In Like a Lion and Out Like a Lion

The bird of paradise (above) is/was just outside my front door. The are everywhere, as well as mango trees, parrots, and big and little iguanas. This April was one of the windiest I can remember. The weather has been beautiful – in the 80’s during the day and upper 60’s at night. Perfect beach weather. However, if you stay too late and the sun starts going down, it gets chilly quickly. I’ve kept a sweatshirt in my car all month. There have been days that it was entirely too windy to sit on the beach. Talk about micro-dermabrasion! Someone gave me an umbrella, but when it’s windy like that, you can’t use it. I’ve been doing lots of reading this month. I keep going back to James Patterson. Every book I read of his seems to be better than the one before. The most recent one I read was called “Quickie”. It was so good, I sat up until 3:00 a.m. to finish reading it. I’ve also discovered another writer, JD Konrath. I thought she was a woman until recently. All of his books are named after cocktails, like “Dirty Martini”, “Rusty Nail”, and the most recent “Fuzzy Navel”. The books all have the same heroine – a detective named Jacqueline Daniels. “Jack Daniels” – get it? If you decide to read them, try to read them in the order in which they were written. Some of the characters from previous stories show up. ESPECIALLY in “Fuzzy Navel”. My social life has been pretty dry this month. Lunches with MO and watching DVDs with Roomie have been the highlights of my social scene. That’s okay, I’ve been able to get a lot done. Everything I own is in boxes or bins and ready to go to storage. All that’s holding me up is Roomie. I keep trying to get him to help me get that huge TV out of storage so I can start piling up boxes. Of course, I’ve only been after him since February. Sheesh – I feel like a nagging old wife sometimes. So –I’ve decided that if he wants to live with boxes in the foyer, so be it. I took on a “project” in February. I met this man, “Techno” through Craigslist. He was looking for a walking partner, so I contacted him. As it turns out, he lives only a few blocks from me. We started walking on a daily basis and what started as a five minute “stroll” has turned into either a 20 minute power walk or an hour long walk at a slower pace. We walk in parks or around his apartment community. I spent Easter week-end with his family and was welcomed with open arms. We’ve kind of adopted each other as family. He has made significant progress, but still has quite a way to go yet. He’s a wonderful guy who has introduced me to the world of “techno” music, which has certainly been an education. He hosts a show over the internet on Friday evenings, and it’s turned into a semi-talk show. I kid him about the music being “noise” and he tells a story about that particular song. It’s kind of a “good cop, bad cop” scenario and lots of fun.