Author Archives: Little Miss Sunshine State

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About Little Miss Sunshine State

A Florida Girl's Chronicles of her Kitchen, Crafts and Outdoor Adventures...

Jan. 10th: Freedom from Past BS

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freedom

That moment when you get a court order in the mail addressed to your ex and you realize what a loser he still is and how much you should thank your lucky stars that you’re no longer together:

  1. Because even 2 years after moving out he STILL hasn’t changed his address with the DMV and
  2. Because… he has a court order (same irresponsible idiot as always)

I may sound like a bitch but I was actually nice enough to put it in an envelope and mail it to his mommy so she can handle it for him….. 😉  Wouldn’t want karma to bite me in the ass or anything.

January 9th: Kids are so silly

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laughing kids

Today I’m thankful for working at a school because I LOVE being surrounded by children all day. Having worked as a psychotherapist for adults for most of my professional career, the past two years have been a welcome change for several reasons.

Kids aren’t jaded and they aren’t angry at the world.  They usually have no idea how hilarious they are when they are being totally serious and they are incredibly receptive and appreciative of your time and efforts.  I get all kinds of random hugs and greetings from children throughout the day.  They are always sincerely happy to see me and they get excited when they get to spend time with me… Pretty nice ego boost if you ask me!

Today, I ran into one of my little 3rd grade trouble-makers.  She has actually been behaving better this year so I’ve seen less of her lately (which is a good thing).  When I asked how she was doing, she shook her head so I asked her what was wrong… Her response was dramatic, as always, and she used one hand to cover her mouth in order to keep our conversation private and the other hand to point with her thumb.  “This one over here won’t let me get my colored pencils back and when I tell my mom, I’m going to get in so much trouble.”  She kind of sneered and rolled her eyes as she said this.

When I turned to see who she was pointing to, I realized that when she said “this one over here” she was, in fact, referring to her teacher.  I looked over to my co-worker, only to get a look from her that said “Dear Lord, help me.  This kid is driving me nuts!”  (but she said it aaaaaaalllll with her eyes, you know what I mean?) ….

Seriously though, how could I not laugh when this stuff happens?  She obviously got in trouble and had her pencils confiscated but… that little face, the melodrama, the seriousness with which she told me, and the way she was so confident that I would be the ideal person to tattle on her teacher to…. cracks me up!  LOL

January 8th: My sister, Georgette

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me and georgie bellydance

Today, I am most thankful for my sister, Georgette.  She is more than just my sister.  She is my best friend, my confidante, my advocate, my advisor, my biggest fan and my best consoler.

She is the one who shares my same little quirk of sighing after she laughs (which sends our friends into fits of laughter when we do it in unison unknowingly), the one who only has to look at me to know that I have some sort of deliciously cruel comment to say about something that we’ve just observed, the one that is able to finish my sentences after we’ve spent a lot of time together and the one who totally gets me (even if I don’t “get me” at the time.)

The relationship you have with your sibling is the longest you will have in your lifetime.  Who else can so deeply relate to you than a brother or sister who was possibly there when you were born, played an integral part of your earliest memories and will, hopefully, be there with you into old age after your parents are gone?

I love you lots xoxox.

Nicoise Salad: Dinner in 10 minutes flat

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nicoise salad

After I came home today, I was starving and wanted to put something yummy together quick.  Good thing I recently bought groceries and had fresh produce in the fridge so I was able to whip up this awesome little go-to salad for dinner. Its my version of nicoise salad. This traditional French salad has only a few simple ingredients:

Ingredients:

  • lettuce- I use romaine and sometimes mix it with arugula (roquette lettuce)
  • tomatoes- I prefer grape tomatoes or mini plum tomatos
  • steamed green beans- “steam in the bag” packages are ideal for this
  • black olives
  • boiled eggs
  • tuna- you can use canned or fresh but this can be eliminated all together because you have enough protein with the boiled eggs.
  • boiled potatoes- I always omit this. The salad if filing enough without it.

Directions:

  1. Put 2 eggs in a pot of water and bring to a boil.  The minute the water begins to boil, set your timer for 8 minutes.  In the mean time….
  2. On a plate, put a layer of your lettuce of choice as the base of your salad.  Simply place the remainder of the ingredients in sections on top (think, cobb salad)
  3. Make your dressing.  Here’s how I make my favorite Balsamic Vinaigrette

4.  When the timer goes off, peel the eggs and place on top of the salad.  See how the yolks are super yellow and don’t have that yucky green/ gray ring around them?!  That’s ’cause you didn’t over boil them!  No more than 8 minutes for the perfect boiled egg.

5.  Drizzle dressing and sprinkle some cayenne pepper if you’d like (and I always like.)

Basically, you just made dinner in the time it took to boil those eggs… Enjoy!!

nicoise salad with tuna

This is another nicoise salad I made myself a while back.  With this one, I included fresh tuna.  It tasted amazing but it was kind of protein over-load with the eggs.  Plus, it was very expensive….  food for though 🙂

January 7th: Super Yogi!

