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

101 simple salads, 80s rock cover bands, and chicken empanadas are not good for breakfast

three random topics of the day:

(1) last wednesday, mark bitman (of the nytimes) came out with a list of 101 simple summer salads that ive been moderately obsessed with. this past weekend, i made two: one which he calls "chickpea tabbolui", which is really nothing more than chopped chickpeas & herbs; and other "sihuan slaw"-- a medley of bean sprouts, carrots, celery, and more herbs. pretty amazing. wednesday night i had some friends over to continue the trend: involved in this medley were his salads of watermelon/olive/feta, pan roasted corn/cheese/cherry tomatoes, puttanesca egg salad, and stuffed avocados. im attaching the link here for more ideas. anyway, totally amazing. chanel, kevin, nicole, brook and tracy came over after i had a quick run on the beach; we huddled around my small coffee table in a circle (just enough chairs, phew!), and then headed out to go see our friend annie's 80s cover band...

(2) the cover band. there are very limited spots here in miami where one can go on any given night to watch live music: i hear there are a few in south beach, but not so much the rock-n-roll set, more like jazz, or perhaps latin music. this bar called 'poprock' opened a few months ago, and has live rockish music all the time- and our friend annie was set to play wednesday night at 10-- which seemed late for a wednesday, but what the heck. who cares. we got there shortly after the scheduled-play time, only to end up waiting until about midnight before they went on. either way, well worth the wait: we had the weirdly beefy bartender to entertain us; drinks in red solo cups (are you kidding me?); loud random dj'ed music; and each other. when they finally went on, the good times were well-supplemented with some pat bennetar and other assorted 80s hits... i cant remember specific songs because i was too distracted dancing up a storm right in front of the band (and there were only like 20 of us in the bar. kind of funny). nicole & i still managed to dance like no one was watching (even though literaly everyone else was behind us, watching), and in between songs, came up with our ideal outfits for being a rock star. my pick: leggings with shorts ontop, wife beater, insane heels. we danced the night away until about 2am, when tracy was sweet enough to drive me home (albeit with a quick stop in sandbar on the way)

(3) i woke up thursday morning with a serious headache and constant ringing of my ears (thanks, speakers at poprox), which i figured would dissapate soon enough; in the meantime, i struggled through a shower, got dressed, glanced around at the huge mess in my kitchen from the previous-nights-guests-and-salad, and fixed myself an iced coffee. on the way out, i scooped leftover salad contents into tupperware for lunch, and had the not-so-brilliant thought of eating a leftover chicken empanada for breakfast... this concept would not really trouble me until several hours later, when i felt like i was literally going to die. somehow i made it through the morning, figuring: just get through to lunch, you can eat soup. soup did not cure the malady, however, and after sweating profusely at my desk, running to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face, and clutching my stomach back at said desk, i finally came to the realization that it was time to head home. so, for the first time since i started working, i took a half-sick day. as soon as i got home, i undressed & literally fell into bed, waking up hours later with daylight still streaming in the window...

(4) only to rally eventually to head to our eating adventures at a tapas restaurant in the back of a gas station. let me tell you; it was insane. it literally is a bp station in coral gables; you park, go inside, and towards the back, they sell all of this amazing wine- theres even a sake section - and then theres this little caverous spanish tapas restaurant. you pick your wine off of a shelf behind you, order your tapas, and chow down. and hey, if you need some beef jerky, or a soda, or anything? you can just get up and walk by the champagne and fulfill your every desire. pretty awesome.

(5) so, im not sure why this is still a list at this point, but its kind of fun. today is going rather quickly, working productively (why does an afternoon off always have that effect?- people need more vacations), and dont have any real plans as of tonight... tomorrow morning we're getting up to go snorklin- justin, aimee, abby & i - and then its second saturdays -art-walk all over again. how time flies! i wonder if i can find an underwater camera in the meantime...

xoxo

electric feel

Patty, i dont know if youve done this yet, but i recently went back and was reading some of my first posts here and thought, wow, how crazy (1) time flies (2) we grow (3) we adapt (4) we make little homes for ourselves. I know people always say that– oh youll be fine, youll make friends, youll have a great time– but in those moments, you never really *feel* that way- you feel instead like its going to last forever, that its so long. And then suddenly, one day, youre at a bar with your friends and looking around and thinking, huh, they were right. And the year is almost over... all this not only to say wow, but also to say, heres to future endeavors! Patty has less than a month in the states before her big korean adventure. So crazy! And ive still yet to wrap my head around moving again & leaving miami (although i am getting excited about vacation travel plans...)

Back to this world, though, for now. Somehow ive gotten into the habit of going out several nights in the middle of the week, which is a lot of fun, but causes complete bleary-eyed exhaustion come Friday. Which is, of course, what today is. At gamenight this week, i sadly failed at all of the games. You get a little too cocky at connect four, and suddenly your prowess is dashed. Word to the wise, ok then? It may seem like a childs game, but apparently you cant always be thinking about your next move. You actually have to pay attention (who knew?).

Wednesday night, rachel, nicole & i had the second-installment of "the night we get together, make dinner, and watch a dance movie that annie has never seen." thats not the official name of course, we’re much more underground than that. This week it was ‘flashdance’: compared to footloose, it definitely didnt win me over as much, although it was fabulous. The best part (other than incorporating a new dance move into my vocab– head-circling while also turning in a circle- 80's headbanger style; and skipping in a circle) was that comparatively, all during footloose i kept thinking, "why havent i seen this?!" whereas with flashdance, it was pretty obvious: an 18 yr old girl, living in a weird dirty amazing loft in pittsburgh, is a welder by day, but a dancer at night, in a club where she doesnt take all her clothing off, but dumps a bucket of water all over herself, and gyrates around; she awkwardly takes off her bra on a date with her boss, who is conveniently like 30 yrs older than her; when they are on another date, she basically performs fellatio on a piece of lobster; on same said date, she then reaches up with her black-lace-stockinged feet and gives her boss a little ‘hey hello how are you’, before his ex-wife comes over to say hello. I mean... i get why no one introduced this to me when it came out. Its way more terrifying than im sure pretty woman was to my father, who continually reminded me that "thats not really what its like to be a prostitute," as if he was worried i would want to get into the profession.

