Zenyatta Mondatta

So, while I typically play the married chick in real life, over the weekend of March 18th, I lived it up as a "single" girl with 3 of my girlfriends (Betsy, Diana, and Katherine) in Miami. I haven't seen these 3 ladies in over 2 years, so I've been missing them greatly!

Different friends bring out different sides, and these ladies bring out the side that hasn't been out to play in a while....I'm just thankful I'm such a lightweight, b/c drinks are expensive in Miami!

On Thursday (St. Patty's), I boarded a plane - connecting through Miami to Tampa, where Diana lives. (Would you believe it’s cheaper to CONNECT through Miami than to fly directly to Miami?). My plane was delayed, and I basically landed as soon as my flight to Tampa was almost done boarding. I ran faster than ever to catch the flight to Tampa, but my luggage couldn’t run fast enough….so I made the flight sans a change of clothes. (note to self, pack extra clothes in carry on…..)

In Tampa, Betsy (in from Portland, Oregon) and Diana greeted me, and we started up our ladies weekend. I was a bit of a grump, being all gross from the flight and from sprinting across the terminal, but we still had fun, and went out for a bit of St. Patty’s celebration. At midnight, we picked up Katherine, who had flown in from NYC, and found my long lost bag. Yippeee!

The next day, waaaaay too early in the morning, we loaded up the car, and drove down to Miami Beach. I love the architecture of SoBe, it's like walking onto a movie-set. The buildings are all done art-deco style. And the men and women are just as gorgeous as the buildings. My senses were totally on overdrive the entire weekend.

Our first day in SoBe, we wandered around, and stumbled our way from bar to bar, drinking up as many daquiri's and mojitos as we could handle. Finally, I hit my wall (which didn't take too long!), and we went back to our cute little hotel, The Clay Hotel, and crashed for a power nap.

Afterwards, we got ready in our best Miami going out outfits, and we went out for Betsy and Katherine's birthdays at Tantra. The restaurant has a middle-eastern type feel with dark corners and beautiful lamps, and the floor was real grass for the front part of the restaurant. I was wearing really high heels, and kept sinking in the grass. The food was amazing...(albeit pricey), but, again, the senses were out of control. Women and men with plastic surgery galore, and on the back wall of the restaurant behind the bar, this asian movie with erotic scenes was projected onto a huge screen.

We were all a bit sleepy from our day of drinking and the nap just about did us in. But, we caught our second wind, and headed over to the Hotel Delano to continue our evening. The Hotel Delano is without a doubt where the beautiful people hang out --and the people with $$. A drink there was like $18 or so. Totally crazy, but wonderful eye candy. We headed home after the Delano thinned out, and woke up the next day to lounge on the beach. It was a great day, and so nice to hang out with my girls and laugh.

That night, we went cheap on the food, and found a cute little mexican dive with super yummy food. Then, off to the Shoreclub Hotel to hang out at the Skybar Hotel. Skybar was a little lackluster compared to Delano-adorable bartenders (men and women), and a fantastic private lounging area by the pool for "couples" that was incredibly romantic. After Skybar, we hit the Crobar for some dancing action.

My girlfriends all met international cuties from all over, and I hung out with a guy from Sweeden--we were officially the "non-single" friends--he has a 4 year live-in girl friend, and I have a hubby, so we basically kept each other company, while our friends kept each other better company. Betsy and Kat had a bit of a language barrier with their guys ----lucky the club was so noisy, it limited talking! At some point in the night, my dear, dear drunk Betsy comes over and yells, Oh my gosh! That guy you are hanging out with looks like Sting!!! I'll be damned, he does.......and I LOOOOOOVE Sting. (maybe more so with the beer googles on....).

So, that was worth a few good laughs throughout the night. We headed home around 4:30, and went to bed around 6. And got up the next morning at 10. No rest for the weary. In a move to knock out our hangovers, Betsy and I headed for an adventure parasailing. We went side by side, and it was a fun adventure, I'm so happy she did it with me, and it will always be something I remember. And, I'll be damned, no more hangover.

Sunday afternoon, we made the drive back to Tampa, laughing so hard about our weekend and all of the wonderful memories we had made. We crashed at Diana's and went home early early the next morning. I came home on Monday at 1:00 pm and slept until 6, just long enough to get up, have dinner, and go back to bed.

Zenyatta Mondatta--I was on top of the world

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