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
1 comment:
dorkship salad!
Post a Comment