Where we used to live there’s snow piled up to the thigh (or, for someone short like me, probably the waist), but here it’s still mostly sunny with just a bit of wind and sprinkling rain and in mid-afternoon it’s still in the mid-60s.

So, excursions are still an option, even at 35 weeks pregnant.  If snow were piled up outside, I’d be on the couch curled up in a blanket (hopefully with power), but since it’s relatively nice here, I’m trying to stay active.

Thus, last Saturday we joined friends at the Florida Aquarium.  We were only there a couple hours, but my feet were swollen anyway, so a couple hours was long enough for me.

My camera decided to be a pain and died halfway through, but I managed to get a few photos, so check out my Travelblog to see them all!

We spent our wedding anniversary at Madeira Beach – a beautiful, quaint location that has a lot of history for us. There was shopping and sunsets, ice cream and dolphins, and we had a fabulous time!

It was totally romantic, but also very peaceful and refreshing. Check out all the photos on my Travelblog!

On a not-too-chilly Florida evening, my husband and I find our seats in a darkened stadium that slowly fills to capacity.  After an announcer welcomes us and tries not to burst with excitement, promising us a special surprise and insisting over and over that we “not leave early,” everything goes black.

There’s a misty blue light clouding onto to the stage and as deep bells ring out and a rumble slowly crescendos, silhouetted figures become visible and then with a burst of quick, colorful lights and a heavy bass of drums and electric guitars a chorus of voices explodes into the stadium.  There’s music, loud and passionate, and lights, swift and pulsating, and at one point I see a guitarist, his long, blond hair whipping about because he’s headbanging as he jams out to “Joy to the World,” and I find myself thinking, hey, these are my kind of people.

Somewhere between the keyboard and electric guitars, the long, feathered hair, the ballad-like lyrics and the vibrant laser light show, I feel like I’m in the middle of an ‘80s metal music video.  It’s pretty cool.   Of course, I’m a child of the ‘80s, so I can’t help it:  metal’s in my blood.

But this isn’t your normal rock concert.  It’s the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Winter Tour 2009 performance at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida.  We attended on 06 December, buying the tickets kind of in celebration of my birthday, which was the day before, and our wedding anniversary, which is next week.  We though it would be nice to do something a little different, which is what the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is:  a little different.  It’s a mini-orchestra but it’s a rock band, too.  They play Christmas music and pieces from traditional operas, as well as their own works.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been around since the release of their first single, “Christmas Eve in Sarajevo 12/24,” fourteen years ago.  They’ve sold over seven million copies of their first four albums, but they are best known for their concerts, playing to over 5 million people in over 80 cities by 2008.  Their concerts are presumably memorable because creator Paul O’Neill was not only trying to build a progressive rock band that would push existing boundaries, but, according to their website, he was determined to have “people to walk out of our shows speechless and…still not believing what they have seen was possible.”

It was certainly impressive, but I also can’t say that it was the best concert I’ve ever seen – especially since the last concert I saw was Paul McCartney, and I don’t think anyone will ever top that.  The band was certainly talented, most of the vocals were well executed, and the light show was well arranged, but there was something a little off.  I think that perhaps it was a bit unbalanced.  I thought the narration was nice and provided a fairly appropriate break between some of the songs, but some segments were a little overly-lengthy.

Also overly-lengthy was the slow song sang by a singer portraying a drunken homeless man to only the background on a single acoustic guitar.  It’s not that I can’t appreciate a good message or a temporary slow pace while attending a rock show, it’s just that it’s so darned hard to me to make out what people are saying through a microphone when I’m not familiar with the material, and it’s just as hard for me to be entertained by what I’m only able to interpret as gibberish.  It’s not their fault – I’m a bit hard of hearing these days, but I can honestly say I mostly enjoyed the loud music and psychedelic lights and the energy of the passionate band members, like the crazy, headbanging violinist who kept swinging around her bow.

After what I’ve just said, however, I still feel it’s important to mention that one of my absolute favorite parts of the show was a single man soulfully singing “O Holy Night.”  I took over 30 minutes worth of video of the concert, but didn’t tape this – and wish that I had.  It was a very powerful performance.

I also have to mention that we did not have good seats.  I can’t complain too much since we didn’t even buy the tickets until a week before the performance, so we already knew our choices would be limited.  And maybe it was just the venue, since there were these gigantic posters hanging from the ceiling of the stadium to brag about the Tampa Bay Lightning’s past accomplishments just to the left of where we were sitting and there was this massive structure, presumably to hold lights, that was hanging very low and just above the stage, and thus obstructing our view.  I would see this concert again in the future, but only if I had the money to spring for the best seats:  either on the floor in front of the stage or at least in the first level.  We just really felt that the show would have been much, much better if you could look directly at the stage and not down on it from the nosebleed section.

As a special treat, instead of a traditional encore, the surprise the announcer had promised turned out to be a guest appearance by Joe Walsh (a former Eagle), who sang the last two songs of the evening.  It was a completely different atmosphere, and one that was purely fun – even the TSO band members were having a blast onstage.  He did an eight-minute performance of “Life’s Been Good” and then “Rocky Mountain Way,” complete with talk-box sound effects.

