Florida + Friends + Murder = Great Times!

So in my previous entry, I had written about my time with my mom while she was down visiting. It was, like I had mentioned, a lovely, fun time with her where we got to relax and have no drama around us. A week later, I had a few of my best friends come down to visit me. This visit, was the exact opposite of my mom's. Full of drama which included going topless, a stalker, the overuse of cellular phones, sunburn, paparazzi, a parking ticket, a stalker...and what was the other thing? Oh yay, a murder!

My friends Harry and Ashley, whom I have known for 5 years, came down to stay with me for a few days during Harry's spring break from nursing school. So their vacation actually started off relatively normal. We got settled in at my apartment and decided to go to my favorite restaurant...you guessed it, the Anna Maria City Pier. We were treated to the rare encounter of a pelican that seemed to be waiting for take out.


I was trying to tell Ashley this was a great opportunity to get some really great close up pictures, as she is an amazing professional photographer, so slowly she worked her way in. However, a couple, who looked like they had just walked out of their single-wide trailer, were taking pictures of their own. They occupied the entire area!


Notice the lady's animal print rolled up pants and red Crocs. So stylish! We also thought that her back boobs were actually bigger then Ashley front boobs!
Ashley finally did get a few great shots that was until the pelican decided to start chasing her around the deck. I wish I had a pic for this, but I was laughing too hard to hold the camera still. But I digress, so we finally were seated and had a very lovely dinner. I even introduced Harry to the drink Sangria. Now, I know Harry had told me that he hadn't drank since his bachelor party a year and a half ago, but come on my brother...1.5 Sangrias and you are smiling like a kid in a candy store! What a cheap drunk! Here is Harry eating the rest of Ashley's food. Notice the calm look on his face. As most of you know, only alcohol or Ativan will make Harry look this relaxed.


After dinner we headed back and I set my guests up in the "Hotel Lemieux" suite, AKA blow-up beds in the living room.


Whatever...it's free bitches!

On that Sunday I awoke to find the sleepy couple enjoying breakfast on my deck. Little did we know that what was going on around them at the time, would come back to haunt us. Here is a picture from breakfast. The "haunting" will come into play later.


We went down to Sarasota and Siesta Key for the afternoon. Harry was playing photographer. Here are some of his pictures.



One great thing to see if you are driving through the city of Sarasota is the "Unconditional Surrender" Kiss statue which is a sculpture of the famous photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse on V-J Day in New York City, 1945. The artist is J. Seward Johnson. This particular version is 25 feet tall! Here is a darling picture of the "love birds", aka Harry and Ashley, recreating the great statue.


Harry got a little excited and wanted a closer look!


Here is Ashley going "topless"! What a sexy babe!


We ended up having lunch at the Daiquiri Deck. Harry and I felt courageous and decided to try oysters on the half shell! I loved them...Harry, not so much!



Harry was able to get 1 1/3 of them down before giving into their "booger" consistency. He tried cutting them up with a knife and fork which cracked me up!


Side note... When we were at the Daiquiri Deck, both Harry and I ordered a Pina Colada. Harry was asked to produce an ID and when I asked if the waitress needed to see mine, she looked at me and laughed! What the f*#k!

On our way back, Harry found a restaurant that had been named after him.


The next morning Kim and Mitch came down to join us in our spring break fun. We spent the day at Holmes Beach which is 2 miles from my house. I don't usually go to this beach, but Harry wanted to rent an umbrella as to not harm his delicate, soft skin! Especially after he has just started shaving!


Here is Harry, Mitch and Kim enjoying Harry's umbrella. Ashley is all about the sun, and apparently the pose!


Side note...So we all know that we as a culture are addicted to electronics. Who doesn't have a cell phone or will check the internet at least once a day? But when you are at the beach, the last thing you should be doing, is playing on your cell phone! Harry and Mitch's ADD got the best of them, and instead of taking my advice to let us bury them as I wanted to make them mermaids with big boobs, they decided to be constantly on their cell phones! And what is worse, is that they were seeing who's cell phone was the biggest! I distinctly heard the words, "mine is bigger, thicker and blacker"! Really boys? Is this the new way to play "swords"?!


I guess boys will be boys!!!

Later that night we went back to my apartment to get ready for dinner and the "haunting" began. Remember the picture of Harry and Ashley enjoying a sleepy breakfast? While we were out there we noticed some police walking around the complex but didn't really think anything of it. When we were on our way back, we noticed police tape around part of the building next to mine. Our minds started to race. Could it be a robbery, an assault or kidnapping? We didn't know. It surely couldn't be a murder though. Not in my little "slice of Heaven"! Who commits murder when on island time anyway? Here is a picture of the actual crime scene.


(Courtesy of the Bradenton Herald)

I finally did hear from my neighbor, who we will call "creepy stalker guy", *I'll talk about him later* that indeed it was a murder! In the heat of passion, a boyfriend shot and killed his girlfriend while she was hiding in the closet. How sad! Apparently the boyfriend after killing his girlfriend called some friends and asked if he could come by their house and wash off the blood and gunshot residue. At least he cleans up after himself...most guys don't! He did turn himself in the next day, so we didn't have to worry about any further crime in the area. Ashley however wasn't so sure and said she didn't know if she would be able to sleep that night.
Later the next day, Harry in all of his creative genius, got a picture of the crime scene clean up truck. Only Harry would find that interesting!

