Friday, November 18, 2005

The long awaited Trip to Miami post!

This post will probably come out in spanglish, so bear with me.

The short version:
We got to Miami. We went out and had lots of fun. We went shopping. I bought my iPod Video and my iBook. We went to the concert. Winch proposed, Loli said yes. We got on a plane and came back.

The long version:
Warning: This is the long, detailed version, so it’s going to be long and detailed.
Our plane was supposed to leave at 3:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon, so I went to the salon in the morning and after that did my packing. Winch went and picked me up at home, gave me the ring (he was scared the machines would beep at airport security, so I put it in my purse) and then we went to pick up Loli. She was all tired and not in the best of moods. On our way to the airport Winch played some of the songs from "Festival de los Robots" on his iPod, so that got me in a better mood.
When we got to the airline counter we bumped into a co-worker of Winch’s who was also flying to the concert. Winch was nice enough to upgrade our tickets to Business class, so we flied in style! When we got to Fort Lauderdale’s International Airport we though going thru Migration was going to be a breeze. Oh how wrong we were! Apparently the airport was just recently upgraded to International but the facilities are still in local version. A very small airport, which was good in a sense ‘cause we didn’t have to walk that much, but Migration was a nightmare. There were only like 10 booths and only 6 Migration Officers on shift. 4 were for aliens and 2 for Americans for 4 flights. We spent almost 2 hours standing in line! After going thru customs we went straight to get our rental car at Dollar. There’s a huge building in front of the terminal that houses all the car rental agencies, so it was a breeze getting there. We decided to rent a GPS unit (which we called "Uhura" in honor of the Enterprise’s Communications Officer). While at Dollar’s counter, Gertrudis, Winch’s best friend who lives in Fort Lauderdale, met up with us. We said our hellos and finished with the rental transactions. We rented a Jeep Laredo (we like SUVs), and with Gertrudis as our guide, headed straight to Sawgrass Mills since one of Princess Loli’s requests was that she had to go shopping.
The first thing we bought, or rather, the first thing that Winch bought was a "Magic 8 Ball" at KB Toy Store. He didn’t say it in front of her, but I bet the first question he asked was "will she say yes?" After much shopping on Loli’s part, we met up with Jerry and Annie, who had been nice enough to give us shelter in Miami. Annie is Winch’s cousin, and with Gertrudis, they were best friends in school.
They went shopping (or rather tagged along) with us until we were too tired to keep on going. Then we decided to head up to "The Cheesecake Factory" for dinner. I wasn’t really very hungry, so I ordered some nachos, but it came out that the plates were huge so I couldn’t even eat half of it, but they were sooooo good! We topped dinner with a huge piece of Godiva cheesecake (it was so big that we only ordered one serving and all 6 of us had some). After that we headed back to Miami (we were given a bola to our jeep in Jerry’s brother’s Audi A6. All 6 of us in that car! I couldn’t feel my legs! 4 caderas Latinas en la parte de atrás. ¡Ya se imaginan!).
We got to the house at Miami and it was so nice! It smelled like Christmas! We hung out on their backyard for a while. There I found out that Jerry was also a Mac user (he had recently bought a Powerbook G4) AND he worked at Discovery! Discovery! My favorite channel in the whole wide world! O sea! I had met someone who worked at Discovery!
At around 1 a.m. we decided to drive around the city. It was, after all, Saturday night! All 6 of us got into our Jeep (otra vez las caderas Latinas). We were concerned that the cops we going to pull us over, but our alibi was that we were giving Gertrudis a ride to her car (we were on South Beach and her car was all the way back in Doral, but the cops didn’t know that!). We drove up Ocean Drive and saw all the nice people at the clubs and cafes. It really shocked me to find a bunch of people on motorcycles parked in the street (igualito a la Lincoln). There was a guy in front of us on an Escalade who had this huge TV screen in the SUV and he was watching hip hop videos. We had a laugh with that! We went by "Miami Ink", saw a bunch of other clubs and headed back home at around 3 a.m. At that hour, Gertrudis got on her jeep and headed back to Fort Lauderdale against our wishes (we asked her to stay over but she decided to go back home).
Do you guys know that people in Miami are now listening to reguetón? UGH!
Jerry got out an inflatable bed and inflated it on the living room. This was where Winch was going to sleep. Loli and I were going to sleep in the study on a sofa bed. When I tried it my back started talking to me: "if you sleep here I won’t let you get up tomorrow and you won’t be able to go shopping nor go to the concert and you’ll miss the special moment", so we took the mattress down and slept on the floor.
As you can imagine, Loli and I started chatting up. A few minutes later, after going to bed, Winch started snoring like a train and we had a giggle attack. We even took some pictures and recorded him! We couldn’t stop laughing or talking. I figure we finally went to sleep at around 6.
We had made plans to have breakfast at 9 am the following morning...
My phone alarm went off at 8 am. We hit snooze a couple of times and finally got out of bed at around 9 am, when Gertrudis rang the doorbell.
