Finally sun!

We leave for Ohio tomorrow morning. It’s mostly been cool (or downright cold) and often rainy during our trip. We had one nice day after we arrived (when we visited Epcot), then yesterday (still cool) and today (which hopefully will break 70 degrees). The rest of the week is supposed to warm up further and be Lovely.

Sigh.

Sometimes life ain’t fair.

But then, this is what I remember Florida being like. My family lived for a year or so in Florida when I was little. I think we were in St. Petersburg and Sarasota – the same side of the state as we’re on now, though further south than Crystal River (where we’re staying). Despite the stereotype of the pleasant ‘Florida lifestyle’, I remember that year in Florida as being rather cold and rainy. I don’t remember playing on the beach in the sun, but I do remember sitting in the car looking over the beach toward the ocean, eating lunch and listening to the heavy rain. I also remember whining about that rain, because I wanted to get out and play in the sand! Some things just don’t change; here I am, some 23 years later, complaining that I can’t go play on the beach because of the weather.

I also remember the Montessori school I attended. I don’t think I learned much, but I had the most fun in school there that I’d ever had, and perhaps more than I have ever had in school.

During that time, we were staying in the house of the recording artist that my father was supposed to be working for. But the artist’s manager went back on his promise (or outright cheated him, I’m not sure) and didn’t pay him, despite having hired him and moving him (and later the rest of us) from Nashville to Florida. So we had no money, no place to live, no immediate means of support. The artist’s family was living elsewhere (perhaps out of the country) for an extended time, so out of sympathy we were invited to stay in their house for a while. We stayed several months – I think six months or so? – during this exceedingly stressful time for us. I even remember celebrating Christmas there. We had a tree, but it wasn’t our tree, so it (like most of the house) was both familiar and personal but still alien. I don’t remember much about that Christmas, other than the tree, but I doubt it was a happy holiday.