Hi.

It’s been like blizarding today. If someone could enlighten me as to wtf is going on that would be awesome.

The past few weeks we’ve had some really nice fall temps. It’s been in the 60’s, a few rainy days but mostly pretty nice. It’s been awesome! Then, all of the sudden it’s 35 and snowing. How is that even possible?? Usually it doesn’t start getting this cold until like December or even January.

Travis is here from Florida this weekend. And the second he stepped off the plane this morning, it started snowing. So obviously I blame him.

At the same time however, the Floridian in me is still pretty excited… until I try to go out in it.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Miami this summer it seems like. It’s weird because I feel like when you live in Cooper City / Broward County, you have this idea that Miami is so far away. I know I grew up thinking that, but it’s really not at all. My dad works in Miami and goes there every day. And while maybe during rush hour Miami can feel like years away from here, you can be in Miami Gardens / Miami Lakes in 15 minutes, and in downtown Miami / Miami Beach in less than 30.

So I should be taking advantage of that right?!

Well I am.

Yesterday Angela and I went to this newly remodeled park in Miami Beach called South Pointe Park. (Click on the panoramic to see it full size.) I had read about it online where people were calling it their “favorite spot in Miami” and “the best park in the United States.” 

They weren’t lying.

This park is crazy cool. But one of the coolest parts about it is that it’s hidden and unknown. So unlike the rest of South Beach, it’s not overrun with tourists, it’s just a chill place for the people who know about it to come hang out. And it’s huge, so even when there are a lot of people there, you can still find your own space. It runs the entire width of the island of Miami Beach at the very Southern tip bordering the inlet to the bay on the South side and the beach / Atlantic Ocean on the East.

The park is centered around this plaza area that has crazy fountain things for kids to play in, but also misters, which were great for a day like yesterday when it was about 800 degrees. The building next to that has a FroYo / drink stand and bathrooms, and you can even chill on the roof.

There are pathways that wind all throughout the park and lead out to the beach and the rocks that separate the ocean from the bay. You can even walk out on them halfway (paved) or all the way if you want to climb.

The worst part is that there is nowhere to park. We drove down Ocean, then Collins, then Washington until we finally found a garage that was really far away. But that’s probably a good thing since it keeps the masses away.

Go to this park.

…or don’t. We don’t want crowds there anyway ;)

This weekend I went up to Gainesville for what seems to be turning into an annual summer trip. As much as I love to hate on the Gators, that place grows on me every time I visit, haha. I was only there for Fri & Sat, but the kids at UF (and at all the big Florida schools, for that matter) are so chill and nice, so it was a lot of fun. I wish we had that at NYU.

Anyway! I got to hang out with Kelly & Cara, sisters whose parents went to UF with my parents back in the day and who I’ve known my whole life. That was great since I never get to see them anymore.

Even though this was like my fourth time visiting UF, I had never actually been inside the stadium before. They just leave it open and let people go hang out/work out there whenever they want which is unique but awesome. Really it’s such a crappy stadium but it’s still so cool because it’s such a legendary place, like Fenway Park. And even I, a non-Gators and non-Red Sox fan, can appreciate that. Cara and I walked all around campus, from Rawlings to the stadium, to Tandy’s place at Springs.

I also visited Jordan who showed me her apartment and sorority house that she’ll be living in next year.

One thing that amazes me about Gainesville every time I go there is that it’s so far north in Florida that it actually gets hilly. The picture above is from i75, which may look pretty regular to some people but I see hills so rarely in my life that it’s cool — even small hills like that.

So yeah, pretty much spent the two days doing Gainesville related things like going to Swamp, Pita Pit, and Mochi. All around good trip. 

David and I hung out on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach today. Five things happened:

1. David had his first Shake Shack experience! Which as we all know can be life changing. And he enjoyed it.

2. I used the new Final Cut X at the Apple store. It’s as terrible as everyone says it is.

3. When we walked out onto the beach, this girl came up to us with her friend and said “Hey, she doesn’t speak English but can she take a picture with you?” So, we did. Now, my first thought was, oh, these nice tourists want to take a picture with some locals. But upon second thought, these two Spanish speaking latinas probably were the locals who wanted to take a picture with us, the pale white kids wearing jeans and sneakers on the beach who are probably from Arkansas or something. That’s us! Either way, good for them. I hope they win whatever bet they were obviously involved in.

4. We saw some dude walking his pig down Lincoln Road. David acted all nonchalant like that happens every day, but I say… Only in South Beach.

