Today: 3 Years of living in Miami...what YOU need to know
This is it!! 3 years ago today I actually made the move to Miami...stayed with 1 of my daughters, who was living in Kendall with a room-mate, for the night, and then the next day moved to the Flamingo in South Beach!
I had made the decision to move Thanksgiving week in 2014. That last year that I lived in Panama, I had done a lot of traveling for THE AMERICAN CHIROPRACTOR MAGAZINE...all over the US: New Orleans, Washington DC, NYC, West Point, NY, Dallas, TX to name a few cities. I was pushing the 30 day travel outside the country limit for being a "resident" of Panama!
It wasn't until the last conference of the year 2014, in my old home of Naples, FL, the week before Thanksgiving, after I returned with Caroline to her home in Kendall, that I realized that it was time to make the move, and Miami, FL must be my next location.
I found that in South Beach, I not only lived in a great healthy environment, because everyone was so actively taking care of themselves, and there was a great gym in my building, but also I had a great functional home-office, AND best thing was that I had my daughter caring for ME!! Wow!! This was an unexpected turnabout!! Suddenly, Caroline was taking care of her Mom!! A new role that I quite enjoyed!! So, first gift to myself to support my new active lifestyle was roller blades!
At that time, 3 of my 4 daughters had moved back to the states, after 7 total years in Panama...4 years with just me, after my x-husband left, after 4 years together in Panama, and 17 years of marriage. I didn't ask for anything in the divorce, because I just wanted my kids with me...which is what I got, but then 4 years later, because he also didn't give me anything to help support the kids on any kind of continuous basis, that I could depend on, my 2 youngest needed to move to live with their Dad, (I also could see signs that they needed to spend more time with their father, after living alone with me for 4 years following the separation...girls need their Dad!), and because public school is free in the states, and the Balboa International School of Panama had just become more than I could afford as a single mother, with 2 children still in undergraduate studies. My oldest was doing quite a bit of modeling there, so she decided to stay one more year, while attending college, and assisting my family with the magazine.
So, it turned out, I was going to live alone for the 1st time in my life! Which, honestly was a bit of an identity crisis, at first, until I found out I could just focus on myself for a change, which I did find quite freeing, once I relaxed, and gave it a shot.
I returned to Miami in December 2014, to find a place to live and furniture. A friend of a friend, who had recently moved to South Beach from Panama, told me that he looked all over, and that South Beach is the "best" place to live in Miami, AND the Flamingo was the "best" apartment building to live in, AND he said that if I lived in South Beach that I wouldn't need a car..."WHAAAAT!?" I said!
Second gift to myself to support my new active lifestyle: Bicycle complete with 2 baskets! I was thinking that this is my transport instead of a car, so it's got to be decked OUT!!
I had been driving since I was 16, with many fender benders, car accidents, insurance, speeding tickets, and paid parking stickers to show for it...and I was pretty excited that all of that could soon end!!! Uber/Lyft are quite affordable in South Beach, and traffic and parking can be unbearable, so during my 3 years here, I have NEVER wished for a car!! Only a couple times needed to rent a car across the street at Budget Rental, but honestly haven't even needed that in the last year.
So, with that said, I put a deposit down on a beautiful apartment in the Flamingo, with a beautiful water- view. Because, one thing I had decided was that I could move from Panama, but I now needed the water-view lifestyle, especially if now I was going to live without the maid and conveniences, that I had become accustomed to in Panama!
I got a one bedroom apartment, and the furniture to fill it, set to arrive January 1st!!
(which was then moved to February '15, because of my work schedule, and conferences that I had already committed to working, with tickets already purchased!)
I learned to do my own laundry again after 10 years in Panama, after a quick tutorial by my youngest daughter, Alexis, then age 15, while shopping in Target for the first time in years, on laundry detergent, and the new "Pods" that I could just "throw in"my washer AND dishwasher, and how to use and buy the new Keurig coffee maker, and subsequently, also buy a refillable coffee cartridge, (Alexis said her Dad does this to cut costs on coffee), which would make me a cup of coffee! Consequently, with 2 maids when I was married, but then downscaled to just 1, as a single mother of 4, this was to be a new start for me without help from anyone again.
Let's face it, though, that knowledge didn't come back as easily as you might think!!
Hence the photo of laundry placed to dry on my balcony because I couldn't figure out if the dryer wasn't working because of user error or IF there was actually something wrong with it!!
One of the first days that I lived in the Flamingo, after my daughter, Caroline, her room-mate and her boyfriend had helped me move in, after my furniture had been delivered, I decided to walk around the Flamingo, and just see what is out there in this big development which was called "Flamingo Resort Residences."
