I never thought of myself as much of a wanderer. In reality, I'd always pictured myself one of those people that never strays too far from home, that is until I met D. In the last five years we've moved 7 times. Sometimes only to a new part of town, sometimes to new cities, new states, and new countries. Now that I've got a job I really like, I think our ship has landed. It helps that we are now back where we started our lives together (in Florida) and nearer to family. Needless to say I did want to share some pictures taken a while back of this (our) new little corner of the world.
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| Here's the big bad city! |
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| D. and I like to take morning walks or bike rides around the campus of UT, formerly the Tampa Bay Hotel. The campus runs just along the edge of the Hillsborough River which dumps out into the Tampa Bay (hence the name) which eventually makes it way to the Gulf of Mexico. |
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| I was never much into tropicals, but palm trees have been creeping their way into my little tree-loving heart. It helps that some produce delicious coconuts & dates. |
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| I thought it might be fun to blow this picture up, laminate it and hang it over my dining table. |
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| And for my northern friends a lesson in horticulture. Did you know that when the fruit of a banana tree are ripe that big beautiful flower at the end of the bunch blooms! Isn't food amazing? |
Gosh you are pretty!!! Thanks for the tiny tour of Florida...it's one of those places that always seems sunny in movies and makes me want to tele-transport myself there. And no, didn't know that about bananas. There are a gazillion finger-banana trees in Samoa, but I never really noticed the bloom. Keep posting, I'm enjoying!
ReplyDeletewow, i never knew tampa was a BIG CITY!!! i love the river running right through and that campus is absolutely breathtaking; is that where you teach? i love the romantic old southern feel to everything there. i am sure i over-romanticize it in my mind, but it seems like there would be a haze of dreamland over my life each day if i lived in a place like that, like i were living in a waking dream and nothing quite distinct or fixed, something unnameable hovering at the edges of the trees. glad to see you two are enjoying your home! these glimpses into your life are so fun and enchanting.
ReplyDeleteYou leave your house more than most hermits I know. Thanks for sharing the pictures!
ReplyDeleteThese photos are so pretty!! Looks like a fun time!
ReplyDeleteKF x
I've only ever been to Sanibel and Orlando, but Tampa looks beautiful
ReplyDeleteI haven't shared what I've read in the past semester/over break on my blog. Here's the rough list:
-Oblivion by David Foster Wallace (I finished 3/4s of this, but the stories gave me a headache so I couldn't quite complete it. I highly recommend "Good Old Neon")
-Last Night by James Salter (This is such an effortlessly good short story collection. Salter is a writer's writer, but incredibly accessible. The short stories are about average people, but the endings are killer.)
-Birds of America by Lorrie Moore (Apparently this is her best work, but I wasn't as wowed as I should've been. Still her observational style is at its height and there were some gems in this collection. She has some really striking lines that make you want to guffaw and bite your tongue at the same time.)
-Palo Alto by James Franco (haha yea really. Franco should stick to acting because most of these short stories were trying way to hard to be edgy. They follow a group of teenage screwups. I appreciated the community he created, but there were only a few stories that worked and actually moved me.)
Obviously I read a lot of short stories during the semester, they're easier to wrap my head around with all of the reading I have to do anyway for my English major.
Thought I'd write up a second comment otherwise blogger may have gotten temperamental with me and refused to post an overly long comment haha
ReplyDeleteThis break I've read:
-Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris (I like Sedaris's other essay collections better, but that's not to discredit this one which still has some witty observations told in an anthropomorphic style. He got a bit more political in this book, but it was still fast and funny.)
-Running the Books by Avi Steinberg (The memoir of a Harvard grad who took a job as a prison librarian in Boston. It was pretty good. Steinberg was very relatable even when he was making obvious mistakes, but I appreciated how he didn't cover up his flaws. He gave an interesting view on prisons from a sociological stand point, but also depicted the prisoners as true human beings as they should be seen. It was funny, heartbreaking, and informative all at once.)
-Room by Emma Donaghue (This was nominated for the Booker and although I sort of see why I'm glad it didn't win. Its about a mother and son who have spent the boy's entire life in one room. The boy is completely unaware there is a world outside of room. He is the narrator and naturally has an intriguing view of things and a curious use of language. However reading an entire novel for a 5 year olds perspective (albeit a hyperarticulate one) was irritating.
Have you read anything good lately?
I too never dreamed of straying far from my home. I guess it just shows you that what you expect rarely happens.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mini-tour, what a lovely campus! Very cool factoid about the banana blooms too :)
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