Celebrating Cinco de Mayo in the MIA

Happy (belated) Cinco de Mayo, everyone! I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday.

Each year Addam plans a big camping trip or cookout on Cinco de Mayo weekend, so it was no surprise that he requested to have the fifth off. He’d been pulling recipes and penning grocery lists for the last week, so I knew that this year’s cookout was going to be just as good as in years past.

Addam and I packed up the bikes and headed to the park at about 3 p.m., making a brief stop at Publix to pick up some last minute items that we’d need for the bar-b-que. Once we got to Morningside Park I realized that I forgot to grab some buns, so I ran back to the apartment while Addam set up our shade tent.

Fall festivities in the MIA

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope everyone had an amazing, and filling, Thanksgiving.

Now that Christmas is right around the corner I thought that it was finally time to update everyone on my fall festivities. I’ve been really busy with work, so I hope you’ll forgive me for being a little behind.

Miami Today had its annual Halloween party last month, and Jean went all out this year. She covered all our break room windows in black garbage bags, set up flashing white lights and drowned the place in cobwebs.

Since our party fell on Halloween day a few people dressed up for the occasion. We had a couple of witches, a doctor, an inmate, a hippie, a knight and a ghost – all of which looked absolutely fabulous. I couldn’t get a costume together with enough time to dress up, but I did get to rock one of my old Rocky Horror Picture Show shirts, and that’s always fun.

Weddapalooza: Saturday, August 20, Part III

The car was packed on the way to Jungle Island, but everyone was so excited that the tight quarters didn’t bother anyone.  As soon as we got there Addam and I headed up the to second floor for our cocktail hour, as it was already underway and we wanted the bridal party to enjoy the reception as much as possible.

Caterers were passing around nine appetizers, but since I’m vegan I could only enjoy the vegetable spring rolls with ginger plum sauce. I hadn’t eaten all day, so I scarfed down a few of them as soon as I got there. Just so everyone knows, our hor d’oeures included:

• Large fried shrimp with apricot-horseradish sauce
• Conch fritters with key lime mustard sauce
• Brie and raspberry en croute
• Lobster fritters with red pepper aioli
• Beef empanadas
• Assorted dim sum with ginger soy sauce
• Vegetable spring rolls with plum sauce
• Sesame chicken with oriental ginger sauce
• Crabmeat turnovers

After welcoming everyone to the reception, Ana pulled Addam and I aside so we could check out the reception room before guests had a chance to make their way in. Everything looked absolutely perfect, and we were very pleased with how everything came together. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was completely blown away.

Weddapalooza: Wednesday, August 17

Since I’m not quite ready to let my wedding go, I’ve decided to draw out the excitement by posting a series of blog posts highlighting the main event. Even though I rarely write my stories from beginning to end, I thought I’d make an exception in an effort to avoid confusion. (Sorry, Tarantino.)

I was off work on Wednesday but had so much to do that by the end of the day I was wishing I had just headed to the office. Addam had to clean the broiler at Red Lobster but got off at noon. Right as he was headed home I hopped on my bike and headed to the Miami Today to pick up my paycheck, which I needed to make wedding ends meet.

After running in so quickly that no one could see me, let alone stop me, I caught a bus and headed to David’s Bridal to pick up some last minute, but necessary, wedding items. While I found a cheap garter within two minutes of walking into the store, my luck pretty much went out the window from there. I searched the entire showroom and could not find a single set of cake cutters for less than $50. Not a single bra was affordable, and don’t even get me started on shoes…

Ben, bikes, boats and Biscayne

I have yet to fully recover, but I figured there was a group of people out there waiting to hear all about the fabulous weekend Addam and I had with his little brother, Ben.

Ben got in Wednesday afternoon, making it ridiculously difficult for me to concentrate on the interviews I had to conduct before calling it a wrap on my work day. I did my best to stay focused, and Ben picked me up as soon as I finished up. At that point we had a few hours to kill before Addam got off work, but we decided to go for a swim in South Beach rather than hurry home.

