For the love of the sunshine state

The other day an old friend of mine from college said something that really irritated me. The more I think of it, the more it pisses me off. He currently lives in Washington state and wrote a blog about how his area got pounded with the big storms. He talked about the damage and said he felt like he was living in Florida. On his myspace profile he had a couple of pictures from Florida and has made some other comments about Florida.

So I innocently wrote him, wished him luck with the storm, and asked if he had previously lived in Florida. He responded back almost immediately and said that he had lived in Florida off and on for about 10 months over the past few years. He's a claims adjuster, and has been working on insurance claims from the storms. Then he went on to say that Florida is the most God awful place in the world and that he would rather live in Iraq than Florida, etc.

Excuse me? He is entitled to his opinion, but *ahem*... I LIVE HERE! And I happen to love my home very much. I think this is one of the most beautiful places to live. I am surrounded by green tropical plants, tons of birds and animals, the most beautiful beaches, and some of the best boating in the world. Aside from that there is never a lack of things to do, and I love the cultural mix of people that you meet. I literally have friends from around the world. Granted there are some bad things and downsides to living in South Florida, but there are bad things about anywhere.

He doesn't have to like Florida, but at least take your friends into consideration before you tell them that their home is the crappiest place in the world. And the comment that he made about rather living in Iraq really pisses me off. If you would rather live in Iraq, then sign your butt up for the Army and get your ass over there. I don't find comments like that funny at all. Why doesn't he get over there and let my cousin and a few of my friends come home. There are thousands of men and women over there dying or becoming seriously wounded every day. Don't make jokes about it, it's really not funny at all.

And by the way... we don't like claims adjusters that well. They are the agents of the greedy insurance companies that steal our money and don't want to pay out when our roof gets ripped off our house.