Coming Down

Holy crap, it's almost 9pm and I can proudly say I've been home all day. The only time I've walked outside was to let Gizmo out underneath Heidi's deck in the rain. Fell asleep late last night watching a movie on the couch, woke up at 11am this morning, only to eat some cereal and then watch another movie on the couch a few hours later.

I admit, I welcome the lethargy. This past work week has been kind of crazy with lots of hours on the road. On Monday, the east coast felt the ripple of a 5.9 earthquake..apparently the strongest to hit the area since 1944. Being a Florida girl, I've never felt such a force. I was on the second floor of a building and, like many others who live and work in the DC area, thought 9/11 all over again. I've experienced several hurricanes, the worst being Hurricane Andrew in '92, but even then I never felt the helplessness I felt during those few seconds of rumbling. The work day was barely interrupted though, and I even decided to stay later than usual to avoid the gridlock on the beltway. Now, just feeling the constant rain of Hurricane Irene, and I continue to be entertained at how much the citizens of Maryland are freaking out about this. I say that, but I still hope no one gets hurt doing something stupid, like driving in a flood.

Today is my mom's birthday. I was able to give her her gift when I was in Miami last week, so last night I emailed her a birthday card. As someone who is a constant inspiration in my life, I wish the very best for her today and everyday.

Below, my blog companions: French-pressed coffee with a piece of another homemade batch of brownies.

Back to watching some more Jersey Shore re-runs. Tomorrow MTV Video Music Awards, and Lady Gaga live...!

I'm in Miami, bitch...

I know I haven't posted up here these last few weekends, and I can attribute it to nothing more than a severe case of "slacker". I guess when your weekends are full, you can be too tired to write about it...which has totally been the case. Strangely enough, I'm here in Miami, it's past midnight, and I've just finished a weekend of family, food, and bloco but I have seemed to have gotten my second wind. I realize I just need to man up and update, or else it'll never get done.

On that note, going to forget about these last few weekends and get caught up to today. This weekend, myself, Heidi, and Ray (aka The Bermuda Triangle) came down to Miami to celebrate my birthday with family and meet up with the rest of the Rio de Janeiro crew: Marcus, Oscar, and Giovanni. Thursday night, dad whipped up an incredible Cuban soul food dinner composed of frijoles negros, picadillo, y tostones. For dessert, I made a batch of coconut cupcakes from a Barefoot Contessa box mix that I almost accidentally shoplifted that day from Crate & Barrel. After the food coma, we called it a night and turned in early the evening...a tad past midnight.

On Friday, Claudia, Heidi, Ray, and I decided to head to the beach over in Crandon Park except by the time we got there, there was a nasty little storm waiting for us. Claudi and I were able to run in and out of the water, and 20 minutes after we arrived we had to head back to the car to avoid getting struck by horizontal lightning. Bummer. We ended up driving the rest of the way into Key Biscayne and ate some Chinese food in one of the strip malls there. Afterward, we headed back to Coconut Grove to Ray's hotel at the Mayfair for a bit of indoor R&R before dinner with the rest of the fam. When the rain let up, we took a walk from the hotel over to GreenStreet Cafe for a few drinks, then Yogurbella to hold us over before going to LuLu for grub.

Mayfair Hotel @ Coconut Grove

Grabbing a Mojito @ GreenStreet Cafe

Dinner with the family @ LuLu

After some delicious skirt steak flat bread and shichimi corn, the Triangle said goodnight to the family and walked over to El Sitio to meet up with the Rio boys. Although we didn't end up passing out until 6am the next day, it didn't feel like one of those crazy nights, but simply the ones where time escapes you because you really are just having a great time. We were at El Sitio for about an hour, just catching up on life after our days at Carnival and lamenting Oscar's upcoming departure back to Colombia. Marcus told us they were heading over to The Stage over in the Design District for the rest of the night, and we followed. The club looked like a converted warehouse, with it's big metal roll-up door opened and exposing the indoor section that did, in fact, have a stage for a live band (Suenalo was there, awesome show). It was well-equipped with three bars and an arepa/empanada food truck outside that opened at midnight and fed all the hungry club goers. Freaking brilliant. I was still pretty full from dinner (I forgot to mention I got lava cake from LuLu for dessert), but Heidi said the arepa was delicious. Sooner or later, midnight turned into 4am and it was time to head back.

