to ping pong (where I, also, won 2-0). The thought crossed my mind to let her win, but she told me not to, so my competitive side gladly respected her wishes.

Thursday night my parents got in town, and it was on the way to a new Mexican restaurant (to us) called Garibaldi to meet them and my grandparents when Kara got the call about her new job. The news came at the perfect time, as it afforded us a chance to tell everyone at the same time. Dinner was good, reminded me of Los Compadres in Tallahassee, and afterward the 6 of us headed to the Altamonte Mall for a bit.

Kara and I came home, watched Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (eh….) and passed out.

The following day, Friday, my parents met us at our apartment. After a couple hours of relaxing, we headed off to SeaWorld! The day really couldn’t have gone any better, either. The crowds were light, we saw everything we wanted to, pet a couple dolphins, got to see another hiccup in the Believe show and…

Got my dad on Manta!

He was apprehensive about it, and vocalized his decision on the lifthill by asking, “Why am I doing this!?!” but in the end, he loved it. I was proud of him, and we all had a had blast.

After the park closed, we had a nice dinner at TGIFridays, and had planned to come back to the complex and play ping pong but everyone was exhausted. Instead, my parents headed back to their hotel and we rented Saw IV from the community RedBox and fell asleep.

Definitely a good week, and with my parents here two more days, it should be a great weekend!

Our First Weekend in Florida

After finally getting everything unloaded, and mostly unpacked, Saturday figured to be a good, fun, relaxing day. For the most part it turned out that way.

Before we could get to the relaxing part, there were a few things that needed to get taken care of. First thing in the morning, we brought all of the boxes to the truck, broke them down, and then dropped them off at Publix. Afterward, we headed to this shady Rent-A-Car place to drop off the truck, and had to deal with a Mexican on a power trip for 30min.

Wendy’s was on the plate for lunch, and after enjoying lunch in the presence of a donkey, we were off to SeaWorld to show her dad around for the first time.

We got to the park around 2pm, just in time to scuttle over to Shamu Stadium to catch Believe, however, this performance was definitely a unique experience. I love killer whales, they’re my favorite animal, but the Believe show to me is pretty corny. Today, though, the whales didn’t feel like performing, and instead gave us a 25min glimpse into what I’ll call it, “Whale Defiance.”. All 8 of the Shamus spent their time in the main tank floating around, interacting with guests, spitting water at the trains and just being so nonchalant, that it was quite obvious they just didn’t feel like doing anything.

Seeing this live, it really was 100 times better than the actual show. Once the trainers showed them they wouldn’t get their fish, an abbreviated version of the show commenced that was a huge downgrade from the anarchy that we had just witnessed.

The rest of the day was spent frantically checking out as many exhibits we could. In a 2hr time frame, we managed to see Shark Encounter, Penguin Experience, the alligators, manatees, underwater dolphin viewing, pet some stingrays, checked out Manta’s non-riding queue AND talked her dad onto a front row ride on Manta. It was a rushed day, but it was still relaxing, and everyone had a good time.

We left the park around 5:30 and headed to Winter Garden to meet my grandparents at Chili’s where we spent about 2hr. The place was loud and packed, but the food was good, and it afforded us enough time four her dad to get to know some of my family.

Sunday morning, Kara dropped her dad off at the Sanford airport, and we finally got a day to ourselves. This day ended up being our One Year Anniversary, and we spent it lounging around and being lazy for most of the day. For dinner, we had an amazing meal at Outback Steakhouse, and topped the night off with Coldstone, while walking around and enjoying Uptown Altamonte at Crane’s Roost. It was so nice to show her a nice, outdoor, pretty place of Florida, and she seemed to genuinely appreciate it.

Yesterday was a day of errands and playing tour guide. The day began with Kara interviewing for her dream job, and to both of our pleasure, she seemed to do great! Once she got home, we headed to Wachovia and the post office for errands, and then CiCi’s for lunch. It was Senior day there, and let me tell ya…Old people sure seem to love their CiCis!

