strugglin on through

i cant believe the week is already half over and ive barely contributed this week. have i at all? who knows. exciting times though-- the inaugeration of our new president was yesterday, which meant that most people are generally full of excitement and hope (except apparently for those few who still think obama will somehow indoctrinate the entire country with muslimism.. um... really? yes, sadly they do exist). i mean, npr even interviewed the republicans in small towns in florida who are still hopeful that our new presidente can pull us out of this horrible economy, international situation, etc etc.... i was very pleased to hear this morning that all trials related to guantanamo bay are currently on hold- i cant believe that for so long, we have just outright, absolutely violated human rights, violated our constitution- and tried to keep it all a secret. its really disgusting. of course, i dont know what the alternative that obama has planned is-- some other alternative form of trial? -- but as one of the generals involved in the military tribunal remarked, at least the discussion will bring better refinements to the process. anyway, thankfully we were able to watch the inaugeration on our computers via some weird-internal-cnn-streaming, which was much appreciated. then we talked about how chief justice roberts totally flaked on giving the vow. it was painful to watch because initially, it seemed like the problem was obamas- like he had flubbed it somehow. then, you realized, (a) roberts gave sentences that were too long and (b) he gave the wrong wording for the vows... and obama didnt know whether to correct him or not. talk about an awkward sitch.  i do not doubt that those moments became water-cooler-discussion-fodder everywhere.

work is still trucking along rather busy, next monday i head to atlanta for the week. im excited since last time i was only there for a few days-- but traveling for work is always exhausting. its like, you cant go home at the end of the day and unwind. you actually just go to dinner with the same work people, and then go sleep in the same hotel as them. and then do it all over again the next morning. oh of course its still exciting, and i love new bathrobes, and getting coffee room service, and nice dinners. but i also like cuddling in my own bed and generally de-lousing from the day by 7pm. ah well. youll get all my updates along the way.

today i was invited to join a softball league on sunday afternoons. what are you takes on this? on the one hand, it seems utterly ridiculous-- have you seen my arms? i havent played since summer camp, circa 1995. on the other hand, i dont think its serious, and im basically just there to represent the gender on this bizarre league team, which happens on sundays, when no one does anything anyway, and it will encourage some team-drinking. so. i dont know. maybe ill go and check it out sunday if i can still walk after the race.

what else has been going on? sunday i met up with my friend ashley, and a bunch of her random friends. we grabbed drinks on a super-touristy block in south beach, which i just dont get. why go to little italy when youre a local? you know what i mean. (ok, so we used to go to little italy to drink, but we were also in high school and could get away with it. cha chas, you were the best). after the tourist trap area, we headed to what was referred to as a "dive bar." but in actuality, those dont exist here. it was a sports bar.  but hey, they had a little area upstairs with dart boards and we went to town in teams of three and rocked out for a while. despite being cranky that ashley had been on miami-time in terms of getting in touch to make plans, i actually had a good time. 

then on monday, after reclaiming MLK day, taking my car back to the mechanics for more issue-dealing, and taking a short run, i went to dinner with a bunch of other co-worker ladies. there were actually two married-couples there, which i guess is normally fine- but they were the type who kept touching each other, engaging in back-stroking, arm-cuddling, wedding-ring-fiddling, the works. please. we get it. youre infatuated with one another. but just dont do it at the dinner table. we understand you are married, but youre also making it a little awkward. especially with your co-workers.  regardless, the dinner was good. its miami spice month, like restaurant week in new york, so there are tons of prix-fixe dinners and lunches around. the place we went to was in coral gables, and was called 'orantique' or something like that- some kind of carribean/latin american fusion place. i tried my first ceviche, which honestly just seemed like chopped cooked shrimp to me. kind of over that. but my little hen was delicious. i love little bitty drumsticks. they kill me. 

tomorrow night is jazz, im going to see wynton marsalis with ashley & her husband, which im psyched about (no really, i like him- he is culturally the epidomy of the cold war: his father is cuban, and his mother is russian. how amazing?!), and then friday im leading the charge on a happy hour at montys. hey, at least you know ill be there, drinking cheap draft beers in plastic cups and eating huge honkin shrimp, oysters, and stone crab claws. i know ive said it before, but ill say it again-- montys is my favorite thing about this little odd city. 

until then, im going to retire from typing and read a bit. hope all is well with all of you.

xoxo