east coast hopping, part II

After beginning my month in the Big Apple, I was able to end it in a fortuitous twist at the opposite end of the coast in beautiful Miami!

April was a rainy month in Chicago - the rainiest April in more than 50 years, to be exact. And it was a cold month. Windy, unpleasant, and it snowed. Meanwhile Brian was in Miami for the whole month going to the beach every day while I withered away, so it's safe to say I was ready for a vacation that included him, sunshine, and relaxation. I wouldn't have gone to visit except (the magic word!) that my lovely friend Ashley had scheduled her bachelorette party for the last weekend in April...in Miami. Boom! That's what we in Texas call a two-fer.

I took a few days of beloved PTO to go down early and see Brian, go to his show, and obviously hit the beach. Happiness ensued.

Are you jealous of my awesome dolphin koozie?

There's not nearly enough boob in this picture

to accurately represent South Beach. But the water's nice!

View of Miami Beach from Brian's condo

After two days , I met up with the girls. One day I'm riding the city bus and drinking Tecate, the next I'm in a limo drinking champagne. The sign of a good weekend!

I have to say, for this bach we did it up right. Bottle service, aforementioned limo, more prosecco than my head cares to remember, pool time, spa time, dance time, and girl time.

Beautiful bride in the middle!

(bottom left)

This spa was increible.

Library books. Hot tubs. Chandeliers.

Crazy club LIV (top) and the outdoor patio/pool at Club 50 in our hotel (bottom)

After seeing two very different side of Miami, my general takeaway was similar to NY (minus the rats). The beach is awesome, of course. And the clubs were fun in that "I only go to these places in Mexico" kind of way. But oh my Lord everything is so expensive. And the cab drivers are rude. And house music proliferates in an unacceptable way. And remember how everything was so expensive? Right okay now double that. But I guess I dug the 1990s Birdcage feel, and if I was allowed to live on a strict diet of empanadas and cortaditos, then maybe we could talk.

east coast hopping, part I

In the spirit of catching up, I wanted to post about my East Coast adventures this past month! Both places I'd never been, both places I'm not really racing to get back to, but both places were great experiences.

It started with New York - can you believe I'd never been?! My longtime high school friend Jason was getting married in Jersey, so I extended the trip through the weekend for a little extra sightseeing and working out of our NY office (always good to get in some face-time with the people you talk to on the phone). First off, the wedding was insanely beautiful. David Tutera could've popped out behind the curtains and I wouldn't have been shocked at all (WE-watchers, you know what I'm talking about). I didn't capture the incredible smorgasbord of food, but I did get a few shots of other things:

Ice sculpture at the beer bar = winning

Ice sculptures at the (1 of 2) sushi bars = double winning

Enchanted forest on our table

This was truly the blowout of the century. Instead of having wedding cake, they had a whole room filled with different desserts (bad time to have given this up for Lent...bad time). Outside the bus was a candy truck filled with all sorts of other awesome things I wouldn't let myself look at. The chuppah at the ceremony was seriously like a secret garden filled with hydrangea, roses, and individually backlit orchid blossoms. Unreal! I'm so glad I got to experience such an incredible shindig!

Outside of that, I got to do a lot of sightseeing and city navigating. Some takeaways:

1) Ah, diversity. If only my gym were on the streets of NY, right?! The ethnic mix was fascinating. I got into a conversation with an 85-year-old Polish immigrant on the subway that involved a "when I was on the boat" portion of the story. Love it.

2) I teared up seeing the Statue of Liberty from approximately 72,000 feet away. It's just, seeing something iconic, it's hard not to think about what that must have represented to so many oppressed people. Cue the music...

3) I was all about the subway system until I saw the rats (dead and alive). I'm not the prissiest person in the world but SICK.
4) And finally, this place is Chicago on crack. Oh my lord, the drivers, the filth, the congestion. I'm not all too interested in going back, unless I get to spend some time in Central Park and see a Broadway show. I definitely see how people can live there and "own it" sort of, but as a visitor, it mostly just made me happy to call Chicago home.

Next up, East Coast Hopping, Part II: Miami!

new deck-or

I've been so bad about blogging lately - especially after I promised a blog storm while Brian was gone! In preparation for his month in Miami doing a play, I made a big ole list of things I was going to do to stay occupied. Paint our room, fix up our office, hang new pictures on the wall, blog more, read more, and start showing my face at the gym. Instead what happened is:

New York

Dallas (x2)

Miami

Many late nights at the office

Working on the weekend

Whoops! As the last weekend approached, I realized I hadn't done one single solitary thing I'd planned to, so I made a last ditch effort to do something with our deck.

A little "before" action

Last fall, we managed to put up some lights but that's about it. Winter was on its way, so there was no point in buying plants. (Actually I tried, but Captain Un-Fun was convinced I'd kill them before the winter could). Fast forward to me panicking about having wasted away the month of April: it's a beautiful day, sunny and 55 degrees. I buy planter boxes, 62 pounds of soil, and a trunkload of Petunias. (For future reference, that is enough soil to plant flowers from here to Zimbabwe). Anywyay, the next morning, I wake up to this:

Wah-wah.

After a minor case of hating my life, I got over it and the flowers managed to live. Which means they just might stand a chance with me. A few weeks later, I put all the planters together and got everything situated. Meanwhile, I overheard our neighbors talking about an extra grill that they have, so I dropped a few casual comments about missing our grill and whatdoyaknow, we've got a new grill on deck.

And, because I got super excited while shopping for garden stuff, I got a few little "kits" to grow herbs, peppers, and tomatoes. I planted those today, so I'll let you know if anything manages to survive my oppressive brown thumb! Although I did see the word transplant on the directions, and Mama don't know crap 'bout no transplantin'.

Maybe if we all will them to live...