Last night, i was out late again for a friend’s birthday drinks at a bar called ‘teds hideaway’ - a total dive on south beach. Well, total dive? I should paraphrase. Its a dive, and for south beach, its a total dive. By ny standards, its a normal bar. For the second Thursday in a row, then, i got to relish in other people’s mild discomfort at being in such a bar; meet beer-girls who gave us a ‘sample’ of miller light; yell happy birthday numerous times; and think at 2am, ‘oh its not late!’ without really realizing that in several hours, id be at a desk again. A key difference was also that in teds, the clientel was not as old and/or approachable and/or insane as at the local haunt, sandabr. I mean, it actually oddly made me miss sandbar.

All in all, its been a pretty turbo week- got a lot of stuff accomplished, everyone has been in a tizzy, and for a while, admittedly, there was some bad mojo going around– you know when you can tell that everyone around you wants to stab everyone else & is cranky & is overworked? Yes. Like that. I was lucky enough to avoid it for the most part, kept my head down and such. Anyway, im glad its almost over– the boss will be gone for most of August, which will be a crazy last month, then, to say the least.

Soon enough ill be walking around nicole’s adorable coral gables neighborhood of little spanish-style-roofed houses, drinking wine out of a plastic cup. Sign me up, and get me out of here.

Xoxoxo

birthday fun time, full time

i too am still itchy like hell with mosquito bites... although i think its fair to say, only about half of mine can be attributed to maine. the rest of mine are likely from taking a post-work swim in the ocean, and then sitting on the beach while the buggies devoured my ankles and calves. ah well. still always worth it. im trying to do more of those kind of things knowing that there is little time left... makes me anxious just thinking about it, truthfully. so-- on to happier notes!

thursday was the birthday, so after a busy start to the week, what with coming back from maine, going to haitian eating-adventures, and then game night on tuesday-- it was completely wonderful & relaxing. i think i did an ounce of work- the boss was out of town for the day, which was pleasant- and the day before (on wednesday) they had given me a birthday cake... below is only a photo of part of the cake (after it had been deliciously ravaged) - i was so surprised when they brought it out bc nicole and chanel had gotten a picture of me as a 2 yr old ballerina and had it put on *top* of the cake. insane! pretty cute, if i must say... 

my wistful 2 yr old self

apparently when chanel brought the picture in to the bakery, the little old lady who was going to make the cake said, "que linda! quien es?" to which chanel replied, "my friend." this resulted in her receiving a creepy look. pretty classic.

so work was fine on thursday; got a beautiful flower delivery from ben; and then ashley, anton, justin, rachel & adrian all got me a popcorn of the season club membership; late in the afternoon before we headed out to shuckers for happy hour, we had a champagne and popcorn toast- pretty wonderful. then, shuckers!

amanda, me, kevin, chanel, nicole, brook, and justin on the bottom like a little soccer player

shuckers was awesome; we got there while it was still light out and had a gorgeous view of the water & sunset as we drank our 'firefly' sweet-tea flavored vodka (total trouble). a bunch of people kept showing up and the manager was getting fussy bc apparently we were disturbing their normal configuration - he kept coming over to rearrange tables and chairs- all in all, maybe about 20 of us? a great showing. suddenly it was 9.30pm and everyone was hungry so we headed out- originally we were supposed to go out for steak at vacas gordas- but then somehow it got all switched around, and we went for greek instead- there were two vegetarians amongst us, oh well. this created me as a fussy monster, not because i didnt want greek food- but as soon as we walked into the restaurant, i was over it. the table was too big, we were too spread out, i was sitting right in the middle so thus wasnt part of either halves conversation... and, the worst part, by far was that it went on for 2 hours. yes. two hours. without a proper birthday jameson shot. can you believe it??? 

anyway, eventually we got out; at that point, the majority of the party went home (of course, right? it was 11.30 on a work night). i might have pitched a fit, and said, 'im walking to sandbar. i dont care if i go alone.' (can you feel the crank?). rachel walked with me the handful of blocks, and justin, ashley, anton & ashley's guests (cousins visiting) drove over. 

once at sandbar, i magically was feeling better. jameson all around! ashley, anton & crew peeled off shortly thereafter, leaving justin, rachel & i - chatting w the owner of the bar (valentine), and were approached by a middle-aged man (nelson) who ironically, owns fifi's- the amazing seafood place by my house. nelson was quite a character (from cuba, former coke smuggler, 20 yrs in federal prison...), and then fifi joined us too. nelson kept disclosing random information and facts about himself to us (see the above) and would repeatedly say, "full time! full time disclosure! 100%! full time! its your birthday! we're going to party and celebrate full time!" to which i replied, '"suuure... but what does full time really mean though?" nelson insisted on paying for our entire tab, and buying us birthday shots, which were set on fire and then downed properly and deliciously. rachel only had half of hers, which she explained the next day by saying: annie, it was 2am. why would i do a shot? which in context, was amazing, because i had two of them. ridiculous. then home to bed.

hours later, it was back to work, feeling like crap the entire day- but ending peacefully with a swim in the ocean and gorging on cuban food for dinner...  i woke up saturday morning with swollen tired eyes after sleeping 11 much-needed hours; ran on the beach for an hour; had chinese-vegetarian-brunch w rachel; and napped some more.  later, met up with chanel, kevin, nicole, brook, tracy, justin, and two of his friends for dinner in the design district at a place called pacific time -- they had this special "yelp" menu prix fixe for $25 which was both an amazing deal and amazingly delish. when i arrived, i had a horrible migraine, to which kevin the doctor recommended we have a shot of jameson. oh, friends! this quickly and properly took away the headache. who knew??

after dinner we headed over to justins for pre-dancing drinks...

me and nicole, striking a pose!

allen, me, justin popping his head randomly and ridiculously into the picture, and adrian. in front? big james and little james.

