A month or so ago, I was on Cliff Roles’ radio show and he and I got into a conversation about service at local eateries in Sarasota. I chimed in about my experiences at the Word of Mouth restaurant on Osprey Avenue saying that I’d stopped going to the restaurant because of the repeatedly very unfriendly welcome my guests and I always received.

photo courtesy of WOM website

Who knows, really, what that phrase means anyway? But whatever it is, I think I’m entering it.

Yup. Today is the first day of my seventh year back here in Sarasota — and also the beginning of my seventh year of being in business for myself.

When I left Boston six years ago, I really didn’t have any idea what was ahead for me. I just knew that the city I’d loved — and the man I’d loved in it — had kind of beat the stuffing out of my heart. It was time to leave. With no expectations beyond surviving and carving out a little life for me and my cats, I arrived in Sarasota at the height of humidity and with the skies fraught with the maelstrom that would be Charley.

I slept on the floor that night; furniture not yet arrived from Boston (and wouldn’t show up for another two weeks). Einstein and Coco weary from their 30-something hour sojourn.

I bitch a lot about Sarasota — my hometown, really, and that of my family — but I’ve grown to love it, warts and winds and wackadoodles, all.

I still haven’t reconciled myself to the superficiality of what passes for relationships in this town, though; — god how I’d love to have a real conversation with someone that didn’t become something regretted or ignored or discounted later. Every now and then someone speaks something really real — but then they quickly withdraw and it — whatever that real thing was — is never mentioned again. And that continues to trouble me. Everyone in this town keeps everyone else at a considerable arm’s length. People dance around their emotions here. In my experience, nobody really says what they really think. It’s hard to get to the real person. If I ever leave it will be for this reason. Oh, and rising sea levels.

But, there are some genuinely lovely, nice people in this town, too. Men and women with whom I’ve shared drinks and walks and kisses — I just wish I could say I knew any of them better. What makes their hearts beat. What makes their hearts skip a beat. What their fears are; what made them fall in love and what makes them think they’re falling out of love. What makes them feel as if they’re breaking into a million little pieces and how they somehow pick all those pieces up again and get back in the game. I know they do it. They just don’t talk about it.

Want to know what makes my million little pieces stick together? I went on a drive over the weekend and captured just a few of the parts of Sarasota that have become my heart’s glue. I think this is going to be my best year yet.

Circle Books -- one of the first places to sell my book!

The view from the pier under the Ringling Bridge.

The fairy at the intersection near Florida Studio Theatre.

The catcus garden in my yard. I planted one tiny cactus that first August and now there are probably ten or more offspring. I actually love these plants.

The quiet place in my yard where lizards lounge on the Buddha and the jade plant seems to know all.

The view from my yard, late in the evening; not yet night.

Last night, I worked a bit late, stopped for dinner, and then was going to head back into my office and do a bit more, but stopped first in the kitchen to cut up some roasted chicken I’d bought as a treat for my cats. I stood there for some time at the counter, cutting, looking out the big kitchen windows into the yard, watching the dusk-feeding cardinals at the feeder which hangs at the edge of the carport. Calm night. I was looking forward to going outside around 11 pm and watching the Perseid meteor shower.

I fed the cats, cleaned the kitty litter, and stepped out to the carport area to throw the trash in the garbage can.

As I reached the garbage can, a black man suddenly appeared beside the bushes (not sure if he’d come through them or been walking along them), but it scared me so much — completely startled me, he was only a few feet from me, I hadn’t heard him coming — it was in my yard very close to the door, and I just dropped the trash and ran inside. Read more »

I was super excited to read in yesterday’s Business Weekly section of the Sarasota Herald Tribune, that Monica Yadav is going to be back on air in the greater Sarasota area.

Photo courtesy of The Showcase of Homes.com

And, if the enormous number of blog postings and emails I’ve received about Monica/Heidi/Channel 7 are any indication — there’s a huge audience of loyal viewers who will be glad to see her back on the air as well. (If you want to check out the back stories I’ve done on Channel 7 and see the multitude of comments, just click here, or here, or here. There are other stories and more comments — you can find them by typing in “Monica” or “Channel 7″ in the search box.)