After lunch, we made the long drive out to Oviedo where I showed her around UCF, where she wants to go for grad school, and brought her to my old stomping grounds. We took a quick jaunt through the Oviedo Marketplace to stretch our legs, and then I brought her through my old neighborhood.

After that we headed to my elementary school, all through Tuscawilla, and finally to my middle school. She seemed to really appreciate it, and I’m glad I finally got to show her where I came from.

Overall, our first weekend in Florida was a resounding success, and hopefully, we’ll get to experience many more.

My 2009…

…Was amazing.

There’s really no other way to put it.

New Years 2008/2009 was spent with a bunch of my closest friends. We spent the night hanging out around a bonfire, playing games and just enjoying each others’ company. Soon after the New Year, myself and two friends from Chicago headed south to Gainesville and Orlando to celebrate the Florida Gators winning the 2009 College Football National Championship and theme park-hopping. It was in Orlando where the foundation was laid that would lead to so many life-changing decisions that would take place the rest of the year.

While in Orlando, my friend Corey played the middleman in bringing together me and the best thing to ever happen to me. Her name was Kara.

A few weeks after getting back to Tallahassee, I packed my bags and flew up to Minnesota to meet Kara for the first time. Now, I had a lot of big plans for this year, and none of them included visiting Minnesota, but it turned out to be the most life-changing trip of my life. I instantly fell in love with this girl and we enjoyed a short 5-days together touring the state, playing in the snow for the first time, visiting the Mall of America and getting to know this amazing girl.

Shortly after returning to Florida, I moved to Orlando with my friend Rob, and where I’d hoped that Kara would soon find herself as well. Things didn’t go the way I had planned, but my time spent in Orlando provided me a few months to build a great friendship with Rob and provided us the opportunity to have some of the best times of our life. The work situation was far from ideal (more like non-existent) and it really seemed more like a five month vacation, but the memories were irreplaceable and I’m grateful for having that time there. We spent all of our time hanging out, park-hopping, checking out the Orlando nightlife and becoming best friends with his puppy Corgi, Kumba. These are five months that I’ll always look back on, thankful that I got to spend all that time there having fun.

While living there, a month and a half of the time was spent living in Minnesota with Kara, and her visiting me in Florida. While out of state, we managed to hit a couple of parks that provided us great memories. In May we hit Silver Dollar City (Branson, MO), Six Flags St. Louis, Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, MO) and Adventureland (Altoona, IA) and rode a ton of amazing rollercoasters and made a bunch of great memories. In April, she visited me in Orlando and we enjoyed our time relaxing, as well as attending a boat wedding in Ft Myers and visiting Busch Gardens Tampa for the first time together.

Revisiting my earlier comment about Minnesota not being in my visit plans this year, July would provide quite a life change that was far from expected in that we made the decision that the best thing for our relationship was for me to move to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. And so it was, I packed up all my stuff into my little 2-door, threw away what I didn’t need, and hit the road on a 3-day, 25hr, 1,600 mile drive to Shakopee, MN.

On the way I stopped in Louisville, KY to stay and visit with my cousin Brett. it was great getting to see him as it had been awhile since we hung out. The second leg began with a quick stop at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and ended with a stay with my friend Scott in Chicago, and the third leg began with a quick trip to Six Flags Great America. Finally arriving in Minnesota, I was afforded the opportunity to meet Kara’s mom for the first time. It was so great to be back with her, and I felt fortunate to finally get to meet the amazing woman who raised her.

My time spent in Minnesota has been all of a culture shock, a great learning experience, frustrating and amazing all wrapped up in one snowy package. For one, I LOVE the food here! Cheese curds are my new favorite snack/appetizer. I’ve got a new top 3 favorite restaurant in BD’s Mongolian Grill, and all the dives I’ve experienced have been amazing as well. If there’s one thing I’m gonna miss the most about this state, it’s the food.

