The last couple of weeks have been nonstop. No wonder I got sick. After slamming out interviews, giving finals, moving out of my classroom, packing for Miami, vacationing in Miami, driving up to Vegas for the weekend and then back down, it is no wonder I have been diagnosed with a double ear infection, bronchitis, and sinusitis. Phew! But I’m feeling okay and I’m ready to start this vacation. Especially knowing I have a job to show up to on August 13.

South Beach Miami was a great time aside from being ridiculously expensive. I allocated 100 bucks a day for spending and I blew through that (100 bucks) just the first night. How I was going to factor in the day took another day to figure out. And Lael and I were not evening living it large out there. The problem is that in South Beach— a Snapple costs 6 bucks, every restaurant automatically adds a 20% gratuity, and a cocktail costs 15 dollars. Shopping? All the choices in area near our hotels were high couture shops. So….we had to make some adjustments. Breakfast was the toast and coffee offered by our hotel. Lunch was beach-side made of cheese, yogurt, lunch meat, and crackers we bought at a local market. Dinner we splurged. Before nightlife, we had homemade cocktails in our room. And on the dance floor, we bought 6 dollar bottles of water instead. Although, I only danced one night. I hate dancing. The other nights I sat back and watched and chatted with other tourists or ran around taking photos. 🙂

We did take a tour of Miami one day, however. We got to see some beautiful neighborhoods in Coconut Groves, eat empenadas and buy cigars in Little Havana, and check out the celebrity homes on the islands there on a Ferry ride. Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford the snorkling trip we had planned or renting Vespas and cruising around town.

On Sunday, on our flight to Miami, I sat next to a nice guy named Carlos who grew up in Miami. He offered to give Lael and I some tips on where to go and where to eat while we were there. And he even met up with us a couple of times. We tasted some amazing Cuban food because of him and learned a lot about a crazy form of Brazilian martial arts that he was into although, I don’t remember the name.

On Monday afternoon, as Lael and I were coming into our room after a splendid day at the beach, we were greeted by two beautiful young women from Minnesota. They had come in the day before as well and wanted to see if we wanted to get together that night for some dancing. What a great pair they were. We had an awesome time mimicking their Minnesota accents and dressing up, borrowing shoes, talking about girly stuff, and hitting South Beach as a four-pack instead of two. We enjoyed their company so much, we are now Face Book friends and plan to maybe take a trip to Minneapolis and come visit. We spent a lot of time with them over the week—beaches, shopping, lunch, and night life—and have some hilarious pictures to prove it–although I still need to get Lacey to post them.

Earlier Monday, Lael and I accidentally laid out in the gay part of the beach. We didn’t notice the two rainbow flags 300 yards apart and decided to set up shop right in the middle. An hour later, we pull our noses out of our books and figured it out when we notived a middle aged bleach blonde european step into the personal space of a flabby Native American. Too funny.

On the last night, I was exhausted and sunburned and ready to go to bed, but Lael dragged me out. We went to Clevelender with Carlos and this young man named Jonathan from New York who we met in the lobby earlier that day. Jonathan bought us a shot of Tequila and after that, I actually danced a little bit. But Lael topped it off. The tequila and the heat really got to her and she said she was too hot. I told her we had to leave anyway if we wanted to get a good nights rest before I early flight the next day. I told her she has been good her whole life and needed to do something crazy. If she jumped into the pool (outside bar and dance floor) we would surely get kicked out. But who cares, if we were going to leave anyway, right? So she did it. My sweet, good friend Lael, jumped into the pool. Jonathan followed. We got kicked out. And I never saw Lael with a bigger smile on her face, ever. Good times. 🙂

On my way back from Vegas on Sunday(another blog to come), I started to feel chest pressure and a cough. So now it is Thursday and I’ve got all the itises known to man. But I’ve got lots of plans through next week and as long as my son doesn’t get sick, we will be good. I missed Kanan sooooo much on the trip. I found that if I thought about him, I’d cry, so I tried to keep myself distracted. But it was great to hold him when I came back, smell him, and hear his sweet little voice. He has grown so much just in the week I was gone. This summer is going to be awesome. I can’t wait to spend quality time with my son, my friends, and family; and of course, to get some artistic me time in. My friend Kelley and I are working on a Christian Children’s book together and I need to do a page a day. I’d like to take a class at my church to further my knowledge of God, volunteer a bit at the Pregnancy Resource Center, and some how through it all, take another week long trip somewhere. We shall see. 🙂