Central Florida | Jamie Miles Blog

Posts Tagged: Central Florida

Create — 2 Comments
18
Mar 12

In the Land of Never Enough Time ~ We made time for Art.

Home.

We are home from a whirlwind trip to Florida making many stops along the way.

After my alarm went off this morning, I read an email from a friend saying sorry we couldn’t get together while I was visiting family.

Traveling back to Florida is like that.

The optimism of my expectations clashes with the reality of three children who have expectations and so many hours in a day. I don’t seem to juggle that very well. But we did manage to make a stop at the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival which has been going on as long as I can remember.

It’s huge and fun and full of creative things from all over the country. I get to go with my mom and hear her say like she has said since 1970-something,

“Is all this stuff art? Why do they clutter it up with all this stuff?”

I enjoy it all. Took my youngest little creative spirit and he hung in there pretty good.

Most of which I recorded in photos is not traditional art. Probably because a three dimensional object photographs better than a painting. Or maybe because I just thought these things interesting?

The lion made out of 50,000 welded nails worth $25,000.

The floating dancers.

A few silver life-size bodies twirled overhead, but didn’t show up too well against the sky.

This tent was full of pieces that look like the artist watched a Tim Burton movie marathon then woke up to create.

And there were lots of great things to eat.

Though my little artist was sad they were out of the boiled peanuts we found something he liked.

We went Friday and I felt like going on Saturday before we drove home.

The creativity bug energizes me.

Are you the Art Show type?

Attitude Matters — 10 Comments
14
Mar 12

Catching fish means removing some hooks.

Fishing.

For my formative years of life, before I cared about boys and acting somewhat girly, often I was found barefoot with my hands wrapped around a line that was dropped in a lake.

Looking just like this.

Except I didn’t use such a fancy-shmancy lure. We only had hooks and purple worms.

When my daughter caught this little bass yesterday, she tried to remove the hook.

So she called to me from the squishy, muddy lake’s edge to help her remove the hook.

Eew.

I can’t do that anymore.

Where was my son?

The son that caught this guy earlier.

Well, he was far away catching things out on a boat in the bay.

Poo.

So we struggled.

Actually, my daughter ended up getting the hook out fairly quickly.

See, she didn’t mind touching the fish. Which now in the intervening decades has begun to gross me out.

Yes, if you play with a rod and reel you better be willing to touch some fish.

Or bring your daughter fishing with you.

Do you fish? Or did you back when you could touch their slime-coated bodies straight out of the lake….?

Children — 2 Comments
5
Aug 11

Musing on Monkey Ears. The Playground Weapon of Choice.

The weapons.

Anyone who was ever a child in Central Florida recognizes these.

Those merciless weapons known as Monkey Ears or Elephant Ears. If you were lucky, a tree that dropped these seed pods was planted in the middle of your school playground.

With all the anesthetizing and sanitizing of things, zealous school safety marshals probably have removed most of those trees from school yards. But way back when, their seed pods were the item of choice to hunk at each other.

One brandished them in an upturned palm and flicked it with a whip of the wrist — like a Frisbee. If it made contact with skin at a high rate of speed your opponent got a welt that looked like a hickey in the shape of the state of New Hampshire.

Kids are drawn to them like my toenails to gemstone nail polish.

My children are no exception. We always take plenty pods back to Georgia in hopes of starting our own Monkey Ear tree farm.

Recently we were out walking the streets of my childhood neighborhood. The children were picking up Monkey Ears and shoving them into pockets.

A fellow out walking his dog stopped.

“I remember those things. Deadly…what we used to do to each other with them.” He got a wistful look in his eyes…

See. Everyone who was ever a child in Central Florida has respect for the power of the Monkey Ear.

If there’s a strange looking sprout in the Primary School Playground, just let this be our little secret.

What did you chuck at your friends on the schoolyard?

South — 2 Comments
22
Jul 11

Musing on Saying Goodbye NASA. Or could it be hello?

Can’t get this image out of my mind.

