First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. It was supposed to be Friday, but with construction and general chaos, Sr. Pat, the greatest principal ever, postponed the first day. We didn't even get the okay to move into our room until Thursday at about 1:00, so it was clearly the best option. We spent most of the day Friday moving and organizing--it only too about three hours to move our entire department's things into the classrooms--but I still don't feel at home in m y room. I can't put anything on the walls because we cant' use tape and sticky tack won't hold anything, and half of my stuff is still lost in oblivion. My desk is now a behemoth chunk of wood with two very tiny drawers, my computer that was awesome has been replaced with a giant white ogre that's probably older than me, and I have a missing cabinet that was total crap but had a bunch of projects inside. So that's awesome. It's been a weird start to the year, but I think it'll be a good one. My kids seem pretty good--I have two honors classes, several kids I've had before, and a class of seniors that I've already taught. I'm optimistic, which, basically, never happens.

The past week or so has been devoted to school--meetings all week, move in on Friday, preparations. Even though we started today, I still don't feel settled. I hope that changes as the year progresses.

I have been enjoying my last days of freedom, though, don't get me wrong. I went to see The Time Traveler's Wife the day it came out, and spent almost the entire movie crying. It was beautiful and sad, but I wanted Eric Bana to be hotter. Either way, I enjoyed the movie, but I my favorite part of the book wasn't in the movie--it showed up in a different way, but still, it was gone and I missed it. A little.

I've also spent the last two Friday nights doing the Monty's/Crazy Pianos thing, which, surprisingly, doesn't get old. Two Fridays ago I was with my neighbors, Adam and Mupi, and I saw a Nathan Followil (the drummer from Kings of Leon) look alike (soooo hot) and I kind of had to go back this Friday to see if her was there. He wasn't. Sadness. But my friend Anya WAS there because she returned from her summer in fabulous NYC! It was great to see her and catch up. I really missed having her around.

Her brother was in town last week, which is a big deal because he lives in Moscow (yes, the Moscow in Russia) and hadn't been to Miami to visit in, like, 9 years or something. So he was in town, and I got a chance to meet him, and hang out with Anya, at RA, this amazing sushi restaurant that I've been craving for about a month now. The food was, as always, delicious and the night ended up being a little birthday celebration for both Anya (who spent her b-day in NYC) and Shell, whose actual birthday it was.

I'm really gonna miss summer.

Beaches and Castles

Since last we met I've been enjoying my last few days of freedom. Trouble is, I can't really recall with clarity what it is I've been up to! I should have done this blog thing earlier, so I could actually remember what I've been up to. I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast this morning (nectarine and toast?), let alone what I've been doing for the past two weeks. Give or take.

I can say that I've been to South Beach more times this summer than I have probably in the whole of my time down here. I went with the Aussies and Liz (*sigh*) and then I went last Friday AND Saturday as well.

Friday night, Tiffany had a family reunion of sorts with a relative (distant, I believe) who just moved down here. She lives on South Beach for the time being, and I had nothing else to do, so I accompanied Tiffany down there to meet up with this cousin. We got dinner at Sushi Samba, where I'd been once before and had THE most amazing sea bass ON THE PLANET. Like, seriously? Just typing about it right now is making my mouth water. I was in the mood for sushi but once we got to the restaurant, I couldn't NOT have the sea bass entree. Which I did. And I thought I'd died and gone to heaven it was so perfect. That damn fish was expensive, but worth it. The only complaint I had was that it didn't come with, like, a roll or something. Homegirl needs some carbs to wash down that protein! It was so good, though, and it's only made my hankering for the sea bass worse, not better! Boo!

After we ate, we drove down Ocean just to, I dunno, people watch and stuff. You can see some crazy stuff driving down Ocean Boulevard on a Friday night! So we did our "loser lap" (what high school kids call driving down the strip because they can't, legally, go in anywhere) and headed home to hang out with the neighbors for a bit.

Saturday I headed back out to SoBe for lunch with my friend Drew and his brother, who was visiting him, and his brother's fratty friends. We ate at Mango's, this completely touristy restaurant where the waiters and waitresses (scantily clad ones, of course) dance salsa on the bar. It's such a weird caricature of Miami tourism... it was a trip. I had a Cuban sandwhich, which was basically what everyone else had, and it was delicious. After that, we went to the Weam, the World Erotic Art Museum, which was a trip and a half. It was full of this gaudy, hilarious stuff, some of it quite old, relatively speaking. It was hilarious to see, and the fratties seemed to have a good time.

When I got home, Tiffany and I had our "rib date" and she made the last rack of ribs we had in the freezer. They were a bit spicier than the last batch, but very good anyway.

