Since We Last Saw Each Other

I've been up to the same shenanigans--literature, arts, you know how I roll.

Crystal, whose friendship with me is old enough to drink legally, was in Orlando a couple weeks ago with her boyfriend and I drove up there to see her since I hadn't in over a year. We didn't manage to get together at Christmas, so I figured four hours there and back was worth it. So I drove to Kissime where she was staying, and another friend from Sarasota met us there too, and we had ourselves a lovely afternoon.

We decided to go to Celebration, which is the town owned by Disney. As Stew so eloquently put it, it's a place where most people "drink the Kool-Aide." The town was pristine and had a total Pleasantville feeling about it. It was creepy in a completely calming way. The whole place was totally...serene. Check out this lake, for example:

Serene, right? And of course, there was a fountain. And of COURSE we took a picture by it...

We had lunch together at a Japanese place, and then dinner a few hours later at a seafood place. Crystal's boyfriend Andy joined us. It was great to meet him. Anyway, Crystal, Stew, and I have a sort of tradition, I guess, when it comes to taking pictures. We like funny poses in restaurants. So this time, we came up with this...


We are awesome, I know. Be jealous. :)

It was a great day and the four hour drive both ways was totally worth it. Now I just need to get up to Sarasota to see Stew more often.

I also went to go see The Vagina Monologues at Lynn in Boca because Annie directed them this year. The show is always great to see, and it's also always for a good cause. There were some new monologues this year that I'd never seen before, which was cool, and, of course, the old standbys as well. Overall, it was a great show and I'm really proud of Annie for putting it together so well.

In other news, I've been really into spoken word poetry lately. I've been watching loads and loads of poets on YouTube, and even looking into readings and open mic nights here. We'll see if I actually finish any of the poems I'm working on, or if I manage to gather the courage to share them. We'll see. But in the mean time, here's one of my favorites, by a guy named Jon Sands, it's called Mollie & Jacob.

I've been out of my mind busy but that means I'll have a lot to talk about, so get ready!

Much love.

Another Month Goes By...

I always resolve to update more than once a month... and then I don't do it. I fail. :(

Okay, so first things first. I was in New Orleans when the Saints won the Superbowl and it was OUT of CONTROL. I took off from Miami on Friday afternoon (half day, woot!) and flew to Jackson, Mississippi where my BFF lives. BFF is a guy I met during my class at Oxford last summer. NOLA's only about three hours from him, so we left from his place on Saturday morning, after I got the titillating tour of Jackson.

We arrived in lovely NOLA on Saturday, around lunch time. BFF, who knows how to eat well, took me to Brother's where they have po' boys. I had a Bloody Mary (the first of many) and a spicy sausage po' boy, and my mouth was on FIRE afterward and it was glorious! The mark of a good meal, for me, is one that makes me feel like I could breathe fire like a dragon when I'm done. I like it.

Later that afternoon, some of my BFF's friends joined us, and we went to the parade. There were beads strewn about everywhere and that thing about showing your boobs to get them? Totally false. I just held up my hand and they threw them out. lol. My BFF even caught a purple plastic sword, which was basically the coolest thing ever. The beads are so easy to get, even the street signs have them...


Here's me and my BFF watcihgn the parade on Burbon street!


That night we went out and had an excellent time. We ate dinner at this seafood place, and I had char-grilled oysters and fell in LOVE. They were so delicious, so decadent, I just wanted to eat them for the rest of my life. YUM. Then the group of us went out on Burbon street and had a good time... Let's just say there were six people sleeping in our hotel room the next morning, so you can guess how our evening went. ;)

The next morning, three of us walked to Cafe Du Monde, down by the water in the French Quarter, to have beignets. I'd never had one before and it was delicious! Kind of a diabetic kid's nightmare, a ball of fried dough covered in powdered sugar, but delicious nonetheless. And Cafe Du Monde is THE place to get them, apparently, because there was a line out the door when we got there.

This is the cathedral in the courtyard across the street; it was lovely even on a cloudy morning.

We headed back to the room to bid farewell to the friends who drove in from Baton Rouge, and got ready to head out to our jazz brunch at The Court of Two Sister's, which came recommended to me by the "Queen of New Orleans" herself. :) The brunch was a LOT of food, and I tried turtle soup for the first time! I liked the flavor of it, but the actual turtle was a bit awkward. The boys tried Eggs Benedict for the first time and also enjoyed it, but I found the hollandaise to be sort of gross. I also had King Cake, which is basically a must for New Orleans, and on the walk to the restaurant I had another Bloody Mary that was delish.

After brunch it was clearly nap time, and we went back to the room and slept until we went out to watch the Superbowl.

Let me say: I was in New Orleans watching the Superbowl when the Saints were in it, and I was in New Orleans when the Saints won the Superbow. I have never in my life seen anything like that. "Who dat?" was ringing in the streets, people were cheering so loudly and excitedly it was almost like the Saints could hear them. I'm sure there will be a mass of Superbowl Babies in September, and some people in the city may still be recovering.

After the Saints won, BFF and I had to go to Burbon Street just to... see it. It. Was. MADNESS. Packed so full we could barely move, people cheering, grown men crying and looking up to the heavens in thanks, a sea of gold and black. It was sort of amazing. Here's a little taste of what Burbon street looked like...

I couldn't have picked a better weekend to go. File THAT under "You Only Live Once."

Soon after that, my parents came to visit. I had a long weekend, and they came to stay. On Friday, they came to school with me and met everyone, and we took some lovely pictures in the Marian Prayer Garden there. This is one of the few family photos I have!

Saturday I took my parents to the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, but we ended up not going in and just wandering around the Grove and looking at the free portion of the show. We also wandered upon this sort of flea market/antique shop place that a student actually told me about ages ago. It's just a bunch of vendors selling their wears; everything from kimonos to jewelry to plates to antique Vera Wang wedding gowns to swords.

One day we went to South Beach to walk around and ate lunch at Lario's, which is Gloria Estefan's restaurant. It was actually the nicest day that they were here, luckily, and the restaurant was great.

My parents left for the Keys after that, stopped in for one more night, and then went back to Michigan. I wish the weather had been warmer when they were here, but I'm glad they came and spent some time with me. It was nice to have visitors.

The next week, my Russian Ballerina friend Anya and I went to an art show downtown. The photographer's name was Erik Madigan Heck, a 26 year old Minnesotan guy who takes beautiful fashion photos and had never been to Miami before. He had some lovely pieces there, one of which I wanted to make into a headboard, which I told him when we got the chance to meet him. He was a really nice guy, but I can't say the same for his... lady friend. She was, um, un-nice. The best part was when she claimed she was a "ballerina" and Anya. a legit ballerina, asked her where she trained. She replies, "Oh, I stopped taking classes when I was twelve." Um... that means you took dance classes; you are not and were not a ballerina. LOL!

All in all it was a fun night of super classy artsy fun with free drinks. I can DIG that!

That weekend, my upstairs neighbor celebrated his birthday with a cook out at Crandon Park, which we'd done the weekend before for another friend's birthday. Adam found a coconut and hacked at it for far too long... and I found it far too amusing!

Even more amusing, however, were the swings! I haven't swung properly in years, probably, and these swings were awesome. I might've swung during OLR... but I feel like I left that for the kids. Anyway, swinging made me happy, and it was actually the nicest, warmest, sunniest part of the whole day, as luck would have it!

So that's what I've been up to... party, party, party all the time. Not really. I do need to resolve to be better about this, though, because by the time I actually get around to updating, I've forgotten all the great stuff I've done or that has happened to me, which, I guess, kind of sounds like bragging, but I don't mean it to be. I'm just really making more of an effort to separate work and personal time, and to make the most of the time that I'm not working. It seems to be working.

Well, thanks for reading, as always.

Much love.