Miami Diari, Day 3 (the one with Tina Kim)

When last we left our intrepid and procrastinating-blogger hero...

It was Friday, Day 3 of the adventures in Miami.

For the curious, 'twas also my six-month anniversary with Marisa, who has finally posted some serious pictures. Check 'em out. They're much better than mine.

(Which isn't even mine, but one I ripped off Tina Kim's MySpace.)

Anyway, I spent the morning working the booth, the noontime hour mooching a free lunch at the Awards Luncheon and the afternoon in one fascinating seminar (online ethics) and one less-than-fascinating, but much prettier one (making your cover designs pop - aimed, regrettably, at page designers).

The excitement of the afternoon was the luncheon, and not just because I got two desserts. Which was a plus, but not quite so much a plus as my cracking up a professional comedienne.

Those of you who know me, of course, know I pride myself on my sense of humor. It's what I use to make people smile, and what I used to use to try and get girls, in lieu of big muscles and big paychecks.

Of course, I'm no longer trying to get girls, but that doesn't mean I can't bust out the ol' joke-a-minute riff once in a while.

Like at the luncheon, when one of my colleagues at the paper arrived with the aforementioned Ms. Kim. Now, bear in mind, at the gala tonight (Saturday, Day 4 - the one with the munkees) they auctioned off a seat at the table with Yul Kwon (see Day 1) and Tina Kim for money.

And I got to spend the luncheon with Tina Kim for free. My buddy took off partway through, my other colleague had already vacated, and after a few jokes with this journalist-turned-acerbic comedienne, me and my buddy from our local AAJA chapter got to spend a little time chatting with her over lunch.

I must've done well with my humor - she asked for my business card, after having to whisper the rest of our conversation in my ear as she vacated the luncheon during the awards presentation. (No, we weren't that rude, people were gabbing and wandering in-and-out through the whole thing.) And lest you think I just ended up on her mailing list, she didn't ask anyone else at the table for a business card, thank you very much.

So that was exciting.

Anyway, we skip past the aforementioned afternoon seminars and move on to the evening's festivities. As also aforementioned, it was M and I's sixth-month anniversary and also one year to the day of our wedding.


So we went out to celebrate. After our disastrous evening on South Beach, we decided to try something a little more mellow.

We headed for Coconut Grove, a different kind of touristy attraction.

After walking around a bit, and giving the comedy of Judah Friedlander a miss, we found ourselves sitting down for dinner in a place called Cafe Tu Tu Tango (get it? tu. tu. tango?).

The place is a tapas-style restaurant/bar, the food was pretty tasty and the sangria was nice and cold. But the best part was, the place is full of art and artists and stuff. There was a guy painting just a few feet away. Even better, there was one of the best balloon artists I've ever seen.

No lame hats and poodles for this guy. He made Goofy. He made a giant hat. A sceptre. A bunny.

And for us, as seen above, a munkee. Not just any monkey, but a whole palm tree, with coconuts and a munkee climbing it. A real work of art. I mean, M asked him to make a monkey and it took her about halfway through to realize he was working on her balloon.

Not only that, as you might expect, my ever-chipper lady made friends with the other women in line. Turns out one is a doctor starting a special ed school. Figures.

He capped off the evening by climbing into a giant balloon. Don't ask. I can't even begin to explain. But trust me, this made my inner child smile. And my not-so-inner child.


All in all, a great evening out for our special night. Plus, we got looks from EVERYBODY on the way home, carrying that thing around. (Marisa included in the above picture for scale. She's 5-foot-8.)

By the time I catch up with today (Saturday), you'll see a lot more munkees!

Today was our visit to Monkey Jungle!

But first, I have a gala to attend and Karaoke night to drink beer at.

On to the next part!