AwesomesauceToday I woke up at 8am, which is the first time I've done that in, I think, well over a year. I futzed around online a bit, then walked around 5th Street to try and find the CVS. I was so distracted by the crazy Art Deco buildings that I walked right past it and all the way to the Causeway before I realized my mistake. I just made the block, though, and found the Publix - which is an awesomely huge grocery store, and had everything I needed for basic survival. The cashier spoke to me in Spanish, because everyone here speaks Spanish, and I actually managed to answer in it. Which made the last semester in school feel kinda worthwhile.
Then I wandered around and actually
found the CVS, and bought suntan lotion and a super-huge beach towel blanket thingee, and Orbitz Mist gum because the commercials were intriguing, but it's actually kinda gross. Then a quick, cheap breakfast at my hotel, and then a shower because a girl cannot go to the beach with prickly legs.
And then sun! And sand! And beach, such pretty beach. The water is cold but
gorgeous. Everyone on the beach was really chill and there weren't any screaming child, which was fantastic. So I slathered myself up and sprawled out like a dying whale. It was glorious.
Except at some point when I was laying on my stomach, I must have dozed off. I didn't even realize I did it until I got back to my hotel room and realized that instead of being gone for two hours, I'd been gone for three. And then I looked at myself in the mirror. RED ohmigod. My back is super red, and the backs of my legs. There is little in life that is worse than having sunburn on the backs of your knees.
The craziest part of my tan/burn is that my arms are tanned, my shoulders are tanned, my face is tanned, and then I have this little upside-down triangle of red at the base of my throat, and a white chest. It took me a while to figure out what happened: my boobs made a shadow across my chest and kept me from getting burned there.
My freaking boobs destroyed my tanline. The curse of an ample bosom, people.
I came in for lunch and a bit of a rest, and then I went swimming in the afternoon. I just want to say that swimming in the beautiful clear waters of Miami at sunset is one of the best things in the world!
I ended up falling asleep and stayed that way until 2am, and then went out around 4am to walk to the CVS and buy a memory card for my camera. The streets were empty, but most of the sidewalk restaurants were full of workers hosing down the outside and stacking tables and chairs and sprinkler systems watering the palm trees. At four in the morning the streets smell like bleach and cool ocean breezes, and it's wonderfully quiet.
I'm in love with this city.
Next post will have actual pictures, I promise!