doctors, hiphop, boats & beers

ok, so first im doing a little flash-back to last tuesday, when we had empanada night, because i managed to capture a few of the momentitos and wanted to share:

ashley & rachel, my lady friends, trying not to look like they had too much red wine. this is a difficult task given the fact that rachel has a wine refridgerator in her house. and an undying passion for malbec. which is growing on me more and more. holla, argentina!

this is a little move we like to call, "the one-eyed text." rachel first explained this phemonenon to me: after a long night of being out, she found herself texting friends, but would always do it with one eye open. apparently this made it easier to focus. in the end, though, it should remind you (as you are likely doing it, probably without even realizing!) that you shouldn't be texting at all if you have to do it with one eye.

here are our famous empanadas! these larger ones in the forefront were the vegetarian equivalent of meat empanadas- made with ground soy meat, egg, raisins, olives, onions, etc. the smaller ones in the distance were my random creation - spinach with portabella mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and feta cheese. both were deliciouso.

ok, so transition away from the empanada night, and into this past weekend...

friday night i had my first taste of pizza in miami. i know, insane right? ive been here since september 15 and other than getting pizza in a non-italian, non-pizza restaurant (which i dont think qualifies), i havent had a true dose of the stuff. after work, i went home for a run, and then headed down to southbeach, lincoln road, to try a new spot- 'sosta', i think its called? it was chanel & nicole & their husbands, & tracy & me - we all shared and tried each others, pretty delish, thin crust, well done. afterwards, we walked over to collins ave bc they were all heading to a house party (which i was kind of not interested in... but thought the walk would be good either way). amazingly, it was also hip-hop weekend in miami, which meant that the streets were packed with people. oddly enough, the first time ive ever seen a healthy dose of african-american people here. no joke! apparently in the past, this weekend has been rowdy, "dangerous", and i was told more than once not to go out on the beach at night. it was one of those horribly, horribly awkward feelings like, wow, is EVERYONE here racist? truth be told, walking along collins on friday night was not the least bit scary-- it was more entertaining like we were in a huge street parade-- i have never seen those blocks more packed with people, hanging out on corners, traffic jams up the wazoo, girls literally walking in their bikinis and heels with purses (although granted, about 75% of them really should not have been showing that much skin). anyway we finally got through the crowds (and massive police force that was out), and over to this house party...

a doctor house party! no joke. so chanel's husband is a dr., and ive never really had occassion to meet his coworkers or colleagues or anything, but there they all were, in this amazing apartment right alongside ocean drive and about 14th street, with a huge terrace bigger than my apartment, looking right out onto the ocean. of course, this being the home of a ridiculously famous neurologist, it also meant that he was kind of living like a bachelor (read: no toliet papers in 2 of the 3 bathrooms; no bath mat, no hand towels, etc). after hanging for a while there, we all decided we were poopered out & headed back through the throngs of people on collins and to our respective cars & homes.

saturday i didnt have much planned, other than catching up on rest & relaxing, although it was thunderstorming on and off. that evening, i met up with carla at her house, and then we went to a nearby wine bar that i had been wanting to try: you basically get a card & then can taste all the different wines you want- either a 2oz taste, or a half or full glass. very high tech. anyway we were having a great time sitting outside & talking under a covered area, even when the skies opened up & it poured for a while. a friend of her's came to meet us (who was dressed astonishingly like brett michaels- long hair and bandana to boot); there was a brief catastrophy when the wine bar lost carla's credit card and refused to apologise (unbelievable); but then we eventually got over the cancelling-phone-calls, walked again through more hip-hop related crowds on washington ave., and then headed to buck 15-- the dance-place that patty & i once tried to go to, but couldnt wait for to get crowded. (the infamous night we went to sandbar...).

buck 15 was relatively empty, as were most local spots this long weekend, but carla, brett michaels & i had a great time dancing to 80s music (scratch that-- brett looked like he was being tortured by reliving his long ago past, since he must literally be about brett michael's age). a lot of fun, but feet covered in blisters. i dropped carla off & headed home in anticipation of getting up early for a day on a new friend's boat!

this new friend, conveniently also named annie, is super cute & nice & swwet & fun, and is a miami-native- so her family is here. anyway she invited tracy & i out with her mom & dad for the day-- but sunday morning en route to get coffee and then head out to coral gables to meet them all, the skies opened up. OH miami. get it together. we reassessed plans & had some french-brunch on cocowalk at this adorable place (where the baguettes were delicious but they were really obsessed with playing UB-40 nonstop...) and then went to see a mexican movie, 'rudio y cursi' or something like that. a good day, but when we got out of the theatre at 3pm, the skies were tragically blue, taunting us for taking the rain so seriously... annie was beat but tracy & i went to celebrate the better weather at a place called scotty's landing, kind of like montys, on the water, hanging outside and drinking some beers. the perfect end to a randomly perfect day.

monday during an 1.5 hr run (in the serious insane heat), i was thinking of what to do with my holiday off-- and low and behold, when i got home, there was a message from annie proposing that we redo the boat! so again headed to coral gables, and off we went. this time we made it out on the water, by the florida keys, and stoped at a coral head where we went snorkling! my first time! it was so gorgeous-- a different world down there; coral reef, fish, plants, beautiful colors, sea urchins... after snorkling, we docked on an actual sand-bar where there were tons of other boats and people walking about in the sand, partying, with dogs, with folding chairs and tables- completely unreal. loved loved loved it. annie's mom packed us a lovely lunch that we ate sitting on the boat, then walked around in the sand. somehow, 6 hours had gone by, and we headed back into dock as we watched these insane dark clouds cover downtown miami and miami beach. not wanting to let a good thing end, tracy & i headed up to a taco place we had been wanting to try for ages, grabbed them to go, and went to sit outside at shuckers, covertly eating our contraband baja fish tacos. carla joined us for the tail-end.

then, sadly, the night came to a close; resulting in an overly-tired but productive tuesday morning, and here we are, wednesday already?! how did that happen... here's hoping that this memorial day weekend is merely the taste of all the delightful summery things to come.

xoxo