we travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us

Weekend Update: PupLife & Fort Lauderdale

April 16, 2017

On Friday we walked to a nearby "park" that was having a Puplife happy hour. I want to try bringing Barksdale to more things, even though he's kind of skittish around other (especially big) dogs which manifests itself as aggression AKA no good. But, this was close enough that we could leave if he was being bad. He only growled at two dogs so I call that a win. 🤣




On Saturday, we went to Ft. Lauderdale for this Taco / Craft beer battle. Some things I love. It has a lot of potential but I think it was the first year they did it so it was WAY too crowded, the lines for everything were monstruous and just generally unenjoyable. But then, since we were already in Ft Lauderdale we decided to go to the beach.


First stop: McSorley's for a little slice of NYC. Also, they supposedly had a rooftop bar, but when we go there the bartender told us it was closed. Womp womp.


After that, we headed a little further down the beach to a place called LuLu's Bait Shack. It didn't have the best ratings on yelp, but I really loved it. It was just a touristy, beachy place, with an ocean view and decent food. 



After that, we headed home and I had to take a nap. Can't hang anymore. 

We finally watched "13th" on Netflix -- it is so important, everyone should have to watch it. Most of it I already knew from my classes in law school re prison reform, criminal law and capital punishment, but I dont think most people realize the depth of these issues. 


Today is gonna be all about cleaning, laundry, and prepping for the week. Oh, and did I mention someone STOLE two of my grocery bags from Amazon Fresh? -_- WTF, honestly.

Happy Easter! Happy Sunday! Happy Weekend!

xo
Kim

Weekend Update: Time to Relax

April 9, 2017


Ah, sunday nights.

Wah!

I really needed this weekend to relax since last weekend was pretty much go, go, go -- will recap soon!

On Friday, I was just exhausted at work all day. When I look at my time throughout the week, man, friday is always dismal. And, just like when I was a teacher, I'll say - OK I'm just gonna do this on the weekend. And, do I? Nope.

I came home and took a nap and was intermittently getting texts about work, so, not my best work, and I am nervous about Monday because of it.

Yesterday all I did was clean ALL day!! Wow -- it's kind of crazy how I can clean all day and the apartment still just looks like ok kinda of better. The roomba is really clutch - even when I think the floors don't look that bad, after it runs, I'm like OMG -- horriyfing.

I made Felipe come and watch the sunset with me on the 10th floor (since our apartment has no view) - they've been really fabulous lately. That's really all we did. I started watching Ingobernable on Netflix. Really, within the first 5 minutes it's just insanity. Love it!

Sunday:

Ok, I got over myself and tried out a new Spin studio because it was a "themed" ride - Britney v. Christina. So fun! Also, they give complimentary spin shoes, so that was awesome.

After that, Felipe and I went to this place called Duffys. It's a sports bar on the water and I've wanted to go for awhile but have been put off by the fact that its like a 30 min drive for us, and honestly, there are just so many other places closer to us, it never seemed worth it. But, yanno, Felipe loves the yankees and I love the chance to be a bandwagon fan for the day, so I figured, why not.

They also had a DELISH salted caramel brownie dessert. WIN! Oh, and there is an 18+ patio with a pool and DJ #miamilife.

 

So, that's basically it. I also did a lot of planning for the week -- "planned" all my outfits! Planned my meal for tmrw. LOL. I need to plan out my workout outfits so I can actually, yanno, workout. We have a 5k "corporate run" in Miami at the end of the month so I need to try to get back up to a 5K by then (definitely doable if I actually commit). I'm realizing I REALLY need to be an AM work outer now though ... my afternoons are just too crazy to really commit to something then, unless I somehow become a person who can work out twice in a day (#inapastlife).

Also, coming up:

* Plan and finalize fourth of july trip to Guatemala (Antigua and Lake Atitlan)
* Weekend in Orlando -- getting the use out of our annual passes

xoxo

A Busy Month

February 26, 2017

As I sit here on Sunday night, drinking wine, watching Arrival, and relishing the fact that I am finally over a 2 week mega-Cold, I can't help but think about how I always have to be *doing*. What's weird is that 90% of my *doing* on the weekend or in my free time is truly useless. Time spent pointlessly on social media, scrolling-scrolling-scrolling, and picking up new hobbies while easily tossing aside last weeks' ... I can't help but ask myself what is a really fulfilling way I can spend my time, what do I really want to do?