We had a great breakfast. Croissants, different types turquitos, croquetas, bagels, coffee, milk, juice… the works. YUMMY! After chatting some more, we went out shopping.
I had brought my walkie-talkies with me, so both cars we were riding in were connected.
Our first stop was at this mini shopping center were we went to buy some perfumes at a shop tended to by an old lady (this information will come in handy now). Loli was looking into buying a perfume ‘cause she said Winch didn’t like the way her perfumes smelled. When we asked her why she asked Winch:
Loli – "¿Winton, a tí te gusta cómo huelen mis perfumes?"
Winton – "No."
L – "¿Por qué?"
W – "Porque huelen a vieja."
I guess I was kinda slow in the morning, but I saw a look on Gertrudis’ face that stroke me weird.
Eny – "¿Qué fué?"
Gertrudis – "O sea, yo quiero que ahora mismo se abra la tierra bajo mis pies y me trague."
E – "¿Y por qué?"
G – "¿Tú no oiste lo que dijo Winton?"
E – "Si, ¿y?"
G – "¿Y quién es que lo está atendiendo? ¿Una muchachita jovencita?"
We started laughing and Annie and Gertrudis vowed to never again go to that shop!
After that we went next door because I had to buy some... Ummmmm... personal garments. Enough said!
When we were done, we headed to The Falls. Now, this was my only request of the trip: The Apple Store. We got there, we parked and split up. The guys went with me while the girls went someplace else to shop for clothes and girl things.
My heart was beating harder and harder as we were getting closer to the shop. Finally, we were there. Oh, I could hear a choir of angels singing! I could die right then and there! Screw the concert, screw the proposal, I wanted to live there! You can imagine how bonkers I went when we went in the shop. I went around walking like crazy, my head started spinning around. I didn’t know what to do! I took pictures of everything, checked everything out! This was Heaven! After a while it was time to go, so I ordered my iBook (I’m writing this post on it now) and my 60 Gb iPod Video (I even talked Winch into buying a 30Gb one himself), shed a few tears of emotion and left the store with tears in my eyes.
They did a little shopping after that (I sat down every once in a while and stared at my new toys in their boxes). It was after 2 pm, so we headed to PF Chang’s for lunch. Man, that place is great! Food is awesome! I had some beef broccoli that made me even forget for a while about my new gadgets (NEVER!). In the middle of the restaurant there’s a statue of a Chinese warrior and it struck that the way he was standing looked like this thing that Winch says Annie does with her arms when she’s talking (he says she wiggles them around, but I never noticed it). We had some fortune cookies and Gertrudis proposed we play a game while reading our fortunes. We had to read the fortune out loud and end it with the phrase "on the bed." Incredibly, Loli’s and Winch’s fortunes said something about your luck changing tonight and stuff related to what we had planned. Too bad Loli didn’t know it at the time, but everyone else did.
After leaving (much to my sorrow) The Falls, we headed back home, with a quick stop at a Walgreens (I had to buy some chocolates and some pedialyte esquimalitos for my niece) and Publix (Winch wanted to buy some Materva). While at Walgreens, I suddenly began feeling nervous. The big moment was getting closer and I started feeling butterflies in my stomach. They were flying around so hard we split up again and left the guys at the Publix while we headed back home.
I went to the bathroom twice. I was so nervous! I had sort asked Loli what would happen if Winch were to pop the question earlier, but I wasn’t completely sure she was going to say yes. The second time I came out of the bathroom Loli asked me if I wanted something for my stomach. "Do you want some Imodium?" I looked her straight in the eyes and wanted to bitch-slap her. "You bitch! There’s nothing "wrong" with my stomach! I’m just damned nervous because Winch is going to propose tonight and I don’t know what your reaction will be!"
Of course I didn’t tell her that. I dryly said "no", turned around and went out to hang with Winch. Loli and Gertrudis wanted some ice cream, so they went to get some with Annie and Jerry while Winch and I stayed behind. The pressure was building up! Winch was nervous as hell, I was nervous as hell. We had planned things over and over again, but we didn’t know what was going to happen. We got ready, I gave him the ring and he put in his jeans’ pocket. "¡Loca, esta caja se ve! ¡Ella se va a dar cuenta!" "No, no se ve, no te apures, ella no se va a dar cuenta de nada."
They came back and we headed out, while Gertrudis left to Fort Lauderdale. We had decided we didn’t want to see the opening act so that we could have some more shopping time (little did we know that the band’s (Institue) leader was no other than Gavin Rossdale, a.k.a. Mr. Gwen Stefani.) We had just driven a couple of blocks when we noticed that in our nervousness we had left our binoculars back home, so Jerry turned around. It was for the best because Winch’s came in a big pouch and he put the ring inside it.
When we got to the arena one of the security people told me I couldn’t take the camera in with me (sorry guys, no good pics of the concert, though I did take some with my cell phone), so I had to go back to the car to give it to Jerry and Annie, who were hanging around just in case this would happen. Meanwhile, Winch told Loli he was going inside to look at some t-shirts. Loli got pissed at him. "How inconsiderate of him leaving us outside!" Little did she know he wanted to get past security before us just in case he had to take the box with the ring out. Anyways, I gave the camera to Jerry and Annie and we headed in. We got some t-shirts and headed to our seats.
