New Hair and Sea Bass

Wednesday night my life changed. Derric and Meagan from church invited a bunch of people over to watch So You Think You Can Dance and I went; not because I'm a huge fan of the show, but because it was better than sitting at home. Plus, let's be real, I dig a show about dancing. So anyway I'm watching, and I see Mark, the new love of my life. Let's just say he's beautiful and a great dancer and this pretty much made me want to cry for days. That's Mark, my future husband. It's fine. This was also pretty brilliant, although no Mark. :( The lady who choreographed it, though, is apparently from Coconut Grove. Score!

So anyway, I see Mark and I decide I want his hair cut. So I got it, kind of. Well, a girl version of it. My hair's never been this short before... perhaps not even when it first started growing! The lady who cuts it does a great job, though, and I really like it. I think you really have to have personality to wear that hair and I'm kind of proud that I can pull it off. At least, I think I'm pulling it off. It's fun and faux hawkey and I like it. Now I finally feel like I can grow it 'cause this is what I wanted all along and never managed to get. So here it is. I dig.

I took my hair out for it's debut on Saturday because Fredy owed me. :) We went out to a fusion restaurant in South Beach called Sushi Samba. The place had Japanese, Peruvian, and Brazilian food. I know, they're all so similar. Noooot so much. But I'm telling you--this place was amazing. Leave it to Fredy to know a great place and to order some amazing appetizers. We had a tuna ceviche and the most amazing sea bass skewers I've ever eaten. This bass was so good I'm still thinking about it. Right now. As I type this, I'm wishing I could eat more of this sea bass. I've been thinking about it since we parted ways, in fact, and the thought of it makes me so happy. Seriously--it was that good. I can't even deal.

Margarita got a new camera and she decided to put it to good use, so here's me (my new hair) and the Fred.

This flower was a garnish... I like to wear garnish.

Outside the restaurant was this amazing tree (they're in abundance here) with this viney-flowers hanging down. Cool tree+me=photo op. You know this.

After dinner, we went to Art Walk down in the Design District. All the galleries down there opened their doors and you could just walk around and browse. Now, I fully admit that I don't understand most art. Like weird stuff that looks like baby poo and vomit on a canvas is not lovely to me. Seriously. But yeah, some of the stuff was cool... and some was just wierd. An enjoyable evening all in all.

This is just a snapshot of a graffiti wall we walked by. I liked it...graffiti I get.

So that was my weekend so far. I'm going to be pretty much living at church until next Saturday night, as Adventure Weekend (the event I've been working on all summer) starts Friday. I'm excited and nervous and anxious about it all, but I'm sure it'll be great!

Then I get to go home!!

Much love.

Happy birthday, America!

I had a great holiday weekend. Annie came down on Thursday to play. I was a bit stressed at staying at work later than I wanted, and not having time to clean the house AND head to the store, but luckily South Florida traffic was on my side and it gave me plenty of time. I made us some taco salad for dinner, and Annie brought peach cobbler (thanks to Paula Dean). It was enjoyable.

After dinner, Annie and I went out to Coconut Grove to meet up with Ali and a couple of her friends. It was great to see her, especially since we hadn't gotten together since school let out and had quite a bit to catch up on. The night was fun, right up until the moment some hideous hose beast of a creature decided it was an awesome idea to blow the smoke from his cigarrette RIGHT IN MY FACE. I'm talking waiting until the moment when my head is even with his toxin filled trap and releasing it. Winner, clearly. Anyway, Ali took this cute picture of us so here it is:

The next day was the 4th and Annie and I went exploring. I took her to see my school, and we went inside La Ermita (I thought, being Catholic, she'd dig) for 2.4 seconds. Then we just walked around The Grove for a bit. I've been there a zillion times but never really just walked around at my leisure. There are some cool little spots down there! Plus, I finally accomplished a goal of mine--I saw The Barnacle! I kept seeing signs for it all over (those brown signs that I love so much!) and only recently discovered that I actually passed by it every day on my way to and from work--only problem was I could never find the parking lot for it. So while Annie and I are in the Grove, we walk past it and decide to head it. They were having a picnic for the 4th (hot dogs, pop corn, activities for kids) and they have tours of the house.

I suppose it would help if I explain what The Barnacle is. It's a Historic State Park that's a part of what's called "Old Florida." The house is over 100 years old and was built by a guy who made his living excavating ships; most of the house is built from timber from the wreck of a ship called the Ingrid, a Danish boat. The wood in the house is dark, beautiful, and sturdy. The house has survived three major hurricanes due to its engineering and craftsmanship. The man who build it even raised it up a floor and the second floor of the house is the original first floor. Pretty sweet as, huh? Sometimes you get your learn on on a holiday. It's fine.

Here's just a little taste of The Barnacle. This is the "bell" outside the front door. You have to hit it with a mallot. This doorbell is from a shipwreck, but not the Ingrid, I don't think.

This is a shot from inside the house. This is the second floor. It was built in an octagonal shape because this makes the roof stronger (three hurricanes, kids). The bannisers' carvings are, apparently, very Danish. I mean, clearly.

