The Florida Adventure - Day Two

Good morning, Jet Lag. 

After a false awakening at 6am local time, I successfully almost got back to sleep until 7am (remember, that’s still 4am as far as my body was concerned).  I staggered out of bed, found Turner Classic Movies on the TV (couldn’t locate the local classical music station on the radio) and tried to wake up with a shower.  Well, it nearly worked.  I got up early in order to finish and post yesterday’s blog before 8:30 so I could meet my brother-in-law downstairs in time to be taken to their house for breakfast and plan-making and to be given the tour of their Villages home.

Their house is about 1950 square feet and looks really spacious, in part because it’s airy and open.  They’ve a kitchen with a breakfast nook, a central living room with all the other rooms leading into or coming off it.  That consists of the master bedroom (compact but it holds all their stuff) with attached bath (nicely sized, two sinks, shower with built-in seat) and sidle-in closet.  I say this because while it’s technically a walk-in closet, it really isn’t big enough for two peoples’ clothing – if each has a sizeable amount of clothing… apparently my sister and her husband have no trouble fitting in their stuff (she DID say they don’t have a lot of clothing).  It still looks a shade claustrophobic, though.  Well actually, on second thought, maybe it just looks small because they've got a lot of stuff stored in it.  Fair's fair.

Then there’s a dining alcove attached to the living room, and past that is a guest bedroom with a non-attached bath and this has a magic, trick bathtub/shower.  The tricky, magical thing about it is that in order to turn it from a bath to a shower you need to manipulate the actual tap from which the water flows – sort of give it a gynecological examination to encourage it to change to a shower.  No doubt it’s very efficient, but you’d need the deductive reasoning powers of a Sherlock Holmes to figure out how to effect this magic! (Luckily there’s a little explanatory placard on the wall. Who thinks these things up, anyway?

There are also 2 offices and a workroom, as well as a small, enclosed lanai and a “family room” which is referred to as a Florida Room, since it’s got more than its share of windows and light.  All in all a nice house, happily cluttered with comfortable, pretty furniture, artwork of many types displayed on walls and in cases all over, and several simultaneous projects in various stages of progress scattered hither, thither, and yon. 

After a light breakfast brother-in-law “B” took my sister-in-law “N” and me on a brief but needed shopping mission.  See, the wonderful leather shoulder bag/briefcase I had used for this trip self destructed (SO sad! It was a really great bag in its day) so I seriously needed a new shoulder bag, and “N” said she needed some sandals.  “B” patiently took us to a place called “Beall’s”.  Remember that name – there’s a story coming… 

“B” showed us recreation halls, shopping areas, town squares, various clusters (or “villages”) of houses and we became cheerfully lost in one quadrant or another.  The Villages is a big place – 14 square miles of developments and still growing.   Nicely landscaped with intermittent sprays of wetland or ponds or fields with horses or cattle grazing in them.  There’s even a polo club.  It sounds rather picturesque but I have to say it’s kind of sterile-looking at the same time.  The artificiality of it is kind of reminiscent of “The Truman Show” – it has building and quays that have character but the character is fictional.  For example, there’s a building in one of the “town squares” that looks like it was built 100 years ago, and it has a plaque saying how people lived there so long ago and what they did for a living, and it’s all fiction.  The house was built just a few years ago but it’s there to create ambiance and character.  Very Hollywood on-the-set sort of place.  Perhaps there’s such as thing as too much civilization.

After the personalized, guided tour (“N” and I may take an actual “Villages” tram tour tomorrow) we came back, had a quick bite to eat (when was the last time YOU had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?) and accompanied “H” to one of her photography club meetings (yes, she belongs to more than one photography club). 

This was held in a very professional manner with treasurer reports, agendas, suggestions, and votes which took about 40 minutes out of the two hour session allotted.   Luckily that portion of the meeting ended JUST before I fell asleep (I’m sticking to the Jet Lag excuse on this – don’t argue) and I stepped out to find a place to write this account.  The meeting is held in one of the recreation centers and luckily I found a water fountain and a table in the sunshine where I‘m writing this up while I wait for the meeting to end.