the proper photo. but it kind of looks like justin is growing out of my armpit...

after hanging there for a while, we went to buck 15 for some proper dancing involving madonna, the cure, the black-eyed peas, poppy, 80s, everything in between-- you would keep thinking, ok, ill sit this one out... and then suddenly it would be an amazing jam that you couldnt refuse. pretty fabulous. the only bad part was when the halter on my dress broke, so carla fashioned it back in place until i found a safety pin squirrelled away in my purse. go, preparedness! (i also apparently had tums, alleve, and excedrine, all shoved in the same random pocket). 

the night progressed with dancing, taking shoes off, more dancing, putting shoes back on, and then realizing it was 4am and time to sleep... this morning i surprisingly felt fine, just absolutely starving, and had a rather lazy day, which i guess i needed... took a crazy run in the rain through all these bushes and folliage along the beach, got sopping wet, and cooked a ton of food for the week. heres to another wonderful weekend, and for friends that made both my pre-birthday, birthday, and post-birthday an amazing time to remember. yes, that means all of you!

xoxoxo

P: Maine, Re-remembered

Oh, thou cobalt-blue bay, stretching on for miles along the coastline, framed by sky-high maples and the tops of otter heads! MAINE--- you are the one that got away! Stella! Stelllaaaaa!~!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so despite the fact that I've been scratching myself to no end from mosquito bites, I had an amazing weekend at Jessi's Not a Bachelorette Party. Jessi's sister Karen, Jessi's former Somerville roommate Mara, and I were the first to arrive from Boston. The house was really cute, as it was right on the water, and I'll tell you, we were freakin' STARVING! Luckily Miri showed up about 5-10 minutes after we did, and as she is always prepared, she had five billion snacks, including this delicious homemade gingery granola. I proceeded to inhale my way through her sesame sticks and strange Canadian candy, while we waited for Jessi and Damien to arrive with the groceries and booze. For dinner that night, we had a nice BBQ of hot dogs, hamburgers, and Doritos. Then the NY minivan arrived, and the party was in full swing.

We played this game called Catch Phrase, which featured a hot potato electronic gadget that spit out "catch phrases" which you were supposed to describe to your teammates, Taboo-style. We were also playing to keep our minds off of Annie's flight status, because we kept hearing different reports on how it was going to be delayed, and she owuld have a 4 min window to make her connecting flight to Portland. Eventually we got on the phone with a dumb and superbly unhelpful Jet Blue employee, where Damien and I engaged in a little good-cop, bad-cop routine:

Me: "Just tell us if they can hold her connecting flight."

Superbly unhelpful JetBlue employee: "I'm sorry, ma'am, but without the passenger's confirmation #, we're not able to disclose that information."

Me: "Um, the aforementioned passenger is currently mid-flight, why else do you think we're CALLING?!!"

Damien (aside, while frantically hand-gesturing): "Patty, maybe that's not the most helpful way to approach..."

SUJBE: "Ma'am, we cannot proceed until we have the confirmation number."

Me: "Can you at least tell us if you can give her a hotel room if she does not make the connecting flight, since that's the last flight out and it's YOUR COMPANY'S FAULT that she would miss her connecting flight?"

Damien, diplomatically: "What we mean to say is that our friend is currently in the air, and if we had the confirmation number, we'd of course give it to you. Please understand our situation. I know you guys are also in a tough spot as well, but we just need to know."

SUJBE: "I'm afraid I'm not allowed to answer that question."

WTF? So eventually we get word that she made her flight, even though the status update says "taxi-ing." We're all imagining Annie sitting on a plane that is making doughnut loops around JFK, killing time just for sh*ts and giggles. When we get further word, Jessi and Damien cut off our hummus supply and pack a little snacky for Annie.

Around this time, we are all pooped out from CatchPhrase, so someone--I think it was Chava--has an idea to make a sash for Jessi. Our only supplies are a brown paper bag, a couple of pens, and some tin foil. Oh, and Q-tips. Chava laments that she didn't bring her school supply kit. Pretty soon the sash turns into a cross between a crown and a bridal dunce cap, with the words BRIDEZILLA emblazoned upon it. We are each invited to make a drawing on the hat, and there are streams of toilet paper coming out from the backside of the hat, which is supposed to mimic a veil. This is what happens when you get six people in a cabin in coastal Maine, with no TV = ). I thought we'd make a book club diorama as well, but alas, those supplies were lacking.

Pretty much from there, everything picks up from where Annie left off, and to cap off a wonderful weekend, I get to bring Annie home with me and we enjoy a beautiful run along the Charles, crossing my favorite bridge, the Mass Ave/Harvard Bridge. Que fantastique! The rest of this week has been pretty busy for me, with minimal work getting done, and going out every night. WTF I'm supposed to turn in a thesis. But Monday night is my rock climbing-2 hour language exchange double header sesssion from 7:30-11:15pm, Tues my friend Cloon from Swat was in town from ENGLAND, so she spent the night, and then we had lunch with Pam and Sarah T at PF CHang's, last night I had drinks at Zuzu with one of Jessi and her sister's friends, who is also writing a novel; tonight I'm having drinks with my friend Tim, a former colleague from Random House, and tomorrow night it's off to the Middle East (a bar, not the region) with Amy.

Also, I spilled soy-peanut sauce all over my manuscript today in the library. I was so pissed off.

So, I'm going to fight off sleep by going out tonight, when I really shouldn't, and then I will proceed to feel really guilty and add to the 3 new pimples on my chin.

love,
P

maine weekend!

This past weekend we all assembled up in beautiful maine to celebrate jessi’s upcoming nuptials- it was officially slated as ‘not a bachelorette party,’ but i suppose thats what most of us called it anyway. Somehow, by the grace of god and many months of planning, jessi’s sister karen was able to lasso us all together - jessi & damien drove up from ny friday afternoon; miri came down from montreal; chava, morgan and melissa also drove from ny; mara, patty and karen came from boston; and i flew up from fll to jfk to portland – facing delays, lightening storms, and making a new gay bff on the plane from portland.

