where has the year gone?

i cant believe it. im sitting here in my almost empty apartment: all the boxes are packed, the bed is bare, the drape are down, the walls are clean. i remember walking in here my first day with a large rolling suitcase and boxes downstairs: i remember sleeping on the floor my first night, on a yoga mat and sleeping bag, waking up to the bright light streaming in, the view of the ocean outside the window. i remember starting work and feeling overwhelmed and wondering if and when id ever make friends, or spend an evening doing something other than talking on the phone or watching t.v.

somewhere in the middle there, it happened. life happened and friends, and suddenly i was busy and had dinner plans and evenings out and somehow would call people i had just met and would make instant friends. not the same as those back home, of course, but still. when i first got here, i would have never thought i would feel like this leaving: i would have never thought i could sit here feeling sad and wishing i could stay longer.

the last few months have been so busy, running around, finishing our bucket list, racking up the evenings out: dinners we had always wanted to go to - le meridian, fogo de chao, prima pasta - and dancing the nights away until the wee hours - buck 15, purdy lounge, liv - and suddenly finding myself surrounded by all these people that i genuinely came to love. an exhausting end, but a wonderful end nonetheless. yesterday, saying goodbye to nicole, i said: whatever lifestyle ive had here - out on monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday - its completely unsustainable. it sucks the life out of you, it makes you lay poolside for hours, hungover, struggle at work from lack of sleep. but its also this life that ive never had before - making myself do things that otherwise, i wouldnt - get out of this comfort zone that is so easy to fall into.

so miami went from being the trashy girl at the party, in her halter top, who is a lot of fun but not that deep, to being the girl you always want to be with! who takes you to bingo and spelling bees on sunday nights; to boxing class on monday; games at the standard on tuesday; pilates several times a week; watching dance movies with new friends; going out seamlessly at midnight on a friday after taking a nap; spending second saturdays at art galleries and the vagabond...

yes, she is still in a halter top, she is still not that deep, but somewhere in her i found an amazing set of people and experiences, and found a certain calm; found a way to take care of myself and relax (something i never thought possible with three years of law school); found a way to spend hours looking at the water, or going on long beloved runs on the beach; smiling at strangers on those runs; meeting new random friends in the local sandbar; living like its the last day, dancing like no one is ever watching, and making friends without ever thinking id have to leave them.

it comes to an end though. but im certain there are more adventures out there this year - starting next week with spain and then peru in october. just visiting new york this week was enough to remind me how much i love the city and all is has to offer - the friends, family, the cool air, the feeling like, "oh yes, i remember." still, i warn you: i'll be back. now that i've oddly fallen in love with this place, i won't be able to avoid it for too long.

xoxoxo

ive got to admit its getting better. getting better, all the time...

or is it. really. or is it...

no, no, it is. i miss my little patty park's posts, but rumor has it korean internet is the suck right now. or thats what i managed to understand from your message, patty! im totally on the calling-you-back bandwagon, i just dont want to call at 3am and wake you , so ill have to plot the call 13 hours ahead of time...

this side of the pond is status quo. re: the accident -- after being perpetually screwed by this taxi driver father-son-duo, i decided to take it to the Man. i left repeated messages for the police officer who came to my accident-- of course, he did not return any of them. in the process, when i finally spoke to someone at the station, it was revealed that i was apparently very mistaken and it is apparently impossible to file belated accident reports. some might say the police officer lied to me. adding more frustration to the puzzle, the police again acted like complete d*cks.

shortly there after, i called the son/taxiowner to threaten filing w insurance again, filing a police report, suing in small claims court-- he casually remarked that he had just gotten off the phone with the police. if you are reading between the lines here, you will similarly be confused: why was he on the phone w the police? the only rational explanation i have (considering that the officer threw away my preliminary accident report, refuses to call me back, lied to me, and was overly friendly with the cab owner) is that the police called *him* to tip him off about what was going on. lets talk corruption, shall we? ill spare you all the further nasty details, involving multiple conversations with this son/owner, where i again threatened litigation and whatever else-- the highlight was when he offered to have the PT fixed himself:

"just take it down to my shop, we know the guys, they will fix it for you in a few hours. we will have someone take you from the shop to work, and then when youre ready to leave work, you call us."