What I’m not going to miss is the way everything is done. It took me six weeks to get my driver’s license. The highway system is absolutely absurd and whoever designed the roadways here needs to be shot. Also, there’s a saying here about people and it’s called “Minnesota Nice,” as in people are nice to your face and not so nice behind your back. I’ve definitely noticed that this is alive and well in a few instances, but there have been a few people I’ve met that this does not apply to. In fact, there’s a couple people who I’ve become friends with that I’ll actually miss.

In August (and again in October) we visited the Wisconsin Dells for Mt. Olympus, Timber Falls and general touristy stuff. That place is just amazing, and is easily one of my favorite places to visit now. Also in August we visited the Minnesota State Fair where we gained 20lbs each gorging on anything-on-a-stick (my favorite was Hush Puppies), checking out the portable rides and seeing Quietdrive in concert. We also witnessed (for about 3min before we got sick and had to leave) a cow giving live birth to a calf.

Let me tell you about how amazing Kara is. She’s never been a big football fan, but liked going to games for the tailgating and cheers. She had never experienced southern football, and my parents warned her that when football season began to be prepared for how crazy I am about it. She handled it like a champ. She put up with every Saturday being dedicated to sitting around with 4 games going at a time, and she was very considerate of my requests. She took to heart the fact that I couldn’t call up a bunch of friends at anytime to come over and watch the games, and did everything in her power to be understanding and enjoy the time together.

For the first game of the season we met up with the Twin Cities Gator Club and met a bunch of people and got to watch the game surrounded in orange and blue. It really made the transition a lot easier for me. The following week we headed to Michigan where we spent a day at the Michigan State-Central Michigan game, touring East Lansing and meeting up with a couple of her friends. We spent the rest of our time in Michigan visiting with her family, jet skiing on Lake Michigan, visiting Michigan’s Adventure and getting to know where she came from. It was an amazing trip and one I’ll never forget.

In this time I also tried getting back into school. I was determined to do it, enrolled and started taking classes at ITT before realizing that it was a sham and I got out before I took a hit. It felt good to get back in school, but that just wasn’t the right way to go, and after reading through other people’s experiences, I’m extremely happy with my decision to get out when I did. I also got a job here working at Dick’s Sporting Goods, which has been fun in that I’ve gotten to meet a couple of friends and have had, for the most part, fun getting out and doing something.

Thanksgiving we spent in Florida visiting friends and family. Our time was split between Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Orlando. I’m not gonna go all into this trip since I wrote a long post on this site recapping that amazing week, but suffice to say, I couldn’t have wished for a better holiday. Christmas was spent alone as Kara went back to Michigan to spend it with my family, and I had to stay in Minnesota to make up for not working over Thanksgiving. And New Years was a nice, relaxing night of having some champagne, playing Battleship and celebrating EST and CST New Years. It was a great time, and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate the New Year.

So what now?

WE’RE MOVING BACK TO FLORIDA!!!

I can finally talk about it! Two weeks from today we will be hitting the road and heading back to Orlando. Kara has finally had it with the winters here and wants to pursue her dreams of palm trees, grad school and a dream job. I’m grateful for finally getting out of this state. It’s been a great experience and I’m thankful for getting the opportunity to live in another state and experience a whole new world, but my roots are calling and it’s time to go home.

2009 will go down as the best year of my life, and with the upcoming changes, 2010 should be just as good if not better. I can’t wait to get back to Florida, and I especially can’t wait to live there with Kara. She turned me into a northerner, and now she gets to be transformed into a southerner.

That alone should make the year one to remember.

Hello, Hello, Allow me to re-introduce myself

It’s been a long while since I’ve sniffed this thing…

Life is going great on most counts. I’m still as in love with Kara, if not more, but the day to day yearning is growing stronger. My trip to Canuckville went very good, aside from being cut a week short. We made millions of memories, had tons of fun and miss each other immensely now. Hopefully it won’t be too long before she moves down here, otherwise, I’m not sure when the next time we’ll get to see each other is.