(just a quick side note on that: while im usually not the kind of girl that likes talking to other people on the plane, greg & i automatically clicked and were laughing and hooting and hollering from the first 5 minutes on... all a good thing, considering we were grounded at jfk for 90 minutes before we could leave- so nice to meet strangers who you connect with randomly! When we got off the plane, he insisted on hugging jessi & damien, and introduced us to his partner. Amazing).

Jessi & damien were kind enough to fetch me from the portland airport, complete with a bag of baby carrots, hummus, and a vodka shot (oh, my friends!). then we slowly crawled back from portland to the cabin, about an hour’s drive in the mist and fog, rising up from the black roads. Damien amusingly kept remarking, ‘what could go wrong in maine?’, prepping the way for a horror movie. (There was that time we ran over a fisherman in the middle of the road with a hook for an arm, but other than that, no problems getting to the house...)

Late night we got in around 2.30 or so, were greeted by a sleepy-faced patty who insisted on apologizing about not coming to the airport as part of the arrival committee; and got to see the bridal-headgear that the rest of the girls had made in the meantime- a highly decorated paperbag complete with veil and assorted drawings. "Bridezilla," it prominently declared. We creeped up the stairs past assorted sleeping beauties, & had some wine & crackers & cheese in bed. Sleep ensued.

Hours later, patty came into our room with the morning sunshine- asking whether i was ready for a run. (Oh patty. Its 8.30. Im never ready for a run; you know that). In her defense, jessi tried to explain that patty didnt intentionally come in for that reason, but it still seems suspicious... so while patty ran, damien jessi & i lazed about before heading downstairs where we joined the assorted crew in catching up, getting coffee from the general store, and then starting on group-breakfast making. How hard is it to cook for 12 people? You’d be oddly surprised- our biggest issue was which table to move where to ensure we could all sit somewhere without scrambled eggs on our laps. Mixed in somewhere in the morning hours was some kayaking, walking, and water-gazing– the house was right on a peninsula of maine so that we had water access right from the backyard- beautiful, stunning views, misty day, foggy and clean and not too hot or cold.

After breakfast, we went over to land’s end and saw some more of the same- misty views of water, land, cloaked in secrecy. (Not the store- the actual scenic location, lands end). After that, it was on to ‘fat boys’ drive-in for lunch, where they work in an old-school manner– the waitress come over to your car, get your order, and then bring it to you on a tray that hooks onto your drivers-side window. Crazy that these things still exist! Amazing huge fried clams... then off to Brunswick, where we hit up some stores, and then walked to Bowdoin for a tour by the-bride-to-be, ending at the college radio station– where jessi had asked for a time slot to do a show! So awesome- we got to assist her dj skills, go through new & old cds, and talk live. Being on a college campus instantly is reminiscent– that weird funny smell in radio stations, of dirty couches and old records; the beautifully manicured grass and paths walking around; the old charming buildings mixed with the new...

Post-show, we split into two groups– one with the task of getting thai food, the other with buying s’mores items and lobstahs– and by then, amazingly, it was already dinner time: miri orchestrated the lobster steamer pot, and we both dropped them in; grilled fresh corn; tossed a huge salad; and we sat outside covered in deet bug spray – yet still somehow managed to get half-eaten alive. A really wonderful day– followed up by a surprise birthday cake in the shape of a lady bug (how amazing are my friends?) and s’mores making on the grill, plus a few rounds of ‘apples to apples’ – the controversially subjective game where you have to match your random hand of 5 noun cards to the random adjective card that is thrown down in the middle of the circle. (morgan, i apologize again for my insanity in berating your choice of creamed corn rather than rock & roll to match the adjective ‘glorious’). More game playing, then off to bed for our last morning...

... which involved more kayaking, the sun coming out, heading to lunch at a nearby adorable chowder restaurant, more gorgeous views at the dolphin marina, and sadly, time to say goodbye.
mara drove karen, patty and i back to boston (with an amazingly touristy stop at the new hampshire liquor wholesale store). Then, lucky me, i got a night w P in boston, got to see her adorable apartment, go for a run around the charles, drink at the nearby bar, ate fabulous sushi, and followed it all up with another beer at the local BU pub, a walk to BU library, and then home for a review of the weekend-in-pictures, and time for bed – only to wake up several hours later to get my sleepy ass into a cab to logan, almost cry when the airport security threatened to take my blueberry jam away (apparently jam = liquid or gel. Go figure), convinced him to let me keep it by remarking that it was my only souvenier (little did he know about the gummy lobster candies), and then, a plane-ride-later, back in fort lauderdale, en route to work, and back in the office with the boss... phew.

While im still exhausted from the weekend, it was so great to be able to celebrate jessi and the upcoming wedding, and really, to be surrounded by all of our friends. It makes me wonder why we dont do these kind of group trips more often!

Although you would assume Monday night would have ended in recuperation, it surely did not– we had another eating adventures, this time in little haiti at a place called ‘chez le bebe’- which was literally a hole in the wall, in a totally sketchy neighborhood, where we shoved 3 tables together and collectively established ourselves as the only non-haitians in the small place (total occupancy? Probably 30- and there were about 10 of us). The walls were painted bright pepto pink, we were regarded with complete curiosity by everyone in there, and we sadly realized once the "waitress" came over that they had already run out of handful of the things we wanted to try. On the menu Monday night? Fried pork chunks, fried goat, fried chicken wings, stewed chicken thighs, fried whole fish, and pigs feet– we got two orders of *each* (if you can believe it– well, ok– only one of the pigs feet), accompanied by salads, fried green plantains, and huge bowls of rice pilaf. (Off the menu Monday night? - we missed out on the oxtail, stewed goat, and a non-fried pork dish). Goat was surprisingly (?) tasty- almost had the earthiness of something like lamb, not as gamey as i would have thought. Although the establishment was not officially byob, we were unofficially told we could byob, providing we did so discreetly– justin brought along Haitian rum, and we drank it with our free pepsi. Those haitians know how to live. Of course, i woke up and spent most of Tuesday morning with a horrible stomach ache, but thats part of trying new random food items in sketchy locales, isnt it?

