Friday, September 22, 2006

Casual Friday & Bumper Boldness


Lexi is getting into everything! One of her favorite places is our closet. I guess she was just trying to help me pick out what to wear. I am so glad today is Friday, because that means jeans (not to mention the all too exciting weekend).

I am about to reveal a strange quirk about me. I don't like bumper stickers. True, some are funny and I don't mind when other people have them on their cars. Lets face it, how else am I going to be entertained, while I'm waiting for a light to turn green? I will never put one on my car though. My reason is completely insane, especially since you know I have a blog. I feel like they give complete strangers a peek into your life. Fellow commuters don't need to know if I like fishing more than work, or if my kid can beat up your honor roll kid, or that I have a cute little family, or if I have a sense of humor, or if I hate tailgaters, or even what my political preferences may be. Now when you think about how open I am on my blog, you realize I am bizarre right? Why do I feel fine expressing some of the details of my life with anyone who checks my blog? I try to tell myself that bumper stickers de-value cars and that is why I don't like them. Really it has more to do with sharing info about myself. By the way, I also don't wear t-shirts that convey messages... Yep, way too personal.

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Thursday, September 21, 2006

Different Ideals

Since our house is under contract, we are apartment hunting. Unfortunately, the place we really want to live (where I loved living when I was single) Edgewater Apartments has disconnected their phone. I think they may have gone condo. We will be driving over there this weekend to check it out.

For now, I have been doing on-line searches and a few drive bys preparing for our weekend of hunting. The problem is my husband and I have completely different ideas about what the perfect place will be. Right now, I am pulling for the old world charm of Coral Gables, specifically the area near Venetian Pool. The big trees, quiet neighborhood, and walking distance to Miracle Mile are just too enticing. I have a few friends (both single and married) in that area and they all love it. Just check out the pictures I posted and tell me it doesn't look enchanting.

My husband, on the other hand, would like to be closer to his work. He works near the American Airlines Arena. Given that he is a HUGE sports freak, he may have another agenda (Miami Heat). I will admit that the more modern apartments in high rises have a very metropolitan feel and quite a few attractive points, but they lack the old world charm and quiet neighborhoods. I want to go home to a place that feels extremely relaxing. Plus, we can walk to a little cafe for dinner.

This should be an interesting weekend of us each trying to persuade the other. I plan on keeping an open mind and I hope he will too. I am not quite ready to tell him that Coral Gables has strict rules against trucks in residential areas. We'll also be checking out Coconut Grove and the Beach.

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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

My Turn/Safe to Return

To all my regular readers, it is safe to come back. It is all me again.

Before going back to the regularly tame (some would say lame) posts, I thought I would take a minute to comment on Miami Cross Blogination. I call it a success. I must acknowledge greenerMIAMI for the wonderful job she did organizing all of us wackadoos. There were so many interesting posts all over Miami blogs including mine. To be honest, I found most of them so funny that I could hardly contain the laughter. Then again, I find most things in the blog world & life quite hilarious. Really, life is too short to be taken seriously.

As for the two edgy bloggers that I interacted with, thank you for the experience. My post didn't inspire many comments on Al Capone's site, but I did make a huge effort to stick to his theme. I completely respect that he has a strong opinion and a very forward agenda. That is what I really like about his blog. For those who know a lot about me, I honestly do think that it is ridiculous to invoke No Smoking Laws on a restaurant called Tobacco Road. For those who don't know me, my mother-in-law passed away in June from terminal lung cancer. She smoked for about 45 years and her death was far from pleasant. Al Capone was already having nightmares about what I (a chic with a flowery blog) would post, so I decided not to post why I was probably the last guest blogger he would want. He would have run away kicking and screaming. Who would have blamed him? I guess I can admit now that I never even experimented with cigarettes as a teenager. Smoking just isn't something that has ever interested me, but his conviction is fascinating.

As for White Dade, he is GREAT at turning up the heat just to watch people get hot & bothered. Have you heard that saying, "Don't poke the bear?" Well, visit his blog and you'll see that it is his favorite sport. I find it so amusing. Secretly, I believe he is a very nice guy (but don't tell anyone because he would hate to have that information leaked).

Now about fake tatas, my opinion on plastic surgery has changed a LOT in the past 7+ years I have lived in Miami. I can't say it is all because of Miami (although it is VERY common here), society has changed and so have I. I still think nobody should ever alter your body merely to attract the opposite sex. Guys drool all over chics with or without them. However, if someone seriously feels the need to change something through plastic surgery and have honestly considered the risks and cost, then ok. I have personally seen some amazing work that has made me a believer! There are some TALENTED surgeons here. Although, I have only ventured as far as lasik. When it comes to fake boobs, if a girl ever plans to have kids she should wait. That will give her the chance to experience gigantic (GIGANTIC!!!) boobs and she just might not like it as much as she thought. Personally, I enjoy jogging so this particular surgery will never be on my must have list.