This is the view from the front of the house. The front door faces the water because there was no road at the time--people came to visit from the ocean, rather than the land. These were the rails used to bring boats out of the water to clean barnacles off or do repairs.

This is just Annie and me, color coordinated, on the path to the house. Yay friends.

After our adventures at The Barnacle, Annie and I grabbed some lunch at a new place. I wasn't a fan and prefer the other Thai place, but Annie enjoyed the food (her first Thai experience!) so life was okay.

Annie left before it got dark to get home to Pippin, and I had to go help out at church for a minute, but Tiffany and I managed to make it out to Baptist Hospital for fireworks. We sat in the rain for a while because we clearly LOVE America...

But after a while we just sat in the car until the show started. By that time, the rain had (mostly) subsided and the show was nice. I mean, I've seen some of the most amazing fireworks in the world (Washington D.C. July 4th, 2000 comes to mind) but I still love them. There's something magical and nostalgic about the whole thing. I can't fight the magic.

After the fireworks, a few people from church came over for an endless game of Taboo and we called it a night. A good night.

Happy 232 birthday, old gal.

Much love.

"Something has changed within me, something is not the same..."

SALTT camp was amazing. I'm still in awe of what happened in a little Catholic school in Lake Worth, Florida--both to little Guatamalan kids and to my high school kids. Lives were changed last week, including mine. I didn't know, when I agreed to go, what it would really be like. I knew that working with Ms. D is... a challenge for me and that I'd get very little sleep. Both of these were true. However, what I did not realize, is that the beautiful little souls who came to St. Lukes were there because they've been kicked out of thier own country, proud and strong decendants of the ancient Maya. They were there because Guatemalan gangs, some of the most deadly in the world, prey on these kids before they're even teenagers.

One girl had already been initiated into a gang at 13 years old. She had the three dots on her wrist and spent most of the day texting, until we got her busy doing stuff. Ms. D talked to her about the situation, and the girl reported that her mother thought she was "bewitched." This girl's mom could not fathom any reason in the world why her daugher was behaving as she was, why her daugher was in a gang, except that she had been cursed or bewitched. I can't lie--that broke my heart. But that's what camp is about--trying to teach kids about God and give them an alternative support system so that they can make a better choice. There was even a camp "graduate" there, Evelin, who had come back to be a counselor. She's now an honor's student and doing really well, not to mention she's a good person.


We even had special guests with us--Father Bob, Patrick, and Gill, from England. You know I LOVE me some Brits, and Father Bob MIGHT be the coolest dude ever. If more priests were like him, I'd consider being Catholic! Patrick and Gill were awesome too, and hopefully they'll be back to camp next year. :)


At camp, we took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda (I love Jack Black, talking animals are adorable), went to the beach, went bowling, and went to Rapids, which is a water park. When everyone was talking about "The Rapids" though, I thought there were ACTUAL rapids involved. I'm special. lol. It was awesome.


I really can't even describe camp much better than I have, yet I feel this is so inaccurate. I actually made peace with a student of mine after prayer one night (Every night, sometimes early into the morning, we'd pray together as a group and let me tell you--this group LOVED to pray. A lot.) I hope that she and I can start over next year, with the understanding that I can see through the person she pretends to be and see the person that she really is. And I hope she can BE the person that I see.


Annie even came to visit me on Saturday for our camp carnival. I was so happy to see her and can't wait to see her again tomorrow! Yay!

Some of my favorite camp moments include:

• The LPDC, Las Pachangas De la Cocina. We WASHED those dishes.
• The stress that was creating t-shirts for The Jamin' Giraffes. They turned out to be the best ones, though.
• The boys' excitement over "Mickey showers" a.k.a. a hose shower.
• Bonding with a kid over Veronica Mars
• Setting the tables every morning with The Brits
• Puffy paining until I wanted to die
• NO TEA ON SATURDAY MORNING!
• The little kids
• The big kids
• The amazing sense of love and purpose my students felt and how moved they were by the experience
• The Argentinian barbecue we had one night for dinner. A. Mazing. Words cannot describe the buttery, salty perfection that was this meat.
• Telling Jonathan (a chubby 5 year old camper) stories at prayer every night

Finally, I'll close out with some pictures. I don't want to post too many, but I might make an album of them online and then post the link later. We'll see.

This is Maria, me and Juana at the beach. I lost my $1 Target sunglasses to the waves that day...

The obligatory group photo.

Everyone's favorite carnival game... smash me in the face with a wet sponge!

Finally, Patrick and me after the carnival. I got my hair did and he got his nails did. We were quite the pair, I must say... And aren't our T-shirts amazing? Because I made them.

So that was my last week. One of the most amazing experiences of my life. I can't wait to go back next year and not sleep again!!

This week has been surprisingly busy. Monday night was a late one with an impromptu hang out with a friend of mine from church that began with a quest for ice cream and ended at a bar, where so many good quests seem to end. Then last night I went over to the Fred's house for dinner and Wii Kareoke (weird but awesome) and then tonight T and I drove to Broward to look at dogs and then had dinner at a Korean restaurant. Dulsot Bibimbop did me right! Leftovers tomorrow, holla!

Annie's coming in tomorrow for the 4th. I can't wait!

Much love.