I saw this picture in a post on Momo Fali’s blog.

Take by Chris Bray, it’s a father and son at the first shuttle launch — and the last.

As a girl growing up in Central Florida in the 60s it was the Space Program and oranges. (Then a Mouse moved to town in 1971.)

I am a girl of the Saturn rockets.

Those long white beautiful creatures. Stripped as zebras.

A picture exists of my sister and I under a marquee of the Titusville Holiday Inn heralding, “Good Luck Apollo 13.”

I collected all the mission patches. Apollo 13 was my favorite.

Hope it's still in my parent's attic.

Apollo 13. As a child I didn’t realize what danger they were in.

There are memories of riding at night in the back of my parents’ car as a voice on the radio wondered if they were going to make it home.

I looked up at the moon, thinking they’re up there somewhere. Circling.

Make it back home?

That was silly. NASA and astronauts always made it back to plop in the Pacific Ocean in those battered, baked capsules. Bobbing along, waiting to be picked up by the USS Ticonderoga.

Oh, yeah. Later on..some didn’t make it back home.

I was there that first Shuttle launch in April 1981. A few months before graduating from high school. In Central Florida this April, I almost got to see one more liftoff. But Endeavor’s was scrubbed.

Many years ago, when John and I were newly dating, he was riding to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with us.

Heading into Orlando on I-4 (just past OBT) cars started putting on their hazards and pulling over. First a few. Then dozens lining the interstate.

Right about the time we got to downtown — up went the flame. The little flame roaring skyward.

“Look John, there’s the shuttle.” I half watched, half drove, comforted by the sight of that little flicker against the black just as seeing Lake Ivanhoe again makes me smile on the inside.

When it disappeared, John said, “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.” (This of course was way before our wedding night.)

Weird. The most amazing thing he’d ever seen.

That’s when it hit me…those launches were special. Hearing the roar rolling and bounding down the beach well after the bird was gone.

Light travelling faster than sound.

Good-bye beautiful rockets.

I don’t know what to say” hello” to ~ but I’m sure there’s something.

And I don’t want to feel sad.

What do you remember?

Children / Family — 9 Comments
5
Jul 11

Musing on Verdicts. And what’s a good age to start shaving legs?

I really wanted to write on something funny today — and then the jury handed down the Casey Anthony verdict.

My father watched every square inch of that trial.

He did this because he is 84 years old and has time on his hands.

And because he practiced law in Orlando for almost 60 years.

He was before Judge Belvin Perry, Jr. many times. Dad said he was a sound jurist and the trial was in good hands.

Too bad it wasn’t a bench trial.

I asked my father what he thought of the verdict. He e-mailed back:

No. I think I’ll forgo including his comments in this post — other than saying: “We love you DAD”

It was a horrible thing — the entire mess of it — from sordid beginning to end. I’m not a blood-thirsty person. Not a death penalty person. Just looking a the weight of the evidence, I didn’t see this coming. It was like driving a long and turning the corner to see a cow escaped from his pasture standing in the road.

Thank God, I had a normal childhood. Thank God I never wigged out. (Other than a brief dalliance with a midlife crisis triathlon obsession. Triathlons are wonderful. Just best not to overdose on them when you have family.)

Speaking of which, my daughter just came into the room wearing some of my lipstick.

That’s what I was going to write on ….before the verdict.

My daughter and her request this morning to shave her legs.

I can’t remember when I did, though I do remember it was before that dreadful female monthly hemorrhaging thing started.

What do you think?

What is the average age girls start shearing the hair off their legs?

Children — 2 Comments
14
Jun 11

Musing on kids more techno that me.

I can’t watch my children every minute. I doubt my mother watched me like a hawk, but there are so many more traps for children to fall into these days.

And besides it makes me mad when they do stuff to my phone. Don’t touch my phone or my iPad. Some cyclists feel that way about their bikes.

Don’t mess with my seat, don’t fool with my gears — don’t breathe on my clips.