The job search is essentially stalled, and in saying that I don’t mean I’m not looking, I just mean there aren’t many options around right now. The down time has given me plenty of time to meddle in Photoshop, however, and I’ve been experimenting with new methods and learning new things I’d never touched on before. It’s taken me a long time, but I’m starting to feel like I finally have a bit of direction in my life. And while Kara has been a huge contributor on guiding me that way, I just wish I had listened to my parents years and years ago when they kept telling me that’s what I needed to be doing.

Nussastic: The Site, not The Blog, will be launching relatively shortly. It really is nothing incredible on the coding side, as I’ve realized my potential isn’t in web work (too much programming for me) but I’m very happy and proud of the actual design, so hopefully I’ll get that up and running in the near future.

It was great to get to see my best friend Chris on Monday. He came down to visit SeaWorld with me for the day and it had been awhile since we’d hung out. Rob ended up meeting us there for a little while and I don’t know why, but it was a little awkward in that, Old-girlfriend-meets-new-girlfriend kinda way. Maybe it’s just the case when you’ve got two awesome friends who don’t know each other and have to co-exist. LOL, this whole paragraph sounds incredibly strange, and I can’t really describe what I’m trying to say. Speaking of SeaWorld, their new for 2009 Bolliger and Mabillard flying coaster, Manta, is incredible. I’ll go into details eventually on here.

I guess that’s about it for now. I will be getting back into the habit of posting on here, so keep reading.

Snap(ped) Back to Reality

Orlando.

The City Beautiful.

Where I grew up.  Where I’ve wanted to be for ten years.

And now I’m back, as you might have read already.

But I’m starting to feel kinda empty here.  My first month of living my dream was amazing.  Park-hopping, club-hopping, meeting new people and constantly having fun.  There was never a dull moment, and I now fear that that first month sort of ruined my perception of life down here.  Now that the money is running (very) low, and I’m not doing as much as I was at first, times are relatively depressing.

I’m still visiting parks constantly, but there’s only so much of that one can do before it starts to become old hat.  Not working at the moment is starting to wear on me.  Cabin fever is starting to sink in.  I loved being able to go out every night and check out the nightlife at a bunch of different, new, exciting places; but now, with low funds and the inability to do so, that has obviously worn off a bit.

More-so than not being able to go have fun every night, is the simple fact that I’m just not doing anything.  Sure, I’ve been applying everywhere I can, honing my Photoshop skills, and having fun just hanging out with my roommate, but the stress of not having money is starting to wear on me.  Not being able to up and do something whenever I want to is beginning to sting.  As much as I love being here, it’s really painful to not be in the position to do what I want, when I want anymore.

I’m gonna ride out the storm.  There’s no way I’m giving up being here, it’s what I’ve wanted for so long.

I just wish something would happen, now.

Let’s Rewind A Bit

It’s been about a week since I’ve posted, and I wish I would have been more up on my Blogging, but it’s definitely time for a little Stevecap.

Thursday night I drove down to Orlando after my last day at the Department of Agriculture, and I spent the night at my grandparents’ house in Zellwood.  It was definitely nice to spend a couple of hours with them and catch up.  My grandma had surgery on her foot so she’s stuck in a wheelchair for awhile, but she was in her always positive self.  My grandpa has been taking great care of her, and that’s amazing to see in person.

Friday morning, I went into work to do a drug screen and my initiation into the profession.  My first impressions of the company were mixed.  I felt they had a great system set up, but I wasn’t really digging the whole 100% commission based income.  After talking to my dad about it, I calmed down a bit and realized if I just busted my ass, that everything would be fine.

I headed back to Tallahassee that afternoon and stopped at Chilis for about an hour for a Records reunion.  It was a lot of fun to see my old co-workers, catch up, make jokes and have a couple drinks.  Once I left, I went into overdrive to get ready for Kara’s arrival.  This is where things got a bit fishy.  Her plane was supposed to arrive in Tallahassee at 9:15pm, where I would pick her up from the airport, and we’d get ready to head out to Bullwinkles to meet up with a slew of friends for my going away party.

