Working from Florida

It's a nice change from the regular office this week. I worked from our hotel balcony this morning. I have to say it feels pretty good to be able to get work done nearly as efficiently as I would if I were in-office.. and that I can pretty much do it from anywhere! ha. But I doubt I should take too much advantage of that. (The second image is the view from our balcony).


The Orlando scene is an interesting one. People walk around with Disney characters on over-sized T-shirts, the restaurant food is really expensive, the entire industry here is TOURISM, and Jon had a Mickey Mouse shaped waffle this morning (which the batter tasted like sugar cone batter). I've never been to any of the parks here, but they do make me curious.. despite being very very expensive. I'll supposedly get a partial experience of it tonight for the "Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party" thing we're all going to tonight. Should be innnteresting...

Jon and I went for a walk last night around our hotel. I saw a cat sitting in one of the trees and it made me wonder, why did Disney only make one movie about cats and then pretty much ignored them after that one? I guess he isn't a cat person.. but then who is really a mouse person? ha. Weird.

Rita Hayworth Hair

I was just enjoying some photos of Rita Hayworth's hair. The trend today seems to be to straighten and perfectify hair making it appear flat, but hers is gorgeous even when it's obvious that little has been done to tame it's mass and poof. This makes me look forward to growing mine out to her length! It has a similar poof anyway. I can't wait to see what it does when it gets there.

Here's my progress so far ha:

Wow, I just realized that this is the first photo of me that I've posted wearing no makeup and not thinking twice about that fact before posting it. Guess all my crazy acne meds are actually doing somethin'!

ps I'm wearing Jon's shirt ha. It's my new around-the-house trend. It's like a constant hug :)

Rainy Stay-Inside-Feeling Saturday

I get annoyed by football sometimes. It's not always the game itself because it basically becomes white noise to me. I think it's the sucking-in nature of it for those who enjoy it. Since I don't, it feels like a waste of a Saturday for me, even on a rainy stay-inside-feeling Saturday being sleepy from accomplishing all the morning chores.

Instead I drove out in heavy rain (ponds on the road in some places) to go thrift/antique shopping to find a birthday gift for Mandy.

I love looking around good antique shops like Knitting Mill. The kind where not everything is way over-priced so you can feel like you actually have the opportunity to own cool stuff. I found a ton of awesome furniture that I would buy up in a second had we the room for it. I should have taken photos to show.. but there was a really neat dresser, and a cool "wing back" velvet lounge chair. There were also a number of neat desks and shelves and trunks and such.

I'm certainly going back one day when we have a house, with the intent to buy something neat.

I went by the mall afterward, which is a totally contrasting shopping experience for me. Every time I go to the mall I find NOTHING of interest. I find myself asking "why do I come here anymore?" Clothing styles are all the same: cheaply made for expensive prices. There are always groups of people who stand in the middle of the walkway trying to figure out what store to go to (move!) ha.. and then there's the kiosk salespeople trying to give you samples.. even if you've walked by them 3 times already. Don't make eye contact!

I decided that paying shipping for online purchases is worth avoiding the mall things. The only good part of my mall trip was the 6 peanut m&ms I got for 25¢.

Anyway, now I'm back home listening to football again. I want to play Intellivision games. Guess I'll take a nap.

Florida! Semi Sorta Vacation

We're going to Florida next week! Orlando. Never been there. Jon has a conference through church and I'm going along for the ride. I'll still be working since I can't really take all that vacation time.. so we'll see how it goes working that remotely. It'll be nice to get out of the office for a while. Plus! we've got plans to go see Kennedy Space Center, with the Cape Canaveral tour. I'll bring my camera! So I'll be taking Wednesday off for that excursion, and be working from the hotel or the car for the rest of the time (Monday through Thursday)... aside from meeting people at the conference and going out to nice places to eat for free :)

I'm looking forward to the escape.

Mr. Meek Update: The Boutonnieres!

Starting up a small business can be quite a challenge, but for talented people such as my husband and our friend Josh (the worship pastor at the Vineyard) I think they have that certain charisma to make their band The Boutonnieres work for them.

Their focus is wedding live-bandery, as well as any other type of party event that could be enhanced by live music. Their unique selling point is that they offer live music as well as DJing and MCing.. as well as their sheer awesomeness.. that's a selling point right?

They had a booth this past Sunday at the Chattanooga Bridal Show where they handed out over 200 brochures and gained the interest of a number of potential clients. It was funny listening to Jon talk about being a salesman at this booth. I imagine him over-exaggerating being salesmanly, but he's pretty good.. he could probably sell an igloo to an eskimo... must be his friendly nature and trustworthy smile. The guys played live during the show, and had samples playing at their booth. They're good.

Josh came up with a pretty sweet suit ensemble: a black button-up shirt, black pants, white tie, white belt and a red boutonniere, made by Josh's wife Terra. I think having matching attire makes a band look really nice and professional, and it automatically creates an iconic nature - something that not a lot of bands do much anymore.


They've played a few gigs already, non-officially as the Boutonnieres, such as the Vineyard Thank You party a couple months ago, as well as at the Meek Wedding. I want to take some "pro" photos of them at their first official gig, which I believe is October 10, and a second on October 11 for some friends... but they need some nice representative photos for their website.

I'm excited. I really hope this endeavor works out for them.. I mean, people are always getting married and live bands are always more fun than entirely canned music.. plus I think it's a business the guys could really enjoy.