Samantha Ling

I’ve had it in mind to write a piece of fiction set in Victorian San Francisco. I grew up in that area and in our history classes we had learned about the gold rush. And in some small towns, their whole attraction is that they were once a mining town. They are actually quite proud of it, erecting statues to commemorate those times and even selling you trinkets to allow you to pan for your own gold.

But the thing about setting stories in the Guilded Age of San Francisco is that there are more than a few novels based in that time and place. After all, it was a very exciting time and a much documented time as well. There are plenty of resource materials from books to web sites to the original newspaper articles dating back to the mid-1800’s.

So I thought, since I live in Florida now that I could very well set a story here. My preliminary research was quite shocking, though I don’t know why it would be. Florida is the southernmost state in the lower 48, after all.

There were many items regarding Florida. The most exciting time seemed to be in the 1600’s. There are lost merchant and pirate ships strewn about the southern coastline currently. Ponce de Leon and the fountain of youth and all that. But my interest lay in the 19th century.

What I discovered is that Florida is indeed the south. There is a saying here that you actually have to go north to reach the south, but Florida has it’s roots very much in Southern history.

You see Florida was a plantation culture in the 1800’s. Out of the population of 140,000, nearly half were slaves. During the Civil War not only did Florida secede, but they were also the first to be one of the confederate states.

In the 1900’s there was a series of lynchings. It became so frightening to live in Florida that there was a mass exodus to find a better life elsewhere.

In guidebooks about the south, Florida is never included. But I think that has more to do with the influx of New Englanders. They don’t call it the Fifth Borough for nothing. It’s probably the only thing that keeps Florida from feeling like the south completely. Not that there is anything wrong with the south. I just wasn’t intending on writing a story about plantation life.

It would be a distinctly different story if I set it in Florida. There would be southern belles, land owners, and slaves. That is not the story I wanted to tell. At least not this particular story. There is always a chance that I will set another story here.

So I have decided that the story will remain in San Francisco,. After all, there are railroad barons, bonanza kings, corruption, mayhem, and secret underground tunnels not to mention the rich diversity of people that settled there. And of course, earthquakes!!

Until tomorrow!

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

I was telling E that she should write a food blog. Not only does she try to visit all sorts of different restaurants, she’s also able to find BOGO deals. (BOGO means “Buy One Get One” free or half off or whatever the current deal was.) And she also studied journalism, so why not, right? And she’s hella funny. People would totally read that.

And as I was talking to her about it, I realized that I need to write in my much neglected bog. How sad it was that I could only write two entries a month lately. And it’s not like I didn’t have anything to write about. I’m just, well, lazy.

So what else should I write about besides food?

Several months ago, Jay Lake had come to Florida to teach a class. We took him to Mellow Mushroom near Winter Park. We had gone because E had recommended it and we couldn’t figure out where else to go. Since that visit, we’d gone to the one on Colonial several times.

The Mellow Mushroom in Winter Park isn’t much different than the Mellow Mushroom on Colonial. They both have outdoor seating areas and the insides are painted in a whimsical hippy feeling way. The only difference is that the the one on Colonial is newer and bigger.

The thing that you absolutely have to have are their ptretzels. It’s made out of their pizza dough and is delicious. But then it could be that it’s because the thing is drenched in butter and salt. It is one of my favorite things there. I usually get a Caesar salad and a meatball sandwich on wheat. It costs us about $17 for all of that and Chris and I share.

I wouldn’t suggest you order fany other sandwich though. I tried their jerk chicken sandwich and got a jerk onion sandwich. There was plenty of sauce, bit little bitty pieces of minced chicken. I think it’s what they throw onto their pizzas. I talked to others that have ordered their sandwiches and they said that they’ve never gotten a good one.

What they’re known for is pizza. I haven’t had them because I think they are a little expensive. But every time that we’ve gone, everyone has always ordered one.

Jay had ordered a calzone and that thing was big. There was more than enough to take home and make a whole other meal.

They also have various assortments of beer. They look like microbrews. I don’t drink beer, so I can’t tell you if they’re good at all. They also have trvia nights on Tuesdays. At least, that’s what the waitress told us.