My seat was in a section next to Loli and Winch’s. When I got there, there was a guy sitting on my seat. He asked me if I didn’t mind trading places with him since his whole group was sitting there. Since I was going to be sitting alone, I didn’t mind, so I took his ticket and headed to his seat. It turned out to be very good, since my row was just 3 rows up from Loli and Winch’s, so I had them in plain view.
It embarrasses me to say this, but I’m not a huge U2 fan as I should be. When I got to my seat, a nice girl sitting beside me introduced herself and asked if I was a big fan. A lied and said yes, but I was sure that I wouldn’t know half the lyrics to the songs. The lights dimmed and the show started.
I can just say that U2 rocked! Oh my God! I was amazed at the setting (nice stadium), the band, the music, the special effects. The works! ¡Diañe! ¡El pipo! ¡Adió vea! ¡Que campuna me sentí! ¡Qué ápero! The nice girl that had introduced herself to me earlier turned out to be a HUGE FAN. She kept on dancing, shouting, telling me to get up and shout. I was just there enjoying the music and waiting for my cue to step in.
Did you guys know that The Edge was from outer space and from the future? Bonoc told us his story. They were hanging out one day in their city (I think he said it was Dublin, but I don’t recall). Suddenly, out of nowhere this spaceship lands and out comes The Edge. Bono asked him who he was and he said his name was The Edge and that he came from outer space. Not only that, but he was also from the future. Bono asked him what the future was like and The Edge told him that a gallon of gas was worth $10 bucks but that it was much better. ¡Te la comiste Bono!
So anyways, almost 2 hours later I hear the opening to "With Or Without You". I hurried over to where Loli and Winch were and stood right behind them. I saw everything! I was part of it! I won’t tell you what Winch told her (I must respect their privacy), but I can tell you that he got on one knee right then and there and asked her to marry him. I was just holding my breath, waiting for her to do something (I couldn’t hear a thing, but I knew what he had planned to say). She had her head down and I could see tears flowing down her cheeks. She must’ve said something because he slipped the ring on and then they embraced and kissed. She had said yes! After some PDA (yo aguantando gorro con mi sombrero de Mexicana) he finally got up, I gave him a hug and kissed her on her head and went back to my seat.
As I said before, the concert was great. Bono made his statement about war and coexistence (very nice, I really do wish we could all co-exist). At one moment (I think they were singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday"), he got a kid on the stage and the both started singing “no more”). When they sang "One" they did this thing were you sent an MMS for a donation and after the concert your name would come out on the big display on top of the stage (Loli said she did it with Winch’s name but it didn’t come out).
After the concert we were all talking about how hard it had been for us to keep the secret from her for so long, especially for Annie during the weekend ‘cause apparently she’s not good at keeping secrets. Loli called her parents (at was 1 am Santo Domingo time), they thanked Winch for taking her off their hands. We chatted some more with Jerry and Annie at home and then went to bed at around 3 am.
Monday morning we woke up at 6 am. We got ready and left at around 7:15 am. We caught a bit of rush hour traffic, but were at Fort Lauderdale at around 8:20 am. Apparently Uhura was pissed that we were leaving her, because we missed an exit and then she drove us to the airport on a not so good road, full of trucks and scary things. We said by to her and the SUV, and headed for the airline counter. Winch weighed his luggage and it was overweight (claro, it was full of Dr. Pepper, Cherry Coke and Materva cans!) so he went and bought a carry-on bag. We bumped into a cousin of mine (high profile jevito, pero no de la Lincoln, jevito de verdad). He coldly said hi to me (I was amazed because he usually doesn’t even say hi at home), but after a while he came to me and asked how many bags I was carrying. Apparently Spirit does not permit more than 2 bags per person (they don't even let you pay extra for it), and he was carrying 3 huge ones, so he asked me to register one of his’ under my name. Thank God I’m a nice girl, because he’s always been a big asshole and he didn’t deserve any favors from me, but I still did it.
The flight back home was uneventful (aside from Loli staring at her ring all the time). She wanted to go to the office as soon as we got back, but I told her that if she wanted she could go, but I wouldn’t. Winch’s parents picked us up at the airport and drove us home.
Needless to say, when I got home I opened up my new toys and started playing with them…
Our new names: The Lord of the Ring (Winch), Gollum (Loli), Froda Baggins (me), Precious (the ring).
Many, many thanks to Getrudis, Jerry and Annie for putting up with us and being so nice!
And such was our weekend?
Any questions?

If you want to see the pics of the trip, click here.


2 comments:

henry siteber said...

I read the whole thing last night and needed the day to recover. I almost felt like I was there with you, and wish I was. I wish I knew people like you to hang out with.

Anonymous said...

Great post Bracuta!!
Loved every word of it... Sounds like you guys had a blast!! I'm happy for you...
And you got an iPod video!! I want one so bad!!!!
Been saving for the last few weeks to buy myself one for Christmas!!
Love ya!!

JT