Incidentally, this completely unexpected turn of events – Joe Walsh’s appearance – means that in this year of 2009, my husband and I saw live performances from one of the Beatles and one of the Eagles.  Just one of each, but that makes it a memorable year nonetheless.

And now to leave you with a quote from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra:

In the moments of our lives / Both the joyous and the tragic / If the truth is to be told / We are all pursuing magic. / And the magic that we seek / As we’re sure you have discovered / Can be found in certain places / Far more easily than others.

In the sand beneath the Sphinx / In the dreams of candlelight / But the surest place of all / Is the forgiving world of night. / And of all the nights throughout the year / That come and gently leave / None hold the dream of magic / Like the evening, Christmas Eve.

Saturday was my 28th birthday and my husband and I spent the day out.  We saw a movie, though that choice was mostly made because we had been meaning to visit the Big Cat Rescue but the weather was terrible and we needed to find an indoor activity.  So:  movie.  Simple enough solution.

Then we had a nice dinner at Maggiano’s Little Italy at the Westshore Plaza in Tampa.  I wasn’t sure where I wanted to have my birthday dinner, but his parents and sister gave me a gift certificate which was good at a few places, including Maggiano’s, and I’d been in the mood for Italian, so again:  easy solution.

The food was quite good and the décor upscale, but we’ll probably stick with Carrabba’s Italian Grill in the future since its still Seth’s favorite restaurant – and it’s cheaper.  I’m just not that much of a “high class” person, but when I do go somewhere that’s supposed to be classy, I don’t expect the servers to shout to eat other from twenty feet away or to touch every single water glass in the restaurant with the rim of the water pitcher or to ask me if we’d like them to box up our food when I’ve still got my fork in my hand.

If I’m going to chance putting up with all that, I’m going to eat somewhere cheaper.

The food, though, was very good, and because it was Seth’s first time eating there, we were offered (just like we saw them offering other tables) a complimentary sample of their fried zucchini, or Crispy Zucchini Fritte, appetizer.  That’s something I wouldn’t have ordered on my own, but it was incredibly tasty!  The crunchy, breaded zucchini with a warm, soft center then dipped into the lemon aioli cream sauce was more like a savory dessert then a vegetable.  Also, we had ordered the Bruschetta, which we both loved.  Fresh, juicy tomato chunks topped crouton-like, crispy bread, and I thought it could have used a little onion, but Seth thought it was perfect the way it was.  Those two appetizers were our favorite part of dinner, really, and we could easily go back for just wine and appetizers and be plenty satisfied.

For an entrée, Seth got the Chicken Marsala, which he said was very good, but he still preferred Carrabba’s – no surprise there.  (I think he could eat Carrabba’s Chicken Marsala every night and never get tired of it!)  He wished there was pasta on the plate, too, but since pasta is traditionally a first course, I believe that’s why it was excluded.  I ordered pasta as my main course:  a plate of Gnocchi with Tomato Vodka Sauce.  The gnocchi were tender and the tomato-cream gravy smooth and flavorful.  I do prefer more sauce on my food, which I know is merely a personal preference, but the top pieces seemed a little dry to me since the sauce had pooled in the bottom of the bowl.

No dessert was ordered because we were both quite stuffed, and there was cake waiting for me at home anyway.  In fact, I barely made a dent in my full-size (as opposed to half-sized) plate, which I believe could have really fed three or four people, and even Seth took home some chicken.  But that’s okay; we’ll just have leftovers for a little while.

It may seem strange that lizards are one of the things I’ve missed about living in Florida (well, I think it’s strange), but seeing them scurrying across the ground or climbing up the screens or doing their little push-ups when they catch you watching brings back a weird sense of warm nostalgia.

I never thought I’d say anything like this, but I find the presence of the lizards comforting.  Everything on this list is somehow strangely comforting.  But the list exists because when we were about to move back to Florida, we encountered a barrage of “Why do you want to go to Florida?  They have hurricanes and it’s hot and the pace of life is way too slow!”

So many people in the Northeast had negative opinions of Florida.  But, then again, they were choosing to live in the Northeast, and we were not.  Home is where the Army sends you, but now that my hubby is retiring, we get to choose where we live.  So here are a few of the things I’ve missed, strange or not, that have drawn me back:

1.  The water, i.e. the ocean, gulf, rivers, lakes, etc. that are everywhere

2.  Blue skies

3.  Light, spring showers / sun showers

4.  The sandy beaches and blue-gray waters of the Gulf of Mexico

5.  Lizards

6.  General tropic appearance of foliage, including Palm Trees, Spanish Moss and Palmetto bushes

7.  The plants don’t all die in the fall and winter – they’re green all year

8.  Slightly chilly but pleasant winter temperatures

9.  No snow, no snow shoveling, no salting the driveways

10.  The scent of the orange trees