One of the hobbies I've picked up over the past couple of years is "planning." LOL. Yes, this is a real thing. The "planner community" is a real thing. If you search on Facebook you will find hundreds of planning groups. The biggest one I'm in - Planners Gone Wild - has over 30,000 members (!!). There is an annual planner convention - this year it's in Nashville - tickets are $435 to attend, and it includes tons of "planner swag." I wanted to go last year but didn't, and this year I told myself if tickets were still available the day after they went on sale, I'd go -- I think they sold out in like 5 minutes. Anyway, it was a sign, I didn't need to spend the money.

The reason I like "planning" so much (also, bullet journaling is included in this, and I love to look at bullet journalers on IG/FB) is because of the memory aspect of it. Then, like tonight, I was like, OK I'm gonna work on finishing our Honeymoon planning/journaling but then it just seems so exhausting to pull out all the (too-many) supplies I have, go through pictures, print the best, figure out how to lay them out, etc. etc.

I wonder how I was so in love with journaling and blogging for so long and then I just stopped. When bloggers I'd read would just stop I'd think, "How can they just stop? That'll never be me. I'll never run out of things to say." The truth is, I don't think I ever ran out of things to say, but I started doubted my ability to say them. Everything had to be thought through, all the pictures had to be perfect, etc. etc. (I never did and they never were).

BUT, Man, is it so great to be able to come back here and look at posts I wrote 5, 6, 7 years ago. It's awesome. Even the not-so-great pictures, they are great because they bring me back to that moment.

The posts I am like meh about, those are the posts that I wrote when I fell into the "blogger" hole. Here's a list of 10 ways you know it's Friday. Celebrities that look like animals. A bunch of random memes/gifs with no context. Hahah. I mean, it's fine if people write that, they definitely have a shelf-life though, and ultimately, that's not why I blog.

Why I blog is to remember, and, one day, to give a memory to my children. I see so many cool things parents do for their children - blogging, scrapbooking, opening an email address and sending them emails -- to be opened on their 18th bday - etc. etc. I would have loved  to look back at those memories. Of course, with social media, I think it will be easy to give those memories now.

So, here's an update

view from the conference hotel
February has been an over-the-top busy month for me. Despite the fact that my billable hours are still alarmingly low, I volunteered on the operations committee of a big law conference that took place this month. That meant I had to organize all the presentations, get food for volunteers, go on walk-throughs of the hotel, correspond with vendors, etc. etc. This was a really great opportunity for me to meet very well-established attorneys that I otherwise would not have had the opportunity to meet, nevermind work with, but it really wore me down.

Then, amazingly, after not having any friends visit since we've lived in Florida (okay, I get it, noone wants to come to Tallahassee), we had three friends visit. It was so great but I feel kind of guilty bc I was exhausted from that conference, and still sick.

 While they were here we did a lot of very "Miami" things, including going to Wynwood (which I love), Lagniappe (very cool jazz spot with huge backyard garden), drank mojitos, ate cuban food on Lincoln Road, sat by the water, visited the Vizcaya museum, had a drink at Sugar (rooftop bar), ate seafood at the River Oyster Bar, and went to a super cute restaurant in out neighborhood. It's interesting because I feel like (and joke that) Felipe and I are so lame and don't do anything, but the more I thought about it the more I realize that we have done a lot of exploring, at least in our neighborhood and it honestly never disappoints. I truly cannot believe how much I love Miami. Such an unexpected (happy) surprise!

inside the vizcaya museum

built at the vizcaya house to break waves 
donuts from the salty donut - a miami legend - and it DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!! 


(when you think you look normal even though your sick but then your eyes give you away)





Work has been picking up for me. And by picking up I mean I will be relatively to mildly busy and then at like noon I will get an assignment that needs to be done ASAP and I will stay up till 1am working .... 😒 So, I guess that's to be expected but it's really stressful for me because -- as I mentioned above, "planning" is a new hobby of mine so I really don't like it when my "plans" get thrown. LOL. I guess I have to deal with it because it's just the nature of the job.




Coming up

We have more guests this weekend. Then, Felipe is going out of town the following week, then the following weekend is his bday, and then at the end of March we're going up to NY for my sister-in-law's wedding (she's marrying my former colleague-- they met at my birthday party! 💗).

