speaking of...

...love & what you do for a living.

first i have to share with you the words to one of my all-time favorite songs by Alan Jackson called "To Do What I Do" (you can hear a short clip of the song if you click on the title):

I've been a waiter, a roofer, a clerk
I've shoveled manure till my pride hurt
When you're starting out, it's all part of the work
To do what I do

I've been evicted for not making rent
Made my Daddy wonder where my good sense went
For the price of a dream, my years have been spent
To do what I do

So I stand here tonight with this six string guitar
To be something I've always been in my heart
Just for the chance to play you my song
The thrill when I hear you singing along
It's been worth everything I've been through
To do what I do

I've played for empty tables and chairs
For drunks that don't listen and crowds that don't care
Been told countless times 'Boy you ain't goin' nowhere'
To do what I do

So I hope the critics and skeptics alike
All bought a ticket to this show tonight
Cause they'll see firsthand that I have survived
What doesn't kill you makes you more alive
And I'm one of the fortunate few
To do what I do

There's so much joy this music can bring
So I count my blessings when I step up to sing
Cause there're so many people who would give anything
To do what I do
And I Thank You......
I can do what I do!

i love that you can hear the passion for what he does, the gratefulness & the pride. you know that every night he gets up to sing, it is something that comes from his soul. and if you've been reading my blog for some time now, you know how i feel about those who are passionate about what they do.

now, onto love. or more specifically love BUGS. may is phase one of love bug season (aka invasion of the love bugs). what's a love bug you say? well it's not an affectionate term & it doesn't indicate a mass influx of romantics. they are these flying beetle-looking bugs that start appearing in mass quantities in May & again in September. (if you want to see what one looks like, do an internet search. there are tons of sites out there with photos on them--i just have to see them enough without needing to add a photo of one to my blog. ick.) the first time you see a love bug, it's a little odd. i mean here is this airborne creepy-crawly that is essentially 2 bugs joined at the ass. it looks like they grow like that & are stuck that way. after a little research, turns out they are actually in the process of MATING. i know they say you learn something new every day but i am now slightly more disturbed to have gained *this* little tidbit of trivia. i could have lived continuing to believe that by some phenomenon of nature 2 bugs spend their whole existence stuck together by their butts, forever flying around facing opposite directions. i used to stop & wonder occasionally who was in charge & how they decided where they were going & how their little bug brains learned how to coordinate flying together like that. now i know that they are actually GOING AT IT. get a room! there is usually a larger one (the female) attached to a smaller one (the male) and the female usually gets her way, dragging the male around after her. (lesson to be learned here perhaps?? lol) they are also not native to FL but arrived here from TX (uhhh, thanks guys--i'm glad to have gained my Andie from TX but you could have kept the bugs lol) via the panhandle & migrated down into the peninsula. they are harmless, feeding on nectar. they don't sting & they don't destroy crops. but they ARE a nuisance. they are for some reason attracted to the exhaust fumes & UV radiation emitted by running vehicles & so they congregate in great numbers along highways (although they have an uncanny knack for finding the smallest crawl spaces to get in onto your screen porch too & making your dog bark like a lunatic) & all too often, they come to an unceremonious demise in a splatter on your car. not only gross & messy, but their acidic decaying little bodies eat away car paint so you have no choice but to battle back with increased frequency of washing your car. what a way to go though huh? LOL

and now aren't you glad you stopped by here today? =P thank you for visiting. please come again... ;-)