Thursday, September 1, 2011

Florida has PERSONALITY, do You?

This is my Top Ten of Florida list.

You know you live in Florida when...


10. You've got "Sunshine" when most people are dealing with rain, snow or other inclement weather.





9. "Eek it's a mouse!" You shriek and jump. "Oh, no, it's just a roach." You deflate.





8. You fear standing water.










7. You can casually say, "Oh yeah, it's hurricane season."





COOLEST BIRDS IN FLORIDA!!



6. To go exotic bird watching all you have to do is pull up a lawn chair, sit in your front yard and wait until exotic birds start picking bugs out of your lawn.









5. You are tan 24/7.








4. You can drive an hour any direction and be at a different beach.







3. CRUISE PORT. Need I say more?












2. The question isn't "What should we do tonight?" It's "Which should we do tonight?"






1. Everything you say comes out in "Disney". You find yourself quoting Disney in every day euphemisms. You refer people to locations based on Disney. Example: (Imagine replacing every "swimming" with "writing".)



Quirks define us. They are what bring out the good and the bad. Setting can be as important as characters, and Florida has plenty of personality--which is why I've based a few scenes in my new book here.

What's your favorite and least favorite thing about where you live? And what about your local defines you?

27 comments:

  1. So true! I've been to Florida several times, and every time we get near water I freak a little thinking an alligator is going to lunge out of the water. Did see one in a ditch once.

    And the birds...love the white egrets everywhere. Glad I haven't noticed the cockroaches. Eww.

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  2. *sigh* I want to go to Florida. I want to go to a lot of places. Thanks for sharing your experience. :)

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  3. Yeah, it's an experience. I never actually thought I'd end up LIVING here, but stranger things have happened eh?

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  4. If I made a list about Seattle it'd include grey skies, coffee shops on every corner, spring/summer wear mixed with fall/winter wear, that it's the only state with a rain forest, mountains and a desert and the in Seattle we call the capitol "D.C." but everywhere else in the country says "Washington." Haha :P

    This was fun to read!

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  5. Those are awfully big roaches . . . but I like the sound of the beaches and the exotic birds. :)

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  6. Yeah--those roaches are just too big.

    I supposed Colorado would be defined by mountains and conservatives. For better or worse.

    I'm a fellow campaigner in your historical group stopping by to say hi. See you around the campaign!

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  7. It's cold, dark, or rainy 11 months of the year (at least this past year) where I live. Is that my favorite or least favorite thing? Depends on one's perspective. As a writer, it's perfect. As a human being who thrives with warmth and sunlight, it's rotten. No cockroaches or alligators, or hurricanes, though. Just an active volcano and the potential for a massive earthquake.

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  8. LOL! I'd love to have more sunshine and be tan 24/7. Too bad I don't live anywhere near Florida.

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  9. I certainly can't claim the sunshine, but we too have plenty of wildlife wandering around.

    And in this neck of the woods folks talk about earthquake kits and drills with disarming nonchalance.

    It's interesting to hear how a local sees their locale. Thanks for showing us this window into your Florida.

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  10. LOL, I've never been to Florida, or even the east coast of the US, so this post was quite informative and entertaining. But gah!--THOSE are roaches? Hideous!! No thanks. Bleh.

    Here in Oregon we have "banana slugs" that are mustard (banana?) yellow and are as long as someone's hand, too. Yuck! I LOVE how green Oregon is, though. :)

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  11. (sings): Just keep writing, just keep writing, just keep writing, writing, writing...

    OK, you know I had to! Lol... Um, yeah, those roaches? They're freaky. *shudders* The beaches look gorgeous, though!

    Sending some cheese your way! :-)

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  12. Hi Campaigner in Florida! Love how you've defined your locale. It' perfect. The 24/7 tan not so much.

    I'm a northern CA person who hugs redwoods and sequoias--well I try, but they are a challenging size. I'm also a hiker who prefers trails to streets, so off to Tahoe or Yosemite I go. We have some rain in February and little to none from then on--very different from FLA.

    Glad to meet you and visit your super blog.

