Is how much colder the cold water is when it comes out of the faucet or shower head.

I am always given the chills when I wash my hands.

Just returned from Whole Foods and spent my gift card. I bought soup, tea, a muffin, and milk. Perfect for this cool day.

Now I was planning to wrap some Christmas gifts and chill out with Sufjan, but kalenroo informed me that Police Women of Broward County is on until 8!!

So I am watching that…and they just passed my neighborhood…holy crap, I’ve been to that place!

Sufjan and Christmas gifts will have to wait…

I could really use it now…

Because I totally just did, and not necessarily unintentionally…

I just returned from a pleasant dinner on Las Olas with my aunt and uncle. We met and had to decide where to eat dinner. I suggested one of the four French cafés since I had not been to one yet and really wanted to try one. All restaurants on Las Olas are ridiculously overpriced, so I had only been to a couple of them for drinks or dessert.

I said, “Well, Le Café de Paris and the others are kind of expensive…”

“Oh, that’s why you wait ‘till we’re in town to go, eh?” my aunt said.

Uh oh. I thought I was in trouble… Well nope, they wanted to try it too and they still didn’t freak out after seeing the prices on the menu including $8 coffees…I even gasped a few times or laughed under my breath at how crazy some of the pricing was. Seriously? A $24 salad?

Whatever. It was great and we ate and I had crème caramel custard for desert. Mmm.

Also, they slipped me a nice $200 check for no reason. It honestly couldn’t have come at a better time.

Tomorrow night, I will be having dinner with my Aunt and Uncle (really, my dad’s cousin and her husband…I have a relatively small family and they are close, so I call them that) on Las Olas. I love them a lot. They are in town to visit some other family on his side. He is a GT grad and she is an over-accommodating, worrisome woman who tries to make sure my every need is met.

This is all great, BUT I am fully expecting the life questions I always get from her, such as:

• Do you have a girlfriend?
• No? Why not?
• Are you going to get married? When?
• What are you going to do when you finish school?
• Grad school? Oh, what do you want to do with that?
• What are you going to do with your life??

I’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do most likely…Hopefully, good ol’ Uncle will chime in and be like “Ok, honey, he’s tired of answering your questions.”

Whatever, I’m going to get another free meal at some nice restaurant on Las Olas out of it!

Because I am just like her. I don’t do drugs or go crazy with things, and I keep to myself.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Just like her, eh?

Let’s just say, I am not quite feeling ready for this shindig test tomorrow…

Hopefully, my good grades will get me into grad school :/

I feel like I am back at my apartment in Atlanta. I do miss living right on North Avenue.

I am not implying that there is more crime or whatever there (there may be…not sure), but it makes me feel like I’m back in a big city. South Florida is big, but there isn’t as much ‘city’!

I want to be back in the midst of it all. A real urban place that’s pretty dense with tall buildings and more streetlife.

A cop car just flew down my street. Maybe it was a Police Woman of Broward County!

I am so excited for tomorrow night! Fort Lauderdale kicks off the Christmas season tomorrow night with the annual Christmas on Las Olas. Basically, since south Florida does not experience any sort of ‘winter wonderland’ during the winter season, they spend elaborate amounts of money on creating one in the middle of a tropical paradise.

Here’s why Christmas on Las Olas is amazingly ridiculous:

• A mountain pile of actual snow ice provided by Starbucks
• A real ski slope with a mountainous view! (Basically a white, slanted conveyor belt with a giant movie screen showing snowy mountain pictures behind it while you stand with skis on) It’s great!
• A linoleum ice skating rink. Yes, there are special skates the kids wear to skate on this surface.
• Snow bubbles flowing down from mysterious places atop the buildings, providing the only snow that most all of south Floridians will see in a lifetime.

Also,

• Free endless cheesecake samples provided by the Cheesecake Factory on Las Olas.
• Magicians doing crazy card tricks while stealing your credit cards out of your wallet. Yep, this actually happened last year.
• Sometimes, free drinks.
• And finally, 80 degree weather!

It’s going to be sweeeet!

Anyone else planning to join in this winterfest?

I left my entire toiletries bag here in Fort Lauderdale while I went home this past week. And no, I was not about to use my dad’s shaving things.

So, tomorrow, the scruff will be gone. Finally!!