This was my phone screensaver. Don’t mess with my phone.

My kids on Spring Break at Dinky Dock.

Dinky Dock is an institution where I grew up. My mom used to sunbathe on the dock at Dinky Dock as a young girl. It’s still popular with Rollins College co-eds.

Here is my screensaver now.

Meet Moe.

Moe likes to dine on cilantro, but better not give him a basil leaf.

I don’t wish any ill will on Moe — but I was happy with Dinky Doc.

I’m still staring at Moe on my phone.

I’m too techno-tired to find Dinky Doc.

Alligators / beach — 2 Comments
27
Apr 11

Musing on twigs that submerge.

This was my view for most of the day yesterday. It really was that blue.

And here’s what will really make you mad.

The water was warm. Okay, not middle of August bathwater warm but warm enough that I really enjoyed swimming.

The kids and I are visiting my sister for spring break. If the kids weren’t at the beach this is what they were doing.

Sitting outside last night, the kids were across the lake in the kayaks.

My sister sat up and said, “What is that?”

I saw a bitty twig.

“It’s a twig,” I replied. She thought it might be an alligator. Well, no way to know unless you investigate. So I got up and walked toward the lake. As I got closer and closer to the floating twig, it started to change shape..or was that my imagination?

I got almost up to it and yelled, “If it was something, it would have disappeared by now.”

And with that it submerged.

Later we saw him (or her.)

My sister said in Tampa the other day a woman went into her bathroom to find a 7-foot alligator in the bathtub.

Do you know how big that it? She said it was hissing at her…she shut the door and put a table in front of it.

They surmised it came in through the dog door.

Are you believing this?

All I can say is I looked under my bed last night.

Inspiring Women / Running — 1 Comment
22
Jan 11

Musing on taking pictures…my 2011 Disney Half with pal Michelle Leporati Trimble — the Giver.

I had done the Disney full the past two years and missed all my son’s away football games because it’s hard to return home at 12:15 on a Saturday morning only to arise five hours later to run an 18 mile training run.

So the half was a given for me this year — by choice. Having to shuffle through it with a beautious black Ace bandage with flabby thigh skin pooching over its edges was not.

But our most gracious heavenly Father had other plans.

Undeterred, (mad but undeterred) I sent an email to friend Michelle and asked, “Will you walk/run Disney with me?” She agreed. And I will love her forever for it.

4:30 race morning meeting in the Epcot parking lot.

Here’s a lady who’s completed 8 marathons and 22 half marathons — and tons of triathons. She’s even rollarbladed a half marathon! Good grief, woman.

Michelle’s Words of Wisdom for a newbie runner?

“If you aren’t going to get a paycheck for running, and nobody’s chasing you with a knife, don’t take yourself seriously. Run like kids do.”

You got to love that.

We got there and after my annual teeter tucked in the darkened scrub of Central Florida..

(Why on earth would anyone wait in line for porta-potties while it is still dark, there’s a billion people in line to enter a dark, stinky stall and a billion people walking into the woods? I’m following the billion out into the pines.)

We were off!

We started and for the first time ever I took my phone and snapped away…

Okay -- not so great to take pics while still moving. Learned that lesson.

Why do you run?

oh my! I think that “oh my” was after looking at my emailed questions….

I started running because when I walked my first Triathlon I knew I was too slow. Now I run for fun and to keep moving. Very soon I will be facing a different kind of marathon, between my mom, M-i-L, and sister, so I know I need to stay strong and take advantage of “me” time while I still have some. Michelle’s younger sister, Lynette, is an amazing inspiring woman who has spent the last five years in a wheelchair fighting MS. Lynette, a mother and wife, is truly heroic.

How many marathons/ halfs have you done?

I’ve finished 8 marathons: Disney, Marine Corps, New York, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Richmond, Jacksonville Beach (Breast Cancer), and Melbourne Beach. I also have 4 DNFs, and a few that started out as full marathons but I turned off at the half.

