lesbians, ballet, and when do i get a friend with a boat?

Being Monday, its time for a little weekend recap. Friday afternoon, i got an IM from my coworker, anna, down the hall asking if i would be up for a lil’ monty’s happy hour. Obviously, i can never say no to such an offer, so once the day concluded, we headed over. After reveling in the $4.35 sapphire-tonics (i mean, come on. Like you wouldnt want to be there daily, too?), and deciding the raw bar line was way too long, we managed to beat some girls in heels to a table down by the water (they uttered, "are you kidding me?!" as we blazed past them to secure the premises), i found out that it was actually anna’s birthday! This called for several pitchers of beer. A bunch of her friends also came to meet us- a total lesbian posse. Its such a nice-yet-rare treat when you get to be involved in this type of social-unit, because i get the sense that they rarely find the need to open it up to non-lesbian/bisexual outsiders. Either way, they were an assorted crew: the jock girl, the pretty doe-eyed-girl, a few teachers, the short-haired hot older one, the one asian dude who hung with them, and for a while, some other random interlopers.

Before i knew it, i had consumed more alcohol than planned, and ended up with a belly full of nachos. Although the ladies were changing & then heading out to a bar later that night, i managed to escape with a "keep me posted!", after which point i got home, somehow ended up in my bathrobe, watching ‘flight of the conchords’ on dvd. It was one of those nights where, while i was driving away, i thought, "this would be so great! I should go out with them! This is so fun! We can dance and be crazy! Girl time!". but then once you are laying on your little couch drinking one last glass of wine with your feet up, its kind of hard to re-motivate. This often happens, although i can proudly say that it happens here less often than it normally does, at home in ny. I think its a comfort-factor thing: like, i end up doing more random things here, mostly because there is no fallback usual routine (or if it is, its easily disposed with in lieu of more excitement).

Saturday i woke up and was disappointed by the grayness that was hovering over the beach, so decided to spend the morning running some errands; by the time i was done at the farmer’s market, and back at home, the sun had come out- which meant, time for the pool. Im sure i was only there for a few hours, but eventually i had to wrestle myself out of my little reclining-chair and inside for a run, before i went to meet friends at the ballet (although not at all associated with last week’s ballet class). The show was called "open barre"; this not only meant that it was general-admission seating (prompting us to push past some elderly couples), but it also meant that bacardi was sponsoring the event, and there was an open bar (leading me to follow chanel’s lead of getting bacardi-coconut-rum with gingerale; oddly like drinking the beach, and being reminded of malibu rum and high school, but at the same time, delicious).

The ballet was wonderful: the auditorium was rather small so we were very close to the stage, which made it much more intimate than going to see the ballet in a large hall, like at lincoln center. The first act was balanchine- lots of traditional ballet, like swan lake or something. Several things occurred to me during this portion: (1) the guys are always basically props; they are the obvious romantic love interest, and they basically help carry, spin, or twirl the ladies, but are otherwise just accessories to move the plot along; (2) they have to have these funny facial expressions, as if they are totally and completely in love with their ballerinas; i mean, im sure ive noticed this before but its just so random, mostly because all the ballerinas’ facial expressions look the same- stoic, or calm, and rarely anything else); (3) which reminds me-- the girls all look the same! Its uncanny to see so many brunettes, hair pulled back tightly into buns, with the same overdone makeup and false eyelashes, the same pinched-yet-calm faces... and then, when you’re sitting all close, like we were, you just start to get noticeably distracted by how different they actually all are; this one is taller, this one is more graceful; that one looks like my cousin. (4) effortless– how do they manage to look so effortlessly the same? – when by the end of the piece, they are all covered in sweat. So impressive. After the intermission, the second half was a jazz-like, prohibition-era piece that was a lot of fun, with lots of 1920s-30s costumes on all the dancers; much more modern.

Once that concluded, we all headed out to dinner- there were 6 of us in total, two couples and me & another lady; one of the couples i had never met before: i had been forewarned that this girl was basically the miami-version of barbie, so i was ready and braced myself for it; but i was completely mesmoried- her father is some kind of famous plastic surgeon or something, and yes, she was totally barbie and pretty– long blond hair, blue eyes, full lips, whatever- but the best part? It was obvious that her nose was not an original genetic edition, nor were her *cheeks*. I mean, im talking like, when you see madonna’s cheeks, or some other older-celebrity that has had cheek-implants, and they’re all firm and high-up, and they look great– but so unnatural. And this girl? She’s our age. How weird. I mean, theres no other way to describe it... her boyfriend was about 20 yrs her senior, apparently very-well off (chanel’s husband later informed us that the boyf was wearing a $12k watch), and discussed his various cars during dinner (porsche vs. mercedes?). for the most part though, he was a total dolt- conversationless - although the best part came close to the end of our meal, when he casually mentioned that he & the gf were going to take the boat out the next day.

Take the boat out? Its not fair! These are the exact type of friends ive needed all along– the ones who have boats, who take them out, spend the day in the sunshine, drinking beers, fishing or swimming or whatever the hell. And yet, this is them? As we would later discuss, each one of us (at that very moment) wanted to invite ourselves along, to ask if we could come, to spend the day frying out there in the hot sun- but yet, so impossible. As if dinner hadnt been rough enough eeking words out of this couple- to imagine being on a boat with them? (Not to mention the whole blonde-barbie girl wasnt necessarily the kind of girl that then would go on to be astronaut, or doctor). Painful. So dreams were dashed.

Oh and how i wept on Sunday. No, actually, i was on the beach for a few hours in the morning, and then headed inside for lunch and a run, before heading to nicole’s house for wine with some more friends, and then all out to dinner at the sushi-bar-in-a-strip-mall that we had been to a few months earlier. Again, so delicious. I could eat sashimi there the rest of my life and never complain. Perhaps the best part of the evening was the fact that i drove there in my prescription sunglasses, but forgot to bring my normal glasses; so that on my way home, i had to continue rocking the sunglasses even though it was 11pm, and dark, and of course the road i was going to take home was totally closed for construction, so i had to toodle around in the car lost with my gps telling me every few moments or so, "Recalculating. Recalculating." eventually, yes, i got home in one piece, but it was definitely touch & go there for a while. (If i had been in any other city, i would have likely been more afraid about being pulled over for driving a bright blue pt cruiser with the windows down, blasting lil’ wayne and wearing huge 1980s white sunglasses, but apparently in miami, they will only pull you over if you obviously just shot someone or something. in other words? Very interesting law enforcement tactics).

A late Sunday night of course, means a rough Monday morning, when i actually thought first thing, "oh hello Tuesday. Or is it Wednesday?", sadly realizing shortly thereafter that it was neither. Nevertheless, its going along without many hitches and im managing to survive (although am on my 4th cup of tea)(granted, not for caffeine’s sake, but just to keep me awake and alert with a hot beverage). So far this week is pretty calm until Thursday night, when kari & nic are coming to visit for the weekend; hopefully in the meantime, i will find that friend who owns the boat so that i can be truly apathetic and end my work-days here with some sunset trips out into the ocean, instead of listening to npr on my drive home. You just let me know if you have any leads...

Xoxo