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BREAST IMPLANTS: NOT JUST FOR PORN STARS ANYMORE

Today, is the day for Miami Cross Blogination & I was lucky enough to get White Dade as my guest. **I just want to know how he figured out that this is a good topic for FFC b/c I wasn't naturally blessed in this area.** Without further ado, here is his post:

I need to preface this by saying that I love silicone. My mother, bless her heart, believes that breast augmentation is a practice on line with Chinese foot-binding and says that women filling their chests with bags of water is barbaric and cruel. And as a 60 year-old aging feminist that is her right. But as a 27-year-old male living in South Florida, it is my right to say that the recent trend towards artificial breasts is one of the great social advances of the 21st century.

Friends of mine, most of whom have never gotten to experience the endless hours of fun that are augmented tits, often say to me "No, no, I don't think I could ever date a girl with implants. Girls who get them are obviously messed up. They must have self-esteem issues or are overly concerned with their appearance." Okay, first of all, what is better than a girl with self-esteem issues? Those are the ones who will do pretty much anything to get your attention and affection, up to and including, apparently, cutting themselves open and artificially inflating their chests. Second, look around you: It is hard to go one afternoon of grocery shopping in Dade County without seeing at least a few silicone racks. Are you trying to tell me they are all deeply, deeply in secure and nuts? No, of course they aren't. They just want to look good like everyone else in this crazy place we call South Florida. And it won't be long until eliminating surgically enhanced women from your dating pool makes your choices very, very slim. In more ways than one.

It used to be that the only women you saw with implants were porn stars and chicks in their forties who needed them to keep their rich husbands from running off with the 19-year-old babysitter. But no more. Go out to any high-end restaurant in Coral Gables or South Miami and see how many women over 30 there do NOT have implants. I say do NOT because on a recent night out at one of said establishments, I was hard pressed to find a woman in the place who was not carrying a couple bags of silicone in her D-Cup bra. And it was fantastic. It has become not only socially acceptable, but now socially expected for women with any money to restore their youthful chests once they hit a certain age. Perhaps it is the pervasive culture of superficiality in South Florida. Although during my two years in Orange County, not exactly a hotbed for intellectual thinking and deeper meaning, I don't remember seeing this much silicone. I will give credit to the one aspect of Latin Culture I can get behind: The expectation that men will mess around on their wives. So women feel they need to compete at any costs to keep this infidelity to a minimum and: Voila! I'm copping cheap feels just by walking around on a crowded day at Merrick Place.

But it's not just the cougars and Desperate Housewives going under the knife. A trip to Tavern in The Grove on any given Thursday will garner coed after coed after coed with surgically enhanced racks. Now, again, I am sorry to say I must have missed the ball on this one. When I was in school, I think I knew two girls who had got implants, and both were actresses. Now? I am hard pressed to walk around campus at UM without seeing a good amount of silicone. Yes, the skinny High School Band Geek A-Cups have decided that reinventing yourself in college not only means lying about having a boyfriend back home, but also includes a new pair of tits. And at a school where BMW's outnumber Saturns about 5 to 1 in the student parking lot, it is not surprising that girls at younger and younger ages are able to do this. Are they all insecure and undesirable? Not to me they're not. A nice set is a nice set, whether they were given to you by God or by the South Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery. (Thank you, Super Claudia!)

And finally, I would just like to say that people need to stop calling breast implants "fakes." They are not fake. You can touch them, taste them, play with them and a whole slew of other enjoyable things with them. I know, because I have, and those things are DEFINITELY real. They are just not natural, and there is a marked difference. Not that I am a bastion of political correctness here, but I think the term "fake" would imply that when the girl gets home she just takes her tits off and puts them in a drawer next to her fake hair (extensions) fake nails (acrylics) and fake eyelashes. But hose tits, no sir, those stay on. Artificial or Implants seem like better terms.

So God bless the Breast Implant. Whether you are an aging beauty trying to stay young, or a young girl trying to get hotter, I am all for using any tool you can. And it seems like more and more women are. A day will come soon, and probably sooner than you think, when women who do not have augmentations will be considered the freaks and weirdoes, and not the other way around. But love them or hate them, you have to admit you are seeing a lot more silicone than you used to. And I'm loving every minute of it.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Four Pack Blogination

We are hours away from the big Miami Cross Blogination and it has become apparent that 2 of the little 4 pack are nervous. What is this 4 pack you say? Well out of the 21 blogs, our group somehow became a little circle. I'm writing on Al Capone's site. He is writing on Tere's site. She is writing on White Dade's site. And yes, he is writing on mine.

