Bye July, hello August
It was definitely an eventful weekend, some good and some bad.
First thing Saturday morning, I went with my neighbor Ericka to get free trees at FIU’s North Campus and although it was sweltering hot in that long line, it was wonderful catching up with her.
Later that day however, as I was walking to my car to run an errand, I watched in horror as two trees in our front yard come crashing down, I mean huge trees (a gumbo limbo and an avocado) that snapped like twigs in a domino effect. Luckily no one was hurt and nothing was damaged and we were able to get them removed by Monday morning.
Vance and I cut up what we could and put it out with the trash. After all that excitement, Vance and I decided we deserved a night out to forget about all the drama. We started our evening at Conscious Brewing in Miami Shores where we had a great conversation with our friendly bartender and I discovered they have a Thursday trivia night which I made a note to add to my trivia night article/post on South Florida on the Cheap.
Because the night was still young and we were hungry, we went to the old reliable, The Citadel food hall in Little River which is always the right choice. There, I ran into Ty who I met while volunteering at Nourish Miami who was there with a family who remembered us from Biscayne Park’s Rec Center, where we spent a lot of time when the kids were growing up. Then, while we were enjoying our dinner, in walked Jairo Ontiveros who I know from the Arsht Center and he was there with Zaylin Yates and Terrence Pride the co-founders of Brévo Theatre who I also know and have written about. After a nice conversation with them and finishing our meal (I devoured my yummy burger from USBS) and on our way out, we stopped in at the cute Sir Thrifty boutique vintage store inside The Citadel, to browse their vinyl collection and cool clothes and other odds and ends.
The rest of the week was pretty quiet. Food rescue volunteering in the morning and at night on Monday and nothing on Tuesday, just working quietly at home on an article about the Vida Fest coming up at the Sandrell Rivers Theater.
Cool new mural at Bird Bowl. They’ve also moved the arcade into the connecting space next door and it’s huge! They’ve also upgraded all the lane scoreboards/screens.
Wednesday morning I took a tour of the Overtown Performing Arts Center because I’m pitching a story idea to the Miami Times about the venue then that afternoon, I drove Nick and his friend Geno to their friend Ashley’s party at Bird Bowl. I was really impressed with all the upgrades at the historic bowling alley in Westchester, they’ve really stepped it up! We stayed there for a few hours then drove over to Old Tom’s Sports Bar for our weekly trivia outing where our team failed miserably but we still had a good time.
Thursday was also quiet except for the early evening when our neighbor Mikley who was always at our house growing up, hanging out with Elizabeth and Nick, stopped by for a visit, it was wonderful to see him!
Tonight we’re going to dinner with our friends Kevin and Michelle who now live in Port St. Lucie but are in Miami for the weekend. We’re going to Bar Bucce in Little River, which I hear great things about and probably after we’ll go to Cuckoo Clock Miami in Little Haiti. I’m really looking forward to seeing them and having a nice couples night out.
Saturday we’ll be at The Ground in downtown Miami watching my great niece Kaitlyn play guitar with her band at the annual Miami Girls Rock Camp finale. I’m pretty sure Vance and I will end up somewhere for dinner after that. And that’ll do it for the week.
Finally, I’m proud to announce that I am officially a Board Member of Boom Ensemble and am also currently reviewing scripts for Miami Film Lab. I am honored to have been asked to do both! I’ve been reading scripts for the last few days and it’s really fun! And I also picked up another small catering gig, this one from Andie Arthur and her South Florida Theatre League. I’ll be preparing lunches for her group at Pinecrest Gardens on Aug. 15th. If you’ve never been to Pinecrest Gardens I encourage you to go, it’s so pretty.
I’d also love to share this great article by writer Miguel Sirgado, my cohort with Artburst Miami, about an exhibition by artist Kit Pancoast Nagamur at The Kampong in Coconut Grove. I was fascinated to learn the artist’s ties to that beautiful attraction in the Grove and who her great grandfather was! I hope I’ve piqued your interest with that little nugget of info.
Next week, I’m already looking forward to grabbing a burger at Burgers & Shakes on Tuesday when during their grand opening in North Miami just a few blocks away. Then on Thursday, attending a movie screening of “The Last Days of the Miami News” at the Freedom Tower. The Miami News, Miami’s only afternoon newspaper, actually occupied the Freedom Tower for decades until they moved out in the late 1960s. The paper ceased printing in 1988 and I actually wrote a few articles for them while I was in college.
Now here are some parting animal shots of an Ibis I spotted in the neighborhood, a mourning dove in our birdfeeder and cute kitty in our backyard. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Oh, and I want to wish my brother Manolo an early happy birthday. His birthday is tomorrow.
