“If I bring my own baggage to the relationship and it doesn’t fit in your trunk, we aren’t going on a trip together“

As heard on the radio the other day.

Context to the quote: I was on my way to work Wednesday morning and happened to stop on a random dial. They were knee deep in talking about zodiac signs, more specifically, Gemini people and how weirdly crazy those representing the twins are. There was a poll on the morning show's social media page about people dating Gemini's and what the thoughts / opinions are of those relationships. Allegedly people under that star sign are more apt for crazy / behavioral problems and those who date them are apt for wanting arguments. 

Doesn't this describe a lot of relationships? 

So the show kept going on about the details of said zodiac, and they gave their own personal examples. One of the hosts said that usually the other person has the baggage in the relationship, but real talk: if he brings his own baggage (and they could have it too, who knows), and it doesn't fit in the trunk of the person he's about to spend time with, neither are going road tripping together. 

Makes sense.

Everyone has their shit they deal with. Everyone brings some sort of luggage to a new relationship, whether it's a clutch, a carry on or a 10 piece suit. I've not met anyone who says they are drama free in any aspects of the courting. 

Funny how I randomly heard that, and a day later, would have conversations with two different friends about family, friends, jobs, ships... a list of opportunity that kind of related to the morning news I heard on my way to my daily adulting experience. 

I'm not going to get in to the conversations I had with my friends, except I'll say this: Emi told me rather bluntly that "jobs can be like dating in a way. Takes cycling through them to find the right fit". Spoken like she's been hanging around a psychiatrist (or someone within the human mental health field) too long. Hi Stephen. ☺

As this week ended with "National Eat More Pizza [or enter your other food here] Day", I spent the poultry holiday with family, much like we've done for most of my life. 

Taking the 90 minutes drive north, we spent time with a dog, Chester. 

We filled our bellies on Thursday and did some shopping on Friday. 

Between the food superstore I seem to usually spend $15-20 in (and walk out with quite a few tastings ... in bags .. of things), craft stores (I bought nothing), an Amish owned / themed super market (farm fresh) that I tend to spend about $25 in (this time I attempted to buy some things I've not tried before. Like the Om branded super powder* and the SunWarrior Pumpkin Spice Protein Powder*). 

I know Tay would yell at me if I looked at all the mushroom blends and didn't attempt to buy one, since he's big into Chaga and the like. So after standing at the shelves and staring at the products, I went with the Superfood Master Blend because it has all the things listed he talks about. So Tay, if you're reading this, be happy I bought it. I don't plan on trying it until I finish all the open products I already have (I've got stuff that has been sitting in my cabinet for the better part of a year, so I'm finally mixing it with my normal powders). The SunWarrior was different, and I figured I'd try it. 

Continuing the shopping expenditure, we made our normal Costco run and finally decided enough was enough. It's time to go home and rest for a while before we went out and did more shopping (Best Buy, other craft stores) and see the lights (not along Broadway, thank you).

I didn't get a lot on my camera because we were driving and by the time I got everything hooked together, cars were in the way. Plus, the sun was setting and the lights were changing colors every 30 seconds. It was hard to concentrate. 

Plus, Christmas lights on palm trees will never be the end of the year holiday for me while being in the Sunshine Wang State. Anything past Halloween in a tropical climate ≠ "festive" "cold" holidays. Sorry Not Sorry. Florida is not my home and seeing fake snow and falsely wrapped presents under store bought (boxed) trees that you pack away in a storage unit, is not the same as being in 30 degree, sterile feeling (until it's dirty) fluff in the front yard. Tay tells me things all the time about how he has a rather high disregard to the tropical climate I live in, and he's right. So it'll be a matter of time before I end up back there for holidays. 

Hopefully.

So back to my posting and off my tangent ramble..

By the time the day ended, I went to bed early. Not to mention the fact I had taken a 2 hour nap prior to going to the afternoon shopping spree, but I wasn't up to watching more movies. 

Today we got up to fog, and needed to kill time to be able to get home. 

Pre-fog pictures (for comparison, taken on Thursday):

Fog pictures (taken this morning):

After all said and done, now being home for a full 7 hours and change, what am I thankful for, as this is the week of appreciation?

I'll tell you when I figure it out.

Until then, take care of yourselves.

Cheers;

See also (aka the * in the above)

• Om Mushroom Superfood Master Blend Mushroom Powder Supplement via Amazon (it's a few dollars cheaper here than what I paid at the market. Damn. ☹)
• Vegan Protein Powder with BCAA | Organic Hemp Seed Protein Gluten Free Non-GMO Dairy Free Soy Sugar Free Low Carb Plant Based Protein Powder | Pumpkin Spice 7 SRV 175 G | Warrior Blend by Sunwarrior Via Amazon (it was on sale at the market, so I paid a third of what Amazon is selling it for currently [$14.97])
  

See Also (aka what I used for pictures and editing. All edits were for focus and my watermark. Nothing else. The black and white grain was done in house - in the camera setting)

• Canon EOS Rebel T7i DSLR Camera with 18-55mm Lens via Amazon (every time I go back now to link for it, the page shrinks. The camera is now renewed or sold via third party since there's an updated model).
  
• Photoshop CS5, which too, is an outdated model. Try searching for it on Amazon, and you wind up with books, manuals, training videos, aftermarket sellers, generic software... the list goes on. Search for Adobe Photoshop on Amazon and you get Elements 2023 and options for monthly memberships for Photoshop and Lightroom bundled together. I think I'll stick with what I got while I still got it. 

Don't be dense, fog

 Today was one of those days when the clouds were a bit sleepily drunk and decided to meet the road. 

A "dense fog" rolled in and the first thing I did when I saw it all: Grab my camera. Second thing I did (while editing [only my name and a slight sharpen - no other edits]): Start singing the theme from M*A*S*H.

Using my handy dandy Canon EOS Rebel T7i camera, I alternated between the stock lens and the zoom lens. Again, I didn't do any formal editing, but I just did a quick sharpen and put my name on the photos in Photoshop. Then I put them here. 

I also (finally) got one of the group meetings with all the birds on the street lamp across the way. It's not all of them, but there's definitely enough to wonder what's going on. Luckily there is no one screaming for help on my end of the tree line. 

It's just weird to be almost 12 days until the big stuffing event of the fall season, and we have low hanging clouds. Where's the snow? We just had a hurricane and then a tropical storm, and now we have fog. It's about 80 degrees out, so the mess will clear quickly. 

But still... It's the middle of November. We should be having cold, not hot and rainy. 

I've been in Florida for 11 years now and it still bothers me we don't have a change of season. So seeing no opportunity for anything outside hot, is never going to make me "love" this place. Its like Tay informs me (a lot), I "live in the tropics and by doing so" you can't pay him enough to even visit. He doesn't like the fact it's always hot and humid and when I tell him we had a day of 60 degrees, he still thinks that's too hot. Plus, I honestly think that winter / Christmas is not the same with lights on palm trees and no snow. That's a Hollywood movie... fake news. I want snow and lights and winter trees. 

I also want to get in the shower because I'm supposed to meet someone in 90 minutes. Oops for just looking at the time! 

Cheers

See also:

* Suicide is Painless - "Theme from M*A*S*H"

* Canon EOLS Rebel T7i - keyword search on Amazon. It's already an old camera, so there are bundles, but not a lot (the push now is for the 8).

* Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens