Living in South Beach is, often times, like living back in Europe. English, for example, is hardly ever heard and every time the public transportation passes me on the street, reeking of diesel, I can't help but reminisce about my time in Sevilla (strange association, right?). Somehow diesel fuel makes me nostalgic ... surely this is as strange as my aversion to snapping, but who said I was normal?
Another reason this feels like Europe is because our house is right across the street from this tiny, euro-ish food-mart called Meridian Market. It's the best thing since sliced bread; when we're cooking and we realize that we forgot an ingredient, it's literally right outside of our door. Every night at 12 and every morning at the bum crack of dawn, they open and/or close the steel shutters over the doors; it's kind-of become a personal alarm clock. This happened all the time in Europe, the local businesses would open and close every morning/evening in this fashion and, after time, the sound became comforting (of course, at first it was a pain in the rear - I would imagine that's because it sounds like all of the doors on a 12-car garage being closed simultaneously).
Although living the high-rise life in Blue was beautiful and the view was incredible, there is something amazingly familiar and safe about being close to the ground again. I love the convenience of just walking out the door to run errands, using the bike/scooter to get around instead of a car and picking coconuts from our trees in the yard when we want an authentic Pina Colada. I've also noticed that the animals are much happier here (especially the cats).
And speaking of los gatitos, I caught Ojos and Kita peeking out of the window last night (where they spend most of their time). I think that they appreciate the close proximity to earth as well, they can watch cars and people pass by while snoozin' on the windowsill. There's also a little cat named Kitty-Kitty (she belongs to a sweet homeless man on the beach) and she loves to hang in our garden. I catch them staring at her through the window pretty often, defending the territory, I'm sure.
Unfortunately it was not all fun and games for the animals this weekend. On Friday, Ishka had the equivalent of a stay-at-home-from-school day. She was lethargic and mopey, but after a lil' TLC from the moms, she was back to her old self again. BTW, you can see the mohawk!
After the ka-bob was feeling better, Ben and I headed out to the beach to kick off our weekend on the right note; a lil' sun, a lil' sand and a nice chat over the phone with my lifelong best friend, Rachel. We then went with Stephanie to grab some Indian at a fab restaurant, Guru, on the beach and finished off the night at Regal Cinema to see W. Don't worry mom, we won't get political ;) ... but I will say that it was eye-opening and thought-provoking - you should check it out.
Saturday we headed over to Neil and Caroline's house for an amazing dinner. Caroline is vegan, so we're on the same page when it comes to cuisine. She prepared a super-tasty salad for starters followed by fabulous gnochi. I asked both of them to tell us stories about their most frightening experiences in the water (they are both marine biologists)... it was incredible to hear about the things that they have done. We always have such a great time with them. Two bottles of wine and a piece of vegan pumpkin pie later, we were on our way home. They just bought their place at the beautiful Flamingo property and are getting married in May in Toronto.
I forgot to mention the fashion show that we went to last weekend for our friend, Julia, who organized the event for a charity focusing on children in distress. She did such an incredible job pulling the event together and it was an unbelievable success. Following the strutting of their stuff on the runway, the gorgeous models were then auctioned off as dates with all proceeds going to the children. It reminded me of the Saved by the Bell episode when they hold a date-auction to raise money for cheerleading uniforms. It was kinda surreal, I kept waiting for Kelly Kapowski to come out to do a fund-raising cheer ... "T.I.G.E.R.S, T.I.G.E.R.S, WE'RE THE BAYSIDE TIGERS AND ..." ahh, memories. Speaking of SBTB, do you remember the best episode of all, when Jessie Spano got addicted to caffeine pills and broke out in song during her breakdown? "I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so ... scared!"
Now I'm just going off on a tangent, but I had never seen a date auction done in real life, so I had to draw the comparison. But it was a success, my friends. Yes indeedy.
After our jam-packed weekend and a case of the Mondays, we are now sitting here watching Olbermann(what else?!) in our lil' european-esque beachy crib and getting pumped for Obama's visit to Miami tomorrow. We're going and I'm going to try my darnedest to get a pic with him or Michelle ... you may just see us on CNN or MSNBC acting a fool, waving our campaign signs in the background! Everyone has their 15 mins, right?
I just luv the "blog". Mando and I will be in Miami to see you November 13th!!!! We miss you guys!
Posted by: Momma | October 20, 2008 at 09:26 PM