So that night we went out to the Beach House. A very touristy restaurant, but still has great food and atmosphere. Here are some pictures from that night.





We had a great dinner and besides freezing as we sat out on the beach, really had a great time. Then Kim decided that she and the boys should do a shot to "warm themselves up".


Another side note...I have known Kim for a few years and have always known that Kim has two different sized pupils. So when people really look at her, they always wonder if she has some brain bleed or is stroking out. So add to the fact that she has two different pupil sizes and when you add light, like a flash from a camera, her pupils will really be unequal. Well Ashley and I wanted to remember this moment, so we took like 4 cameras and snapped a shot all at the same time. Talk about paparazzi! The light that was put out by those cameras was like a small super nova exploding! At this time, Harry yelled out, "Now, Kim's eyes are REALLY f*#ked up!" At that moment, those three started laughing so hard they all started crying. Ashley and I had no idea why they were laughing, but we took pictures of them anyway.



They finally did do the shot!


Here is Harry post the shot. What a hottie!


I laughed so hard, it looked like I "lactated" on my napkin!


Side note...Not until 2 days ago did we realize perhaps the food at the Beach House isn't so good. Both Ashley and Mitch became sick about 3 days after eating here. We didn't really think anything of it until I heard from them separatly that after suffering from this sickness for a week, they were diagnosed with most likely having E Coli! I had remembered that both of them ate the Chicken Fettucini that night. So if you can't afford to say vacation to some exotic, 3rd world country like Mexico, come on down to the Beach House on Anna Maria Island in Florida, and you will be treated to the same intestinal infection that you could have picked up there for much cheaper!!

We headed across the street to get ice cream to satisfy Ashley's fetish and when we returned to my Jeep, noticed a man standing by it. Now I thought he was just admiring my awesome ride, but no, he wasn't. He was giving me a ticket! What, a ticket? I yelled at him, "hey, don't give me a ticket!" I ran up to the cop and he told me he was giving me a ticket for parking illegally. I informed him that I did not park there, the valet had parked me there. He told me that I was going to have to take it up with the manager at the Beach House. No problem I said. So, I along with my posse of Mitch and Harry, walked into the restaurant and spoke with the manager. The manager looked and me and said, "oh did you get a parking ticket?" I politley said to her, "no, you did!" The manager looked at me, smiled and stated she would take care of it. While I was in handling this slight bump in our road that night, Kim and Ashley were again playing photographer. Here is a great shot of Kim. I'm not sure what she was doing, but it is funny!


I'm just thankful that the cop was in with me and didn't find the girls enjoying the cop car as scenery!

We finally made it back home and Mitch was tired from the evening so he got into my bed and snuggled up with my stuffed animals. He is so cute and prescious! Later he would find himself sleeping on the floor next to Harry. I heard there was kicking and possibly some more cuddling involved, but we will never know!


The next day we again went to the beach and just relaxed. Well us girls relaxed, the guys, not so much! Here are a few pictures from the 2 days we spent at Holmes Beach.


Mitch, "Hands off the booty!"


Harry is so strong! And notice the hat. Harry forgot to put sunscreen on the top of his nicely shaved noggin and the Florida sun got the best of him. The rest of his vacation, his baby soft skull skin did not see the sun of the day!


Kim got a little carried away with the sunscreen after hearing about Harry's predicament!


Awww, Mitch is my "little white nugget"!

We made it back to my apartment to get ready for our last night together. Tonight I was going to take them to my favorite beach that is great for pictures. I had brought Harry and Ashley to this beach last year, and at the time we were visiting, so was a group for professional models that were having professional topless photos taken for a calendar. Let's just say the boys were really hoping that would be the case for this year. While us girls were getting ready, the boys of course occupied themselves with another ADD surpressant. The internet.


So out to Whitney Beach we went. We all had our creative juices flowing and got some great photos. Here are a few of them.


This picture of us turned out great! We did have to do it like 3 or 4 times with a set mark for jumping and counting to get our rythm right. We are such dorks!




"Charlie's Angels"



Aww...the happily, married couple.


We all love this picture of Mitch. Ashley, the amazing photographer, captured it beautifully!


I love this picture because it is so simple...and then I had to go destroy it by grabbing Harry and Mitch's butts! I'm so classy!

When we got home, Mitch found what the "stalker" had left us while waiting for us to return.


A pile of cigarretts. Eww! Had he been awaiting our return? And why do we call him the "stalker"? Well I don't. He has always been this nice guy that lives behind me and says hi and asks if I have been surfing lately. Everyone else thought he was weird because he seemed to ALWAYS be outside when we were coming and going. So, they nicknamed him the "stalker". I had been holding off on publishing this blog until I could get a picture of him, but have been unable to get one. I was close this morning as I was looking at him through my blinds and almost had the shot. But then I thought, "now who is the stalker?" Here is what he kind of looks like.


Whatever, I'm going to continue to think of him as my nice neighbor as to not freak me out when I'm going to bed!

So that is the end to my blog and our vacation together. Great food (minus the E Coli), great memories (minus the murder and "stalker"), great pictures (minus the one of Mitch cuddled up in my bed with stuffed animals) and great friends (no minus here. I love them all dearly)!
Until next time "Gang"!