 

 

 

 

The Stage

We woke up the next morning (or afternoon, I should say), energized with some café Cubano and cereal and went over to the driving range with dad, Ray, and Josh. The humidity was ridiculous, and with 95 degree weather we were sweating before we were done swinging our 7 irons. Getting back to the house later in the afternoon, it was time to get ready for my birthday dinner at Bistro One LR at the Ritz-Carlton in South Beach. We were able to take advantage of their Miami Spice menu for $35 a pop and the menu had a good selection for everyone. After dinner we walked up the strip a few hotels over to Loews for pictures and hung out in the lounge. There was a local band playing to an audience of about 10 people (18 if you included us) where six of those were band wives and girlfriends shrieking and dancing like teenagers at a Justin Bieber concert. Ray got up and joined them on his way to the bar for a drink, which earned him "ringer" status with the band. Once again, the Bermuda Triangle said goodnight to the family and we then made our way to The Delano where we slipped off our shoes and finished the night dancing to Party Rock Anthem ankle-deep in the pool. As Ray and I were about to throw up some fist pumps, Heidi realized she had left her pink point-and-shoot camera back at Loews, so we walked back to investigate. After another half hour, and going thru security tapes of the area, the staff gave Heidi vouchers for a few free drinks for being a good sport and said they would call if the camera turned up. We were all thinking, who the hell would steal a pink camera?! Somehow we got our second wind once we got back to the Mayfair and got to talking about our complicated, yet humorous, social lives...talks like that always seem to keep you up, and before we knew it, we were passed out.

Sunday, we woke up somewhat early (10am) and met the family for a final meal together at Le Bouchon for some delicious brunch. Two words: banana pancakes.

Delicious!

I stayed for two extra days after Ray, Heidi, Josh, and Claudia headed out on Sunday and Monday to have some relax time with my mom. Loews also gave Heidi a call to let her know her camera turned up! When I tried to check into my flight for Tuesday late Monday night, I realized I was supposed to have flown out earlier that afternoon! Lucky for me, the customer service agent at Southwest was able to change my flight for $10 and it was all good from there. I couldn't help laughing the whole time though...it was worth it.

Two days aren't enough...

...for an awesome weekend. Went to Jack's Boathouse on Saturday with Kathy. I've been wanting to go all summer and I'm glad I finally did. Of course, in the middle of the day on a Saturday there were a lot of people waiting in line, but it moved pretty quickly. When I go again, I think a Sunday morning (pre-brunch workout?) would be the best time to do it. It took us a somewhat lazy hour and a half to paddle from the Key to the Chain bridge and circling back around Teddy Roosevelt Island. We stopped paddling a lot to take pictures since it turned out to be a clear, sunny (and very, very hot) afternoon. I learned to kayak when I was in high school (instead of kickball, we kayaked) and loved it ever since. My first open water experience outside Miami, my hometown, was in Nova Scotia. I remember that place reminding me of scenes from Braveheart and it's also a place where I accidentally bumped into a whale. Awkward. After that was in Krabi, Thailand where I managed to navigate threw calm waters (it was like floating on glass) and dodge stalactites. I also kayaked a lot at Lake Wauburg at UF in Gainesville, a lake that was equally shared with wakeboarders, waterskiers, swimmers and of course...alligators. Not kidding.

A view of the Kennedy Center

After an hour and a half of paddling and 2+ hours baking in the sun, I thought the proper thing to quench my thirst would be cupcakes at Baked & Wired. Below was a delicious Elvis Impersonator AKA The Unporked Elvis that I quickly consumed, but not before I took away 3 more cupcakes to go. I think my favorite out of that batch was the Texas Sheetcake...look it up yourself.

Sunday went up to Baltimore with Naomi, her twins, and Kanako to check out Artscape, an arts and crafts festival in the middle of downtown. I love going to check out these things, but I never buy anything because of the steep prices. I know artists need to make a living, but geez...$200 for jewelry made out of nuts and bolts? I don't get it. I completely missed the Women's World Cup Final, but I blame temporary dimensia after walking around in the 95+ degree heat. Plus, was recovering from a night of shenanigans in Georgetown the night before. Went out with friends and friends of friends where I discovered Mr. Smith's and The Guards. Mr. Smith's was basically Howl at the Moon, g-town style while The Guards was, well...a dungeon. Once the place got packed, we were all hot, sweaty and couldn't move around much. While I love to go out and dance, I realize I'm getting too old for crowded dancefloors where I can't even stand still without getting shoved. My motions resemble that of a penguin trapped in a narrow hallway, bobbing side-to-side. Paul tells me it's because I'm sober. Well, that's never been something new for me...getting older on the other hand...

The good thing: No cover.

Any Given Sunday

Typical Sunday in the burbs...3 loads of laundry, homemade chocolate chip waffles (I added sliced bananas on mine) for breakfast, Heidi finished staining the last fence wall in the backyard, and Freeman is troubleshooting why the outlets in our bathrooms went dead on us...turns out Heidi tried installing a new outlet in living room bathroom killed the series circuit by not re-hooking the additional wires going to our bathroom outlets. We had a good laugh about that. Oh, Bella...

Last night, pseudo-crashed Tyler and HY's wedding at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Freeman and Ang are going to be getting married there next year, and it's definitely a great venue for one! We finished the night smoking Romeo + Juliet's on the dock and talking about future trips to Vegas. I'm contemplating going this year, but it would mean I'm going to be gone for half of August if I do. I suppose there is nothing wrong with that...it IS summer after all.   :-)

I know it's been out for a while, but I've been listening to the new Mumford and Sons Album, Sigh No More. Great, great lyrics...especially if you're feeling them...