Sometimes All You Can Say is "Wow."

My life of late has been, in a word, chaos. Serious chaos. I miss the days when I would come home, sit in my underwear, drink a glass of wine, and grade papers. Those days are over.

A couple of weeks ago, I had social plans literally every night of the week. It was a little bit ridiculous. Monday night, I went to a friend from church's house because he was cooking (Pad Thai, YUM), Tuesday I went to UM to see Blake MyCoskie speak (more on that in a sec), Wednesday we had the first SALTT trip of the year, Thursday I invited a friend over and I cooked, and Friday was Flavour at church. I never understood the meaning of longing until that week, when I truly longed to just be at home. Don't get me wrong--I like having a social life, and Lord knows it took me long enough to establish one, but change is always tough going for me. Anyway...

So Blake Mycoskie. Most people know him from the AT & T commercial (hot guy walking on a beach, giving shoes to kids, "chief shoe-giver) but he is the owner and creator of TOMS shoes, a shoe company that donates a pair of shoes to a child in need every time a pair of shoes is purchased. It's pretty amazing, and the story is pretty great too. Plus, he's hot. And a do-gooder. So yeah, we're pretty much in love. lol He spoke for about 45 minutes and then took questions, which I couldn't stand because everyone was all, "I'm so awesome I started this charity but I don't know how to make it work, blah, blah, blah." Lame. I'm a friggin' teacher--I save the world EVERY DAY. Whatever. So yeah, here's me and my TOMS, Blake, and the rest of the crew.

And here's just the two of us because Tiffany is a good friend.

In other adventures in my life, The Aussie had a friend in town (pretty remarkable, considering) and she wanted to show him a good time, so we went to my favorite place in Miami, Crazy Pianos. It was a pretty big group, and we had a great time. Tiffany and I looked cute, so, of course, there was a photo op!

It was a fun night. And to continue the adventure, I finally took advantage of the fact that I work at a school, on the bay, that owns sea kayaks. One of the science teachers, The Aussie, her friend, and I went to school on a lovely (read: hazy) Sunday afternoon and hit the water. Here we are, ready to go!

Here's Becky and I, looking like pros. She IS a pro... me not so much!

We kayaked out into the bay, and then headed back toward the channel and actually went through this tunnel onto the grounds of Viscaya. It was really beautiful, and awesome to see the bay with someone who knew what they were talking about (read: Becky The Science Teacher). It was like our own personal guided tour.

I'm hoping to post a bunch of pictures to Facebook soon, but for now these few will have to do. Not being home really has put a kink in my Facebook (and blogging, and grading, and sleeping) time, but I wanted to update now because I'm heading out of town to New York/New Jersey for a week with school. I'm really excited to go--we leave tomorrow--because I really could use some perspective on my life, and some time away to really just... be. So, I'll be off the radar for a bit, but that's okay. I need it.

Much love.