thunder & lightning!

June 1st marks the first official day of hurricane season here in miami. This means the streets become more and more flooded on a daily basis; in fact, half of the parking lot at work is inoperable because it is covered in water and when you drive out at the end of the day, you’re half a tire deep. This also means that moments of sunshine are relished, but quickly followed by usually unexpected dark clouds that move quickly and drench everything. Yesterday ben & i were on the roof of my building and noticed clouds gathering in the distance- you can look around 360 degrees at miami and see one spot with brilliant sun, while another area is covered with sheets of rain. Pretty amazing.

Ben is here visiting for the week! He gets to relish this bizarre weather, spend as much time as humanly possibly soaking up the sun, and then spending the rest of the time dashing indoors and/or hunting for the best cuban sandwich in town (we’ve yet to find it...). He got in Saturday & we had some lunch at shuckers; attempted to get key lime pie from joes– but the takeout stand is officially closed for summer and the restaurant only open for certain hours during dinner; and then headed home to rest for a bit before going to the MOCA (miami contemporary art museum)- where i’d actually never been! Of course he knew about some performance art going on there way in advance... Beforehand, i was asking him what i was supposed to expect, because honestly sometimes with performance art, you need a little background.... he couldnt really explain it, he said. There was no overarching theme or arsenal of ideas that id need to know to prepare. I mean, i was skeptical. But he was completely right - it was a group of 3 artists (im blanking on their group name?) - and they were on a stage; the performance involved a slideshow; singing and music; and audience participation! While the whole concept revolved around art theory (so ben tells me), it was completely accessible and fun to just be in the audience; we all sang together at one point, did different movements in another; and had a group meditation towards the end.

Afterwards, we headed to grab something to eat at joeys, the sole restaurant in the wynwood art district, and then over to a friend (annie’s) birthday at the vagabond, a club thats oddly enough in downtown miami... i had never been inside, but it was actually pretty cool - there was an amazing DJ playing beloved classics from the 80s and early 90s (anyone who can play belinda carlise, 'heaven is a place on a earth', and then vanilla ice, 'ice ice baby' gets a gold star in my book), and a random motley crew of bartenders: the blonde girl with cleavage, the guy with a serious foot-long-mohawk, and the emo/morrisey dude: "something for everyone," as ben noted. Plus, whenever the bartender tells you that they still have a free vodka special? I mean, how can you argue with that. We danced and chatted w friends, and then later, once they opened up the backyard, took a loop around where we privately made fun of the ridiculous smattering of douchebags (thankfully, though, the ratio here was much less than in many, many other places). Then, home.

Sunday there was a little sunshine action before the rain came; we brunched and then took a nice long walk on the beach in sobe; headed back up; i swam a few laps before the lightning came; and then we went to eat cuban food at the neighborhood spot. Otherwise, looking forward to our weeklong visit: plans coming up include a preview of "the hangover" (cant we all relate?) as a gen-art screening; drinks at montys with the girls; a much needed trip to matsuri sushi (the best random strip mall sushi ever); and ben’s attempt at making us cuban-themed steaks tonight... which makes me wonder: is this day over yet?

xoxoxo

oh AND!!! im also very elated to confirm that im making it to jessi’s maine-infused weekend in July! This will involve me somehow trekking to boston that Sunday with patty and staying up until my 7am flight back to florida, but hey. We’ve been through worse, havent we, p?