Sounded pretty nice, and was beautiful but memorable of a luxury college dormitory to me. I started a grateful journal, and almost every day these little birds, doves, would land on my balcony, and I was thinking that whenever I would see them, they were bringing me good luck, and possibly LOVE!? "Love birds!?"
I found a "cafe" with a "Happy Hour," one afternoon, in this little world! I love Happy Hours, and I was excited to make friends!! I thought, surely, I would meet some nice friendly people at a Happy Hour there. However, there didn't seem to be much traffic thru the "Flamingo Cafe," though, only a friendly black man(not that there is anything wrong with that...African American?), who was the manager of the place, and a long haired fashionable gay married man, who seemed to always be there, invited me out to show me Lincoln Road after I'd visited there a couple of times, and became a friendly face there. I was excited because, I wanted to see what locals enjoyed doing here!!
So, first, they walked me over to "Haven" for a drink, nearby, which was empty during the early evening hours, and then to a restaurant on Alton Road near Lincoln Road..a pasta place near Lincoln that isn't there anymore. I don't generally eat pasta or carbs after noon, so then, a bit uninterested in the menu options, when I looked at my watch, and realized that we weren't far from my new home, and it was already 11:30pm!! I am kind of like Cinderella, so I told the guys, "I have had fun, but I need to leave, because I have to work early in the morning!"
They seemed to understand, and the black man said he wanted to walk me home...the gay man kissed me goodbye, but said he was going to stay, as he sipped on his drink...my understanding was that he was going to wait for the other guy to return from quickly walking me home, which seemed gentlemanly, and I appreciated the company.
So, as the black manager of the Flamingo cafe and I approached the Flamingo, I noticed that he kept walking with me to my apartment door, after passing thru a couple of guard gates with me, and rode up in the elevator with me, so when I started to say goodbye, he told me he had to use my bathroom. Well, not wanting to appear ungrateful for his efforts of walking me home, I said he could...earlier in the week, he had invited me to do drugs with him, a couple of times, but I had declined, and he seemed ok with it.
However, once in my apartment, I had started doing something in the kitchen, while he was in my bathroom, and turned around to find this man splicing cocaine on my kitchen counter!!!
Then he held out a spool for me to inhale it thru my nose!!
I thanked him, but again explained to him that I don't do cocaine, have never done cocaine, and wasn't about to start doing cocaine right now!! But, realizing this man was now in my apartment, I didn't want any trouble, so I then explained that I had no judgement towards him doing it, but to please just finish, and then he would need to leave. I even heard myself resorting to medical necessity that with my high blood pressure, I couldn't do cocaine(without any knowledge of such), but just thinking this might help him to be more understanding.
So I stood there watching him, and he then asked, "What are you looking at!?"
I replied, "nothing, but I was just waiting for (you) to finish, and then (you are) going to need to leave."
Then he said to me:
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LIVED IN PANAMA FOR 10 YEARS AND YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN COCAINE BEFORE!!!"
I replied that no I hadn't, but please just finish, and then I'd like you to go.
That was it. He then left.
Then, as I was walking down Lincoln Road the next day, (photo above).
my only thought to myself, as a girl who grew up in Leo, Indiana, then moved and got married to the first guy I met in Naples, Fl, after graduating from IU, but after 15 years moved to the Republic of Panama, (Patilla then Marbella), for a total of 10 years then back to the USA, and South Beach, FL was that I was not in "Kansas" anymore!!!!😅
I had made the decision to move Thanksgiving week in 2014. That last year that I lived in Panama, I had done a lot of traveling for THE AMERICAN CHIROPRACTOR MAGAZINE...all over the US: New Orleans, Washington DC, NYC, West Point, NY, Dallas, TX to name a few cities. I was pushing the 30 day travel outside the country limit for being a "resident" of Panama!
It wasn't until the last conference of the year 2014, in my old home of Naples, FL, the week before Thanksgiving, after I returned with Caroline to her home in Kendall, that I realized that it was time to make the move, and Miami, FL must be my next location.
So, it turned out, I was going to live alone for the 1st time in my life! Which, honestly was a bit of an identity crisis, at first, until I found out I could just focus on myself for a change, which I did find quite freeing, once I relaxed, and gave it a shot.
I returned to Miami in December 2014, to find a place to live and furniture. A friend of a friend, who had recently moved to South Beach from Panama, told me that he looked all over, and that South Beach is the "best" place to live in Miami, AND the Flamingo was the "best" apartment building to live in, AND he said that if I lived in South Beach that I wouldn't need a car..."WHAAAAT!?" I said!
