lessons learned

last week was our second ‘eating adventures’ night, where 12 of us assembled in the middle of nowhere miami on a Thursday night, to eat nicaraguan cusine. It was my wholly random pick: i just searched 'yelp' until i found something unique that i had never eaten before, and that had good ratings... anyway, i had no idea how far it was from the beach until two highways later, i arrived 15 minutes late to my own festivity. Ah well. The joint, called cerro negro, was more than happy to have us since it was a large-ish place, and mostly empty.

We started things off with some nicaraguan beers and an assortment of their best appetizers: included in this mix was fried cheese (much like paneer), huge ribs, blood sausage (a variant that included rice, which was interesting; they were formed into little patties), stewed pork, yuca, wings, fried pork skin, and nameless other things i cant remember. For dinner, a few of us shared the ‘typical’ nica menu items: deep fried whole snapper with an onion/tomato/sweet and sour sauce; chimmicurri steak; and smoked pork loin– and nothing would be complete of course, without the requisite rice, beans, and sweet plaintains. the pork was simply outstanding, but I think the appetizer shabang was the best part, since it was all new stuff (or at least, a new take on familiarish items). for the most part, our experience of nica food was like a cross between any kind of latin american/cuban cuisine. Still, tried a new thing, which is never bad.

Friday night there was even more eating: after work, nicole came over and we headed to sandbar for some much needed relief -or at least much needed for me– on Friday, work was almost unbearable. it made me remember why i disliked or felt uncomfortable in my job for the first several months, mostly because i was badgered, yelled at, harassed, etc for the entire afternoon. Sometimes, it made me want to cry. Other times, it just reminded me that thankfully it will be all over soon enough. All the time, it made me want to give a certain someone lessons on how to be a better, more understanding employer. Enough of that though.

Post-drinks, we headed to fifi’s (twice in one week!) to meet up w others for some fresh seafood. Kevin & i split a snapper, and somewhere during the meal, he told me that in korea, the youngest gets to eat the eyes, for good luck. Not one to be challenged, i then ate an eye. This turned the rest of the meal into a battle between kevin and i: he then ate the other eye, but couldnt do it, so spit it out, so then i tried to eat it; then we shared the tongue; and so on. Grossed out? Everyone at the table was totally enjoying the demasculinazation of kevin, while at the same time, appreciating my desire to one-up him. In retrospect, i can only imagine what the customers and waitstaff thought of us.

Because they had finally experienced it and fallen in love with it several hours earlier, nicole, brook & i then headed back to sandbar for one last round of drinks. Granted, at that time, we had certainly had enough, but it was still early for a Friday night. There was some dancing in our seats, lots of laughing and inappropriate joking, and then finally, i got the door-to-door service drop off, and to bed.

Saturday morning, i woke up early to head to a boxing class!!! um. It was amazing. to say the least. my co-worker amanda had been going every Tuesday after work, and it was conveniently in my neighb at a boxing gym, so ashley & i agreed to check it out. The Saturday morning class was aptly named, ‘wake and bake’. Got there, got my hands wrapped, donned a pair of loaner gloves, and took a position on the floor by one of the bags. The entire gym consisted of a mat space, where there were about 20-25 big boxing bags hanging from the ceiling; a ring; spinning bikes; an outside/non-covered portion with another ring; and some weight machines. Totally simple. No air conditioning, just some fans, and the front-wall that faced the street had all the window-panes open. It was hot. There was serious sweat: the instructor would show us a few moves (leg work and punching) and then yell; BAGS! At which point you would turn and punch the shit out of your bag, doing the same move. In the interim, there were jumping jacks, push-ups, running in place, and planks. When the teacher wasnt yelling or blowing his whistle, a siren (as in, a firehouse siren) would go off for a minute or so. There was literally sweat rolling off of everyone. After 30 minutes, we then moved from the bags over to the spinning bikes, where i thought i might die. Thankfully, the spinning only lasted for about 5 minutes before we headed right back to the bags. An insane, insane workout, but so much fun. All the while, listening to michael jackson and other random music, although most of the time, there’s a dj. No frills, but exhilarating. who knew kicking the shit out of something would be so much fun???

By this point, i was so pumped: amanda dropped me off, i quickly showered, and then got into my car to meet chanel, nicole, annie and tracy for brunch in coconut grove at a little french bistro (le buchon de grove). the adreneline was still going strong, right until i sat down, ordered my omelette, and drank my mimosa, at which point i totally crashed and could barely move.

Thankfully, the rest of the afternoon was low-key and involved the farmers market, pool-time, and tv. Around 6.30, i rallied to go buy some ingredients for this thai-chicken dish (laddo?), took the bus to justins, and made dinner for justin, ashley & anton before people came over to justins & we all got ready to go out & celebrate josh's (another co-workers) birthday at a club. I know, typical. I hadnt actually been to this one before- karu and y, which is in downtownish miami (right near where the nada art fair had been this past December). sometime right before we left justins, anton convinced the three of us to do vodka shots.

I am starting to think that should never be allowed.

so we get to the club. I was wearing insane heels from forever 21 that look like dominatrix shoes with all these faux-leather straps everywhere (some balenciaga rip offs, no doubt), and while i managed to dance for at least a few hours, i also managed to topple over at one point, bringing justin down with me, and literally skinning one of my knees on my graceful descent behind a potted plant. At that point, thankfully, ashley & anton were ready to roll, and i made them take me with them, cabbed it up to my neighb for surprisingly amazing pizza, they fought while i ate (and tried to avoid eye-contact with this random couple that i had met one night in sandbar), and then they dropped me off at home. (i insisted on walking, since we were only on 67th street, but as soon as i stood up post-pizza, i remembered the burning sensation from the shoes. What a problem. Someone should manufacture a topical anesthetic for women’s feet).

Although i woke up feeling like i would die, the weather agreed with me and kept it cool & rainy so that i had a perfect excuse to lay about, read, swim, and cook (frittata and braised celery), ending the day with ‘schenectady ny’ (surprisingly weird and depressing).

So now, its Monday, its gray and drizzly, i have an unrelenting headache, and i wish i could crawl back into bed. looking on the bright side, though, (1) tonight we’re going to see beyonce!!! and (2) the boss is gone and will be for three weeks. This is enough to make anyone happy. Now if only my body would stop hurting from boxing class...

xoxo