The lovely Helen er, Shannon put out a call for another 79 of us to share our worlds — where we go, what we do, what constitutes life in our part of the planet.
This girl who was born in the projects and grew up on food stamps and government cheese now lives in one of the richest neighborhoods in America. Of course, since I pay for two apartments here, some food stamps would be very much appreciated right now. 
This is a little area called the Port of Palm Beach, although it’s also known as the Riviera Beach Marina. Reminds me very much of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, and I love it so:
I’ve only been there twice, once to volunteer for my church (more on that later) and once yesterday, to have a lovely lunch at the Tiki Bar. Some of you on Facebook were envying my bacon-wrapped scallops with the apricot-horseradish dipping sauce yesterday.
Speaking of church, I attend one of the four campuses (five if you count the Internet) of Christ Fellowship. There’s a main campus in Palm Beach Gardens, and they broadcast their services to all the other locations except mine.
Well, it’s complicated — they do broadcast to my campus for the 9 a.m. service.
But I attend the 11 a.m. service because I love the on-site pastor and he does his own thing then, aimed at people our age and younger. He’s 39 and very easy on the eyes. (Hey, it doesn’t matter what my reasons are for going to church, just as long as I go, right?)
This is what my church looks like on the inside:
This is the outside:
The city where I work has been named the No. 2 beach in Florida for sandcastle-building. Only, I have yet to see a sandcastle. But I’ve seen exquisite creatures like this guy on random mornings in which I happen to squeeze in a quick walk:
I lost most of my summer because of an all-consuming project. But these days, I’m trying to get out as much as possible and not miss what my area has to offer. I mean, it is Christmas, after all. …
I currently live in an adorable little penthouse apartment with updated, stainless-steel appliances that break. My a/c is turned off, thanks to my first month’s bill being $500 because the unit is old. So, it gets hot up here. But since it’s “winter” in Florida (80 degrees as a low, anyone?), not only is the weather gorgeous, but the winds are incredibly strong up here.
My condo sits on the Intracoastal Waterway …
With the Atlantic Ocean across the street …
This is as close to paradise as it gets, kids.
I work here. It looks like IKEA but is simply only furnished by it. The John Lennon poster is not mine, but I love New York and that makes me happy. Next to it is my calendar of Paris, because that’s where I want to be:
In this area, the homeless are quite creative. They use palm leaves to make “roses” and other souvenirs:
I’ve started spending my Saturdays in Fort Lauderdale. The weather has been for crap the past couple weeks and I couldn’t get a good picture to save my life.
I tried to go to Winterfest on Saturday — the biggest, baddest boat parade in the area. I had a GREAT parking spot, which my awesome server at Cafe Bluefish turned me on to. (And the dolphin fingers at Cafe Bluefish? To. Die. For.)
But alas, it rained like fucking hell and I gave up on the idea, even though I was in a FREE parking space, just TWO BLOCKS from the event. Gah.
The only photo I can find of the Fort Lauderdale area is this one, of the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Fla. … the title of the photo is “A Bar Named After My Life.”
Regular readers of this blog know that I’m on a quest to “live this life if it kills me.” Thus, I will be heading to Orlando on Thursday to celebrate Christmas, Disney-style.
I don’t have any digital photos of Disney, but I usually stay at the Gaylord Palms. (Correction: I did while I was on my last employer’s dime!) So, here’s a photo of the view from my hotel room — yes, this was taken indoors.
Thank you for taking this tour of my life with me! This is a great scrapbook of memories from this period in my life. Shannon, thanks for including me in the project!
