Doc Hop

Today was my baby’s first time at Miami Beach!  As I’m sure you are all aware, Addam and I bike over almost every weekend, but as it’s a long ride we were always too scared to bring the puppy.  Fortunately, Addam just got a basket for the back of his bike, making it possible for us to bring her along.  The little cutie had a tendency to jump out of the back every time we would come to a stop, but for the most part we made the 5.5 miles without incident.

The fiance and I woke up late, watched a few episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond and were on our way.  We decided to go to North Beach today, so the ride was a lot shorter than usual.  (Which is good, because Yoga was panting it up by the time we reached the sand).

Before heading to the ocean, Addam had to stop and pick up a bunch of postcards for us to send out to everyone we’ve been missing in Chicago.  He plans to send one to Red Lobster, and I’m sure I’ll send one to PetSmart.  There was a $10 minimum, so if you want to hear from us, for any reason, just let us know and we’ll send you one.  Lord knows we have enough of them…

After getting the postcards we stopped for some McDonald’s  ice cream and headed to the ocean, which is exactly what Yoga had been waiting the entire day for.

She absolutely loved it!  I’ve never seen Yoga happier while at the beach.  Addam and I used to take her all the time when we lived in Chicago, and we’ve taken her to Virginia Beach two or three times, but there must be something about Miami.  I’ve never seen her have more fun running in the sand.  She was so cute, I had to take a video.  It’s a little long, but if you hang in there, I assure you it’s worth it.

After a good run, Addam and I forced Yoga to go out on the raft.  Both to cool off, and because we wanted to swim and couldn’t leave her standing on the beach while we did so.  She’d end up following us in anyway, so we knew that as much as she’d hate it, we just had to bring her in.  Once again, she was way too cute not to shoot video.  This one is a lot shorter, and she showcases her great swimming ability toward the end.

After a couple of hours of swimming, we all biked home, stopping at a Haitian grocery store on the way for some good eats to finish off the weekend.  Addam and I have spent the rest of the evening watching TV and playing Scarface on the Wii.  (Ok…Addam’s playing Scarface on the Wii…I’m uploading videos to YouTube for this post).

I’m really excited though.  Tonight is the premiere of this reality show, Sister Wives, which follows a family of polygamists.  Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love the show Big Love, which is a sitcom of the same subject.  I don’t know why, but it fascinates me.  Anything that makes me relatively uncomfortable does, I guess.   I think that is really why I became a journalist.  I’ve always been interested in different cultures and lifestyles, and I love stepping outside of myself and questioning everything I’ve grown to accept as true.

My next project, whenever I have the finances to actually dedicate myself to it, will be to put myself in a situation each week where I am the outsider.  I had to do this as part of class at James Madison University. Diversity and Muliculturalism.  Probably the most eye-opening class I took in undergraduate school.    As part of the class, each student had to attend two events in which they would be the minority.  Alone.  Rallies, religious ceremonies, strip clubs.  It was up to us.

I ended up going to a Russian church and drag show, both of which taught me a lot.  I won’t deny that I had more fun at the drag show, but I really stepped out of myself by going to the church.  Most of the people there did not speak English, and all had been attending for quite some time.  I did feel out of place being there alone, but, at the same time, very accepted and very welcome.

I want to do more things like this.  I want to challenge myself to go outside of my comfort zone each week and see what I can find out about other people and other lifestyles.  I don’t know when I’ll start this endeavor, but plan to hear about it in future weeks.  It’s something I’m pretty passionate about.

“The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears or the sea.” — Isak Dinesen, composer.