Back From Miami

South Beach is so not our scene! Hot ass weather (we have that here, no need go go all the way to bloody Florida!), non-English speaking people (got that in TN too!) skinny ass people all clad in the least clothing possible (thank goodness we haven't got too many of those here) and too many topless pompous Europeans on the beach making the American boys go ga-ga. Yet, I cannot tell you how much fun ROMT and I enjoyed ourselves the last three days in Miami!

My favorite buddy, Mathi or Guru (as I like to call him - his last name is Gurusamy thus Guru), was getting married. I met Guru (also a Singaporean, except he is of Indian descent) in high school in Toronto about 20 years ago. He has remained a really good friend since. He was also the one whom both the husband and I visited up in Szombathy, Hungary a couple of years back; and he'd met us up in Bangkok last year on a fake business trip lol. Now he lives in Xiamen, China working for a Dutch company.

Where do I begin telling you how our Easter weekend began. I guess I have to start with that first awesome lunch Bruce took me to at Joe's Stone Crab. Need I say more?! Mathi, Helena and her 13 yr old niece, Christina, joined us mid way and the partying started there. A bottle of white wine... then we transported ourselves to Lario's on the beach. There, we drank... and drank... and drank... non stop and fast. Couldn't help it! The heat, the excitement to hang out with Mathi again... not to mention, he brings out the lush in me lol. Before I knew it, we were sitting there with married couple Dave and Arturo. Dave was Mathi's room mate in college and Arturo is Dave's husband of 2 over years and they live in San Francisco. They are SO fun. SO bitchy... I love it! Hopefully I can see then as planned in a couple of weeks out in SF just to hang out... tho' the husband is a little nervous about them wanting to 'teach' me some things to make Bruce an even happier man LOL! That night, The Ryans missed the big party. Why!? 'Coz we bloody partied 6 hours way earlier then everyone else I was smashed, sloshed, dead to the world. I was so out of it I skipped dinner. Now how drunk can you imagine I was lol. The wedding was on day 2 so Bruce and I simply hung out on our own... hung out by the rooftop pool, got some sun, some breakfast and just chilled. We got to walk around South Beach for a little but it wasn't that impressive considering the heat... so after another good lunch at Puerto Sagua, we decided to tough out the weather and headed for the beach. Yikes! 30 mins later, we were on our way back to the room for a nice nap before getting ready for the wedding.

The smallish outdoor wedding of 40 at the Ritz Carlton was beautiful. Even the loud house music at the hotel/beach next to the 'alter' didn't change anything. It was a nice simple ceremony. Helena looked gorgeous and Guru was shittin' in his pants nervous as hell HAHAHAHA! It was all perfectly awesome! He's always been mister cool so to see him in that state was quite hilarious :D He just couldn't wait to get married and start the party going lol. The party, as it turns out, continued way past after the bride and groom left to begin their honeymoon in their suite. We stayed even after Dave and Arturo left. At the end of it all, there was Jason the Best Man, Mathi's buddy from Central Michigan and Helena's niece and her bf, Chris. We sat and tried to solve Jason's loveless life without Rose - the girl he met in Jamaica three months ago FOR A DAY! Needless to say, the wedding got to Jason a little... but fun was had by all of us making fun of him... me most of all. Hey, somebody had to take Mathi's place :D

Sunday, we met up with Bruce's buddy, Wayne and his girlfriend(?) and joined Mathi and Helena for lunch at Bongo's. Yummy cuban food! It was nice see Wayne again since I haven't seen him since our last trip to Tokyo... and it certainly was exciting to finally meet Sherry after all I'd heard about her. She's very nice... they look cute together(!) so hopefully we'd get to go to another wedding in Florida again soon lol. "No pressure Wayne!" :D

So Helena is now Mrs Gurusamy... she's glowing even more than that 1.7 carat platinum diamond ring on her finger. They should still be driving themselves back to her house in Tampa with Mathi's two sisters and nephews who flew all the way from Singapore.

It seemed like just yesterday I was sitting at Mathi's house in Singapore being served food by his mom... it certainly seems like yesterday when we were at his apartment in Indiana laughing at his room-mate (another Singaporean guy) turning a quarter of a century years old and making fun of his 'old age' and telling him he was dying. We were merely a pair of very cruel 19 yr olds... who have turned into cruel 30-somethings lol. Where have all the time gone?! Now, we're a pair of 35 yr olds... thank goodness we only call older people then us, friends lol.