Gettin' My Culture On

I've been getting my culture on lately. I've gone to several performances in the past couple of weeks. It kind of makes my nerd heart happy.

The first was an event my Russian friend invited me to. She's a Russian ballerina who works, at least at one of her jobs, for a non-profit that promotes the arts. Through her work, she got tickets to the Presidential Scholar's performances here, and I went to the dance/film one with her. It's basically a gathering of amazingly talented high school seniors that are up for the President's prize--apparently a very big deal. There were, if I recall, about fifteen dancers and five film makers who showcased their talents that night.

The film makers, for the most part, seemed pretty cool, and the dancers were mostly awesome. There was one kid who choreographed his own piece, and it was spectacular. As he was dancing it with his partner, I knew that something special was taking place. They were perfectly, and I mean EXACTLY, in sync with each other. That kid has amazing talent. If there is a single winner (a point I'm still unclear on), I hope it was him. There were even two tappers! I loved them, of course. The best part was the finale of "Single Ladies." You haven't lived until you've seen "Single Ladies" done in a tutu. Life. Changing. :)

Then that Sunday, I went to see a co-worker, The Aussie, perform in The Taming of the Shrew for Shakespeare in the Park. The performance as at The Barnacle (if you can remember that far back, I went there two Independence days ago). The show was great (and free), and even if the evening didn't go exactly as I planned (I got stood up... awesome), I had a great time with a friend, a bottle of wine, and my love, Willy S.

The performance was interesting, considering the subject matter of the play. At the end, Katarina gives a speech about how women should submit to their husbands and blah, blah, crap, so it's pretty tough for modern audiences to get it, or to relate to it and not hate it. The way it was played in this show was that Katarina was sort of in on the bet at the end--she was saying all that chauvinistic stuff to win the bet, not because she believed it. It made the play go down a little better. And The Aussie was great in the show--she seemed to play an Elizabethan, cartoon, version of herself. It was brilliant. And I loved her GIANT orange wedding hat. That thing was brilliant!

The next day, Monday, I went to the Panthers vs. the Thrashers at the Bank Atlantic Center, which some of you will remember is the site of realized dreams, where I met Donny, Danny, Jordan, Joey, and Jonathan. *sigh* Anyway, I heart hockey, and even though the Panthers are a far cry from my Wingies, it's still hockey. Or something like it. Unfortunately, Tiffany and I missed the only goal of the night because we were in the bathroom (bad decisions, clearly). We did, however, get nachos--the magical sort of "nachos" that are sold at sporting events and movie theaters that are really just chips and "cheese"--so all was well with the world. I was very grateful for another fun, free night of entertainment.

The next night, I went to see Eric and he showed me a magical little treasure of a place called SpecialTEA, a tea house out by FIU's campus. The place was brilliant. I had a decaf grapefruit tea that was DELICIOUS, and the food was good as well. It was great! If I went to FIU, I'd probably move in.

That Friday was Winter Formal, where, of course, I was a chaperon. Despite the dance floor smelling like Caesar dressing and teenagers sweating (you can't imagine how gross it was), the dance seemed to go well and the kids seemed to have a good time. We had to kick them out at midnight (a good sign) and didn't have to stay too late picking up. I didn't even take a picture, although it's sort of a tradition that I do. It really wasn't that exciting, I guess, and I was just happy to bring home a few roses and leave the hotel before 1 am.

The next day (I know, I know. The fun is exhausting, but stick with me!), Tiffany and I went to the South Beach Comedy Festival show called "Friends of the Daily Show." It was three stand-up comics: Rory Albanese, Rob Riggle, and John Oliver. Tiffany won free tickets to the show for recycling electronics on campus (I won a canvas bag and a DVD!), so it was awesome. I've been here three years now and always meant to go to a show for the Comedy Festival, and never managed it. But this year the stars aligned or something and I made it! The show was good, and it was great to see three comics instead of the standard one. All the guys were funny, although the acoustics of our seats were kind of... awkward. And I was sitting next to THE RUDEST people EVER. This one dumb you-know-what kept talking AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS about asinine garbage that had NOTHING to do with the show. AND she was on her cell phone CONSTANTLY. I just want to meet that girl's mother and slap her. And then slap her daughter. Luckily, they left after two comics.

The last guy, John Oliver, is British so I had a bit of a hard time understanding what he was saying, due to a thick accent coupled with the aforementioned awkward acoustics. I'm pretty sure he was funny though. A good laugh is always a welcome friend. :)

Then last Sunday were my last two culturally enriching events. My friend The Russian was performing in a show called "The Steadfast Tin Solider" at a children's theater here. She played The Ballerina (Remember I mentioned she is one?) and so we went to see her show. She did a great job (duh) and it was a cool show, definitely for kids, but a cool show. Although the mimey emo puppet guy was kind of creepy... Anyway, the best part was when she came to the side of the stage trying to look all somber, and then saw us and started smiling. :) It was cute.

After the show, we went to RA for some eats and drinks, but I couldn't stay too long because I promised a friend I'd go see his band, which turns out to be awesome, play. They played at a "Battle of the Bands" show at a pub called Churchill's, which I fell in love with immediately. It's this crappy little dive of a place, and apparently where Marilyn Manson played his first show ever. It's sort of historic for punk music, I guess.

