back in effect

finally! internet restored. it was a certain trial this morning-- i didnt sleep very well, worried that i was going to miss the call from atlantic broadband to say that the installer was downstairs. so i was up at 9, anticipating the 'appointment' between 8.30-12.30pm... and lo and behold, after a rather productive and lovely morning of listening to 'this american life', mopping the floors, cleaning insanely, crafting up a pot of rattatoulie with accompanying pasta-- he still hadnt shown. i know this may be hard to believe, but im not like most people on a sunday morning. im up, and i need an activity. unfortunately, i couldnt even leave the house to get the nytimes since i was worried i would miss the service call and thus, miss the appointment. so i waited and waited and grew increasingly skeptical and called and yelled at the cable company. finally, like a twist of miami-ian fate, the guy shows up-- at 1.45pm. and doesnt apologise. barely explains why he is so late. actually has the nerve to say, "hey, i had 7 appointments this morning. some took a while. they shouldnt have scheduled so many for me. its not YOUR fault." (um...... NO, youre right. its not. more likely-- its *your* fault sir, for not calling and letting me know you would be late). this is all while the sun is shining beautifully outside, npr reports that it is climbing in temperature, and the ocean looks sparkling... 

after successfully acting like a cranky mean bitch to the aforementioned cable guy, i finally got outside. spent some time on the beach, took a nice walk uptown a bit, and collected more groceries for a pot of vegetable soup. cooking is so therapeutic-- its so calming and fun and tasty to boot. i love having sundays to cook like this. 

friday night we had drinks at the setai hotel after work, which was very pretty and predictably pricey. its funny, when you're paying $17 for a martini, you start to think- why pay for this when i can pay a few more dollars more for what i really want: a nice glass of verve cliquot. now, i know were in a recession. but when youre paying up the nose anyway, its nice to then whip out a credit card to cover your tasty champagne purchases. this is something i usually would not do- i would shudder to think of it actually- but it so wonderful in the moment.  then we carried on to have dinner at a nearby new-american place for dinner- talula. the food was fine- just that my pasta was overly salted. when i was telling my dad about this, he said, oh you should have sent it back, sent it back. this made me cringe recalling my childhood and even adult experiences with my dad, ordering and sending things back, sitting somewhere and asking for another table after feeling a draft... these things i love about my dad, with reserve of course- they are so him, so new york woody allan neurotic jewish upper west sider. then it made me think-- why *didnt* i say something? on the one hand- i was paying for a moderately-priced meal, i deserved something that didnt make me pucker... on the other hand-- an overly salted pasta dish would likely implicate, to me, that there is something wrong with restaurant- why overly salt anything? wasnt someone paying attention? was it masking something? tastelessness? (this coming from a girl who likes salt). anyway in the end it was just fine, i drank enough water to compensate, and was thankfully in bed by midnight (unless i would turn into a pumpkin!)

yesterday i hit up the rubell family collection, a private art collection that is housed in a large, museum-esque gallery space, to see a new show called '30 americans'-- a show of 30+ african american artists, all contemporary.  we had gone to the opening night dinner-celebration during art basel and i was excitedly able to meet a few of the artists, but i hadnt been able to make it to the show until now. it was so-so, some of the work was good-- i particularly liked one piece that had advertisements from the 1960s through to 2008- juxtaposed together, all featuring african-americans- i.e., what and how companies marketed to them as seen through the ads. it was actually very sociological- which i enjoyed. after spending an hour or two there, i headed to another nearby gallery where there was a collection of some robert rauschenberg prints & paintings- absolutely stunning. i saw them on the walls and wanted one so badly. they were prints, so some of them were in the more "affordable" range - but still 7-8k... oh one day we will be able to support the arts. until then, i am happy with the occasional visits.

its officially a bummer that tomorrow is monday, but i am eating delicious pumpkin pudding and trying to ignore that obviousness. let us wish a wonderful week to us all!

xoxo