Simply the Best – Mid-summer in Miami Beach

I’m a lucky girl. I know that. Yet, in my real life, though not so much here or on social media, I spend way too much of my emotional energy on what I don’t have. This week has been a good reinforcement of what I do have.

While my work situation has been stressful to say the least, it’s also challenged me in new ways, which is a gift. This week I spoke truth to power, in a way I never have, on an issue that is international news, despite that doing so had the potential to put my job and reputation at risk. I am, as a rule, not confrontational, but I found myself in a moral quandary that required my standing alone in front of the tanks – tanks full of white men in power positions certain they understood the situation better than I. I am proud of myself and I transformed what could have been a disastrous outcome, changed minds, and protected students.

But boy did I need a little magic to shake off the adrenaline.

It all started with a sweet bubble that existed only in the wee hours. My plane landed late Thursday and I headed straight to the beach where my lovely friend Sean, who was leaving town less than 9 hours after I arrived, would be waiting with a thermos of mojitos. On my way, I visited my old apartment and workplace and my favorite spot on the beach, where I’d lost an irreplaceable earring (purchased from the silversmith himself in rural Iceland) after another tipsy night with Sean. We walked the starlit beach, talked til almost dawn, and hugged goodbye til the next time the magical Miami moonlight brings us back together.

After a quick nap, it was time for my real Beach homecoming.

My life in the Magic City began with its own bit of alchemy concocted by my sister. Karen hated my choice of where to live and made me look at one more apartment. Stray cats and a sweaty, shirtless man greeted us when we got there. “Hi, I’m Patrick” he said opening the door, “I live in 201 with my partner David.” My sis at least waited til we got in the elevator before she said “These are your people.”

I love Schitt’s Creek – it is a beautiful, supremely human show about family, friendship, and self-fulfillment, as over-the-top as it is sincere. There’s nary a character with which I haven’t related to at various points: the steadfast, oft-overlooked Johnny, who always lands on his feet; Moira, whose self-involved melodrama can’t overshadow her compassion; the flirty, flighty, free-spirited Alexis, who measures her value wholly through the lens of male attention, until she doesn’t; and, most of all, David, who undermines each step forward with over-confident self-destruction.

But in Miami Beach, it’s in the character of the sassy, lonely outsider Stevie that I found myself. Stevie’s life changed when the Rose family, especially David and Patrick, embraced her as one of their own, despite seemingly having nothing in common.

My life changed when my Patrick and David embraced me. My sister was right – they are my people. As are Carol and Raquel, other neighbors, whom I got to know a bit in my early days, but came to treasure on the November Thursday when I left my phone in an Uber and Raquel drove me an hour away – despite it being Thanksgiving – to retrieve it, for no reason except that she is amazing. Over the course of my three years in the Fairview (or Catview as we call it for our shared love of our feline friends – Gatsby’s neighbors included Mittens who lives with P&D and Miss Squiggles who lives with C&R), we gathered for weekly, birthday, and holiday meals, bike rides, theater and concert outings, played pickleball and cards, shared our good days, and were there for each other on the bad ones. We were joined by Marcia and her cat Croqueta (rip), Raquel’s mom Eva, who at 80 still runs a fish import company and, as the only non-vegetarian of our group, would gift me with delicious offerings of salmon or stone crab, Clotilde, a bon vivant who lived many lives including disc jockey in 1970s Paris, fashion photographer, illustrator, and travel writer, but remains iffy on cats, as well as a rogue’s gallery of charming pickleballers who would join our weekend games followed by drinks, snacks, and laughs. I struggled mightily in the decision to leave Miami Beach and it was 100% because of these friends who have become family.

Before you even ask, yes – it was hot. Really hot, really humid. But I’m generally not a delicate flower about these things. I drank a lot of water, wore factor 90 sunscreen, and talked way too much about my frizzy hair. I had a couple different thoughts about what I wanted to accomplish in this weekend, but in the end, it was going home to those special people in our lives around whom you’re comfortable helping yourself to what’s in the fridge, burping loudly, and not always being your best self, even though they always bring it out. Over blueberry pancakes and kombucha we caught up on all our recent travels and various activism (reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, the environment, voter equity – we care about what’s right and we fight for it), and I checked a lot of activity boxes.

Movie, followed by drinks on the beach – check (you can guess the movie);

nearly four hours of pickleball in 90+ degree weather – check (in case you think its only a game for retirees, this is my pickle crew);

a competitive game of euchre – check;

snorkeling off the South Point pier – check;

bike ride to soak in the Art Deco delights of Ocean Drive – check;

sunrise yoga on the beach – check;

stray cat and house cat snuggles – check;

Cuban coffee – check (many); the world’s greatest fish tacos – check (twice); Harry’s spinach pizza – check; even Patrick’s homemade kombucha did not disappoint (it never does).

There were the usual Miami Beach moments – a sudden storm that passes as quickly as it comes, old men playing dominoes, an scantily clad bar-hopping co-eds; and salsa (music and dip) wafting through the air and I love it all.

The tanks are still waiting for me and I’m going to have to step back in front of them, but I’m fortified by my weekend. And so, to my Miami Beach family who make me feel so seen, understood, and loved for all my fabulousness and my flaws, I say – you’re simply the best!