It was the perfect afternoon for swimming and the first time I’d been in water since the new year. Ben was amazed by how blue the water was and kept saying that it was the only time he’d swam in an ocean so clear, but I couldn’t believe the waves. Addam and I must have been catching the tide at the wrong time, because any other time we’ve been they have been pretty weak. That day, however, they were making me their lap dog. The waves tossed me all over the ocean, and by the end of an hour I was pretty worn out.

My “Ultra” fun weekend with friends and festies

Bear with me guys. It’s been a long week, and I’m going on a very minimal amount of sleep. That being said, I’m going to do my damnedest to write a full, coherent blog post.

After five or six years of service, Friday was Danae’s last day at Miami Today, so after work a group of us went down to Tobacco Road to celebrate her new opportunity. Addam got off work early, so he came out too. We spent a couple of hours hanging with the news crew before we decided to head down to Ultra, Miami’s very own, mini-Lollapalooza.

We couldn’t get in, but we hung by the fence in the hopes that someone would either drop or give us a ticket. Neither happened, so after an hour or so we headed home.

Once we got home I got a text from Danae, who said that she and her husband, Adrian, her friend Stephanie, who used to intern for Miami Today, and a few others were all heading to Churchill’s for after drink-drinks. Addam and I met up with them but didn’t pay the $8 cover to go in because we planned on crashing relatively earlier. (You know, 3 a.m. or so…)

“And yes, Virginia is the best.”

At one point this weekend Addam made me take a second to appreciate being exactly where I was. We were sitting on South Beach, the sun was setting, and he said, “Take a minute and look this. This is what you work all week for.”

While most nights I would have probably laughed it off, this weekend I completely understood what he was saying. For two and a half days, I was exactly where I wanted to be. And I knew it.

One of my closest friends from Virginia, Krysti, came to visit me this weekend. I know, I know — sounds like a long drive, right? But she moved to Florida when I moved to Chicago and has been residing in Polk County for the past three years now. So — what would have been a 14-hour drive became four, meaning this will (hopefully) be the first of a long line of visits.

Made with love

After a full month of moving and wresting with AT&T, Addam and I finally got to enjoy a completely stress-free weekend together, and we made sure to make the most of it.

We slept in on Saturday, woke up slow, listened to some music and headed to Oleta State Park around 2 p.m. Before hitting the trails we stopped by The Blue Marlin, a nearby bar/fast food restaurant on the water, for a quick lunch. There wasn’t much day light left, but we got a good hour of biking in before heading toward the beach.

We picked up some food and drinks on the way, and once we got to the water I had the most amazing pad thai I’ve had since leaving Chicago. The sun was down, but the beach was still relatively busy. It was a warm night, so we stayed for a couple of hours before heading back to the mainland.

On our way home Addam and I got sidetracked and decided to stop by Red Lobster to say hello. Lobsterfest just started and was in high gear, so the place was completely packed inside and out — making Addam all the more happy that he wasn’t working. We said hello to Vicki, who invited us to head by her house and hang out with Tati and John until she got off.

Technotronics

Well, folks – it’s been a technologically trying couple of weeks, but I think I may finally be out of the woods.

I don’t know how, in the year 2011, it can still be difficult to receive a reliable internet connection, but apparently being able to spend an hour or two reading gossip blogs and surfing the internet after a long day of work is too much to ask. At least, don’t ask AT&T. Trust me when I say that they won’t be able to do anything for you except waste your time.

I’ve spent every lunch hour I’ve had for the past two weeks trying to get a modem delivered to my house, and each time I called in I seemed to get a different excuse. Either UPS didn’t have my apartment number or was keeping the package at their headquarters, an hour away. Once UPS got the address right, they had already sent the package back to AT&T, who wouldn’t overnight equipment despite promises.

Once Addam and I received our modem, the laptop still wouldn’t connect to the internet, meaning AT&T had to send someone out to check on our signal. Of course, when I asked two weeks ago if someone could just be sent out in lieu of the modem, I was told that I would have to install it myself. We were told that someone couldn’t come out for two weeks, but after a bit of persuasion on Addam’s part, AT&T agreed to send someone out this morning. So far, knock of wood, things appear to be running smoothly.

This would make me feel better if I wasn’t also fighting a losing battle with my insurance company.