As expected, “H” is still quite the project lady and she and her husband are involved in so many activities and clubs that she prints up a monthly schedule for them so they don’t miss anything!  I doubt President Obama has this diversified a schedule!  Whew!   They showed me the weekly newspaper that announces the meetings for whichever clubs are getting together and invited me to choose some that I might enjoy attending.  Well, I’m not really a joiner and not good with crowds of people, so while I did peruse the enormously extensive listing I really didn’t find anything I felt I couldn’t live without.

Once the photography club meeting is over I don’t know if there are any further plans for the day – but I’m rather hoping not.  I’m looking forward to maybe a quiet supper and early back to the hotel to catch up on sleep.  I’ll finish this later tonight and see whether or not my wish came true.

----- and time passed -----

After the regular meeting ended “H” needed to have another mini-meeting so “N” and I sat together and had a long, sisterly chat about life the universe, and everything.  About another hour passed pleasantly before “H” returned.  It was about 4pm and “N” told “H” about wanting to go back to Beall’s.  We decided to do so and have a girlish hour of “SSHHOOPPPIINNGG”. 

Now, the way the logo for this chain of stores is written, the “a” in the middle looks like a stylized bell, and everyone we asked pronounces the store name as “Bells”. 

But we found an ad painted on the floor of the store itself spelled with that A in the middle, which would make it “Beal’s”, rhyming with “peels”.  Nope, everyone and their cousin called it “Bells”.  We were dissatisfied with this and protested to one another, though our honest protest did not impede our eagerness to shop.  “N” abandoned the idea of sandals and opted instead to look for jeans and shirts.  While “H” went to the “tiny-little-petite-sized-people-whose-shoulders-can-fit-inside-the-cap-of-a-two-liter-bottle-of-soda” department while “N” and I, who are the same generous size went to the “size-of-real-and-not-anorexic-women” department. Being that I didn’t want any clothing (and frankly didn’t see anything really I liked begin with) I suddenly became “N”s Personal Shopper.  See, for the longest time, “N” had insisted on wearing only black, and this had nothing to do with the death of my brother, her husband.  She just wears black all the time. She thinks she only looks nice in black.  Well, dammit, she’s wrong and I wanted to take her out of that little comfort zone and show her how she might add a little zing into her wardrobe and help her feel prettier (I know this problem SO intimately!).  First I found some V-necked shirts (in black, just to please her) and she agreed that she looked quite a lot better (she’s got a round face, like I do).  Then I found a nice grey and black one piece set with the top looking like a jacket. She looks splendid in it (I want to EASE her into new ideas here). 

 She had picked out a scoop-necked black top with pretty cutouts on the scoop.  It really did nothing for her but when I picked up the same top in purple and made her try it on she looked really good!  She was VERY uncertain but “H” helped out with her own, unbiased opinion.  She was busy trying on her “I’m-slimmer-than-one-of-your-thighs” clothes in the fitting room next to “N”s and came out to look.  She immediately agreed that “N” looked great in purple. 

Well, even three ladies can grow tired of shopping (eventually), and after an hour and a half we exited in triumph, picked up “B” at the house, and went to dinner.

Dinner was taken at a nice little Japanese restaurant. The food was pleasant (the miso soup was especially good) but we were all tired, so agreed that “B” and “N” will meet me in the hotel lobby tomorrow morning at 8:30 to have breakfast in the hotel. “H” has another meeting in the morning so she’ll miss the meal.  After that, the three of us might take that tram tour of the Villages I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, and then “B” is eager to show me the model homes.  It’s very heartwarming to see how much “B” and “H” want to share their joyous existence with me and mine – I only hope that if we ever do join them in Florida (a state we have never dreamed of living in) we can find as much delight in the place as they evidently do.

For now – a pleasant goodnight – more tomorrow!  J