"um, excuse me? who is this 'someone' you are referring to?"

"oh, my father."

"you want me to get into a car- with the man- who HIT me? you want me to ride in a vehicle with the man responsible for this damage? you have GOT to be kidding me. absolutely no way."

"ok ok, maybe we can get you a rental."

stew on that, will you? in the end, i offered to get one more estimate on the car, and if he wouldnt accept at that point, i was going to take it to the higher powers. so this morning i woke up super early, went to the autobody shop, and faxed the 3 estimates over with a very strongly worded cover letter- akin to the following:

"two options here buddy. (1) you pay me, certified check, plus 3 days car rental at $40 each, by 5pm today, OR (2) i filed a report with the police, i filed a claim with my insurance, i sue you in small claims court."

surprisingly? i got a call moments later agreeing to meet me later today with a certified check or cash tonight. lets see how this plays out...

i just cant wait for this to all be over, thats all.

in other news, the week has been full-steam ahead. i can barely believe that next week is my last week of work... it seems so surreal. ill be wrapping up everything, cleaning, and sadly saying goodbye to a lot of great friends. boo! i am getting more and more used to the idea, but it still feels so far away.

on a lighter note, ive had a super busy calendar so far.

monday night we had another eating adventures, this time at naoe, a small 17-sear omakase restaurant that involves the young chef making whatever he desires: we started with a bento box with 4 sections: going counter-clockwise - bamboo rice, mackeral sashimi with fresh wasabi, octopus stewed in its own broth, fried eggplant and clams with a sweet/tart cherry sauce, and homemade egg tofu with uni sauce and crab liver. i mean.... insane. we had the whole restaurant to ourselves, and had an amazing time. after the box, we had frozen sake (almost like sake sorbet) made by the chef's family in japan, as well as 6 more pieces of sushi. late night, celebration, our last miami eating adventure.

tuesday we trekked it out to game night at the standard, successfully winning the final round of trivia. our prizes are yet to be given (they ran out!) but for now we are calmed with some spa passes to sit in their sauna/etc for this weekend. its so funny how silly and relaxing game night can be- i would have never thought it would be the kind of thing id be into, but its just so flashbacky-low stress, combined with prizes. how can you say no? another late night though.

yesterday was justin's birthday, so we again went out to dinner- the same place carla and i had gone weeks before, barbu, and the owner/chef was there & remembered me, which was very cool. after a few hours of leisurely eating, byob-ing, and toasting, we headed to lucky strikes to bowl until about 1am (with of course, a few moments in the photobooths to memoralize the evening). even though im terribly tired, i feel like ive got to seize all of these moments! its frantic.
tonight, hopefully after we exchange the certified check with sketchball owner, ashley & anton are making dinner for the 6 of us (adrian, rachel, justin & myself) in their new apartment, as a goodbye. so surreal, again. justin & rachel have their last days tomorrow, and rachel & ashley will be out of town next week, so it really will be le end. until i leave here though, ill be sure to keep the energy up as much as i can... ill post pictures once i get a second!

xoxo

worst week overload

i finally feel both exhausted and defeated and yet like a vicious attack animal at the same time. i spent all wednesday and thursday morning (and thursday lunchtime) trying to get estimates for poor little p.t. yes, its all cosmetic surgery he's going to need, nothing serious, but it involves anywhere from $800-1200 worth of work. who knew union labor was so expensive. *um, joke.

anyway originally i was dealing with the owner of the car, but now im back to dealing with the driver, who does not want to pay out of pocket... hence, after delaying this several days, we're now taking it to the insurance companies. you know what i say to that? BRING IT. ill put on my boxing wraps and gloves and attack. ill even bring my car in for another estimate dressed that way.

on the brighter side, my insurance agent was the best thing that happened to me between the hours of 9-10am today (with my greek yogurt for breakfast coming in at a close second). but oh, the things i could say about gene and raphael and first commercial insurance, well, that might create a book.