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  13. Hee hee! If ya'll think the roaches are bad I wish you could see the crickets! First summer here when they started humming we thought we were listening to an alien invasion--or had been plopped into the middle of a horror movie. =)

    Devin--I LOVE SEATTLE! I want to come back there one day. (Haven't been there since I was 18.)

    Heidi--I grew up on the Wasatch Front. Mountains=love. (Oh, and don't rant too terribly on conservatives. I am one. Proudly.--Even after living in NYC.)

    Angelina--volcano? That's one I haven't experienced yet, although my hubby and I have talked about moving out to Hawaii... (It's never going to happen.)

    E.R.--Hey, I was tan while living in the west. It can be done. Even without sunshine EVERY SINGLE DAY. =)

    Botanist--I know what you mean about earthquakes. This whole hurricane thing is kinda new. Well, actually it started in NYC, and we would have been in the mandatory evacuation zone for Irene if we'd stayed.

    Carol--I agree with you. Banana Slugs would be preferable to roaches. It is rather entertaining though when you're at Disney World and a whole gaggle of employees have cornered a five-incher and are going after it with brooms and mops. =)

    Crystal--Yay! Now you know exactly what I think every time someone mentions Finding Nemo. (Which is only ALL THE FLIPPIN TIME!)

    Cleemekenzie--I LOVE REDWOODS! When we're independently wealthy from my writing (ha ha) and can live wherever we want, I'M COMING THERE! (Although I might take up the Oregon side--not particularly partial to CA politics.) Then I suppose I can laugh and count my blessings about dealing with Banana Slugs instead of ROACHES!! =)

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  14. I don't like bugs. Too many big ones in FL. I like having the beach and mountains close by.

    But the roaches. They can keep them. ;)

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  15. Loved Florida when I visited a few years ago. Luckily we didn't see the roaches or alligators!

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  16. Hi from a fellow campaigner.

    I live on the opposite coast. Never actually been to Florida--at least no yet.

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  17. Hey there, we're in the same campaign group! :)

    I'm also from the west coast and have never been to Florida, but a lot of these things would apply to Oregon as well...except replace hurricane with "typhoon". :D

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  18. Hi Crystal, Thanks for stopping by my blog fellow campaigner. I loved your list. We have the same roaches, at least in size, but we call them palmetto bugs. I guess because South Carolina is the Palmetto State. My list would include quick access to beaches, mountains, countryside, and cities. I'll have to think about the rest of my list. We're not too far from Florida, but the weather is different.

    By the way, I quote Disney-and other movies-all of the time. When Microsoft Windows first came out, I'd show training classes the Minimize button and tell them the window shrunk to, "itty, bitty living space." OK, everyone, id that line!

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  19. Hi Crystal,
    I am already a follower of your blog. We happen to be in the same MG/YA group at Rachael's site.
    I love your list. My youngest son was born in FL. In fact, we're planning a trip there in December. In our area--and even in our subdivision--we have bears and mountain lions, so my boys can't be outside unsupervised. So I suppose that is a defining trait of our little section of CO.

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  20. Terrifying and beautiful. What an awesome post. loved it. here following you back.

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  21. 20 minutes away is the 'chocolate capital of the world' - Hershey. With it's hershey kiss lights.

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  22. I really like number 6!

    Not sure what NY would be defined by. The city, Niagara Falls. . .

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  23. Lol! Don't let the Florida travel people see this. Hahaha.

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  24. Hello Fellow Third Campaigner. I've only been to Floria once, but that's when I experienced first hand what balmy meant. I loved the weather, but we were there in February.

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  25. I'm a campaigner from your paranomal group and a former Floridian. Great post, especially the standing water part. You haven't lived until you've seen a gator take down a bird!

    BTW... how did you change you "comments" to "radical rants"?

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  26. I stayed in Florida in 1984 and you're not joking about the size of the cockroaches! Yuk! Btw, you've been tagged!
    http://clairehennessy.blogspot.com/

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  27. Haha, nice :) I've always wanted to go to florida, and now I want to even more! (minus the cockroaches....yeah, that's something I will NOT look forward to)

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Hit me with your cheese!