Since coming to Florida, I’m guessing that I’ve walked between five and 13-ish miles a day, save the one day that it was raining and a couple of days I stayed in to catch up on work.
–   My mileage may vary, as I still can’t find the wire to charge the Fitbit, but today’s journey emptied out the portable batter and 50% more on top of that.  Despite my aching feet and unknown mileage, I’m pretty satisfied with the ground I covered.

Even more so than the ground, the lives I witnessed.

It was a rather warm day in St. Pete.  Warm, not hot.   Think of the low 80s with humidity, but a strong and way too occasional wind to keep things within tolerable range.  Not bad at all, really.

I started out fairly early.   Jason had a computer proctored test he had to take and I was afraid I’d distract or make some sort of noise that would cause the fail alarms to go off, so I started to head my way to the maul, taking my time and going via a longer path than I usually take.  Birds, butterflies, and other B words where in full swing.  I really didn’t see a lot of people, but that’s okay.  Morning isn’t really meant for people who can’t fully appreciate it.

Got to the maul and messed round with Pokémon Go for a while.   Yes, 40-ish somethings play Pokémon Go.  It’s okay, really.   And, apparently, there’s a lot who do.   The others tend not to be forthcoming as Ingress players, but that’s s’okay.   It really doesn’t take the intensity of Ingress, but still can be somewhat challenging.    Am looking forward to the May update to help keep it fresh though.

Anyways…  I spent the bulk of my time downtown.
I like downtown.   No, I don’t like parking downtown because Floridians and Snowbirds are really crazy and rude.  However, once out of the car and when they think no one is watching, life actually happens.

I saw…
I saw people being married.   There were three bridesmaids, groomsmen, bride, and groom sweatedly smiling under a large tree’s shade while wearing clothes that was obviously cooking them from the inside out.

There were young girls… guessing high school age… who wore glittery dresses and impossibly high-heeled shoes trying not to let their make-up slide down their faces.

Men pushed baby strollers shirtless.  Varying sizes of muffin tops jiggled in various shades of red and tan.

People played volleyball.  Ate shaved ice.  Chased after children.  Spoke in foreign languages.  Rich people screamed from the Vinoy Hotel over some sort of 80s music mix (which wasn’t half bad).

In Florida, you can generally tell who is native and who isn’t.   The natives tend not to have tans.  They’re working and can be quite pale.   For some reason, I smirked and entirely sympathized with an exceedingly lilly woman whose husband was trying to rub lotion on her back.  She winced every time he moved one of the shirt strings.  To his credit, he looked as if he was trying to perform open-heart surgery.

Ha ha.  My freckles will protect me!

Anyways, old and young held hands.   They kissed.  (Sometimes, it wasn’t to the same gender or age group, but they seemed happy.   I’m fine with that.)  Couples wore disturbingly matched colored outfits.    Squirrels pecked at the trash and seagulls complained about it all.

It was life.   Sunburnt, sandy, dirty, germy, mouth-swapping bacteria life.

By watching it, I guess I felt like I was a part of it – just a little.  I was okay with that.   I didn’t envy — except those who where in the pool.  I’ve had this whole pool fixation since I’ve been here for some reason.  I didn’t envy the people.  I envied that they got to go in the pool with music I like.

I’ve always, always, always been the outsider looking in and I’m okay with that.

When I reported my observations to Jason, he said something along the lines of ‘that’s what we’re working for.’  i.e  A life of continual pretty days.

Sure.  I can agree to that – hands-down.
I am more than ready to live my first childhood that was messed up, have my second childhood, and potentially squeeze in a third before I become to old to move.   If all of the consumed Hershey candy bars were placed end-to-end for the entire year and covered the sky in dump brown, it wouldn’t hold a candle to how long my bucket list is.

Still, I think it’s possible to feast upon the life that is displayed around us.  Unleashing my inner emotional vampire here, but seeing other people live can’t be all bad and be a form of envy.  Right?

Cept for the pool.
Overly chlorinated water is definitely +++.