either way, ill try to breathe and remember that its friday, and hopefully this madness will end soon. as my mom would say, release the chi. or something like that. its just stressy because i have such limited time left here in miami and i need to get everything resolved before then...

on the even brighter side? my past evenings have been lovely- wednesday rachel & i had our ritual dance-movie night, including amazing salads, popcorn, malbec, and dirty dancing. i feel in love with patrick swayze all over again. then, yesterday we did it all over - went to see julie & julia with our bags full of salad. never before in my life have i brought a salad into a movie, but you know, i guess its just very oddly southbeach. (i think if i did it in ny, id kind of hate myself).

now, off to blast some kings of leon on my ipod and research child p*rn. could this day truly get any better?

ha. (dont answer that one. i know it will).

xo

bad things in threes?

isnt there an old saying, bad things happen in 3's? or did i make that one up? well ive officially met that barrier and perhaps even crossed it.

it all started friday night, post-jai alai*

* jai alai: a random experience but fun, kind of like racketball with scooped-out looking sticks that you throw the ball with, allowing it to bounce off either the side or back wall, or bounce once on the floor, before you have to hit it back.

we were starving, having been sitting in the empty jai alai stadium contently drinking bud light, watching the ball move very fast, and betting randomly on the teams. suddenly, it was 11pm and no one had dinner yet. we were in the middle of nowhere (read: only strip clubs abounded). so we decided to head back to our cars parked in downtown; i drove us all back, while we tried to find a restaurant,via iphones and blackberries, that was open and could feed us and was not horribly busy so late on a friday night. finally, i got us to our parking lot, kiddies dispersed, and i agreed to drive rachel home en route to the resto. turning a corner, i managed to hop the curb a little (this one in particular, i think ive hopped every single time i go over. i blame it on the poor architectural planning of the curb, or perhaps the bad narrowness of the lane, either way, its happened before with no great shakes). im almost out of gas so before we hit the causeway, i turned off into the bp gas station to fill up. after filling up, i notice the rear right tire is looking a little deflated...

not knowing anything about such things, i get back into the car, content to drive rachel home like this. she is a little more cautious, gets out after i explain to her what's going on, and takes a look. apparently, theres a 2-inch gash in the tire. woops!

"we definitely should not drive on that. you'll bend your rims!"

i have no idea what she is talking about but rachel decides this requires a recommendation from someone with concrete knowledge on the subject. read: a boy. i know, its pathetic. but i really know nothing about cars, and adrian was close by, and is kind of obsessed with his. so adrian advises we call AAA, and stay put.

turns out of course, AAA wont be there for an hour, so adrian comes to the rescue while rachel and i agree that we need dinner. with determination, she stalks into the bp gas station market, and we come out armed with smartfood popcorn, combos, diet sprite, water, and apples.

"this is our second gas station meal together!" she says. yes, it is. but the first one was technically in a tapas restaurant *attached* to the gas station. this one breaks all boundaries.

soon enough, adrian saves the day, puts on my spare (i couldnt even locate it in the car, i kid you not), and then offers to trail me home to make sure i can drive on it ok. such sweet kids from the west coast i tell you. by this point, its probably 12.30am and weve got an early start with pelican island (tbd later) so i bid them farewell.

pt's sad little donut tire is changed monday morning for the total cost of annoyingness + $127.
shitstorm number 1, complete.

the saga continues of course, monday afternoon. i finally went in to see the dr for a physical, and i am told that i happen to have a heart murmur. unclear what this means, and although the dr thinks its nothing bad, i still have this added stress of having to deal with going back for more testing next week, in addition to coming in the next morning to get blood work done. and if you know me, you know i am a total pussy about blood work.

me being me, after finding out about this alleged problem with my ticker, i tromp over to lincoln road, buy kiehl's products, eat a tasti delight (this calls for rainbow sprinkles), and go to boxing class, where i profusely bruise both of my hands in a fit of rage. which may or may not have been contributed to by my poor hand-wrapping skills....

