Can you guess which state remains snow-free? THAT'S RIGHT, YOU'RE JEALOUS. It's Florida. Ah, Florida. Even Hawaii can't match your warmth. Of course, by "warmth" I mean "highs of 54 and lows of 30". So not really WARM. But warm...er. Apologies for those people who like to think of these things in terms of "has it ever been done before?", because Florida is making it hard to create a real record. We like to make things difficult (voting, for instance, and paying teachers what they are worth).
I think this is an opportune time for me to write a love letter to Florida. Even though it is mostly a horrible place I am very fond of my home state. Occasionally I feel like I'm the only person here who likes being here--many of the people I meet at my university are from out-of-state and they seem to loathe fair Florida. I can't blame them for missing or preferring their homes, though; I am a big, big, big fan of Dune, but in one respect (ok, in many, although it is far less dated than, say, Heinlein), Herbert gets it totes wrong: when he has Duncan Idaho say something along the lines of, Parting from friends is sadness. A place is just a place. Not so, Duncan! A place is way more than that. Personally I find that leaving a place that I love is often harder than leaving people. You can communicate with people and visit them, but when you don't live in a place anymore, you...don't, and there is no going back, not really.
So here's to you, Florida--land of citrus groves and cold springs and sinkholes and hurricanes, land of Jody Baxter and Clinton Tyree, land of immigrants and rich white northerners, land of Mickey Rat, land of terrible roads and speed traps. There is no place quite like you, and when I leave sometime this summer I'll miss you awfully, your humidity and your mosquitoes too and your way of doing theme parks which is still unmatched. Who else could produce the Holy Land Experience and Celebration? Jimmy and I raise a margarita to you, Florida. Stay sunny.
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