Halfs… 22 by my count, notable are the More half in Central Park (NYC) Want to do that one, Pittsburgh (one of the abbreviated fulls) 2 x Daytona Beach, 3 x Space Coast and 3 x Disney.

I also ran one marathon relay,Tampa Gasparilla, that was lots of fun. Argh. A pirate’s life for me…that looks too fun. I want to do that one.

What do you like/dislike about each distance?

I like the 15k and half marathon distance best – can fake it without much serious mileage and without hurting afterwards. Marathon training is draining on my marriage which is why I think I may stop at 10. That’s an unconsicous amount of races – I know you’ve done 3x as many 10ks and 5ks.

Mile 5ish? Made it to Main Street. Can't tell but I'm still holding my Hand Warmer packets.

You listed all the Disney races you’ve done during the race — what were those again?

Disney races: Triathlon – Danskin years 2000 – 2006, Trek in 2009.
Disney Marathon weekend 5k, Race for the Taste 10k (4 or 5 years), Tower of Terror 13k, Minnie 15k, GO Red weekend (5k,15k), half marathon, full marathon, and the infamous Rollerblade 1/2 marathon. You’re a machine. And I just laughed remembering your telling of the Rollerblade Half trauma. We just were leaving the back lot of the Magic Kingdom.

A little bit after here...That guy is one dead-ringer for Johnny Depp. Uncomfortably so.

What was that challenge/goal — the swimming one you’ve set for yourself?

My goal this year is to swim a 5k – “open water swim” was a new Olympic event in Bejing – will hopefully do 10 crossings at Lucky’s lake or find a real event, otherwise it’s the pool. A three mile swim. Now that’s a challenge.

These two were within a mile of finishing. I stopped because there was no line (who would stop a 1/2 mile before ending) and I knew my 7yo would be amazed.

Thanks Michelle.. you made it a wonderful experience.

What I love about Michelle is that she gives back to running. Looking over that spectacular list of all the events she’s completed – she’s volunteered for just as many (or more.) The day after she got up at 2:30 to drive to Disney to meet me, she got up the next morning on Sunday meeting her Orlando running friends to hand out the Mylar blankets at the finish of the full.

She’s already signed on to hand out water for the Princess Half Marathon this Febraury. Another friend Cindy Padera Rutz is traveling down from Hershey, PA for that.

Michelle has started the Disney race as a guide with a woman from Texas (I think) suffering from MS. This particular woman tried at Disney twice — and was unable to finish both times.

I admit with running I’ve always been a taker.

Michelle is a giver.

She inspires me to rethink my taking….

Thanks Michelle. Last year we ran the Winter Park 10k and 2k together. This year, I don’t think it concides with any of our school breaks. You need to get up here for a triathon this summer.

Take care. I owe you one. Our journey will rest in my heart forever.

Tomorrow’s post will wrap up with a short muse with my thoughts on…

Why do I keep wanting to do these races? Even when I’ve done these distances. Even when I should be doing nothing but swimming and biking — or rowing. Anything but training to run 26.2 miles.

Side-by-side. We did it!

Inspiring Women / Running — 2 Comments
21
Jan 11

Musing on Marathon Diva…Kim Sitzmann. A Running Buddy Makes All the Difference.

This is my friend Kim…

Now that bubble is too small for me to have written what she’s really thinking which would be….

I miss you…get that darn knee better.

Okay. She’s probably not thinking that. That’s what I’m thinking. For you see, Kim was my running buddy till last September 30 when I popped the expletive out of my knee.

But this post is not about that. This is about her…and since we used to meet most every morning to run, I can speak with authority from her example — that a person can be a consummate professional at work, have a fulfilling marriage, be a very involved loving mom, give of her time at church and in the community, keep her house lots straighter than mine, have a kick-a garden, freeze and store all her produce (This includes pickling all that okra that you can’t possibly eat — and not letting go to waste like some people.) Okay, I’m going to stop this because it’s making me feel bad…

Her boys keep her busy.