Tuesday night, similarly, turned from relaxation-time into outing time– another game night at the standard hotel after pilates, where i won a round of connect-four and a round of boggle– but then of course lost to superior gameplayers. Towards the end, i also managed to actually win a prize! No... not by really playing a game- but by guessing how many chocolate chips were in a little bag. Kind of hilarious- apparently the spaniards playing connect four had totally backed up the bracket so that we couldnt play the final games of connect four, and thus our host had to find a game to give away the last prize. Although both red-light-green-light and musical chairs were in the discussion, it ended up with this chocolate-chip guessing game, and now i have a free haircut at some hipster salon in south beach. Kind of nice! Justin, somehow, scored a better prize for being a finalist in the boggle tournament, and got two spa treatment certificates for something involving mud. I mean... not fair.

In light of these winnings of the week, im a pretty happy girl. At work, i was just presented with a pre-birthday cake, involving a picture of me screened ontop of the cake, as a 3 yr old ballerina, my head cocked to one-side in meloncholy. Totally totally amazing. Nicole and chanel, what would i do with out them? (Nicole later let me know that other photos in the running included the sandbar logo. Probably equally as hilarious, but slightly inappropriate for all coworkers & boss. Good choice ladies).

Tonight, finally, i will get some sleep after a long much-missed beach run. Sorry for the greedy length of this missive- patty, if you have anything to add re: maine, please insert accordingly!
Xoxoxo
- and pictures to come soon as well!

how is it possible?

(1) .... that i had never seen footloose before? last night i went over to rachels after a run on the beach, and we made big salads, watched footloose, drank malbec, paused-rewound-and-danced along, ate a second-course of popcorn, and danced some more. what a fabulous movie. at the end we were jumping, laughing and dancing around, and i said to rachel: wow, we look like 7 yr olds. you know what? it was fabulous.

(2) ... that the standard hotel is some kind of miami-hipster-mecca? on tuesday night i went over to justins, where he made dinner for myself & two friends - aimee & sam - and then we cabbed over to the standard for the 2nd weekly 'game night.' mostly it was about 20 people who vaguely all knew each other, who were all hipstered out in various random outfit combos, huddled around several games- either twister, boggle, uno, checkers, or wii. we (the lawyers) took over jenga since it was unoccupied, and later moved on to the twister. a lot of fun, totally random, competitive but silly.

(3) ... that its thursday? only one more day before the boss comes back from vacay. this means i must be uuber productive tomorrow, finish a memo, and then get the heck outta town for jessi's mainer weekend. cabin-time, here i come.

(4) ... not sure i really have a fourth. but very excitingly, i had the *best* ever cubano sandwich today. it was at this little lunch spot called 'enriquetas' up on about 28th and n.e. 2nd ave- a drive from work, but well worth it. i got their cubano special, which not only included the usual ham/roast pork/pickle/mayo/mustard--- but ALSO had croquettas in the middle. in fair disclosure, i dont really know what a croquetta is, but it was insanely delicious all fried and shoved in the middle of the sammie. i mean, heavenly. justin had their jueves special which was a sort of cuban paella that was out of this world- it arrived with an entire crab just hanging out on top. no way. so good. too much food for sure. this might explain the current lingering food coma that i am in.

well, almost time to hit the road. although i dont want to go to pilates tonight i know i have to (ah, the pros and cons of buying a class-package), and then i can go home & pack and order dinner. i cant wait for maine! girl time!

xoxo

P: Track Workouts, Biking, and Rock Climbing = Exhaustion!

So after a long, simultaneously exhausting-relaxing weekend of watching the Mets get clobbered by the Dodgers, then chasing my terrible-twos-phasing nephew on a Long Island beach front, while catching porgies with my brother and dad, I returned to Boston to get crackin along on my novel. Nothing too interesting to report, besides the fact that I met an interesting character on my Fung Wah bus ride back up to Boston Sun evening. I met this man named--that's right--Chef Cra*g (the asterisk is supposed to be an "i", but i don't want him to google himself and find our blog!). He went on about how he was a chef with the schools (which, of course, made me think of Chef from South Park), and he went on about how he was trained in many different styles of cooking, so he was earning "good money," and blah blah blah. He seemed nice enough, but the fact that I smiled at him when I sat down seemed to be his invitation to talk my ear off and to tell me all about these business ventures of cookery he was being offered. The only reason WHY I smiled at him was because when I boarded the bus, the whole bus was packed except for the seat next to him, and then seats way in the back. And all of the people in front of me kept glancing down at him and then continuing to move further t othe back of the bus. I felt badly. Was it racism? Probably. I mean, this guy was pretty jacked and he looked clean and stuff. But he was also the only non-White or non-Chinese or non-Asian person on the bus. So that's why I smiled at him when I sat down, because I felt guilty otherwise.

So I'm kind of politely smiling and giving vaguely terse answers to his questions, and then he said, "If you ever want to go out to eat sometime in Boston..." and he handed me his business card. The card was black, with white loopy script that said, "Chef Cr.a.*g." For realz.

Some interesting characters to be met on the Chinatown bus. So it goes! Back to the thesis.

indian eats, fort lauderdale = college, & art that involves pig roasting

who can believe another week has gone by?

beginning at the beginning... friday night was our third-installment of 'eating adventures.' how time flies. we made a mass-exodus from miami beach to fort lauderdale for the night (well, technically the place was in sunrise, which is actually farther away than the fort, but still, at least a 45 minute drive). the cuisine was vegetarian indian, which for most of us (i think) is relatively familiar-- but this place met all expectations of deliciousness. it was, like most of our 'eating adventures' restaurants thus far, in a random strip mall with a mix of 'available space for rent' and 'law offices' tucked away in the middle of nowhere. upidi cafe was busy with a handful of indian couples & families, which if you ask me, is a wonderful sign in a state where you barely see non-latin-or-hatian-minorities. we again did the jam where we share a huge mess of appetizers, all partook in the various byob contributions, tried an amazing, huge dosa, various puffy breads, saag panner, baigan bhartha, tofu dishes, black dal... the list goes on. like we did at both the russian and the nicaraguan restaurants, we shut it down. eventually the servers started pulling down all the blinds, and we wrapped it up (hours later, mind you).