On Monday, I went up to school for a seminar on Salesian education given by Sr. Mary Greenan, a.k.a Sister Mary Guinness, an Irish nun raised in England and living in California. The seminar was basically on what Salesian education is, means, and looks like. She was a great speaker, and the seminar was pretty helpful. Turns out, even though I'm not Catholic, I'm a Salesian teacher. :) And Sister Mary was super cool, a totally chill nun who didn't even wear a habit, and after the second session on Tuesday we went out John Martins, the Irish pub we went to on St. Patrick's Day, and Sr. Mary got a pint of the Guinness she likes so much. Yeah, I drank beer with a nun. Awesome.

Today I wanted to see something touristy, so I went to the Coral Castle down in the Redlands. It's this crazy mix of the Taj Mahal and, like, Stonehenge--a mysterious tribute to love. See, this guy Ed Leedskalnin from Latvia fell in love with this girl, Agnes, 10 years his junior, who called off the wedding the day before it was to take place. So Ed moved to the states, eventually settling in Florida due to TB, and built a castle made of coral for himself, Agnes, and the family he envisioned having with her. She never saw his tribute, which he built at night. The amazing thing about the castle is that Ed, who was only five feet tall and 100 pounds, moved the coral, which weights 125 pounds per square foot, all by himself, never revealing his methods.

The castle, which has been moved from its original site in Florida City, has other mysteries as well. For example, these numbers are found on both of the door frames of the little room where Ed lived as he was constructing the castle.

No one knows what they're for, or what they mean.

This is the view from Ed's lair, the whole castle grounds.

This is the throne room, complete with thrones for Ed, Agnes, and a child. There's also an uncomfortable throne, less well made, for the mother-in-law.

This is the obelisk. It is the tallest structure on the property standing at 28 feet. It also contains a carved stone in the middle that is completely hollow, carved with the made and moved dates of the castle, and Ed's birth year and city. No one knows what, if anything, is inside this hollow stone. It remains another mystery of the Coral Castle.

This is one of Ed's inventions--the first crock pot! It's two car parts fit together, and the food goes inside and cooks over the fire.

This is the Feast of Love table--presumably where Ed dreamed he and his Agnes would enjoy meals. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Largest Valentine, weighing in at 2, 500 pounds.

The Coral Castle was cool to see, and I'm glad I went.

Finally, I have a new obsession. It's a singer named Diane Birch, who is like a Carly Simon cupcake with Carol King filling, Janis Joplin frosting, and Joni Mitchell sprinkles on top. Her album, Bible Belt, has been the soundtrack of my life for the past couple of weeks. You can watch her video for "Nothing But A Miracle" here. This song is SO AMAZING!

My last week of freedom... *sigh* Monday it's back to the grind. Kids' first day is Friday!

Much love.

Ribs and Tacos

Last Saturday we had a Tex-Mex potluck at our house where ribs and tacos were on the menu. We're still eating tacos (I've had them in some form every day but one since then...) and Tiffany and I have a "rib date" on Saturday. 'Cause they were GOOOOD.

In other news, nothing too exciting is going on. I've been working out every morning (yay me!) but unable to properly sun myself due to the fact that the pool is closed for repairs. It's been sunny and beautiful ALL WEEK (rare during the summer) and I can't even enjoy it by sitting by the pool. Um... Why don't they do repairs in February when it's "cold"? Why didn't they fix the pool in the year and a half it was just sitting there, finished, with water in it, but residents weren't able to swim? Why didn't they just BUILD IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME? I'm so sick of construction I could just barf--school's under construction, our condo complex is constantly under construction... Good thing I'm spending my days in Florida rather than Michigan, because that would just be worse--at least there's very little road construction.

Okay... rant over. Um, what else have I been up to? Last Friday there was a women's event at church that I went to. We were supposed to do dinner and a movie (just the women from church were invited) but it actually turned out to be only dinner because the movie, The Proposal, was sold out. What?! It's been out for a while! Anyway, dinner was at Dan Marino's and I had the French onion soup (gross) and a salad (decent), but the best part of the night was the company. I met some very cool ladies and had lovely dinner conversation about Ryan Reynolds. :)

Sunday I went to church, as per usual, but it was special for two reasons: one, Yesi, who was in Tallahasee for the past six weeks, was back! It was SO GREAT to see her! I missed her a ton. The second reason it was special was because Karla, who I'd met on Friday, and I had discussed Sunday kareoke and my homegirl came through! We went to Titanic after church and sang kareoke for a couple of hours. Yesi and I did a moving--dare I say mindblowing?--rendition of "Summer Nights" from Grease complete with blocking. I was Danny, and Yesi was Sandy. It must've been hilarious.

The problem was, one of the guys with us was a worship leader at another church, so he sang and actually SANG. I kind of feel like that's cheating. And THEN, one of the worship leaders from OUR church wouldn't even sing. Still, it was fun and I discovered another diabetic girl (woot!) and hung out with cool peeps. Yay.