No. It’s just making me miss checking-in with her life — morning after morning — running through the dark streets when most everyone else is sleeping.

Kim approached me early last summer and said she wanted to find a running partner to help her train for the Peachtree Road Race. I said great. For I was having a sinking spell in my enthusiasm about lacing up my shoes day after day.

So she started showing up at my house three to four times a week. This was at 5 a.m. days she had to report to hospital for her position as mammographer. We’d sleep-in and run at 5:30 a.m. on the days she didn’t. (This was in the summer, people.)

But it was terribly fun and I miss it — terribly.

So funny thing was she got the running bug big. She wanted to train for a half marathon — 13.1. Her husband Dennis, also got bit by the bug and wanted to do the same. They both have done awesome. In October they ran the Atlanta 13.1, which I was to run with her and that’s when the knee thing happened. Just days before. Double :p

So Kim’s had to find other partners. And she’s come so far. She’s right at two hours for her 13.1 time. AWESOME

When did you start running? How much do you run a week?

I started running in high school with a friend. I run on average 20 to 30 miles a week when I’m not training.

When did decide to start signing up for the longer distances?

A half-marathon was just something I had always wanted to do. So two years ago I decided to give it a try. It just seemed like an obtainable distance. I also wanted to commit to some kind of exercise, so I knew if I signed up for his — I had to do it.

The purty running couple.

What do you like about the half marathon distance?

The half-marathon to me is a great distance. I just feel good doing it. As an added bonus, all the training you do prior to it is a great way to keep in shape. I have only done three half-marathons (the other was the Chickamagua Battlefield Half – which is supposed to be an awesome race BTW) and would eventually like to train for a full marathon. I have enjoyed running with other people to help us stay accountable to each other. That is key for me.

What was special about the Disney race…any specific memories?

This was my favorite race by far. It was our first trip to Disney. We took the whole family and made a vacation out of it. My husband was able to run this one with me. It is just fun to have an exercise thing we can do together. I loved running through the Magic Kingdom and all the people. It was Magical!!

Thanks Kim, so glad you enjoyed it. It is a fun party. You are proof that with a little discipline even someone with lots of commitments — family, work and social — can do this. But having someone waiting on you at five in the more does get you out of bed. Doesn’t make it easier…but once you meet up and start running, it’s really a fabulous start to the day. Hope I can heal up and join you soon.

Tomorrow, I’m going to recount my half experience with another grade school friend Michelle Trimble. Having reconnected on Facebook, she agreed at my begging to accompany me in my slower-paced 13.1. And you know, it was terribly fun. So if the idea of walking/running a half interests you…read on tomorrow.

This year for the first time, I chilled out a bit (kind of had to) and took pictures along the way.

So until tomorrow, hope you go have a great run for me. Miss our mornings, Kim. Lots of hearts your way.

Inspiring Women / Running — 2 Comments
18
Jan 11

Musing on the Disney Marathon Weekend.

Do you remember those days in P.E. when you had to run a mile?

I do.

And I remember dreading it.

So why when I reached adult status did I start running miles and miles for

pleasure?

That is a good question. One I’d like to find an answer for myself.

January 8 and 9 was the 18th year of the Disney Marathon.

The next few posts I’m going to profile a women who ran race weekend.

Tomorrow, Morgan County teacher, Karen Spence will tell why she accepted the Goofy Challenge — running the half and full marathons back to back — for the second time.

Then I’ll post the stories of Chris Fankauser Bonham’s marathon run. Chris is a friend from high school who travelled back to Central Florida to run.

Find out what Morgan County’s Kim Sitzmann has to say about her first time running at Disney. She and husband, Dennis, headed to the happiest place on earth with their three boys.

Then I’ll recount my half marathon experience with high school friend Michelle Leporati Tribble. This year even a bum knee couldn’t keep my away from the fun.

Here’s a St. Pete TV News report of a fellow, Rue Morgan, who’s run in every Disney Marathon. Maybe I’ll watch it again to see if I can get any more clues on why I do this?