of course, this only entailed us moving the party to the parking lot, where we hung out for another 15 minutes or so, deciding what to do. justin had brought a friend who was from the miami area and familiar with fort lauderdale, and suggested we go out to some bars there to taste the local flavor, assuming we'd never have another reason to hit it up... about half the party went home, but ashley, carla and i followed justin & elana to the glorious fort lauderdale.

fort lauderdale. ah, what to say? it was like we were suddenly transported into a college town-- one street packed with bars, drunk people outside everywhere, everyone looking young and overly dressed up. our first stop was an irish bar on the corner, where there was a live cover band (we immediately positioned ourselves in front of them and started dancing). our feet stuck to the floor, covered in what was probably years-worth of spilled drinks & lingering refuse. like most bars these days, there were numerous MJ songs played, which we loved. but as soon as the music started sucking, i rounded us up and out... across the street to another bar, which we went into for approximately 7 minutes before i decided i didnt like it. it reminded me of any bar in ny that used to be cool for like, 1 second, but then suddenly is overwrought with business students and/or i-bankers, in crisp collared-shirts, everyone slinking around, no one dancing, just starring at one another. as if the bar was taking itself too seriously. so i demanded a new location. this took us a few door down somewhere else, where there was a much larger dance-floor that we occupied for a bit before deciding it was time for bed. thankfully, we left when we did, since the major highway home was closed and we had to take back-roads for a while, depositing me at home around 1.30am. no, not late-- but a difficult bed time, considering i had to set an alarm for boxing in the morning...

i know! more boxing! i love that shit. i highly recommend it. i exhausted myself with punching, sweating, jumping-jacks, push-ups, spinning, weights and then abs... killer class, but such a great feeling. then off to shower & grab rachel from dance class, to go eat some brunch on licoln road. ashley met up with us and partook in our white wine & salad saturdays, which was the followed up with some fake-tattoo-getting. temporarily for a month, there are now some vines slinking around under my collarbone. of course, this has caused me to reconsider this placement for permanent purposes, so truly, it was a good idea. what was not a good idea, (or what i didnt even think about) was the fact that id have to walk around for at least an hour waiting for it to dry, with my dress completely unbuttoned and off my shoulders... thankfully, though, we live in miami, so no one thought it was weird at all (esp. considering there were tons of other women walking around more scantily clad than i at any moment in time).

later that night, i met up with abby & justin & abby drove us over to the design district, for second saturdays art walk. we got a late start but first hit up this one place i'd never been-- they were having a pig roast out back (!!!), where the artist was somehow recreating an anicent-chinese-method of roasting pig, as part of some kind of installation and/or performance piece? i mean, i didnt get it either. but it was so cool when they took it out of its little baking/roasting chamber, and the artist just started hacking it up, serving it to miami-scene-hipsters who then gorged on the eats sans silverware or plates or anything. after some of that, we went over to wynwood and hit up some of the galleries there before everything closed. then, off to dance at the vagabond for a bit, until we grew tired a few hours later, and headed back to the beach for some buck 15. who even knew what time it was at that point. all i knew was that my feet were killing from dancing in heels, and i needed some cuban toast. abby walked me to my car & we parted ways.

sunday was spent like they usually are-- roasting delicately in the sun like that little piggy from the night before; some swimming; lots of water drinking. i felt exhausted and slightly miserable, mostly because these saturdays are so busy and rushing and involve an alarm clock- that sundays i feel relatively incapacitated (i know, i know, wah wah wah) (its hard to imagine i spent the last 3 yrs in a library every sunday, eh?). when it was feeding time, i made myself get into the car & hit up the sushi-market on the 79th street causeway, where there was delicious fresh eats, and then, back to the pool. highlights from the day later included me setting fire to a potholder bc i left it on the stove (and happened to turn on the wrong burner), watching reno 911/miami the movie and america's next top model marathon, and making soup. all in a day's work. its quite a lovely, lazy life i have here from time to time. i think its the heat that encourages the inactivity, but also, its the lack of crowds and shoving and people that makes it all a little less hectic and more well-suited for hedonism. sigh.

well, back to work for a moment. ashley's trying to convince me to do boxing again tonight, and then tomorrow the standard hotel has a new 'game night' that we might check out... other week activities include girls movie night, perhaps a little more dancing, and then friday-- time to hit up maine! woop woop! get excited... if i can manage it, ill bring and/or throw together a little tres leches cake in jessi's honor. this would, however, require said cake to travel well on two planes, so we'll see...

xoxo

pictures from july 4th

here it is! the recap of the weekend, in pictures!

this is towards the end of the beach-4th-of-july bbq: anne, ashley & me. anne commented earlier that this would be a great picture, if not for the incredibly weird expression on my face. i concur but thought it was hilarious enough to include.

this is our first night together! friday night, at the raleigh hotel. anne let me wear her peacock feathered headband, which you can see perched ontop my head. i love that thing. OH! conveniently, you can also see the glass of gross green champagne that i was drinking gratis.

here is anne friday night at the ganesvort hotel, at the entrance to the club louie. she is looking fabulous despite the fact that we were a sweaty mess by this point.

this is the most inappropriate photo we took at the bbq. it looks like i am about to fall over, although i think this was some kind of squatting position that ashley & anne then posed on top of. totally bizarro, no? well, thats life here.

now, time to finally go for a run as its cooled off a bit!

xoxo

P: J4 Weekend in Western Mass

So while Anne and Annie (or A squared, I suppose) were living it up in Miami, I was heading due west on a bus to Northampton, MA, a quiet little town that is home to Smith College, a prominent lesbian community, and the cutest little downtown with overpriced northern Italian restaurants. Friday night I arrived, and my friend Carolynn picked me up and we headed to search for a dinner joint in town. Spaghetti Freddy's was one option, as I was intrigued by the name! but it was boiling hot inside. So we met up with our friends J. and Becky, who are getting married in October. They drove the hour in to have dinner, which was just so sweet, as I haven't seen them since the reunion last year! So we ended up at SPoleto, for the 3 courses for $20 deal, and we shared a carafe of wine, and even though my spaghetti pesto chicken was nothing to write home about, we still had a great time.