The last time that we went, they did have lunch specials.

They look like a good deal if you’re not super hungry.

It’s a good restaurant that I is well worth trying. Let me know how you like it!

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

So Chris and I went to the Clerk of the Courts today to get our marriage license. There was a hellacious drive, but that's neither here nor there. So here's the thing. Before you can get married, they make you read this pamphlet. So I was thinking it's a pamphlet on how sacred marriage is and how difficult it was and what you need to do to keep it going. So we got there, and there's this fancy kiosk. It's a touch screen, and you pick get a marriage license, pay ticket, or get passport. And then it spits out this fancy number with the time and date that you were there at. Anyway, that's not the most interesting part.

Ok, so we get this pamphlet that the nice security guard handed us to read while we were waiting our turn. And you know what was in the pamphlet?

Two pages of how hard marriage was and fifteen pages on how to get divorced. Oh yes, it was all about divorce. How property is divided, what happens to the children, alimony, child care, and how to file. Seriously. It's required reading before you can get a marriage license enacted into Florida law some years ago. It's expecting that you'll get divorced even before you get married. There's some absolutely wrong with that somehow.

The wind and rain has died down since last night. There wasn't anything except some banging that came from one of the trees by the house. It woke me up a couple of times during the night, but it wasn't anything that kept me awake the whole night.

The tropical storm is currently off the coast and will most likely gain strength. They're thinking that it'll hit land again, but it should swing up towards Jacksonville, so we won't be in the eye at all. We'll most likely get more rain and wind. It may or may not turn into a hurricane. It's hard to tell. I can see why people get complacent with tropical storms. There are so many that come through here without becoming a full blown hurricane that they don't really get to the store until it's too late and there aren't any more supplies left at the store.

The wedding plans are all set. The only thing that needs to be done is the Saturday before the wedding. We had planed on having things to do for the out of town guests. The problem we're running into is finding places to eat. We've got about 24 people between the family, bridal party and their guests. Unfortunately, the places that we've talked to all want us to set a menu and do the whole contract thing. We just want to be able to eat somewhere and have people choose what they want. The two places that we'd spoken to before suddenly want us to do that at $30-50 a person. So we're a little bit at a loss as to where to take people for lunch. I wanted to take them to places where they can't go elsewhere, but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen now. We'll probably end up at a chain that you could go anywhere. So we're still searching. Anybody have any suggestions?

Because it's Friday and I know you aren't working...

We have neighbors that we don't know, but we see often and say hello to.

A few doors down is the pot house guys. They're college students that drive cars twice as much as mine. One night, we found a stray cat that had run out of their garage, so we thought it belonged to them. Before I even got to the door, I could smell the stinkweed. And when the guy opened the door, it felt like a wave of smoke exploded in my face.

There's The Brood house, a family that seems to have eight children of various ages. The children, whose oldest can't be more than twelve, are allowed to play outside at all hours of the night. I understand that we live in a gated community with security cameras at the front gate and a security guard in the evenings, but still, that won't stop bad people from hurting your children. The kids are also playing in the street. At 11 pm, I'm sure it's not safe to do that even if I was watching them. They should seriously be in bed by that point anyway.

Then there's the bachelor. I have no idea what his name is, but I do know that he own's a boxer named Sadie who is very well behaved and adorable. The large dogs in my immediate area are well behaved. There's a rotweiler across the way that obeys her owner without challenging him. And she never barks. Now the little mini-dogs bark when They see me, which can get annoying.

So the bachelor used to let Sadie run around without a leash. Florida has a leash law. So he had to get a leash whenever he took Sadie out. Instead of letting her run around, he has to run around with her. And since we have a communal backyard, I see him out there every day. And the funny thing is, I think he's gotten skinnier from all that running around.

The bachelor used to have a girlfriend though, but that doesn't seem to have worked out. He's been single for a while now, but I do know he has a huge flat panel tv. I know because his back window, which spans the length of his condo faces my front door.

How well do you know your neighbors?