The Florida Girl T-Shirt reads -- sun-kissed, surf-splashed -- FLORIDA GIRL -- so what's a few hurricanes, sharks, alligators, and mosquitoes between friends?  If you're a Floridian, you know that the Sunshine State has a few annoyances -- but they seem pretty minor when you're sitting on the beach in 80-degree weather in January, don't they?  The Florida Girl Tee features the words FLORIDA GIRL in bold print, with a juicy orange slice in the background.  So if you are from Florida, or if you just spend your vacations there and you really miss it -- especially in the middle of the winter -- this is the t-shirt for you.  And, it makes a great gift for any of the Florida Women in your life!

According to Chris:

As you may have read, Florida is really my true home state, where I grew up in the tiny town of Vero Beach.  I have also for various periods lived in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Coral Springs, Pembroke Pines, and Bradenton.  Growing up, I took the weather, and the beach, really for granted, and only when I went away to college, did I IMMEDIATELY start to appreciate all the good things about FLA.  It's really nice not to have to have an entire winter wardrobe, to not have to bundle up when you go outside, and not get on a plane to enjoy beautiful (sub)tropical beaches almost any time of the year.  Let me just bullet point the rest of my rant here on FLA...

• Florida Oranges, Grapefruit, Orange Juice -- The best. Sorry, California and other Citrus-producing regions, Florida Navels, Indian River Grapefruit, and fresh-squeezed juice are the best in the world.  And whenever I'm down in Florida for the winter, I go straight to the grove outlet stores and buy the navels that are the size of a volleyball and really go to town.  Also, I peel and eat grapefruit like they're oranges.  Never done the spoon thing.

• In my book, if you're from the Northeast originally, it's ok to pronounce it "FLAHRIDA"

• South Florida is like the North, and North Florida is like the South.  Once you get about 50 miles north of Orlando, you're pretty much in the Deep South.

• Mosquitoes: When we first moved to Florida when I was 7, my family and I were constantly bitten by mosquitoes, no matter how much "OFF" we used.  Then, they just stopped biting us, like they got tired of us or something.  We used to go through a bottle of calamine lotion a week

• Sharks: I love swimming in the ocean, but something taking a chomp out of my leg is always in the back of my mind.  The odds are pretty low, so not much you can do

• Alligators: You see news stories every year of somebody walking out to their pool and seeing an alligator in it.  It happens all the time.  I feel though, like I could get away from a gator a little easier than a shark

• Hurricanes: Don't mean to make light of this, but my town had almost all the big hurricanes always miss it for 30 or 40 years, and then suddenly got whacked back to back by "Frances" and "Jeanne" and then another one the next year.  Growing up, we had a little bit of morbid excitement that if we got hit in September, we'd get to miss some school, and whenever a hurricane is threatening, it's like a building sense of impending doom, tracking it constantly on TV.  But much like blizzards for northerners, and earthquakes for Californians, surviving hurricanes is like a badge of honor for Floridians.

• College Football: to all my Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, and Miami Hurricanes friends, WOW, is College Football a big deal in Florida.

• The Beach, and The Indian River:  As my friend Sean says, "You can't beat Florida for ease of access to the water" -- very true.  The first time I went to the beach in California, I ran straight to the surf and dived right in, then started SCREAMING like a girl from the FREEZING WATER even on a warm California day!!!  In Florida, the ocean is ALWAYS PRETTY WARM, in California, it is NEVER WARM.  Thank you, Gulf Stream. And, thank you, Sean, for having a boat!

Well, Florida, we've spent a lot of time apart, we've had our differences at times, but you'll always be a part of me.