Second gift to myself to support my new active lifestyle: Bicycle complete with 2 baskets! I was thinking that this is my transport instead of a car, so it's got to be decked OUT!!
So, with that said, I put a deposit down on a beautiful apartment in the Flamingo, with a beautiful water- view. Because, one thing I had decided was that I could move from Panama, but I now needed the water-view lifestyle, especially if now I was going to live without the maid and conveniences, that I had become accustomed to in Panama!
I got a one bedroom apartment, and the furniture to fill it, set to arrive January 1st!!
(which was then moved to February '15, because of my work schedule, and conferences that I had already committed to working, with tickets already purchased!)
Let's face it, though, that knowledge didn't come back as easily as you might think!!
Hence the photo of laundry placed to dry on my balcony because I couldn't figure out if the dryer wasn't working because of user error or IF there was actually something wrong with it!!
Caroline also gifted me with a great towing device that her boyfriend had given her to help me with walking around with my groceries, since until I had my bike with the 2 baskets, this is how I got around...on my feet, and I loved my new active life!!
One of the first days that I lived in the Flamingo, after my daughter, Caroline, her room-mate and her boyfriend had helped me move in, after my furniture had been delivered, I decided to walk around the Flamingo, and just see what is out there in this big development which was called "Flamingo Resort Residences."
Sounded pretty nice, and was beautiful but memorable of a luxury college dormitory to me. I started a grateful journal, and almost every day these little birds, doves, would land on my balcony, and I was thinking that whenever I would see them, they were bringing me good luck, and possibly LOVE!? "Love birds!?"
I found a "cafe" with a "Happy Hour," one afternoon, in this little world! I love Happy Hours, and I was excited to make friends!! I thought, surely, I would meet some nice friendly people at a Happy Hour there. However, there didn't seem to be much traffic thru the "Flamingo Cafe," though, only a friendly black man(not that there is anything wrong with that...African American?), who was the manager of the place, and a long haired fashionable gay married man, who seemed to always be there, invited me out to show me Lincoln Road after I'd visited there a couple of times, and became a friendly face there. I was excited because, I wanted to see what locals enjoyed doing here!!
So, first, they walked me over to "Haven" for a drink, nearby, which was empty during the early evening hours, and then to a restaurant on Alton Road near Lincoln Road..a pasta place near Lincoln that isn't there anymore. I don't generally eat pasta or carbs after noon, so then, a bit uninterested in the menu options, when I looked at my watch, and realized that we weren't far from my new home, and it was already 11:30pm!! I am kind of like Cinderella, so I told the guys, "I have had fun, but I need to leave, because I have to work early in the morning!"
They seemed to understand, and the black man said he wanted to walk me home...the gay man kissed me goodbye, but said he was going to stay, as he sipped on his drink...my understanding was that he was going to wait for the other guy to return from quickly walking me home, which seemed gentlemanly, and I appreciated the company.
So, as the black manager of the Flamingo cafe and I approached the Flamingo, I noticed that he kept walking with me to my apartment door, after passing thru a couple of guard gates with me, and rode up in the elevator with me, so when I started to say goodbye, he told me he had to use my bathroom. Well, not wanting to appear ungrateful for his efforts of walking me home, I said he could...earlier in the week, he had invited me to do drugs with him, a couple of times, but I had declined, and he seemed ok with it.
Then he held out a spool for me to inhale it thru my nose!!
I thanked him, but again explained to him that I don't do cocaine, have never done cocaine, and wasn't about to start doing cocaine right now!! But, realizing this man was now in my apartment, I didn't want any trouble, so I then explained that I had no judgement towards him doing it, but to please just finish, and then he would need to leave. I even heard myself resorting to medical necessity that with my high blood pressure, I couldn't do cocaine(without any knowledge of such), but just thinking this might help him to be more understanding.
So I stood there watching him, and he then asked, "What are you looking at!?"
I replied, "nothing, but I was just waiting for (you) to finish, and then (you are) going to need to leave."
Then he said to me:
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LIVED IN PANAMA FOR 10 YEARS AND YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN COCAINE BEFORE!!!"
I replied that no I hadn't, but please just finish, and then I'd like you to go.
That was it. He then left.
Then, as I was walking down Lincoln Road the next day, (photo above).
my only thought to myself, as a girl who grew up in Leo, Indiana, then moved and got married to the first guy I met in Naples, Fl, after graduating from IU, but after 15 years moved to the Republic of Panama, (Patilla then Marbella), for a total of 10 years then back to the USA, and South Beach, FL was that I was not in "Kansas" anymore!!!!😅
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