Well, weather didn’t want to cooperate, as storms in Atlanta delayed her flight just long enough to cause her to miss her connection.  In the end, she got placed onto the last flight of the night, via standby, and was set to arrive at 11:45PM.  The turnout for my going away was amazing, and I’m so thankful to have so many good friends, and  I’m so glad Kara finally made it in to meet everyone.

Saturday, her and I went out to my parents house for their first meeting and everything went awesome.  My parents loved Kara, and she said she felt the same about them.  Hopefully she’s not just blowing smoke up my ass.   That night I brought her to PoBoys for dinner and she got two meet a couple more of my good friends and we ended the night with Coldstone and cuddling.

So with the terrible weather in Atlanta, we altered our plans and headed to Orlando on Sunday and met up with Rob and Dan at Universal.  Spent a couple hours goofing off, staring at construction, riding Mummy and being pissed off at the Lost Continent and Dueling Dragons.

Monday was spent at SeaWorld, and it was a great, relaxing day.  We rode Kraken a few times, posed with a character.  I finally got my Shamu Express credit, and we had a nice, romantic Shamu strawberry bowl with the ducks.

So what happened next?  Extra Kara time!  Her plane got delayed AGAIN and that gave us an extra 12hr together.  To be honest, the whole thing at first was pretty tense.  Neither of us knew what to really do.  The following day was my first at work, and her new flight wasn’t until 5:15am.  After a bit of emotional discussion, we came to an agreement and ended up having a great night together, and one last couple of hours of cuddling.

Dropping her off at the airport was definitely emotional, and from the second she walked away I already felt a little lost.  It’s amazing how strong feelings can get for someone in such a short amount of time, and it’s so hard to only get a couple days with a person who means the world to you, only to go a month or more without seeing them again.

Tuesday at work was stressful.  From the get-go I just didn’t have the feeling for the job that it would be all that I was looking for.  The money was promised to be good, but aside from that, it wasn’t something that I could get excited about.  I was having serious doubts, but my friends managed to convince me it was just first day jitters.  They instilled hope in me and convinced me to stick with it, and I was determined to.

These past two days have been terrible.  I woke up Wednesday morning with a terribly sore throat, hot, runny nose, headache and very weak all over.  It only got worse as the day went on, and only now am I starting to feel a bit better.  I did get around to getting my address changed today, and I’m “moving into” Rob’s apartment tomorrow.  I quotisize that because all of my stuff is in Tallahassee still and I’m going to be sleeping on an air mattress for the first week, but it’s still gonna be fun.

So that’s my past week in a nutshell.  I’ve got a lot of deeper thoughts I need to get out and written down, but right now I just don’t feel like doing that.

Goodbye Desk

So I should be packing but I just wanted to procrastinate more than I already am.  Everything is so nuts right now, and it’s about to go into overdrive.

Tomorrow is my last day at work, and to me that effectively puts this whole moving thing into full steam ahead.  Everything is so bittersweet.

I don’t like the job, but I enjoy being there, if that makes any sense at all.  Since I started working there, I’ve been more in a kinda “keep to myself” mode, where as past jobs I was all about being the center of attention.  However, in the last couple months I’ve been getting to know a couple people better and establishing a couple of relationships and there are a couple of people I’m definitely gonna miss.

I’m also gonna miss my afternoon chats with my boss, who has always been open and helpful.  I’ll probably call her here and there to say hi and stay updated, she’s been instrumental on a couple of issues I’ve had and if nothing else I feel I owe her updates and such.

Every thing’s exciting and a bit nerve racking right now.  It always is starting a new job, especially doing something I’ve never done before.  I have faith that I’ll be able to attack it head on and succeed, but that doesn’t make things less anxious…