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superwoman

Today I am thankful for tricking myself into going to yoga class through my usual quirky and bizarre antics.

This morning it was cold…. Well, for the rest of the country 45 degrees isn’t cold but, for me, thats arctic.  As a result of the frigid elements, I decided I needed to layer.  Living in South Florida I, of course, don’t own long johns so the only thing I could think to wear under my pants were my running/ yoga capris…. and, since I had already gone so far as to wear the capris, I decided that I’d also go ahead and switch out my standard push-up for a sports bra. I stuck a dry wick shirt and a pair of flip flops in my yoga bag and headed out as usual.

Basically, the plan was that I’d rush over the the yoga studio the minute I clocked out from work and would arrive there minutes before the 4:30 class.  But, due to my clever planning, all I’d have to do is pull a “Clark Kent” and there, underneath my nerdy school uniform would be my rockin’ yoga outfit ready to go for Hatha Vinyasa, baby!…..  unfortunately, it was only until the 1 1/2 hour long class had finished that I realized I had been wearing my yoga pants inside out all day….  Not so cool.  “A” for effort, though?

January 6th: Back to the Grind

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download

Now, don’t think that I’m some kind of weirdo workaholic when I tell you this but, I was actually looking forward to coming back to work today after my two week winter break.  I WASN’T looking forward to getting up at 5:50am or driving almost an hour on the Turnpike to get there but, I was looking forward to getting back into my daily routine.

I enjoy feeling productive, feeling that I’ve made an impact in someone’s life even in the minimalist of ways.  I like that I can be creative daily and that I have flexibility to try new projects and ideas with the kids.  I also had fun catching up with co-workers and friends.

January 5th: Max

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Max is my little Yorkie-Poo.  He is sweet, attentive, affectionate and thinks that I’m the best dog-mommy ever.  He’s great at cuddling, always listens when I need someone to hear me out and is extremely excited to see me (even if I’ve only been gone for half an hour on a run).  He’s been my little shadow today and I love him ❤

“Big Boy”

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A lesson I learned rather quickly since joining an online dating site is that lack of sex and impedes men’s judgement on what is an appropriate vs what is an inappropriate thing to say to a woman to get her to go on a date with you.

Now, I am completely aware that there are many women on these sites who take “selfies”  while wearing low-cut dresses, doing the duck face and making a suggestive pose in the mirror and use this as their profile picture.  Basically, they’re clearly advertising their goods…  My profile picture is on the other spectrum of conservatism:  I had my sister take a picture of me in a black turtleneck at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, OK?…. got a problem with that?!  (in my defense, you can’t tell I’m at Disney and I was totally rocking that turtleneck.)

My point here is not to judge which picture is right or which one is wrong.  What I’m saying is that each makes a statement about the women they depict and what these women want out of being on the site.   And, to be honest, it doesn’t take a genius to figure this stuff out.  Unfortunately, some men are so desperate, sex deprived and/ or cocky, they lose their ability to judge which kind of woman is which and make some pretty poor choices.

Below you will find my profile pic (I TOLD you I rocked that turtleneck!) followed by an email commentary made by some middle-aged butt hole… (I copy and pasted it, typos and all)

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Middle-aged butt hole:

“Wow! one hot woman. def got my BIG BOY a goin over here . lol 🙂 Wes you look GREAT!”

My response email to the middle-aged butt hole:

“Got your big boy a goin”?   Really?….

No woman of value is going to respond well to perverted comments like that. Barking up the wrong tree buddy.

(P.S. I contemplated ignoring the email completely but I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut…)

January 4th: Personal Record and Injury Free!

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west palm 1:2 jan 4th

Today I am grateful for having broken my personal record at the Sunshine State West Palm Beach 1/2 Marathon without injury.  As you may remember, I have set a goal to beat my race times by one minute each race this season.  I have surprised myself by actually beating my PRs by 2 minutes for the past two races.  Today, I beat my last race time of 2:10:31 by 2m 31sec.  I passed the finish line as the race clock ticked at exactly 2:08:00.

I am so incredibly proud of myself and, to be honest, have never been more emotional at a race… Not even my Full in 2009.  I prayed last night, and throughout the race, that the muscle in the back of my left thigh wouldn’t seize up on me as it did last March during the Coral Springs 1/2 that I ran with my sister.  It was very painful and forced me to hobble past the finish and take about a month off of running afterwards.

This past week, the same muscle has been tight and achey and I have been panicking to myself about it because I have been training so hard and looking forward so much to possibly getting a personal record at this race.  It started to get a little sore and tight around mile 8 but I decided that “I’m not going to think, I’m not going to feel, I’m just going to fricken’ do it” … And I did! 🙂

January 3rd: My Goals

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Today, I am grateful for the ability to make and achieve my goals.  Tomorrow I have yet another race.  I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from my friends and family who know how much it would mean to me to p.r. (get a personal record). Whether I do or I don’t, I’m just excited to try… 🙂