Miami!

I got home from Miami around midnight on Sunday night. It was decent, albeit not what I had hoped it to be. Basically the best day was the first one when we ended up not having to go to any of the conference stuff.

Mom and I woke up had an incredible breakfast in our room (Miami officially has the best smoked Salmon....even better than NYC) then we got fabulous and took a cab to South Beach.

We rented chaises and spent a little over an hour on the beach. Good thing we didn't stay any longer cause I did start to get sunburned but it was beautiful, and there was a breeze that kept it from being too hot. The spring breakers were definitely fun to look at too ;-)
We walked the street a little bit and decided to have lunch at a Cuban restaurant, which was fun, and it was a good way to watch people walk by. We did a little bit of shopping, and caught a cab two stores before I saw a MAC store! AAAAGH!!!! (luckily I did find one later and finally scored some Fafi)

When we got back to the hotel, we decided not to waste a minute and moved the party down to the pool, which proved to be absolutely unreal. It was heated and beautiful, and we got drinks at the poolside bar, which were also incredible.

That was the only thing I really had my mind set on, was tropical drinks by the pool.... good thing we did it on Day 1!

While we were at the pool I randomly found a gold/diamond bracelet on the ground.... obviously I didn't think twice, and gave it in to the bartender (I don't wear gold.... and I have a conscience) so while we were enjoying our drinks, the owner of it came running down and when the bartender gave it to her, she told her i had found it, and the woman (who ended up being a member of our conference) thanked me profusely. I was half hoping she would give me a cash reward or something... but that didn't happen. It made me happy to be able to help her out though cause that would totally happen to me! After that, every time I saw her in the hotel she told anyone she was with "that's the girl that found my bracelet!!!!" It was cute.

(randomly- the view from our room)

Anyway.... we ended up meeting up with people from the conference and eating dinner in Bayside (Bubba Gump shrimp.... not my choice, but we had a nice waiter named Angel and the food was decent, so it was ok)

The next day was pretty uneventful, I couldn't really go outside due to my lovely sunburn I got in the hour and a half we were on the beach, but I had my presentation that day anyway so it didn't really matter. The presentation went really well, but I've learned that I get really drained after.
It takes a lot out of me emotionally to hear everyone's stories and realize how screwed up the system really is. It also makes me think a lot about my future... which makes me very tired...
Do I want to do this my whole life? Do I want to dig deeper to make a difference or do I want to just say "Screw it all, I made it out!" And work for a magazine somewhere..... Every time I go to a conference I go back and forth I just know I need to start the process of moving out. Every time I come back to Maine I realize how much I dislike it and I'm really starting to say "What is here for me?" I'm not in school anymore, a lot of my friends are gone. I just don't know. I need to start thinking about what I want for my life I think. It's scary. But what isn't scary is that I'm set for now... and nobody is pressuring me to do anything, I just need to start thinking seriously about it.

The next 2 days, the days we had set aside for actual vacationing, IT RAINED. POURED, MONSOONED, FLOODED. I was pissed.

Luckily, there was an amazing mall right by our crappy second hotel that we switched to when we were on our dime (another bummer... but that's a whole other entry....) and I bought adorable juicy sunglasses!!!! And finally made that Fafi haul.
We spent time with my aunt and uncle and baby cousin, and they took us around which was nice too. We had dinner on Lincoln Rd, and the day it poured we hit the mall and just drove around all day basically, then had an amazing home cooked meal, which actually hit the spot.

I was sort of bummed we didn't get to do more tourist stuff like oh you know THE BEACH AND SUN, but it was nice that we didn't have to sit in our hotel watching TV all day....
They invited us over for Easter too which was pretty nice. It would've been weird without being family on Easter. We went over first thing in the morning...we were itching to get out of our hotel as early as possible, and my aunt and uncle made us a fabulous brunch with mimosas. My aunt even made my mom and I Easter baskets (so I ended up getting two, because my Easter Bunny is a jetsetter and there was totally one in our hotel. He put it on my bed when I got up to go pee in the morning and my reaction in the dark was "OMG WHAT IS ON MY BED....ITS LIKE A SMALL ANIMAL OR SOMETHING" It wasn't. It was a gift card to the spa and Starbucks and peeps. Lovely.
After brunch we all took family pictures and just chilled watching the 10 Years younger marathon and judged ugly people. Then we had to go to the airport.

So our flight could not leave for two hours until after we boarded because obviously we brought more thunderstorms with us to the airport.
It was such a long day, at this point we both just wanted to be home (not in the "Be back to Maine" sense, but to be with our family, in our own beds) We were supposed to fly into Portland at about 10 which we thought was late anyway, but we ended up not getting in til about midnight due to all the delays. Stupid weather.

So yea. In conclusion, it was a good time but far from what we had hoped and I definitely want to plan a trip to go back down, without work obligation and hopefully with the entire family, it was a little weird not having Mais with us! I was sad.
She's coming with us to Wisconsin in a few weeks but that's.... not quite the same. I'm sure we'll make the most of it, but I seriously wish I had not been like Eeyore and had a giant rain cloud over me in Florida.... that was kind of the light at the end of a long tunnel of blah.

But oh well...so is life, and hopefully there will be more opportunities.
Now I need to start planing for Wisconsin and in the mean time try to reconnect with some of my friends I haven't seen since before my wisdom teeth surgery! Seriously!!

Also- I created another blog, of reviews of all my travel experiences, without all the narration, so if you want nitty gritty reviews go there. If you want my rambling... stay here. Or be cool and read both. Your call but here it is! http://divajetsetter.blogspot.com/

Next up: Eau Claire, WI with my mom and sister! Not Miami, but I'm pretty excited!
As for Maine.. spring is welcome to appear any day now. I'm over this snow in April crap. that is so last year!


xoxo-
Mal