When I first read the assignments, I laughed because two edgy bloggers got stuck with two mommy bloggers. I had a feeling they would be disappointed. All single guys want smokin hot chics, right? Hey, we are smokin hot chics. It is just that we are married and have cute little babies that have changed our perspective a bit.

Anyway, both White Dade and Al Capone have conveyed a bit of apprehension about what we'll post. I laughed this morning when I read Al Capone's post and just now when I read White Dade's. There is only one rule. We have to post something that we think would fit the blog. I can't wait to laugh tomorrow when I read what White Dade came up with. I am also interested to see if Al Capone thinks my post sucked. It isn't quite as edgy as his usual material, but well...I tried. This is exactly why I signed up...to see different perspectives about my blog. If nothing else, they can appreciate the million links in this post that just added to their Technorati popularity.

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Sunday, September 17, 2006

Suckered In

"Can I ask you a question?" asked a curvaceous Columbian chic with a thick accent.

I reluctantly answered "sure," preferring to be polite.

"How often do you use lotion?"

Suddenly dreading where this was heading, I answered, "every day."

She smiled, "Let me show you what the Dead Sea salt can do for your skin."

As she was spreading it across my arm, I noticed that she was covered in head-to-toe fashion faux pas that seem to be so popular in this mall. I wondered if the fashion police would ever venture down to Miami. I also realized that it seemed to work for her in some strange way.

She rinsed my arm and of course it felt smooth and moist. A dab of olive oil and table salt would have the same affect, but I am a sucker for beauty products. She followed up with some lotion that had a wonderful aroma and proceeded to tell me all about their 100% natural facial cream.

I was still plotting ways to politely make my escape when she told me the price. She said I could have them each for the low price of $49 bringing the total to approximately $150. That is when I smiled, because no way would I pay that much for 3 beauty products from a kiosk in the mall. She jumped in to say that I would be getting a year supply of each, which had no impact on my decision. She proceeded to eliminate the products I was least interested in including the facial cream and lotion. When she mentioned the Dead Sea salt, Origins popped into my mind and she saw a glimmer of hope. Her new tactic was to drop the price. When she got down to $20, I said ok.

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Friday, September 15, 2006

Life is a Highway that Goes to Key West

I know there are times when we all think about escaping the rat race, especially me. There is no time to enjoy life when you are sitting in traffic and living at work. I feel like every second of my life is scheduled for something. It has not always been like that. When I have lived in small towns or overseas, I always seemed to have oodles of time even when I worked 40 hours a week. I don't know how that is possible, but it is.

While thinking about the hustle and bustle of Miami and ways to escape it, I thought about a trip to the Keys. Did you know that if you are down here going even further south, almost every major road leads to Key West? I-95, the Palmetto (826), and the Turnpike all end at US-1, which goes to the Keys. I would like to think that the Transportation Planners who did that had our psyche in mind. Hmm...maybe I should look into booking a little Bed & Breakfast for a weekend before tourist season begins in November.

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Thursday, September 14, 2006

Miami Guest Bloggers


There are only five days until Miami Cross Blogination, which is when 21 blogs in Miami will do an ol switch-a-roo. I will be sending a post for Al Capone and White Dade will be posting on this blog. Since the main rule is that the post has to be related to the blog on which it will be featured, I have been reading up and thinking about several ideas. I feel lucky to get a themed blog, unlike mine which is all over the place. Actually, all over the place means random and whatever. The best part about this is that I will make sure to check out a bunch of blogs that I have not read yet.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

What ... I take Performance Enhancers?

Over Labor Day weekend, I found out in this article that I take a performance enhancer (Sudafed) and I would venture to say that quite a few unsuspecting Americans do. We would all have problems if they were football players for the NFL because it is one of the banned substances. Sammy Morris, a Miami Dolphin, is currently suspended for taking Sudafed.

Unfortunately, bad sinuses run in my family (thanks dad for sharing that & not your unbelievably great metabolism). I try to ignore the issue most of the time, but when a killer one comes on (and I am not pregnant), I go for the enhancer. I should probably admit that I have even had a coke the same day I took a Sudafed. -Killer Combination- What I would like to know is when does the amazing abilities or at least a rush kick in?

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Goodbye House, Goodbye Street, Goodbye Porpoise Spit

Three months ago (June 14th), I announced that we had our house up for sale. My short attention span and the slow market had caused me to lose faith, but I am here to tell you that YES we finally have a contract on our house. The realtor came by last night with the offer and it was our rock bottom price (of course). We are still happy with it though - thank you South Florida Home Inflation! WE LOVE YOU! I feel like we were on a episode of "Flip This House." Now, I have to start looking for a place to rent in the Gables, the Grove, or on the Beach.

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