According to Tom Bayles, the writer of the article, Monica, a former anchor on Sarasota’s ABC 7 News (www.mysuncoast.com), is doing a program called “The Showcase of Homes” — which showcases local communities and homes available for sale. Not only does the program inform the public about “what’s out there” but it also gives realtors an opportunity to market their listings.

The Showcase of Homes airs on ABC 7 on Saturdays at 7 am, rebroadcast Sundays at 11:30 am. You can also check the program out at www.theshowcaseofhomes.com.

If you’re glad to see Monica back — feel free to post a shout out to her on this blog. I’m very glad to see her on the airwaves again.

Good luck, Monica!

If you missed the David Brooks op/ed in Thursday’s Sarasota Herald Tribune, you might want to check it out online at “Two Ways of Looking at Life.”

This is the kind of writing I like to see and read in a newspaper. Provocative. Not appealing to the lowest common denominators, the trigger-pullers of sex, sensationalism, slamming, and sordidness, that far too often populate the ever-decreasing pages given to opinion and editorial writing.

Here’s an outtake:

Life isn’t a project to be completed; it is an unknowable landscape to be explored.

Wow. Lovely writing, and for someone like me — who lives by a to-do list and who rather stupidly takes very little time to enjoy life because “oh, I’ve got too much to do!” — well, this sentence stood out like a big blinking neon sign.

I wonder what would happen to my life if instead of waking every morning and saying “What can I accomplish today?”, I asked, “What can I explore today?”

Read Brooks’ column today — seriously. It’s worth your time.

Yesterday, the Sarasota Herald Tribune ran an article I wrote about all the fun, completely FREE, things to do during the dog days of summer.

It’s got everything from free “street” music to where to find a summer-ending splash bash for your kids, complete with a free dinner from Lee Roy Selmon’s, free movies, free ways to fire up your brain cells, to getting your thrills watching Nik Wallenda doing a high wire act and maybe being filmed by the Discovery Channel in the process …

Photography by Herb Booth Booth Studio, Inc. Sarasota Florida; courtesy of Lazy Fairy Improv

including how to get free lessons in “improv” — with the Lazy Fairy Improv teaching you how to make ‘em laugh — yes, all for free.

The story was the cover story in the paper’s TICKET section. You can read it online at: Free Fun!

New local radio host, Sherman L. Baldwin, has invited me to return to his program today — Talk Sarasota — 1280 AM on the radio dial (WTMY), or streaming to your computer at www.talksarasota.com (though I have noticed the streaming seems spotty).

Callers are welcome — and I hope people call in! The show runs from 3 to 6 pm, but I’ll only be on from 5:05 to roughly 6 pm — that’s today — the studio line is 954.1280. Read more »

As I reported last week, I went up to St. Pete to watch the Yankees lose 2-3 against the Rays. What I didn’t tell you was that, while I was supposed to be on a date with the man sitting next to me — yup, that one, the one who’d paid for the tickets, brought hand-made sandwiches and martinis in a giant thermos, yes, that kind-hearted, thoughtful soul, — I was really on a date with A-Rod, aka Alex Rodriguez, aka #13 for the Yankees.

Or at least it must have seemed that way to my “real” date. Because, all I did whenever Nimrod was up to bat, was snap photos of him — trying to capture him hitting his 600th home run. Read more »

Last night, I went on a very fun date up to St. Pete to see the Yankees play against the Tampa Bay Rays. Yes, I was wearing my Yankees cap, and yes, my date was a Rays fan. But we still managed to have fun.

The Yankees may have been outmatched in last night’s particular game, but they by far outclass the Rays when it comes to one particular thing.

The Tampa Bay Rays, formerly known as the Devil Rays, changed their name in 2007 — and the brand changed from being about “manta rays” to being “a ray of sunlight” that radiates across all of Florida. They developed a new logo to match this change in sensibility.

Um, too bad, they didn’t develop a new conscience to go along with all the show-me-the-money new branding. Read more »

New local radio host, Sherman L. Baldwin, has invited me to come on his program today for my fifteen minutes (literally) of fame. He hosts a program called Talk Sarasota — 1280 AM on the radio dial (WTMY), or streaming to your computer at www.talksarasota.com (though I have noticed the streaming seems spotty). Callers are welcome — and I hope people call in! The show runs from 3 to 6 pm, but I’ll only be on from 415 to 430 — that’s today — the studio line is 954.1280. Read more »