yesterday started off fine, i managed to act like a grown up and not pass out when the nurse took blood, but post-work is when the third incident occurred. at 8.30pm, it was free haircut time with certificates we won at game night several weeks ago, but it took the salon way too long to see us and cut us and get us on our way. running late to game night, i get justin & carla, and we are at the standard, in the parking area, when i slow down to look for spots. at that instant, a cab zooms up behind me, tries to pass me (even though this is a two-way 'street' i.e., parkinglot). i have no knowledge that he's there, so when i dont see a spot, i continue to move forward, whereby the taxi simultaneously cuts in front of me, and bangs up the beloved pt cruiser. w.t.f. thankfully its nothing serious, no one is hurt, but to have to have a taxi driver deny all fault, and blame me for "moving slow"... i mean, really? right now? youre going to say that? in a parking lot?

justin manages to make light of the situation:
"this is all my fault. i really shouldnt have put 'get sideswipped' on my bucket list"
and in the interim, manages to joke around with the police officer while covertly getting all of his information in case we need to file the belated accident report. lawyers are sneaky.

i make my first 911 call, deal with my first car accident, and get annoyed personally at the chauvanistic assholeness of miami police all in one hour. chaos will continue to ensue until we can finally park, and go into game night at 11.30pm. said chaos will also later involve an 8am estimate this morning at a body repair shop where no one speaks english, and yet another one, scheduled for tomorrow. en route to work, i strongly consider jameson.

i'd say that hopefully this will wipe out my bad luck for a while, but you never know. the only good to come out of this week so far is (1) my haircut, (2) i won a pedicure at bingo on sunday, (3) i had a great saturday at pelican island and on the beach, and (4) got to eat justin's leftovers from vacas gordas.

as they say, the true test is how we react in such situations, and im happy to say that we all turned out ok. nothing but support and advice and sweet text messages. i gotta say, though, when its time to give up the pt? this girl may not shed a tear...

xo

friendship salad etc.

he-yo! another day, another dollar, so my homeboy says. right. i dont know who im talking about either. but heres the weekly update... assuming i can remember everything?

it was a slow recovery, but i can almost walk normally without the gimpy limp since the toenail fiasco of 2009 (see, friday august 8). last week involved the normal shennanigans: game night on tuesday, where i finally won a mud-pass to the standard hotel and a pool pass. it was the dawn of trivia games, which involved many brit-pop references. also, did you know that steve mcqueen was born in africa, or something? well, i didn't. luckily, justin was on my trivia team and was able to dorkify out and list the first 15 presidents for extra credit. did they even teach that to us in school? im sure various other things happened but its hard to remember by this time...

i *do* remember, however, that last week on friday carla & i tried a new spot called barbu, which was amazing. we sat at the bar and the chef came and chatted with us for a while; its one of the few byob places on the beach that also has great food- jamaican/carribean/frenchish, since the chef was born in jamacia, but his father is from england, and now he lives in sag harbor most of the time. craziness. anyway, really good. low-key night.

saturday we went to go see mos def perform at the adrienne arshct center, which is oddly, our performing arts place. basically, the same stage that the philharmonic uses was being used by various rappers, which was an odd thing to see, to say the least. the show was horribly organized- it allegedly started at 8, but someone didnt go on until 8.45- and even he was only on stage for 15 minutes before an intermission. said intermission lasted about an hour, without any background music or anything. the lights in the hall went up, and you went outside to drink chardonnay. ridiculous. anyway after yet another opener, mos def was finally on, and was a lot of fun. the entire hall was filled with marajuana smoke at the first hint of mos def, which was pretty ballsy-- smoking pot in a concert hall? although i guess there were so many people doing it that it would have been hard for the elderly-volunteer ushers to reprimand at that point...