We stopped off for a margarita at Mama Iguana, where Carolynn's bicycle teammate was waiting tables, and then we were off to the Bishop's Lounge for an MJ DANCE PARTY! But I swear, there were the strangest characters there. RIght when we walk in, there's this 40yo librarian-looking lady--totally dowdy, and not even in the library-sexy kind of way, a la Parker Posey in "Party Girl." She's standing by herself, listing from side to side, in an obvious enough way that she's not a wallflower, but yet she's standing against the wall, so she kind of IS being a wallflower. Then there's this tall, skinny black guy in a full-on red jumpsuit, and he was jumping all over the dance floor. But if you're going to wear an attention-grabbing jump suit like that, then you need to at least have the goods to show for it! (ANd he wasn't that good of a dancer). The 5 of us (we are joined by Carolynn's youngest sister Christy) are kind of standing in a circle at first, and then we break it down, Swat Paces-party style. Paces being the one of 2 social venues on all of Swat's campus. We are soon joined by frat boys, sorority girls, long-haired, middle-aged crunchy granola people, a random smattering of Eastern Euro men. And they all want a piece of the action! It was kind of ridiculous. Also, Carolynn's engaged female friends showed up, including one very sweet girl named Amy who wore her blinking Miss Bachelorette sash across her chest (it is my understanding that her actual b-party was a month ago), along with a penis-shaped whistle around her neck. During the course of the evening, she will lasso this penis whistle onto other people. Another of their friends was literally all over the place. YOu needed to dance a 3 foot radius away from her, because you never knew where she might end up. WHen last I turned around, the girls were talking to this ridiculously tanned, ridiculously huge guy whose head looked two sizes too small for the rest of his body. This was not helped by the fact that he wore an itty-bitty muscle tank. His boobs were 3 cup sizes bigger than mine, and--unlike mine--he could make them jiggle up and down on demand.

Anyway, after we got our fill of MJ, we headed to bed, and then the next morning Carolynn and I went on a short run through town, passing through Smith's beautiful campus. Although it was not nearly as beautiful as Swarthmore, and I only say this because I am biased. We had breakfast at the Green Bean, where we were joined by CHristy, and Amy, the sweet engaged girl (NOT, however, the same girl who was attempting to do SOul Train all over the place). Amy was a former rafting instructor, and she shared with us a series of gun/muscle jokes, while pointing to her own biceps. The girl was petite and thin but BUILT. Why is everyone here so healthy and fit? Sheesh! Anyway, we all go to this little hideaway creek in Conway, where we find a private secluded spot on rocks and lay out in the sun. Then Carolynn and I forage through the...CT River? Creek? Moving body of water? to a clay bank, and we proceed to rub wet clay all over ourselves for a DIY spa treatment. Such fun! I swear, I think I took care of one of the (many layers of) callus under my feet.

We headed off to Carolynn's parents' house in Hadley, because I LOVE HER FAMILY. She is the eldest of 4 sisters, and they are so good at making you feel comfortable. Her mother had made blueberry foccacia, and the dad was making a blueberry-marinaded chicken and sausages on the grill. Her mother had also made some sour apple vodka frozen drinky things, so we each had one from a fancy glass.

Then we shuttled off to Amherst to watch the fireworks, which were in celebration of the town's 250th anniversary. Also, if it's your town's 250th anniversary, you would think the fireworks would be freakin awesome. Alas, they weren't. We sat on a bench in a parking lot, drinking Budweisers from a can, and watched as each separate firework lit up for all of five seconds, before pittering out in a tiny burst of color and light. the 30 min show could've been reduced down to 10 minutes. NOnetheless, I still find myself a tiny bit mesmerized once I'm face to face with fireworks.

From there, we headed to the movie theatre, singing songs from Moulin Rouge--acapella style--the whole way there. We had tkts to see Away We Go, that new movie with Maya Rudolph and John Kaz$%&!*$ski from the office, written by Dave Eggers. Um.... it was a total DOWNER! It was all about this love between this unmarried couple, where the woman is pregnant, and they wander from city to city. And like, all they did was keep talking about their love. And even disregarding the fact that (A) such love only exists in fairytales and Peyton Reed films (B) if you aren't part of a couple, then you just feel sad and left out and (C) why didn't Maya Rudolph ever have morning sickness?; the movie seemed to be like an exercise in belly-gazing about their own love, and how self-contained it is, etc etc. Anyway. ANYWAY! The most memorable line from the movie--and true poetry to the ears of any girl--is when Jim from the office tells Maya "I will still love you even if you get so enormous I CAN"T FIND YOUR VAGINA." WHich was very sweet. But then it just struck me as words, words, words. Rhetoric. Blahbiddy blah blah bullsh*t.

SO anyway, the next morning, we shuttle back to Carolynn's parents' house to have breakfast with the fam before her sister Amy from New Orleans takes off, and then we go for a hike up Mt HOlyoke for the most beautiful vista of the Valley. And then we head to Puffer's Pond in Amherst with the tubes, where I proceed to jump onto my tube, capsize, hit my head on the bottom of the pond, in TWO FEET OF WATER, in front of like 30 little kids. I felt like such an idiot.