I took myself to the movies Tuesday. I went to see 500 Days of Summer with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. It was pretty cute--Summer, the girl in the movie, is from Michigan so that's pretty cool. The movie was pretty dark for a "love story", which I totally dig, and Joseph Gordon Levitt was all broken and sad and skinny and *love*! Oh, and side note: matinee prices=KEY to life!

I also spent the rest of my day cooking and baking. I made these avocado muffins, because yeah, they sounded just weird enough to be good. And they are. Except they have too many almonds in them, and next time I'll use almond extract as well. But I'm quite happy with the way they turned out. I also made a bunch of food to freeze, which, in retrospect, was a bad decision because it's hurricane season and two weeks without power mean a lot of food goes to waste. So... fingers crossed I get to eat all the delicious lasagna, green bean, and broccoli casserole I made before a hurricane blows Florida off the map. In fact, just cross your fingers that there's no hurricane at all. I'd be cool with that, too.

Yesterday evening turned into a surprise epic adventure when Yesi called me. See, she's moving to Ft. Lauderdale (sad) because she got a job teaching theater there (yay!). She and I took a road trip to scope out places for her to live. We headed up there two check out two places she'd spoken to people about, but we ended up stumbling into this cute little "historic neighborhood" with a studio for rent. She called on the place but had to leave a message.

We ate dinner at this amazing hot dog place called Dogma, that had all these crazy toppings for the dogs. Fresh toppings. Mmm. I had a "California Dog" (a chili cheese dog) but added jalapenos. And they were HOT and glorious. I can't wait to visit Yesi and eat there again!

Yesi and I left after driving around for a bit, but we decided we needed, yes NEEDED, Krispy Kreme donuts. There aren't any in Miami really, so we went on a quest for on and found one on the way home. SCORE! While we were getting them, Carol from the studio apartment called, and we headed back to Ft. Lauderdale to look at the place. It turned out to be tiny but nice and Carol's house was immaculate. So immaculate in fact that it was on the cover of Home magazine a while back. How cool is that?

Yesi and I had a fruitful and fun evening, and Tiffany was happy because I brought her donuts, too. And let me just say that Krispy Kreme donuts are A. MAZING when they're fresh and hot. Oh Lord in Heaven hallelujah!

Tomorrow's Friday and I'm hoping some fun activities take place... perhaps some sushi consumption or some happy hour beverages? And then Saturday I'm heading to SoBe to play for a bit before my "rib date." Woot!

Too bad summer's almost over... I'm just hitting my stride!

Much love.

When Liz Comes to Town

About two days after my amazing European adventure, my sister came to visit. But that's not where the story starts. The story ACTUALLY begins on my flight back from London, at New York's LaGuardia Airport.

I had just flown over seven hours, I was dirty and tired, and I have three hours to wait until my flight back to MIA. I had just come out of the terminal I deboarded from and into the section of the airport where I'd board my next plane, and I see a guy in a tiny little gift shop wearing a University of Michigan sweatshirt. I was gonna just let it go, but the Michigander in me couldn't let that happen. So I say, loudly, "Go Blue!"

The guy looks up at me, confused, so I repeated myself, "Go Blue." Still confused, I clarified, "Your sweatshirt. Go Blue." Then he says in an Australian accent, "I'm not even from there, I'm from Sydney. I just liked the jumper."

Long story short, Nadim (the U of M "jumper" guy) and his friend Jeff are Aussies who were half way through their 8-week holiday. They'd been all over the U.S. when I met them; they were heading to D.C. and then, fate would have it, Miami. I hung out with the guys until their plane boarded about two hours later. They were really sweet and much better than hanging out by myself for three hours. I gave the guys my number and email, and they gave me a promise to get in touch when they were in town.

Liz arrived on Tuesday afternoon, and the Aussies did the same, just a few hours later. Liz and I chilled for a while and she got settled in, I cooked her dinner, and then we headed to Coconut Grove for drinks and dessert. We went to the French place Tiffany and I have been to before (Le Petite something) and I had this pear tart that wa joy in my mouth. Halfway through, the guys called and we headed out to South Beach to meet them and hang out.

Due to Liz's amazing navagational skills and several panicked phone calls, we found their hostel and parked. We were gonna drive around the island trying to get into mischeif, but the Aussies had rented scooters so we hopped on the back, Liz with Jeff and me with Nadim, and drove around South Beach for a couple of hours. We stopped for a beer on Lincoln rode, then rode around some more. We concluded the night with pool and beer at their hostel. In all honesty, that evening will go down as possibly the best five hours I've had.

Here's a pic of the happy crew, at about 3 am. We still look good, eh?

While I wished we could hang out with the Aussies for another day (their last in Miami), Liz and I had made plans to head to Key West. I made reservations at the Avalon B & B, and was excited to see Key West.

