Saturday, November 27, 2010

can't think of a title because i have to go to the br...

greetings from not-that-sunny florida. flo rida. ha. it took me a long time before i realized that. if if it were sunnier, i'd want to go in the pool, but since its overcast, i'm fine sitting here in the ... atrium (?) of our condo complex on the internet. the internet didn't really work that well yesterday and that was super frustrating (no blogging or email checking!) so this morning i was going to head to a starbucks or borders to start using it. but my dad said he was going to try again, so i came with him and now its working. i'm downloading more podcasts and its taking forever, so that kind of sucks. AND i really really have to pee, but i don't want to get up and stop the downloading process. ha. there is a guy walking around me with an osu shirt on. funny.

anyway, in case i didn't mention before, i'm in florida because my little brother is playing basketball in this southern florida college tournament. we went to their first game yesterday and it was fun. they won, which always makes trips worthwhile. here is a press release on the game if you want to read about it (complete with a photo of player!!). this is probably the only time this year i'll get to see him play. sad. but glad that i get to at least be here for the game. there is another game today and i think we're going to head to tampa to check out the gulf and then stop at the game on the way back. oh! we're staying in kissimmee at some condo. i'll try to post some photos some other time. its kind of funny. my room is all mickey moused.

so last night i was a little frustrated. we wanted to find a place to eat mexican food, so i pulled up this android app that i have with restaurant reviews and whatnot. i put in orlando, even though we're staying in kissimmee. kissimmee, i've discovered, is not really my place. its full of chain restaurants, big box stores, and lots of annoying tourists who don't care about individuality and cute things. we went to "old town" the first night - for thanksgiving dinner - and it was ... ok, i guess. just like every other touristy old town i've been to (e.g. sacramento). we ate at a bar that i found on teh same android app and it sufficed, but wasn't really what i was looking for. typically this program has cute, independent restaurants who are trying to get their name out there. not big sports bars. whatever. so we try one more time last night. since i have NO CONTEXT of neighborhoods and menus or anything else, its been pretty miss and miss. no hitting.

as i was saying, last night, we head to orlando for dinner. the android app gave me an address which i put in to our tom tom when we were leaving lakeland, where player's game was. we hit the road and ... it was a LONG drive. and at night when it was dark, it was like driving in rural north dakota but with windy roads. so maybe rural wisconsin. it was slightly eerie. i was worried because the tom tom didn't know address numbers for the street we wanted, so i just clicked "any cross street." i have no idea how long streets are, where this place was, what area it was in, etc. i was hoping it was in downtown orlando or some cool area (not sure what downtown orlando is like). the whole time we're driving there, i'm thinking "please don't let us end up in the ghetto. please no ghetto." i was navigating while my dad drove with my uncle (he was a surprise for my brother!) and mom were in the back. we get off the highway (which was the cross street the tom tom chose) and... there not a lot around. we pull in to a gas station right away, with the guy behind glass. that always makes me think we're in a not-so-nice area. he doesn't know the restaurant (which i can't remember the name of and now my android app doesn't work and i couldn't pull it up). he suggests this one street which has a ton of restaurants on it. we go to it and its olive garden, chilis, long john silvers, perkins, etc. i'm really worried that my family is pissed that i've struck out TWICE with this stupid app. so when my uncle suggests "orlando bar" or something like that, i'm like "yes! let's go!" so we go inside and sure enough... bingo! it's a local chain, with a big menu, so not really my joint, BUT my family loved it because... dum dum dum... TVS EVERYWHERE. it was the ultimate sports bar. they even PLAYED the game on the loud speaker instead of music. so we had food and it wans't bad. i'm the designated driver, so i didn't drink and it meant i "got" to drive home (oh, we have a prius, btw - i love it!) and it was kind of freaky all the roads with no cities around. since i couldn't see anything other than the road, i imagined we were just driving over tons of swamps filled with alligators and crocodiles (wahts the difference again??) and that they were going to clamp on to our bumper and follow us home. i don't think it happened, so thats good. other than annoying phone apps, the trip has been good. player won his game yesterday, we're with family, the weather is not 40 degrees, etc. glad i came even if there isn't internet in our condo.

oh, but a few things are frustrating me currently:
  1. i can't find my copy of oz season 1. i KNOW that i lent it to someone because i wanted him / her / them to watch it, but i absolutely cannot remember who this is. i've asked the people who i think i would've lent it to, but no one seems to have it. anyone know??
  2. i had this video of a yoga pose that you do while you're stiting in a chair. you put your leg up on your knee and then bend over it and it lengthens your ... something. i think i've sent this video to people before and it is AWESOME, but i can't find the video online anywhere. grr. anyone have a video like this??
now i really have to go pee. peace out.

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