5. As we were leaving, my low gas light came on, and we went on a frantic search for gas… in Miami, no less… so I ended up having to go to a BP (which I try to avoid ever since they ruined the ocean) and paying $3.93/gallon. But I guess it evened out since the parking machine in Miami Beach malfunctioned so I got to park all day for free.

Good times.

Thursday night I got to hang out at the NBC6 studios for their 11 o’clock broadcast. My super cool friend / former CTVer, Ashley, is an intern there and hooked me up with a quick tour around the newsroom and studios. Everyone there was so chill and awesome. And as you can see from the picture above, they have such a nice building.

NBC6 is an O&O NBC station meaning they are owned and operated by the national NBC Universal company in New York. Because of that I noticed so many similarities between their office here and the NBC headquarters at 30 Rock in New York. Most notably, Comcast, new owner of NBC, has conveniently placed their corny quotes (“First we dream, then we deliver”) all around NBC6 just like in 30 Rock.

Thanks Ashley!

The Marlins had a 4th of July Fireworks show after the game tonight at Sun Life Stadium in Miami so Angela and I went to check it out. We lost to the Phillies (expected) but the fireworks were pretty sweet. Here are a few clips from my phone.

Happy 4th of July!

So I have these two friends named David and Angela. They’re pretty cool. I’ve been doing cool things with them this week.

First we went to a Marlins game in Miami. If you haven’t heard, the Marlins have been awesome this season. We have been tied for first with the Phillies in the NL East, and at worst we were a few games back. Then we went on an 11-game losing streak and dropped to last place. We thought this would be the PERFECT time to go see them play.

We lost.

David, the only one of us who is 21, purchased his first $9 beer at a sporting event while Angela and I enjoyed our alcohol-free beverages. Surprisingly for a Wednesday there were a bunch of other people at the game. Not a lot, but some. And we were sitting 9 rows behind home plate so that was cool. Hopefully more fans will come out when the new stadium is done next year.

After the game we decided to go to the Hard Rock. David continued to remind us that he was the only one of us who is 21 by trying his luck at the slots (just kidding, we totally encouraged him). And it paid off… because he won $22.

Thennn last night, I finally watched Forrest Gump with them, which Angela has been trying to get me to do since the second I got home. Yes, I had never seen Forrest Gump. But you win Angela, I liked the movie.

All of the above will be happening again soon as I’m officially staying down in Florida for July as well :)

My sister graduated from high school on Monday. Whaaaat?!

I’m not sure where the past like 7 years have gone but they’ve peaced and here we are in 2011, me, a rising Senior in college, and my sister, graduated from high school and heading to UVM in the fall.

Anyway I’m really glad I got to go to the ceremony. Despite the fact that it was long and boring (an 18-minute speech, really Ms. Doll?), I got to see lots of people that I haven’t seen in a while like Cooper teachers (Scaff, Harding, Pichardo) and the 2011 graduates. But there were also a surprising amount of other 08 Grads there to watch their siblings graduate so it was cool catching up with them, too.

Pichardo was awarded Teacher of the Year this year and made an adorable speech which you can watch on my Facebook, here.

Since the graduation, I’ve spent the week catching up with old friends and doing “Cooper City things” like going to the Starbucks plaza on Stirling and Steak and Shake at 2am. It’s been chill.

Still not really sure what my plans are for the rest of the summer since they’ve changed like five times already… but whatever. Taking it day by day! I’ll be down for the rest of June at least. Maybe July, too.

Congrats 2011 grads!

Here’s a few more pics:

^Myles, Maxie

^Alyssa

^Tandy

When did Cooper Starbucks become so indie?!

I didn’t get to come home for Spring Break this year because I had to work and do preproduction for my movie, but last week was an off week on Jimmy Fallon (meaning they’re not shooting new episodes) and the movie is done, so I made my own Spring Break and went home to SoFla from last Tuesday until yesterday.

It was definitely too short, but it was great.

I was kind of hoping to do nothing for most of it, which didn’t really happen because I only had like 5 days to see lots of people like the ones in the above picture. That was during our trip to the new FroYo place in Countryside Shops where some old ladies were there dying/talking about their boyfriends. Lol, Florida.

I did not, however, do anything Floridian. Didn’t even see the beach. Classic Dean.

I’m back in New York now where I have to catch up on what I missed in class last week, hah, but just a few weeks till the semester is over, and about a month and a half until the internship is over. Wooo Summer’11 coming soon!