It took us a looooooong time to get there, but we made it in time to check in (thank GOD they had a pet-friendly room available because, apparently, when I said I wanted one the lady taking my reservation didn't comprehend me), sit by the pool for about an hour, and head out to a delicious seafood dinner.

The first thing I discovered about Key West? It's hot. Ungodly, unabashedly, unfairly, hot. The second discovery? There are random roosters, complete with proudly announed "cock-a-doodle-doo", wander all around the place. Here's one:

Our seafood dinner, a Key West Must, was delicious. I had scallops with chimichurri, yellow rice, and vegetables, and Liz had pasta. We walked all the way to the Pier on the opposite side of the island, and, after dinner, we walked around down there, took some pictures, watched the sunset, and drank our way down Duval Street and back to our B & B.

The next day, we had two items on our agenda. One, go to the Butterfly Conservatory and two, go to Hemingway's house. I'm proud to say we accomplished both.

First, though, we had the obligatory "Southermost Point" picture to take. We got there in the morning and no one was there, as opposed to the night before when there was a line. Um, lame. So, here it is, Obligatory Key West Tourist Photo #1.

The Butterfly Conservatory was right across the street from our B & B, so we headed there after breakfast. Aparently the butterflies are more active in the morning. We saw blue morphos (which I also saw in Costa Rica), monarchs, and all sorts of beautiful unnamed butterflies. There were also several birds (pretty, tiny, nice birds, not gross ones) and some turtles and coy. It was this tiny little oasis within an oasis. By far, this was my favorite butterfly... He/She/It was just SO spectacular!

After the butterflies, we headed to Hemingway's house. Now, we all know I'm not a "fan" of Hemingway's work, but c'mon, I'm an English teacher. I HAD to see it! Plus, Liz really wanted to see it as well. Here's us, in front of the fountain in the entrance's courtyard.

I learned a bit about Hemingway on the tour, and go to see the "office" where he wrote. I also got to see his "last red cent" pressed into the concrete of the pool. As the story goes, Papa was off in Spain reporting on the war (or something manly, I'm sure) and when he got back his second wife, Pauline, had installed a pool and spent quite a bit on it. Hemingway jokingly said to her something to the effect of, "Why don't you just take my last red cent?" at which point he pulled a penny out of his pocket, and gave it to Pauline, who stuck it in the cement. She proudly stated that she was the only one of his wives to have taken him for his last cent. The penny is still there today.

We also saw the famous Hemingway House cats, many of them, including Charlie Chaplin, aptly named for his facial markings. Yes, several of the cats had the six toes as well. I tried to avoid touching them (allergies) but I still enjoyed seeing them. Especally the big, fat, orange one who was clearly the ruler of the roost.

A morning of walking all over Key West took a lot out of us (Did I mention it was HOT?!) so we went back to our room, played with Bubba, and relaxed in the A/C for a bit. We did hit the pool, of course, and then got ready and headed out for another night on Duval Street.

The most interesting part of the night was meeting a guy from Dewitt, who had moved down to Key West around the same time I moved down here. How crazy is that?! He was a really nice guy, and he gave us the locals bar tour, rather than the tourist's tour. His dad, Joe, was also pretty cool and may be a contact for me to get a job teaching abroad. Sweet.

The following morning, we left Key West. But before we left, we had one more Obligatory Key West Tourist Photo to take. This one:

After we checked out, we took a little walk to find the zero mile marker sign. It was great because we had to sit in the car for four hours to get back to Miami, so a nice walk before all that sitting was welcome.

The whole time we were in Key West, the weather was beautiful (but hot), and as soon as we got back to Miami, the rain started coming down. Um... nice. The weather here was pretty crappy the whole time Liz was here, so we didn't get a chance to go to the beach or even the pool. Total bummer, I'm sure.

Saturday, Liz and I hung out with my friend Drew, who chose a rodeo for our Saturday fun. It was the International Bullriding Competition between the U.S.A. and Brazil. We drove up to Davie and had a great night watching dudes in chaps ride bulls. I mean, I'm not that into cowboys, but I certianly couldn't do what they were doing on those bulls. Nor would I want to.

Sadlly, the Brazilians put the Americans to shame and rode those bulls like they were born to. None of the Americans seemed able to stay on for more than about three seconds, but the Brazillians? Dang, I think I counted up to ten or eleven seconds for one of them! It was pretty amazing, and a great way to spend a Saturday night.

Here are Liz and I, getting into the rodeo spirit.

Yee haw!

The album of photos from the rest of her visit can be found here.

Overall, it was great to have Liz here. Especially since I had an excuse to see Key West, and someone to see it with! Plus, it's like I only realize once I see them just how much I miss my family. It's almost like I push it aside while I'm away, because it's not something I can deal with. But when I see them? It's the best thing.

Much love.