Continuation of Where is L-O-V-E?

I had an epiphany this morning. The one thing I really like about this area of South Florida is their love of animals. Animal rescue is very big down in the county of Palm Beach. The local newspaper, The Palm Beach Post has a section on animals for adoption. There are countless organizations dedicated to adopting animals, one of which I volunteer with for a couple of hours on some Saturdays. My experience in the cosmetics industry hawking in the isles of Bloomies actually helps me in the way of asking for donations to help the abandoned and homeless animals. BTW Hawking was never fun for me unless I got someone into the chair and I worked my magic on her face.
Although I love animals, they are still pets- not humans. I think the whole industry of putting animals in strollers which seem to be very prevalent here is insane. Yes the animals are cute but they are not children they are PETS! I do understand that animals feet are not allow to touch the floor of the malls- yes that is the law here. Hence the animals in the strollers. I have seen this before when I worked in Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel in NYC. Somehow the people were seemingly more eccentric behavior and somehow more acceptable.
Which brings me to my epiphany. My theory about the animal attachments here - which is not so different from NY where people are attached to their animals too. But I think here, its for a different reason. I think that so many people here are relocated from some colder northern climate and their families - namely their children are far away and the animals fill a void. I can see myself that even with my cat, I'm a little over the top with my affections for him. My son , in NYof course , is really sick of me talking about Sabee, my cute Tuxedo cat that act more like a dog than a cat. I can go on and on about him, but my point is that I think that in the absence of your children , you need to find some sort of replacement. Pets add to the little bits of love that I need to gather before I feel totally at home in this foreign place where I sometimes feel I'm on Mars.

where is the L-O-V-E?

So this is what I have to find down here in Florida. I have to find a love of the scenery. Right now I am craving big leafy trees with branches. There are Banyon Trees here that look like something out of a sci-fi movie with twisted roots growing on the outside of the trunk.



I have to find a love of culture. Slowly I am seaching out restaurants- I am kind of possessed actually. My new best friend is the laptop armed with my fav: Menupages.com and my old friend Zagats Guide. I did find a new site that I use from time to time. It is called PBPulse.(Palm Beach Pulse) Yes, I confess I am a foodie and NO I WILL NEVER GO TO AN EARLYBIRD SPECIAL!

I need to really get a better feel for driving here. tbc





There are a whole lot of older retired people here especially in my 55+ developement. I swear it is unnatural. One of my friends- actually my deceased stepmother-in-law's daughter( you figure it out- actually I will go into telling my crazy stories later) said to me- trying to make me feel better- "So you are the hot young thing". What good is that when there is absolutely nooooo eye candy whatsoever?

I had a dream cont.

My real estate was very charming and clever. Tamara actually arranged a meeting party for us so we would feel like we belonged in her little community even before we moved . My husband was still teaching at the time. I am a makeup artist- (look at new website-justrightmakeup.com) Tamara had photograhers, artists, teachers at the party, everyone to make us feel like we were moving in tomorrow and making friends and business connections.

With all the good feelings from Tamara, my husband never really liked the idea of living in Albuquerque. He reminded me that we would still be an eight hour flight away from my son in NY. We then started thinking about Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Upstate New York. Nothing really fit the bill.

I had a dream ... last night.
I dreamt that I was first leaving Bergdorf Goodman and first saying goodbye and telling everyone that I was moving to Florida. Do you know what I woke up feeling? I woke up feeling that the thing I miss the most ,besides my son and his new wife, are the little bits of love I felt about my life in NY. I had friends everywhere I looked in Bergdorf Goodman. Some were close, some were only friendly acquaintances. I had a life filled with socializing with my husbands friends that became my friends and visa versa. I was surrounded by the excitement and culture of New York City which we took full advantage. We went to Broadway, Off Broadway, and yes even Off Off Broadway. We went to the Met. -The museum and even the opera a few times. We took the subway at 11:30 at night and never feared any danger. It is the city that definitely never sleeps. If you wanted to get a snack at 10PM you didn't have to think about what place is open- well maybe in Queens where I lived. I could visit my son and his new wife in Park Slope Brooklyn every three weeks or so and he would navigate us to one fabulous restaurant after another. There are people on the streets no matter what time of night coming and going to their choice of venues in Bklyn and NYC.

So why did I move away from all of this ? I moved for the dream.

I had a dream

I think a dream started this entire business. You know, the American Dream of the house, the family, the pet. Then there is that word of advise," Be careful what you wish for".

Well, I got my house, but without my family. Yes , my husband is still with me. We have been married for 33 years. Geez, I can't believe that those number belong to me. My son has recently married, this past April, on the sunniest day New York had to offer I think for the entire year and probably the hottest too. The temperature 85 degrees that day. But alas, he is in New York and I am here in beautiful, sunny southeast Florida. Many people that have been living here call this 'Paradise'. I can understand all the visual reasons. Swaying palm trees are everywhere, grass is always green and manicured. Every day is sunny-even when it is rainy!

My transition hasn't been a gentle one. Many women that I have spoken to over the last few months that I have been living her are also, like myself, transplanted from the northeast. Some are from Chicago, there is a big chunk from Canada, but the bulk of the transplants the I have encountered are from Long Island and the Tri-state area. Living in a suburban area means one thing. You are not in the city! This is part of my transition issue. Even though I lived in a fairly suburban area in NY- Fresh Meadows ,Queens- I was a hop skip and a jump away from THE CITY. How could I not miss NYC.? I worked in the most posh department store on Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman. I hob nobbed with famous people every other day- so many, I lost track of the names of them all. As I walked through the store, happiness and confidence oozing from every pore, I would greet all my friends and co-workers with comfortable conversation. It was just a very happy place for me. My clients trusted me, my company that I worked for for 8 years respected me, my bosses treated me humanely and I loved the product that I sold-sounds like a dream job. Well, except for the usual pressure of every job, it was a perfect culmination of a career in cosmetics since 1984. I vowed that I would work there until it was time for me to retire which I figured was when I was 62 and then take Social Security.

And then it happened. My husband announced that with the falling real estate market we could afford to buy a house in Florida. We had been looking to buy a house somewhere in the country for at least 8 years. My opera major turned cosmetics business manager friend would say wher are you looking this time? We looked at Albuquerque, New Mexico. No good. As my husband put it ,"Too much beige". Yes, Albuquerque is a dessert, but as long as there was some sort of plant life , I could learn to like anything. I am a plant fanatic. I even put edible flowers in my salads.

I kind of fell in love with the mud huts, as the natives call the house structures of adobe . We had a fabulous real estate agent. There was one funnyish incident that actually was a kind of scary introduction to the Wild West. While driving around to look at properties, we spotted a man and woman running around a big blue Chevy or something like that, while screaming at each other. The woman was holding on to the car, half hiding behind it, and the guy was waving a GUN! OMG! The real estate agent apologized profusely saying that this was not the usual way of Albuquerque. This was just the beginning of our trip.