Little fish, little fish, swimming in the water

I have a new routine. Every morning, before the sun gets too high, I wander down to the seawall at the harbor next to the sandbar and watch very small fish being eaten by larger fish (mullet and the small sheepshead that hang out by the pylons). I do this for at least five minutes, and I think it's kind of cathartic and peaceful. It reminds me that the world around me keeps going in its own natural rhythms, no matter what else is happening during my nine-to-five. It's my little moment of zen. Of course, everyone I've told thinks it is more than a little strange, and my response has been to just shrug and figure it beats getting blotto at lunchtime to save my sanity. Orrr...maybe it doesn't.

Someone asked me yesterday if I'd seen the alligator lately, and I had to admit that it has been a while. Yes...we have had an alligator living in our harbor. And it was a great one-two punch back in the day when our old manager was here, because he had a deep abiding fear of both gators and hurricanes. So we tormented him more than a little every hurricane season with up to the minute tracking of projected landfall predictions. I used to post the NOAA images for the really big ones as my desktop background when I sat in the reception area, so that every time the boss walked past my desk he saw that giant spiral of ominous weather staring back at him. We also used to put pictures of alligators up in his office as a prank, and I secretly imagined that one day a storm would wash the alligator over the sea wall and it would end up in the first floor corridor for the boss to stumble over first thing in the morning (kind of like the alligator that recently showed up in a local woman's kitchen in the middle of the night). Oddly enough, that boss left to take a job even further south into the swampland.

"Oh hai...Candygram?" (photo: SP Times)

Oh - yesterday there was a courthouse shooting incident just a few blocks from where I'm sitting. I had no idea it had even happened until last night. Another summer in Florida - we have giant lustful reptiles...hordes of flying, stinging, biting insects...nuclear grade heat...and the unbalanced waking from their winter time stupors. But the beaches sure are beautiful! *smirk*

I'm trying to distract myself from the feelings of drudgery and despair that work currently inspire in me by focusing on upcoming plans and exciting goings-on. This weekend is Mother's Day. I'll spend tomorrow morning having "tea" with my son at school. Then I may play hookey for an hour to get a haircut (what - it's already submitted as part of my presonal leave request). I'm going to M's graduation party on Saturday and visiting my parents and sister that evening, too. Sunday is lunch with the in-law's. In a little over two weeks it will be my birthday, which will more than likely not be met with a whole lot of fanfare but will probably involve some drinking. By "some", of course I mean "a great deal". That will be a three-day holiday weekend and I'm trying to coordinate a trip to the zoo for that Sunday. Then at the end of the month is my husband's birthday (it's his turn to mark this year as the transition into being a "thirtysomething"), and a painting convention that my mom wants me to go to with her. And plans sometime this year to go to Universal maybe, the upcoming family reunion in Georgia, and a possible trip to Pennsylvania around Thanksgiving. So yeah - trying not to think about the quagmire of my "career", and focus on the things this job actually pays for (i.e. - following the philosophy "working to live, not living to work").