sunday i finally hit up vizcaya, which is a huge old estate of a very rich man (obvi), built in the 1920s or so, which is now operated by miami, and open to visitors. he basically built a castle in which he lived, filling up the space with various things to show off wealth: a chinese-themed room, an 1800s themed-room, the italian-themed room... the gardens were similarly gaudified with remakes of old italian statutes, french cherubs, the like. it was pretty, though, yes, and interesting to see. every year they have a halloween party here where everyone gets dressed up and insane, and tromps around the gardens wasted. yes, its a fundraiser, but its also still a little cringe-worthy that that is really the only time most people actually visit vizcaya.

bonus round, before i forget: at viz they were having a 'florida fruit wine tasting.' florida fruit wine. have you heard of it? i hope not! its basically fermented, rotting fruit that turns into alcohol-- it smells like something organic is going bad in the fridgerator. of course, that didnt stop us from tasting a few- kiwi, key lime, peach, honey and oddly? the best? guava. sweet, yes, but i could have actually imagined a tasty wine spritzer on a beach after a long day of being lazy in the sun. (not worth the $25 retail price though, believe you me).

after that, i headed to watch over brook & nicole finish up remodeling/deconstruction time on their kitchen. they ripped out all of the cabinets & walls, and are starting over from scratch. it really amazes me that they have enough know-how and experience to do something like this...

once showered, we all headed over to tracy's for friendship salad: tracy had been preaching about the beauty of friendship salad for so long, and we had mocked her about it for so long, that she finally made us all come over for one. apparently this is a sorority thing, so maybe some of you know about it already... each person brings one or two things for the salad, depending on their name. so i brought an avocado, but i could have also brought cucumbers (for my middle name) or beans (for my last name). the fear, of course, is that there will be things in the salad that just dont mesh well -- like kiwi, tuna, and eggplant -- but surprisingly, everything worked out. if i can remember... there were orange bell peppers, mozarella cheese, jack pepper cheese, green olives, tofu, avocado, banana peppers, chickpeas, and some other things im forgetting.

look how tasty!

otherwise, this week has held no crazy surprises on its own. wednesday night was book club, where everyone came over to mine for some wine & snacks and we talked about 'the road'... which we all agreed we really liked, but were glad we could discuss it instead of wanting to simply kill ourselves. book club. its funny bc i remember when ashley & rachel suggested we start it, and i thought "thats ridiculous." this is just to say that you shouldnt always let your negativity stop you from doing ridiculous-seeming things, bc sometimes, it turns out well. we always have a lot to talk about, theres always a lot of wine, and there is always humus and pita chips, to say the least. how could you argue with that?

i guess the only thing left to add? last night we went to try some more haitian food at a place on south beach called taptap - way way better than our random experience at haitian food in little haiti, which involved everything being fried in some manner. this was much more low-key on the tum - stewed goat was amazing, like short ribs; spinach cooked in coconut milk was out of this world; stewed okra was also delicious; and shrimp creole was pretty classic. youd think all i do down here is eat? and you'd probably be right....

another random development: i havent had coffee for about a week! how crazy. it started as a "im dehydrated" thing, and it turned into a "i dont have any coffee in the house" thing. but oddly enough, ive been ok. mid-day is usually a little on the rough side, but right now im hanging in there- even more astonishing given that i got up super early to go for a run on the beach. it was so calm and quiet and cool, the sun was just starting to rise on my way back. gorgeous! ill miss you, miami beach. its true.

tonight we're headed to see the "classic" game of jai alai. it seems to be a cross between handball and lacrosse. according to wiki, the players use 3 walls, involve 8 teams, bounce the ball on the floor, and apparently arent supposed to hold or juggle the ball too much. i still have no idea what to expect. it is apparently a spanish basque game, and you can gamble on it right there in person, while you drink beer and watch them on an odd stage in front of you. admission is set at a steep $1. ill be sure to take lots of pictures, because ... i mean ... because. when do you see something like that?

as for the weekend? we're making a pilgramage out to a small island called 'pelican island,' accessible only by boat. once in a blue moon the miami-dade govt actually coordinates a boat for those of us who do not own one, so we are meeting in a group, bringing over bbq/drinking materials, and setting up shop for the day. yet another random adventure on the everlasting bucket list...

