Florida, Learning To Play, & a PODCAST

It donned on me that Flo Rida (someone give me sunglasses and a downbeat, please) is literally FLORIDA’s syllables broken down. Did you ever notice that?! Or is that just me? Maybe I’m late to the game. I’m a very fly by the seat of my pants little lady. I love structure and boundaries, but I equally like flexibility and spur of the moment adventures. Much of this has to do with my unpredictable life and its twists and turns, but spontaneity honestly just makes my heart sing. I am scatter brained, Type B, and definitely not a heavy planner. Planning to me looks like, “Ok, this set of dates look flexible, this is my budget, this location looks cool, let’s do this and leave the planning once we get there,” bada bing bada boom. Planning is a foreign concept to my brain, and Type A, year in advance, schedule things by the hour all day every day, no mishaps or change of plans people, actually terrify me. There are a whopping two people who I am travel savviest with, but the only downfall is our indecisiveness and…well…equally Type B minds. “Fly by the seat of your pants” is our shared middle name.

No; I’m serious. One soul sister, Ashley (who I have affectionately dubbed “Ash-slay”), and I literally planned a trip, booked an Airbnb, and sort of roughly gauged a 10 hour road-trip to Canada the night before. This brings me to soul sister #2, Moriah Sutton, whose heart is probably shaped like the beach. She is my second pal of spontaneity, tan twinner, and I’m pretty sure we somehow share fetal tissue, as our lives parallel to maddening degrees. Is that weird? Eh. Nah.

With both Ash-slay and M-Nugget (If we become tight, you too will probably receive a totally rad nickname from me), I always leave feeling inspired, liberated, and literally wanting to better myself as a person. That’s MY kinda travel savvy pal!

Last week, I decided to visit M-Nugget in Pensacola, FL. It’s funny how little I miss living in Los Angeles, yet an hour trek through Atlanta en route strangely brought back my long lost love for 85mph feeling normal on the freeway. The only difference between LA and ATL traffic, is that the southern tribe actually lets you over and uses a blinker! And we make sweet tea!

I booked it through my 9 hour drive – through ATL, through nothingness upon nothingness in ‘Bama, and a pair of crunchy joints + a brain running on 1% later, arrived in the good ‘ole panhandle before Moriah was even off work.

So what does a girl do with 90 minutes to spare in tropical, beachy, sunkissed Florida? Run to the beach? Buy a bikini thong? Sip a piña colada in a bikini thong? Take selfies in the water in birthing position in a bikini thong? If you guessed none of the above and find a Walgreens parking lot, lean your seat back, and crash, you’d be correct.

I love visiting M. Our conversations range from conspiracy theories, to theology, to laughing about our paralleling love lives and most awkward situations we’ve ever endured in the history of ever, to having the same spiritual/life EUREKAS, and all the in betweens and goods.

What I love most though, is that we always “play”! I feel like our culture sees the simplistic art of playing as either: Hyperjuvenile, or hypersexual. You know the two ends of the spectrum and those connotations! I argue that there is a perfect middle for play; one that is neither childish nor adult content only. It’s the kind of play that seeks to explore, learn something new, do something that makes your heart and soul sing…something that makes you feel joyful and ALIVE! Eno napping, beach cruisers (and hence the name, we 10/10 do not recommend for rolling hills), beach bumming, and trading iphone-ography for our neck heavy, neck straining time freezers, were among the buffet.

I moved to Los Angeles when I was 22, and it felt like growing up overnight as soon as I got there. My life became bustle, 2 hour commutes, work, and eventually sheer survival. I had no time for the things that brought so much joy – my camera, blogging, beach runs, eno-ing and looking up at the clouds, any sort of collaborating – or if I did, I was so zapped from the day before, that my body had nothing left to give. During my last days out there, I recall roaming the streets and literally thinking, “Who am I? What do I actually love doing? What do I even have to offer the world?” This season has been refreshing. I’ve been reminding myself that play is OKAY. In fact, I argue that it is even GOOD and necessary! It brings togetherness, joy, creativity, and LIFE. Ethical playdates ftw!

Camera nerd moment: I’ve only ever used automatic white balance when I shoot. I can adjust my shutter speed, aperture, ISO, blah blah blah…but white balance? Using Kelvin to measure? Sounds too complex! DEBUNKED: M gave me a crash course in literally less than 60 seconds. So you’re welcome for the delicious warmth in these images. 10 years of shooting in auto white balance later (yeah; a flipping DECADE since I’ve been shooting!), and my world will never be the same. Thanks, M!

Dear, sweet Pensacola presented among THE most maple syrupy hellfire of heat that I’ve run through in a while. I told Moriah that if it were socially acceptable to run naked, or in oh…I don’t know…a loin cloth + nip stickers? I’d be down. I was chased by about 3 dogs at the park for my long run. Thankfully, their upper class owners with pooch strollers and fancy gadgets, summoned them before they could defend themselves by way of attacking my flesh. The highlight, however, was frantically bolting for a porta-john, and simultaneously, a man’s australian shepherd or golden doodle thingy (my downfall) (seriously; golden doodles are my guilty pleasure and I could eat them in a tortilla for breakfast, they are so dang fluffy and cuddly and all the feel good adjectives) tearing after me.

It was mixed emotions of, “WOW, THE COLD BREW AND MY ORGANS ARE NOT VIBING AND I CANNOT WAIT ANOTHER NANOSECOND” and “WOW; WHAT A SWEET, FUZZY ANGEL BABY.” You’re welcome for the visual.

I told Moriah many times that her skills and cooking abilities were “So domestic!” She said that made her sound docile (maybe a little too, “YOUR PLACE IS IN THE KITCHEN!!”) (Wink) (Okay radical feminists, plz don’t throw tomatoes, ItWasAJoke, mkay?), so I tried to translate it to the fact that she’s like an earthy-crunchy-nifty with food and life, kinda person. Is that more socially correct?!

On my last night in Florida (whose conservative governor I’m totally politically crushing on, btw. Nothing screams “HOT” like opposing tyranny!), we also did something that has been in the works (for me, at least) for almost 2 years now…

Yeah; we had our first ever podcast convo! Light is a familiar concept via photography, but sound? That is brand new territory. I don’t have all the bells and whistles, we probably sat too far from the mic, and there are probably approx. 982374 other things I “should do”. But for now? It’s just getting this sucker rolling and having something to say! I’m prone to InstaStory, and for some reason, I’m DMd often that my rants/observations/skeptical questions are enjoyed. The blue light blocking glasses that sometimes make an emergence seem to help. That’s not an ego statement either. I literally have no clue why people actually flip through 20-40 video clips, hang in that long, respond, and actually request to see more. But then again – with the recurring biases that float around, little to no middle ground (is middle ground even an option?!), and a minority that exposes their raised eyebrows…perhaps it shows that there are more likeminded people than I thought.

Nothing invigorates my soul more than a skeptic, or someone who dares to branch out into the gray areas of life. I will have more info on this here podcast SOON, but for now? Just know we’ll be jumping down all the rabbit holes and diving into ALL the “gray” (insert fake crowd laughter) areas – from relationships, to politics, to health, to mainstream media, and sex will most certainly be mentioned a time or 500. Just keepin’ it real. I’ve got a pretty sick lineup of voices to join me, and some pretty juicy “gray area” topics to cover. I’m pumped. Stay tuned!

Happy Tuesday, friends!