So, that's where I'm at. And I'm SO SAD about Bill Paxton, star of my first real horror movie: Twister.

xox

Miami Adventures: Wynwood Brewing Block Party

December 11, 2016

One of my favorite places in Miami is Wynwood.


 It's just so cool. And yes, it *might* be hipster, if you've been to other hipster areas, but I don't know. To me, hipsters are pretentious and think they're better than everyone else, but I think in Miami, pretentious is commonplace so actually maybe hipsters might just be normal people here. 😛

So, this Saturday was Wynwood Brewing's Third Birthday Celebration. It's one of the only breweries we haven't been to in Wynwood, and I love their La Rubia beer (a blonde ale).

So, they had a block party and a beer truck, beer trailer, and then the beer inside. My favorite was La Mami with Strawberries! I also had La Rubia, The Nutty Blonde, and some watermelon one. Felipe's favorite was the Ghost Fox - which was a beer with ghost peppers in it. He loved it, but unfortunately they're not going to be brewing it regularly for awhile.

Anyways, the real point of this post is to share pictures from Wynwood - which never ceases to disappoint with all the street art!





Happy Sunday!

Art Basel, Miami, 2016

December 4, 2016

Apparently this weekend in Miami was a big event called Art Basel. It takes place in Miami Beach and Wynwood, with a few other venues between those places. 

Today we went to Wynwood for some drinks and to explore a little. They said that they did new walls, but I only saw the old ones so maybe we weren't in the right place. 



It was really cool! It's like an outdoor open-air space with a fixed bar in the middle, and then food trucks all around. They also have live music every day (Sunday is for Reggae!), a little dance area, and did I mention the food trucks?


We had a few beers, and then I waited in line FOREVER for this "world famous" House of Mac. I got the buffalo chicken mac & cheese (obviously) and Felipe got the lemon pepper wings. Okay, it was legit, but not sure it beats NYC's SMAC. And I waited over an hour for it because people literally lined up for this food truck for 30 minutes before it even opened, and then they would order like 12 orders of food. 

Can we talk about how Felipe is this guy brought to life?
After that, we walked around a bit. I wanted to check out a brewery and maybe this taco place (Coyo Taco, FYI), but it was a madhouse on the streets! Reminded me of NYC except not as good because Miami is not really built for large crowds on the sidewalk!

Next up: 

Season Finale!

xo, 
kim

Weekend Shenans

May 27, 2014

I had the best weekend!

My parents came up Saturday and left Sunday. I decided to get domestic and got some flowers (which I didn't have vases for) from club pub. 

My moms brought me a housewarming gift of a pretty big canvas pic of times square. I mean, times square is my LEAST favorite place in NYC (rivalled maybeee by China Town) but, it was still really sweet, and I can appreciate times square when I'm not trapped behind a slow-walking tourist who cant stop looking up. 
 
We went out to dinner, then to a bar where my parents made friends with these two guys and proceeded to play pool, darts, and beer pong with them all night. The guys were like, "Your parents are so cool!" and apparently they said to my parents, "I hope I'm still partying when I'm old like you!" hahahaha. But yeah, and then a bunch of my friends met up with us and they were like, yeah your parents are cool. #duh. 

I posted this pic on IG and I knew my moms hand looked wonky but I didn't know people would start texting me, having seen it and mistakenly believed that felipe popped the question, HAH. 

On Sunday we went to ross and bealls and my mom get me an area rug for my living room and helped me pick out stuff to decorate my bathroom! I had been wanting to do my downstairs bathroom beach themed and bealls had the BEST stuff!!



I also watched ALL of House Of Cards. I went from Bored - to intrigued - to angry - to intrigued - to bored. I'm sorry people, but it is WAYY OVERRATED. It's like a mix of Scandal and West Wing, but Scandal and West Wing both do it way better. If you want to be crazy conspiracy -- Scandal. If you want to be political -- West Wing. If you want a little bit of both, but not as good -- House of Cards. But, whatevs. I did NOT recognize that Claire was Jenny! And I was totally uncomfortable (TINY SPOILER ALERT) with that weird little threesome with Meechum. Like, is this what people do?? I'm not judgy, but I just can't believe that people are jumping into threesomes like that. 

I also finished editing all the pics of the wedding I photographed a few weeks ago. 




