Yesterday evening, I went to the beach, and the breeze was absolutely wonderful.
It got down to 58 degrees last night, although the temperature at the time that we were there was just under 70.

Lately, I've been kind of bored with my city, Tampa. Its industrial complexes, its sky-rises, its countless shopping malls, all serve to increase the plasticity of this area. One road starts to look like the other, and before long, you might as well be driving down the street in some road in Columbus Ohio or some shit.

But last night, after driving out to Treasure Island beach, and walking out on this sugar white sands, and staring out at the Gulf of Mexico, I realized why I still love this place. Amid the forced re-urbinzation projects, the uber-glistening towers of greed and prosperity, and the clear signs of gentrification at nearly ever corner, there are still tacky scatterings of Tiki bars, old bungalos painted wildy ugly colors, pink wooden flamingos used as yard decorations, and palm trees decorated in Christmas lights.

There is still the gulf of fucking Mexico, always seafoam green or aqua blue. Always shallow, and always teaming with wildlife.

Next weekend if the weather cooperates, I will be going out on a boat with my buddy up and down the Manatee River--the real Florida, with it's hidden mangrove swamps, it's various crystal clear fresh water springs, and it's aligators, manatees, and birdlife, must be viewed from a boat or kayak. This alone keeps me in love with her.






Where do you live, and what do you love or like about it? What do you not like?





tripple its edit
[Edited 11/4/07 9:17am]

I havnt even had coffee yet.

Muse2NOPharaoh said:

Did you type that in your darth vader voice?

Imago said:

Why arent you here getting me coffee huh?

Muse2NOPharaoh said:

:flockoffingers:

This thread is worse than my Alphabet game thread, , and almost as bad as Carries baking thread.

I live in a lil' town in south Georgia...I hate it because of the overall small mindset that goes along with it...the people here tend to take the samll town charm thing a lil' too far...I can appreciate maintaining a certain way of life but the refusal to accept the fact that it's not just local people living her is ridiculous...



I love it 'cause it's a great place to raise a family...there is alot of natural beauty here too with the river and nearby swamps...plus being here keeps me close to most things that I like...Savannah is only on hour north of me...the beach is 45 minutes east and I can reach the Florida line in about 45 minutes as well...

I live in NYC (brooklyn) and absolutely love it!
Nobody has pizza like New York pizza . Anything u want or need is right within arms reach. I love almost everything about it. Museums, Madison square garden, mutha effin times square, hot dogs and pretzels off the street, coney island in the summer time, radio city music hall in the winter.

I use to hate riding the train when I was younger. I kinda like it now. Different people, all colors and sizes. I even like the old perverts who try to grope me on the subway platform

There's only one thing about NYC I dislike. The school system is fucked.

roodboi said:

You must be close to Jacksonville. A city with a certain amount of charm, but alot of tackiness too

The surrounding countryside if I can recall is quite beautiful.


From where you are, do yo have the red mud? I remember living in Alabaster, Alabama, the mud was very red.

Imago said:

yep, I'm close to Jacksonville...I used to work there as a matter of fact...

there is tons of red clay here...there are several place here where all you see is red clay...no dirt whatsoever...

roodboi said:

I remember the last time I went to Birmingham, it rained and I cold smell the red clay. It has a very unique smell to it (not nasty or gross), but you stop noticing it when you live there. After being away and visiting, I could smell it, and it brought back alot of childhood memories.


I'm not crazy about the south as far as living there, but I concede it's absolutely gorgeous in places.

I love the change of seasons.
I love the fall colors, the smell and crunch of leaves under my feet in fall.
I love the sense of community in a big snowstorm, walking with friend through the snow for a beer, getting stuck in the street and having 4 neighbors run out to dig and push you out.
I love how everyone comes out of the woodwork in the spring, suddenly absolutely everyone is outside walking, that every restaurant that has a sidewalk has some outdoor seating and those fill up first and fast.
I love that there are at least 3 outdoor festivals going on every weekend through the summer, all of them with some kind of live music.
I love all the little neighborhood indie businesses.
I love that you can live on or within walking distance of a lake and still get to work within 20 minutes.
I love that Minneapolis is a tiny big city. Or an extremely large and cosmopolitan small town.
I love our midwesteren sensibilities, our good manners, politeness, lack of pretension...
I love our arts community, our love of music, theatre, etc.
OMG, I love a bazillion restaurants.
I love our long-standing politically liberal traditions.

I live in Philadelphia.....sorry can't think of much to like about it!
But I'd love to live in Florida, or Las Vegas

CarrieMpls said:

I just don't get this whole spring concept. We like sooooo totally come out of the woodwork, like so totally year round and stuff.




I love SugarGigi's Iced caramel soy lattes

wlcm2thdwn said:

Never actually been in the city of Philly itself, but I lost my favorite baseball cap in the Air Port


What local things do you love about it?

Ok I am drinking coffee now... I should be civil in a few moments.

Muse2NOPharaoh said:

relative to?

Imago said:

Everyone except you!
[Edited 11/4/07 8:59am]

Imago said:

And because of that, you don't appreciate it nearly as much. If you can do it all the time, it's no big deal anymore, now, is it?

Besides, there are a LOT of fun things to do here in the winter. Have you ever had a snowball fight? Gone snowshoe-ing through a maple forest? Ice skated on a deserted lake? There's plenty of indoor fun besides, but then I suppose the majority of the population of the state become alcoholics 3 months out of the year.

Muse2NOPharaoh said:

I totally saw the "Dan, I can't stand it anymore, and need to express my undying love to you..." post before you got cold feet and decided to edit

CarrieMpls said:

1. I had a snow ball fight in Germany. It pissed me the fuck off. Absolutely HATE being pegged by cold flying bundles of ice.
But I like the way the ladscape looks covered in snow, and we mad "makeshift" ghetto sleds and slid down a hill on them.

2. As for the other two activities, I have no clue what they are, or if they're even compatible with kayaking.

I think we are planning our spring break beach house rental in Fl this april

Gulf Islands National Seashore

Imago said:

I do love you! You are a vey good friend... I may have tried to kill you but then the coffe showed up and I mellowed out!

Imago said:

You can kayak about 5-6 months out of the year. You can ski (downhill or cross-country) and snowboard and snowshoe and ice skate and even sailboard (or whatever it's called) across the ice in the winter.

You used the wrong kind of snow for the snowball fight. You need the light and fluffy yet slightly damp stuff. Oh yeah, there's a proper snow for snowballs.

And how do you enjoy cold-weather food and beverages without cold weather? Like hot chocolate and chili and mulled wine and meatloaf (vegan or otherwise) and baked goods and such? I would never dream of having any of those if it were above 50 degrees. It's just not right!

CarrieMpls said:

Sold!

CarrieMpls said:

The next time we get light fluffy snow, folks around me are gonna get PWNED!!!!


I just don't understand why anyone would want to drink hot chocolate when there are so many delicious tropical smoothies to choose from. And meatloaf and baked goods all go great with mango chutney.

Florida sucks... its a sweaty swampy human wrecker.

Muse2NOPharaoh said:

If not for Florida, I wouldn't be the person I am!

I live in Rockland county, just north of NYC. I like it because of it's proximity to the city. The scenery is beautiful . . . mountains, lakes, lots of trees, and shit like that . I hate it because there is nothing to do here