Then I got shuttled to SPringfield, where my bus was more than a half hour late, then traffic, then a 40min T-ride home, and then... That was the end of my Western Mass adventure.

july 4th rundown & runaround with anne!

happy belated 4th! yip yip!

just my luck, anne came to visit this past weekend, right in time for beautiful weather & a mix of fun random activities. thursday night i prepared by ostensibly trying to clean the apartment, woke up early on friday for a long sweaty run on the beach, and then scooped her up from the airport. first stop, south beach- lunch at big pink diner, a favorite staple that anne likened to the well-missed bendix in chelsea. after catching up & replenishing on salads and guac, we headed up to my apartment to soak in some pool-sunshine-time. although there was talk of motivating for bowling, anne informed me that, in tajikistan, bowling is for the nouveau riche. yes. she said it. true to form. apparently the new-money bling-bling tajiki's play rather frequently, and anne somehow got into the habit of playing regularly herself, so there was no need to relive this activity state-side.

every now and again, laying on the roof, large dark clouds would hover above us, slightly rain, causing us to scurry to a covered area with our us weekly magazines, and wait it out. eventually the sun returned, we napped a bit, and then peeled off to do some minor-shopping for our bbq the next day, july 4th. on the list? ingredients for the soon-to-be-fabulous spiked sweet iced tea. little did we know that in the south, they actually sell a vodka that is sweet-tea flavored. dangerous, eh? the best part of the liquor store was anne wandering around marveling at all of the choices of alcohol. welcome home, dear. she also helpfully pointed out which vodkas were really russian, and which only claimed to be russian. very necessary information for future russian food nights. assuming id like to be a hampster in a nest of towels on the bathroom floor again, that is.

after our little jaunt around the neighb, we headed out for dinner at katana, the sushi-boats place, where we sampled our little plates and anne ingested 12 iced teas (non-spiked). then home to change & get ready to go out: our plan was to meet justin & ashley at the raleigh at 10, but of course neither party was ready to do anything at 10... we, on the other hand, were fully dressed and out the door (anne letting me wear her fabulous peacock feather headband, which i am obsessed with). being that we had the extra time of course, it was necessary to go to sandbar for a round or two before we cabbed it south.

the raleigh is, i think, one of the classier hotels on south beach: kind of old-school feeling, in a charming way. we found ashley & anton, got drinks, and sat outside on the porch-ish area, where there was a deadringer of one of the "real housewives of orange county" next to us. serious plastics. somewhere in there we were presented with free cocktails involving champagne and some gross green or blue liquor (hypnotic or something like that?). i took mine for the road, mind you. even though no one else did... we took the backway and walked north on the beach a few blocks, all barefoot, up to the ganesvoort to the club there, louie. we've previously tried to get in here, but they always have excuses: no tee shirts, no jeans, no flippie floppies, whatever. this time we got in, and realized how not cool it was. regardless, we had fun dancing for a while in the narrow cavern back of the club, and eventually kicked it out around 2.30 or 3. being that we were somehow hungry (and anne had a mad passion for empanadas), we tried our luck at this colombian restaurant right next to sandbar: they were totally closed or closing, but the owner let us come in and made us up some empanadas. next to us at the bar-counter was a random dude just hanging and drinking his beer-- anne's guess was that he was the classic drunk cousin or brother. full of greasy empanada, we headed home.

saturday was bbq time! partial celebration of america, partial celebration of rachel's belated birthday. our iced tea was out of control, and we brought along muffins, bean salad, baked tofu, and portabella mushrooms for the grill. of course, once we drove down to south beach, we realized that there was no parking anywhere, so dropped all the food off at ashley's bbq outback, and then went home to park, and cab down. ridiculousness. apparently some people start their 4th of july before 1pm. (who knew?). once we were back, it was fine: there were about 12-15 of us at any random time, and it basically involved lots of sitting, eating, talking, and a fair share of ocean- and pool-swimming. it struck me what a grown-up anne is when she insisted on changing out of her wet bathing suit, whereas i was sitting there with a soggy bottom wrapped in a towel for several hours. go figure. (that, and her refusal to partake in vodka watermelon. granted, it was gross, but still. what class she has for saying no).

before we knew it, the sun was down, there was a mini-dance party inside the gazebo, and then we had to locomote down to the beach to watch the fireworks: some were going off on about 5th and ocean drive, and more were up north by the fountainbleu, so we all charged into the ocean and were able to see both vantage points without any crowds or distractions or anything. somehow we managed to stay in the ocean for a few more hours, lazily standing around (seriously. maybe 2 people actually engaged in swimming. the rest of us were lolling about). post official- fireworks, the unofficial-fireworks took place, involving randoms on the beach setting off the shit they bought at walgreens and publix and whereever else people buy cheap explosives, some of which almost missed our heads in the water (danger! danger!). eventualy we got out of the water for some more dance-party on the beach, until people started getting hungry again, circa midnight. anne and i peeled off shortly thereafter, stopped for some pizza on the way, and went home to bed. somehow, a totally exhausting day, but so utterly relaxing.

sunday morning, pre-trip to the airport, we had some brunch at a local cuban spot (anne got the steak, obvi). deliciousness. and then, sadly, time to say bye. wah. sadly, she will only be in the states for a while before her next mission: impossible in afghanistan comes along, but it was so nice to have her.

of course, i spent the rest of sunday "recouperating" by the pool and doing nothing, until justin convinced me to go try out hipster bingo at the standard hotel. so we had dinner with some other friends of his, and then hit up bingo for a round or two- bumping into ashley, anton, and rachel there, all coincidentally- and then went a short distance to purdy lounge (another random hipster spot) for a spelling bee. ashley & i made it through round one, but both choked in the second (thank god, on that one: for every correct word, you had to take a shot of jaeger. gross). after the bee, a little dance party formed, which was also a randomly fun event: the best part, i think, is that none of it was planned, and we were all just unexpectedly having a really awesome sunday night. knowing that i have less time here makes me much more apt to do silly things like this, silencing that voice in the back of my head that says, "um, its sunday night." of course, that little voice woke up this morning saying, "i told you so," but amazingly enough, ive been relatively productive today, so i cannot complain.

what i can potentially complain about is that i just agreed to try to make it to boxing in an hour. this means ill have to run home and change and kick the shit out of a bag for an hour. i guess its better than doing nothing... or just going home and gouging on more cuban food (which is honestly all i want to do right now)...

with that, im off! ill update with some pictures of anne's trip asap!

xoxo