Say Anything Blog

South Beach, looking north in the afternoon

So I was in Miami from Dec 20 until this morning around 9:15am when the plane crossed into Georgia, headed north. The weather was incredible, generally around 80 or 85 degrees everyday with a few spotty rain showers that didn't muck up the fun (I was actually in the hospital during most of the rain - more next paragraph). On Dec 24th I went to a real Latin-style 'Noche Buena'... whole pig with apple in mouth on a spit over a pit, yucca, plantains, big leg of aged & oiled ham from Spain, Manchego cheese, rice and frijoles negros, lots of beautiful Cuban women, Johnny Walker, loud music, et cetera. New Years eve was also a blast - pieia (saffron rice with lobster tails, mussels, shrimp, other various seafoods, veggies, a shitload of Red Stripe beer, and seasoning cooked in one of those round, shallow 3 foot wide pans out back), more loud music, girls, and Johnny Walker. I was out in the Redlands for NYE, a neighborhood in Homestead (S. Miami) that abuts a large agricultural area, and I guess its also very popular out there to shoot machine guns in the air on NYE from 11pm-1am... We didn't, but from the sounds of it all the neighbors did so we spent that time inside in order to avoid the light showers of .223 bullets.


Lechon, half eaten at the 'Noche Buena' party.

My fiance was due to go under the knife on Dec 27th (she has a doc down there who teaches everyone how to do this particular type of surgery), but her pain became too overwhelming on Christmas so we went to the hospital and had her admitted. I slept for like an hour that night and the next night, in one of those shitty doesn't-fold-down-all-the-way non-chair-non-bed things they give to visitors who stay the night. They bumped her operation up to the 26th and she had a couple days of extreme pain immediately pre and post-op where I stressed out and asked, 'is there anything I can do?' too many times even though there wasn't. It was unnerving for me let alone her. However, I am proud to report that at this time she is 100% pain-free and, with the appropriate medication regimens for the next 6 months and 6 months three years from now, should be for the rest of our lives. I somehow managed to drive us out of there the 27th, having slept for a total of three hours since 6 am on the 25th, and, upon arriving back at her mom's house, she got a call from UPenn law school. She got in. A perfect ending to the only few crummy days of the trip.

For some continuity in the travel posts, inspired by Carol:
American Airlines arena - Home of the Miami Heat

I hope y'all had a good holiday and that any crumminess was balanced out somehow.