Here it is -- Saturday night and I'm sitting here in thick fleece pants decorated with candy canes (yeah, I know Xmas is over), a long sleeve thermal shirt, pink fuzzy slippers and a long pink velour robe. Outside, it is doing this rain-snow thing and the wind is blowing in occasional bursts. It's cold and dreary. It feels like... OHIO. Hey, this is the beach. I'm not supposed to be watching "winter weather warnings" on the television. I'm not supposed to be worrying about whether or not the roads will be bad when I leave for work in the morning (Yeah, I'm going in on a Sunday. If I didn't need the OT $ for my future apartment, I'd skip it and stay in bed.)

I spent most of the morning at the 3A Car Care Center having the rear brakes on my car replaced. It wasn't so bad -- they had an awesome waiting room with high speed internet access, comfy chairs and cable television. I surfed the net and watched the Food Network. Then, I stopped by the store for some groceries and was amazed by all of the "winter weather" stuff displayed by the front door. Snow shovels, sidewalk ice melt, gloves, hats, scarves, etc. I felt this strong need to pop one of my anti-anxiety pills as flashbacks to winters in Ohio jumped into my memory.

Seriously, I don't need this crap. Not because I'm worried about driving on the roads... but mostly because I'm worried about being out there with all of the people here who DON'T know how to drive on snowy/icy roads. When it rains, people drive like there is 3 inches of ice on the roads. Heck, when it's dry, people still can't drive right.

I've started my "apartment search" already. I've been to a few properties and have found a couple I like. I just wish I didn't have to pay so much for them. Rent here is amazingly high... even for the crappy places. As much as I like being near the water, I'm eagerly anticipating moving into an apartment and calling it home. This beach house just doesn't feel like home. It's not my stuff. I feel like I'm staying with relatives or friends or something.

The job is still going well. I still like it. The work is picking up and I feel kind of stressed some days about the amount of work there is to do. The boss keeps talking about this new account we're going to get and how much more work it is going to bring in and part of me feels sad because I really don't want to get sucked into the overtime thing like I did at my last company. I was talking to my friend Mandy in Ohio the other night and she reminded me that my whole reason for moving here was to do things differently and live a different life but yet... I'm not doing that. I'm doing the same kinds of things I did in Ohio. The scenery is just better. So, I'm trying to find things to do that are different from what I did in Ohio. Of course, going in to work on a Sunday isn't different. Damn.

Hope all is well with you all.

I'm going to go crawl into bed and try to get warm and wish away the snow and ice.