Sunday, April 20, 2008

Kamikaze Shenanigans

Oh. Man. I am SO tired. The five hour Dance-a-Thon last night KICKED my butt, thighs, calves and everything else. It was super fun, though, and my team TOTALLY won. We were pretty amazing. I'm almost certain it was because I made them brownies. :) My team was very, um, enthusiastic (competitive might be a better term) but it was a ton of fun and all for a good cause. Ask me about donating... Oh man... still dead though. I am too old for five continuous hours of dancing.


Here's a pic of our winning banner and me in front of it. We dressed up in an 80's "Workout Barbie" (thier words, not mine) theme. Good times.




This is me doing my pose from the banner sillouette. I don't even know why anyone would make that shape.



Got up this morning for church where I had to be on stage for the first time. I was pretty exausted but I pulled it out. The kids were really good, and everyone said I did a great job so yay for that.



Friday night was also a late one. T and I met up with our upstairs neighbor that we met a few weeks ago, and went to a couple bars in Coconut Grove. We went to Mone's, which is right by my school and has a pretty decent happy hour. Why it took me so long to go, I'll never understand. Anyway, it was a fun night and one of my dreams even came true...






It was a beautiful moment. :)

Last weekend, T went to Sarasota and I attempted to go to Beer Fest in Ft. Lauderdale. I actually made it, with my friend Jo and her boyfriend in tow, but once we saw the line we all decided Beer Fest was a poor use of our time. Instead we went bar hopping and met up with a couple of friends Jo knew from back in the day. My favorite part of the night, however, was the hour we spent driving around trying to locate this salsa club. It was pretty hilarious, I can't lie.

In life news, I've been drowning in a sea of papers for about three weeks now and there's little end in sight. Research papers are the devil and pretty much make me want to either maim myself or my students. Glorious. I'm also a bit stressed about getting everything done before the end of the year. It'll be here before I know it.

Got a couple leads on possible summer jobs, so I'm looking into those. I'm not married to any single idea yet, although today at the bookstore there were several clear signs from the Almighty that I should go to Ireland. I'm JUST sayin'...

Saw Sweeny Todd, Lars and the Real Girl, 27 Dresses, and American Gangster recently. Sweeny and Lars were my favorites. Lars was seriously so adorable and sad and perfect. I might need to buy it. Ryan Gosling makes my soul ache in that movie. And funny enough, Sweeny Todd was much the same--sad and quirky but perfect. I dug it, for sure.

New and exciting things on the horizon, mainly a free trip to Disney on Friday for Grad Nite with the seniors. It'll be a loooong night but I ain't above a free trip to Disney. Not one bit. I'm sure there will be plenty of pics to post.

Until then...

Much love.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Friday, April 04, 2008

Spring break and irony

For the first time in three years, I was actually home for my sister's birthday and Easter. Luckily this year the two fell very close together, as Easter was the earliest it's been (and will be) in ages. Yes, that's right folks, I LEFT hot, sunny Miami for cold, snowy Michigan for spring break. I sort of love the irony of it.

Another big draw for me to head home was the fact that I cajoled my parents into a trip to Chicago. It was amazing, especially since I haven't been there since... March of, like, 2003. Maybe even longer. Let's just say it's been so long that I can't remember HOW long it's been. So yeah... I got home on Wednesday and we left for Chicago Thursday. We spent all day Friday and half a day Saturday there. I finally ate at Heaven on Seven, which is a Cajun place with a wall--no seriously A WHOLE WALL--of hot sauce. Plus, like, 12 bottles on the table. It was a truly beautiful sight.

My dad and I also went up to the Observation Deck of the Hancock building, which neither of us had done before. We actually went up there twice, because the first time we went up, there was this evil snowy fog of death and we could barely see anything at all. Luckily, they give you another set of tickets that you can use within 24 hours. So we did. Here's some of what we saw...

The Chicago city-scape!

Dad and I with the city behind us... Don't know why it's so dang dark...

And on break after a tough day on the job...

Of course we can't forget, my mom and her moose. She loves a demon moose!


My favorite new discoveries were the West Egg Cafe and the Cafe and Vine Piano Bar. West Egg is a classy serves-breakfast-all-day type place, and the English teacher in me LOVED the Gatsby reference. The piano bar was just cool--very tiny, very chill, and 140 martinis. MUST go back and try (at least) two more. The two I had were delicious, though, one blue thing that tasted, well, blue and another one that was minty. The mint one was a bit too... creamy, I guess, but still rather enjoyable.

Of course we made the traditional stop at "The Cuban Store" where we procured provisions. The irony was in full force there as well, considering where I live now. All in all, though, a great trip.

The other main events were Easter and Liz's birthday. Everyone came over for Easter dinner, including Jody. Mema, Grumpa and Mark made the trip, and although Grumpa wasn't sure where he was, he was having a good time. He really does well when there are lots of other people around, I think it keeps him focused or something. I don't think he really knew who I was but he kept saying, "I know your voice, I know your laugh." I'm quite certain that even if he can't recall me, he still knows who I am.

And finally, Liz's birthday. We went out to The Claddah and ate dinner. I can't lie--I did NOT enjoy my meal. I really wanted fish and chips but I'd eaten fries for lunch (at Johnny Rockets with Jody and Mom) and didn't want to eat them again. I ended up having this "Balsalmic chicken" which was NOT very balsalmic-y at ALL. If I order something with the word "balsalmic" in the title, I want to drink that $#!t. Plus, the chicken was tough. The mashed potatoes were good, though, and the Guiness French Onion Soup was good as well. So was the beer. :)

After the restaurant, Liz, Derek, and I proceeded to the newly dubbed Sky Lanes to play a couple of games. I left after bowling because, frankly, the idea of going to a bar, in Lansing, on a night when MSU was playing in the Sweet 16, with a bunch of chain smokers made me ill. So I went home. But not before we snapped a cute pic!

We are cute and my students think we're twins. They are idiots.

Must proceed with caution to bed...

More later.

Much love.




Labels: , , ,