xoxo

P: Last weekend in Boston

Explanations TK

the bucket list: weekend edition

being that our time here is coming to a close, we are being ever more vigilant about what we do every day, week, night etc. in order to fulfill all of our miami wishes. in fact, it makes me wonder why we dont do this kind of thing no matter where we live-- trying new things, keeping busy, exploring, laughing, doing things that no one else would rationally decide to do when all they want to honestly do is stay in bed...

friday night i started to feel guilty about my plans to do nothing (swim on the beach after work; sit and stare at the sky)

but as i was walking in the door, i managed to mangle my toe: totally rip it open on the front, bent back the nail half way. lets talk gushing, unexpected blood. or, lets not. needless to say, ive got it bandaged up.

my first thought was: owwww. my second: ewwww. my third: how am i supposed to go snorkling tomorrow???? thankfully, i wrapped it up good enough, woke up on time, ate some breakfast, and headed down to pick up abby, justin, and aimee for our drive down to key largo.

after about an hour and a half, barely catching the boat, we were there! i was worried about my toe getting mashed by the flippers, but thankfully it all worked out fine-- minus the 1-3 ft swells of wave that constantly got up in my snorkel, making my mouth pucker with insane saltiness (and this coming from a girl who loves salt).... 

aimee & justin were the divers of the bunch and were obviously therefore in more scary gear. however, i remain skeptical that they saw more than we snorkelers did... including swimming in the midst of various schools of fish- zebra, tropical, flat fish, yellow tail... insane! so beautiful. a little scary. gorgeous. a small shark under the boat. i sadly missed the ray and the turtle. alas... we stopped at two different coral reefs along the way, totally gorgeous but exhausting.

afterwards? time for some florida lobster. abby had to go home w mark (my two snorkelers-in-crime), but aimee, justin & i grabbed our bites and enjoyed... oddly? the florida lobster has no claws. who knew?

that night we were totally exhausted but managed to rally in one of those moments where you dont know what youre doing (no one does, really), and we bopped from place to place: drink at justins, then shiso bar, then off to the W hotel bar (oddly closed at 1.30am), then off again to townhouse rooftop bar (closed for rennovations), over to rockbar (too long a line)... ending up with one drink at the shelborne hotel, "studio a"- their karaoke spot... so dirty, so gross, so funny, so many musical prop instruments for one to use. i cant believe it was the first time id been in that hole...

finally, off to bed... only to set the alarm & get up the next morning for a trip to the fairchild tropical gardens: abby justin & i stopped at whole foods en route, abby driving her convertible fast down all roads and causeways; we arrived in tact with cherries and other snacks, a blanket, sunblock, and tons of water for their free-admission sundays. i had no idea it was so huge, so varied (tropical areas vs. aloe areas vs. desert areas vs. central-park looking places).  we spent several hours there- walking, laying in the grass, sitting and watching plants and snakes and lizards and iguanas, ponds, trees, flowers- sweating profusely the whole time but thoroughly enjoying it.

interpretive arm dances were done, it was so hot.

finally we were kicked out by an elderly volunteer on a golf cart, who drove us back to abby's car, and justin suggested we kick it again to another bucket-list event: jimbos, the bar that is like a trailer park. so off we went to play bocce ball in a dusty dusty court, watching other random people (from hipsters to grungeballs to old dudes who liked to impersonate mick jagger to people with one eye to free-range ferral cats and random dogs hanging about). i could not make this up if i tried. we bought $3 cans of beer from jimbo himself. with all this non-wholesomeness going on? you perhaps would have never guessed that flipper was filmed on the property. no. joke.

after an hour or so there, winning a 24-pt round game of bocce with our new friends oliver and bonnie, we all headed out: abby home to shower, justin & i a jump in the pool before we met up again shortly and went to dinner at joe allens. thoroughly exhausted throughly wiped thoroughly clean(ish) finally, and thoroughly fun. although we had high hopes of bingo, it didnt pan out that way, but we all got to bed at a normal hour... only to return to the office this morning thinking, wow. being a lawyer is boring.

still, an unbeatable weekend. the bucket list continues on... 

xoxo