goodbye march ...

every March for as long as i've lived up north, i take as much time as i can to go home to Florida and just chill with my family ... i am lucky enough to have 4 generations in my family with my beautiful 90-year-old maternal grandmother at the top of the family tree. and this year the addition of my adorable new niece, now 6 months old, made it especially fun. As an added bonus, March is always a great time to get out of New England - Florida gives me the light therapy recharge that i need to make it through the rest of the brown cold days until that long-awaited spring finally arrives in Massachusetts (April showers and May flowers is the truth up here - it's a long homestretch!).

so this year's trip, along with all of March, is now history. as always, it was a great trip - but this year we had huge swings in morale along the way: from the lowest lows (a vicious stomach flu for my daughter) to the highest highs (like that adorable baby niece) ... and did i mention that we drove this year? like in a car. i admit it's tough to make a 3,000 mile road trip with kids fit into 13 days, and this year's complications (the flu, the flat tire, ugh) were no help. but ... in spite of it all, my 2 wonderful daughters and i emerged as jedi road warriors. it helped that we've already logged thousands of miles together - we love the adventure of the open road, we love the time spent together (playing road games or giggling over funny stories), and we love to take time to stop in to see old friends in various places along the way ... and that makes all the difference. so in spite of it all, it was another great March for us lucky ladybugs!

the only price to pay for taking half the month the off is that the bills, the phone calls, and the emails don't stop - getting back to reality always seems so unfair!

over and out ...

This past week swallowed me right up ... have you ever had one of those weeks where your calendar was filled back to back to back with barely a chance to breathe in between? I've been having one of those weeks, filled with commitments one after the other after the other like the perfect storm - out of bed before 7 am for the last 10 days straight (including my one and only sleep-in Sunday, boooo), I'm exhausted - and so ready to get off the hamster wheel! At this point I'm less than 36 hours from heading south ... so it's time to shed the schedule, pack the bags, and start feeling lucky as a ladybug!

('juju' wheelie bag by dante beatrix)

It's a 2-week trip, so I won't be back to this computer until March 28 ... pure bliss! By then I hope to be recharged and ready to restart this blog with a bang - so until then ... xoxo

you can take the girl out of Florida ...

... but you definitely can't take the Florida out of the girl! And don't I know it by the time March arrives each year ... I just wasn't cut out for these New England winters. As for me, I was lucky enough to have been born and raised in Palm Beach County Florida - and not many people my age can say that they were born in South Florida ... I'm not even sure that the small pink hospital I was born in had an official maternity ward back in the day. What's more amazing, even my parents were old timers to Florida: my mother was born in Key West 64 years ago - so she's a true original.

Unless you knew it first hand, it might be hard to picture the Florida of my childhood because these days, South Florida has become so overgrown that even I hardly recognize it. What we considered to be the useless swamplands waaaaaay west of town beyond the miles of orange groves that flanked the empty 2-lane roads have now become overbuilt with 6-lane roads flanked by strip malls and box stores as far as the eye can see. A total transformation. But when I was little, there were no highways and no traffic - just lush tropical surroundings and a neighborhood dotted with a handful of charming bungalow style houses. The coconut palms seemed to grow sideways, so this is what the tree climbing of my childhood was like:

(photo courtesy of alexandra rita)

We kept gorgeous tropical parrots in an outdoor aviary ... macaws, an african grey, and even a toucan named Valentino. We had a green dune buggy to drive on the soft sandy beaches. And my father's mother even had a wild monkey that lived in the giant banyan tree by her bedroom window ... he loved to take treats right out of your hand. I remember the beauty of the bouganvilla plants that grew everywhere ...

(painting by Mary Ann Ohmit)

... and the smell of the gardenia flowers in the air at nighttime as well as the sound of the coconut palms as they swayed and creaked with the wind - it was a really magical way to grow up. I'll always treasure it not only because it was so unique but because for the most part, that 'old' historic Florida is gone these days ... but in spite of all the development, a handful of the original buildings and businesses in my little town by the ocean still exist and in spite of the decades that have passed there are even a few members of the oldest generation who still frequent the beach clubs in their vintage Lilly's ... and every time I'm there I still feel at home. And in just 10 more days, I'll be home again ... 10, 9, 8 ...