Trust me, I know it's not the best wedding photography you've ever seen, but I only charge $100 for one hours of photos + basic edits + disc with photos mailed to you. Considering I spent close to 7+ hrs editing the photos, I'd say that was a fair price!! I do think I'm getting a little better though. This wedding was tough because although originally I was so excited because it was at 11 and SUNNY, I didn't realize how fucking annoying shadows were going to be!! UGH! But, the bride saw some pics I posted on FB and loved them, sooo... yay!!

How was your weekend??
 

How To Make Your Legs Feel Like They Were Beat With A Bat! (and other stories)

March 10, 2014

Happy Monday, y'all! 

And it IS happy for me because I'm on Spring Break! What, what! I mean, it's not spring break like it was in undergrad, or even as a teacher, because this spring break I'm just so excited to be able to catch up on all my school work, and outline for finals and hopefully finish my brief. So, in other words, I'm working all week but at least going to class won't get in the way!

I had a pretty good weekend. 

Friday night I had to stay in to finish these practice exam questions for my Contracts class. OK, I didn't HAVE to do them but my professor was gone for almost two weeks (he was working on something in Greece) and he said if we did them and sent them to him by midnight on Friday (you can see I'm such a diligent student) he would read them and send back comments embedded in our word doc. This is pretty amazing because law profs NEVER grade the practice problems they give you -- it would just be too much work for them. It took over a month to get my grades back from my finals last semester so of course they don't want to deal with that stuff during the semester. 
 
Saturday morning I went to do another stadium workout with Amanda and Sophie. These girls are nuts (in a good way!) and way better at working out than me so it's good to work out with them. This time I tried to actually run up the stadium steps a few times (last time I just walked) and my calves are not happy with me because of that. 
 
Saturday night we went to dinner at this pizza place -- it was my second time and I decided I don't like it. I mean, maybe I'm a pizza snob after living in NYC, but this is like a "fancy" pizza place that supposedly has wood-oven pizza...but the crust is never crunchy. 
 
Then we went to a new bar that just opened next door. It just seemed unfinished to me. There were a lot of people there probably because it just opened, but I wouldn't necessarily want to go back. I don't like "bars" where I'm sitting down at a table and there's no music or nothing to do. I need music, darts, bar jenga, pool, something! Even if I'm not playing the games, someone is. 

Yesterday I woke up with a little hangover and very sore legs but I decided it was so nice out I HAD to go running. My goal was to break a 10:00/mile. Usually I can't do it and I think it's because in my head I usually go for distance, not speed. This time I told myself it was OK if I had to walk after running as hard as I could for the mile. I have a nike tomtom watch and it will show me my "pace" as I'm going and it got down to like 8:50. I was like, holy shit! I'm gonna run this in sub-9:00/mile. But alas, baby steps. I did my first mile in 9:08!! I was so happy! I think on Sundays I'm gonna work on "speed training" because I really do want to get faster! 

I did 4 miles total and then later in the day I went and walked some trails with Amanda and Lola. Another 2.5 miles! So then I decided I deserved Chipotle and I watched Once Upon a Time, Resurrection, and Revenge
sunset from chipotle parking lot. haha
 
SPOILER ALERT:
- OUAT: Why do Neal & Hook get sent back with everyone else in the curse? They weren't brought there by the curse so it doesn't make sense that they would go back. Why wouldn't they have just crossed the line out of storybrook with Emma and Henry?
- Totally called that Walsh (what kind of name is that?) was a creep. 
- An otherwise blah episode that I've come to expect from OUAT where nothing really happens but you just keep watching, thinking maybe next time something will, and then they save it all for the season finale

- Resurrection: I don't know where they're going with this show and I definitely don't think it can be a multi-season show. 

- Revenge: HOW POINTLESS was the Victoria - Jimmy - Patrick thing????!! They just wanted a way to fill an episode with another "revenge" without having to flesh-out Emily's storyline. I will keep watching this show because I LOVE (and I mean LOVE) Aiden and Nolan, but I think it's so stupid!! Television viewers do not want to CONSTANTLY experience a "not again!" moment when watching a show! We want closure and we want the story to MOVE.FORWARD. I would have been totally happy if Emily's plan to frame Victoria had gone through, and then she showed up at her jail cell or sent her  a letter and was like, BTW - I'm David Clark's daughter. IN YO FACE. 
- UGH. But i'll keep watching. I literally cannot quit shows. (exception: Heroes).

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