After visiting Florida for a few days for the Toast wedding, I realized a couple of things.

1. Florida really isn’t so bad.
2. I have some really incredible and inspiring friends from my time in Orlando.
3. Oh, and I was lucky enough to meet my fabulous husband there, as well.
4. I love humidity.
5. I really, really miss warm nights.
6. And thunderstorms.
7. Heat lightning in particular.
8. Besides Alligators roaming around, you also have to watch out for Panthers in south Florida.  What is this crazy place?!?
9. I am more afraid of wild Panthers than I am of wild Alligators.
10. Life is better when you don’t have to wear a lot of clothes.

Brad and I left Florida in April of 2009 with a really bad taste in our mouths.  My singing dreams had been royally screwed by my joke of a record label, and Brad drove a car without air conditioning.

In case you have never been in a Volkswagen Jetta in Orlando in August with no air-conditioning, you know that these are both very good reasons to be bitter.

It took us three years and our best friends’ wedding to get us to go back to the Sunshine State, but as we flew into LAX yesterday morning, we both admitted that Florida really isn’t as bad as we’ve been remembering it…

…especially when you’re on vacation with some of your greatest friends in the world.

But seriously, it was nice to sit on a clean beach with clear water that you can just float around and relax in.  It was nice to wear little sundresses and not have to bring a jacket for a twenty degree temperature drop at night.  It was great hanging by the pool in a bikini with a glass of prosecco or a beer until well past the sun went down.  It was wonderful to walk around barefoot or even in sandals and not have my toes freeze off.  It was awesome to not use a blowdryer and just get my natural wavy hair on in the crazy humidity.

And even if I barely got the chance to take advantage of it, it was nice to be in the same time-zone as my family.  It makes you feel like you’re a little more in sync with them even when you’re still really, really far away.

So today I’m a bit cranky, sitting here in my running clothes, trying to will myself to run off some of those vacation calories and trying not to think about how I have to go back into work in four hours.  But I’m editing photos from a beautiful and romantic wedding and I’m enjoying the tan that I managed to soak up Saturday on the beach.

And I’m super thankful for the lack of Panthers in my neighborhood.

Back to reality…

xoxo