So anyway, I headed out there with a friend and watched The Albany (this is me starting the buzz...) rock out. Turns out, they're great. I totally dug their stuff... Now if they'd only play on less school nights I could maybe become, like, a groupie or something. lol

I've had an amazing last week or so. I love being busy, and it's great that we had midterms all week and I don't have any grading at the moment because things are just getting started again. I need to take advantage of it!

See you all soon.
Much love.

There's Nothing Like Home for the Holidays...

I made it back to Michigan without incident. I was glued to the weather reports pretty much the whole time I was in Orlando and the day after, but the weather was fine so I got in on time. My sister was supposed to pick me up, which she eventually did, after several frantic calls to her, my mother, my father, and Mema. FINALLY I got a hold of her, and her and D-Wrek were there with Lancelot, who, of course, didn't give a rip about me.

So... Noche Buena, a.k.a. Christmas Eve, a.k.a. my Dad's birthday, was fairly normal. Well, as anything that involves my family can be "normal." There was one major difference, though, which was that my home church didn't have the 11 o'clock candle lit service so my parents went to my dad's church for mass at midnight and I just couldn't bring myself to go. Good decision, too, since they got home UBER late. Well, later than I wanted to be up anyway.

This year, we had a slight shift of the traditions, which I tried to deal with. We all know change is painful for me. lol. Liz and D came over around 4 and we did the gift thing then. I must've been a very good girl because Santa brought me everything I asked for and then some. Oh, and I took this lovely picture of Lancelot in his leather jacket... which he HATED.

I am a bad person. :) After that, we all headed to Abita's house (my abuela) for the Garcia Family Christmas. It was great to see everyone--aunts, uncles, and cousins, and the night was punctuated with random picture mails from Tanya, who was celebrating Noche Buena in true, outrageous, Cuban style. It was truly entertaining. Our night was fairly traditional--good eats including a dead pig, Marta praying for the animals, and a few gifts exchanged. I'm not sure if Abita knew who I was, but she seemed happy to see me, so that was a blessing.

Christmas day (which was 45 and rainy, by the way... NOT amused!) we headed to the Creek to see Mema and Grumpa and that crew. My Christmas was made when Grumpa knew who I was. It's always a gamble with him whether or not he's going to be on the ball that day, but he's usually pretty good when there are a lot of people around. He was just waking up when we got there, and I walked over to his bed and said hi and Merry Christmas. I reached under the covers to grab his hand, and he squeezed my hand so tight that I knew he recalled who I was. It was all I really wanted for Christmas anyway. We even managed a bit of conversation, and, before we left, he managed to say "Merry Christmas" and "I love you" to me. :D Between that and the dang cheesy casserole of joy we have every year, it was a great day.

Unfortunately, for reasons I will explain soon, I have very few pictures from Christmas. You see, the day after, the 26th, I organized a gathering at Rum Runner's, my favorite East Lansing bar. It's become somewhat of a tradition to hit it up at least once over Christmas break. So I hit it up, and a few of the faithful joined me--the weather was pretty bad, and it snowed. (Christmas? Rain. Day after when I want to play? Snow of death!) So I had the camera (which, by the way, I was borrowing from my mom) on the table, got up to use the restroom, and when I came back it was gone. Someone MUST have stolen it, although they also must've been pretty desperate because there were people sitting at the table THE WHOLE TIME and there were tons of other expensive electronics on the table as well. While it sucks to have lost the camera, I'm more upset about having lost the pictures. Who DOES that? Seriously.

I did manage to steal a pic from the night off Facebook, though, so here's me and a former resident of mine (waaay back in the Grand Valley days!), Christina. I love seeing her over Christmas. I hope it's becoming a tradition...

The only other events worth mentioning is what took place when I headed to the east side, the day before I flew out. Bob came to pick me up and drove me to Ypsi. It was amazing to see him, and we had a great catch up talk in the car. In Ypsi, I met up with Coot, Timmy, Trash and Gary. It was kind of a surprise, one that I welcomed happily. We had dinner at Champions (like Benny Hana) and then went to the nori bong. Yes, a Korean-style sing-room straight outta Seoul. Bob didn't make it past dinner because he had to meet with another friend, but he missed an amazing time. We sang until our hearts were content, and Gary documented. I don't know where the pictures actually ARE, but I'll try to track some down. It was a great night, and a perfect way to end my stay in Michigan.

I came back to Miami for New Years this year just to... see. I ended up having a fun, if not somewhat awkward, night. But when you're dealing with my life, there's always gotta be some awkward, I suppose. I went to Crazy Pianos with the Rent-A-Husband and crew (he even had friends saying with him for the Orange Bowl game so it was me and a herd of boys) and a co-worker of mine and HER friend (who was in town from Philly) met us there.

There was a British guy at the table next to us who was OUT of control and hilarious, and a former co-worker was there as well, so it was great to see her. I just danced and sang and rang in the new year as it should be done: smiling and celebrating in a new pair of underwear.

Here I am, with Adam and Kim.

What? I like noise makers!
And awkward head gear...

I'd post more pictures but my bra is showing in most of them. NOT classy--I was having issues with it all night. Whatever, I'm over it.

My holiday break was lovely and long, and my first day back to work I was greeted with this:

That was taken in the parking lot at school. It kinda makes being at work by 7 am worth it.

Oh, if you'd like to see the rest of my Disney pics, click here for the album.

Happy 2010 everyone.

Much love.