Things I Miss About Florida

1.  The sun and having a tan.  It rained nonstop for about five days this past week, and it was about eight days straight with no sun.  Now I see why people in the north are a tad bit grumpy! Note to self - buy vitamin D supplements and a tanning membership.

2.  Carrying a pink umbrella in the rain without getting made fun of.  Apparently everybody here carries black umbrellas. Except the crazy girl from Florida who didn't get the memo that the minute summer ends, all color must be put away.  When I pulled out my pink umbrella at work, this girl said "Oh my God! Is your umbrella pink? Let me guess, it also has Hello Kitty on it?"  Note to self - buy a black umbrella.

3.  Knowing the location of all of the random counties and cities, and how to get to any of them.  In Florida, I could drive down any highway and knowing exactly where I was at and what was in each direction.  Same thing when I listened to the news and they talked about a random story in a random town or issued some kind of weather alert for a specific area.  I never thought that was something I should appreciate.  But now, I drive around, blindly following my GPS with no clue which direction I'm going or what's around me.  I just pray my GPS knows where she's going and how to get me home!  And everytime I hear a weather alert and they say "take cover immediately," I hide in my closet only to find out later that the area under alert was actually 2 hours away in Maryland.  Note to self - buy a map. And study it.

4. College football. People here just don't get college football.  They barely even get NFL. Instead they play and watch some ridiculous thing called lacrosse.  On Saturday, I went out in jeans, rainbows, and an FSU tee, which in Florida would be perfect Saturday attire during fall.  I think I saw one other person wearing any sort of college football shirt. Instead I saw a bunch of cardigans. Noto to self - trade in my FSU tee for a nice garnet or gold cardigan.  Actually, no.  New note to self - keep wearing my FSU tee with pride! Go Noles!

5. Publix subs.  There is nothing like a Publix sub. I was really craving one yesterday - seemed the perfect meal to cure a hangover and kickoff college football Saturday.  So, I thought, well everybody says Harris Teeter is just like Publix and they have Boar's Head subs.  Nope.  Harris Teeter subs are NOT like Publix subs. The bread was hard, the lunch meat was sliced way too thick, and the girl gave me attitude when I requested that she slice cheddar for my sub. Note to self - never get a Harris Teeter sub again, eat 80 Publix subs when I visit home, and try to find a new delicious sub place in the city.