Spring Break with Raul and Cecilia - Day 2

Raul was supposed to write this one. He said he would. He said he wouldn't forget. But he did. He forgot all about it and now it's been several months and we've forgotten stuff but I'm going to try and tell it anyway.

Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful, no rain like the day before. I woke up early...ish. I didn't bother actually waking up early since Raul can't ever drag himself out of bed before noon but I got up at around 9ish and sat in the guest room on my computer. I was bored.

I looked up the Mass times for his home parish and figured that his parents would be going to the 10:00 Mass. At 9:30 his Dad walked by and said that they were leaving and that I could either go with them or wait for Raul to wake up and go to the noon Mass. I told him I'd wait for Raul and his parents left. I went into Raul's room and woke him up and told him his parents we're heading to mass.

It turns out Raul can move really fast when he's still sleeping because one moment he was a log and the next he was pushing me out of the room, getting dressed and dragging me out the door. I'm not sure how he did this considering he was still asleep. He even got into the car and drove to the church while he was still sleeping. Now he's a good driver when he's awake but honestly, he's a great driver when he's asleep. Honestly, if he'd been asleep the day before we probably wouldn't have gotten lost in Narnia. But I digress.

I'm not sure when he finally woke up but by the end of Mass he seemed mostly conscious. His driving returned to being just good as we followed his parents the a little restaurant - or perhaps his merely good driving was due to his mother's really scary driving right in front of us. Really, I'm not sure where he inherited the good driving gene. Is there a gene for good driving? I don't think so actually, but you know what I mean.

So we made it to the first eateria where Raul's cousin worked but it was really crowded so we left and went to another eateria where I was introduced to the wonders of frescolita, taquenos, and empanadas? Is that what they were. I may have the last word wrong but let me explain these things to you.

Frescolita is soda. But not just any soda. It's really good soda. Sweet with a taste something like watermelon. Yum, yum, yum! Delicioso!

Taquenos are cheese wrapped in sweet dough and cooked. Sweet dough with melted cheese in the middle. Do you understand?! Do you know what I'm trying to tell you?! Do you have any IDEA what you're missing out on here?!!!!

Okay, I'm good

Now, Empanadas, or whatever they're called are... Cheese! Wrapped in corn flour! Corn Flour with cheese in the middle. Cheese! Cheese!! CHEESE!!!!!!

After that we went back to Raul's house and sat around playing video games all day... well, Raul played. I wanted to play but he wouldn't let me. See he was playing Final Fantasy which, in my opinion, is pretty cool as far as video games go. It's got a good story line which is the part I care about. The annoying part is trying to beat all the ridiculous bad guys that pop up along the way but I wanted to play a bit instead of just watching so I stole the controller while Raul was in the bathroom. He was okay with that... at first. He was all for teaching me how to play but... sorry love, your teaching method's stink. All I wanted was for him to tell me where to guide the character. Instead he tried to take the controller from me and guide it there himself. How does that teach me to do anything? And then he kept fiddling with the joystick that controls the camera angle which totally confused my eyesight. He said he was helping me but he was just confusing me. Guys are so weird. They think there is only one way to do things right and if you don't use the camera angle thing you're doing it wrong. Well I say I don't need the camera angle thing. I say I can play just fine without knowing which way I'm going... yeah, I know that doesn't sound right even when I'm wrong, I'm right. Remember that. Okay love? Oh and yes, I admit that I am completely inept when it comes to video games.

So I eventually gave up on playing the dumb game and decided to get ready for our evening out. I needed a hair straightener.

Ceci - Raul, I need a hair straightener. Does you sister have one I could borrow?
Raul - *still playing video games* Yeah, I think so.
Ceci - Do you think you could go in her room and get it for me? (his sister wasn't home)
Raul - You get it.
Ceci - I don't want to go snooping in your sister's room
Raul - neither do I
Ceci - you're her brother
Raul - so?
Ceci - Please.
Raul - no
Ceci - Please!!
Raul - I don't know where it is
Ceci - that's why you've got to look
Raul - You look.
Ceci - I can't. I'm a guest, that's rude.
Raul - Well I can't. I don't know what it looks like.
Ceci - Fine, at least come with me so that I don't feel like a burglar
Raul - *beats a really tough monster on the game*
Ceci - Raul... please.... come with me
Raul - *character dies on the game* $#!*
Ceci - *glares and walks out of the room*

I then tiptoed to Raul's sister's room which was kind of silly since no one else was home but I still felt bad going into her room without permission. I opened the door a little bit and looked down at the floor. And there, literally at my feet, was the hair straightener... wow... so weird.

I straightened my hair and put the straightener right back where I found it. Then I finished getting ready and bugged Raul to do the same. He didn't bother getting ready until fifteen minutes before it was time to go but ended up looking hot none-the-less.

That night we went ballroom dancing. It was so much fun. We were seriously the youngest people there though there were a few other young-ish couples. This really old guy tried to give us some dancing tips. It seems we weren't doing the mambo right... thing is, we were never actually doing the mambo but whatever. We did a lot of people watching to, trying to look for new moves to try. There was this one girl who was pretty big but boy could she move. She was a great dancer.

Okay... so that's all I remember. Raul, please fill in the gaps and then write Day 3 (that was the real beach day)... I'm tired and going to bed. G'night.

Mother's Day Madness, Caraquenio Style

Raul here, let's begin.

Sunday may 8th, twelve rodriguez-fernandez-schemidt family members are set to take three and a half family moms to have Mom day lunch (the half is Cris, who's pregnant with my nephew, which sounds weird but whatever).  So we all drive down to Brickel, which is in mid Miami, an hour away, in as many cars as possible (aka maximum 2 people per car) to the city of no parking.  We found valet parking and went into an annoyingly fancy looking restaurant called the Inca somethingwhogivesacrap.  We saw that they only had the mommy menu, which was an annoying $45 per person, $56 if you wanted to drink, which everyone did of course.  So everyone (cept me cuz I'm so american <3) one by one began arguing with the waitress lady wearing too much makeup about how sucky it is that they refused to show us the regular menu.  30 minutes later, we leave (face palm) and each pay $5 per car to get it back from the valet (morepalm).  We eventually find a new restaurant that serves... the same thing... for the same price (more palms to face), though at least we got to choose from regular menu.  We also got two bottles of sangria (sweet wine, which sis got drunk off of) and a cheesecake that could kill a pacemakered heart in two bites (naturally sis and I devoured the thing together, and unassisted).  Uh, can't remember anything else that might be remotely interesting, except for the confusion of finding our cars after.  Just imagine the confusion that must be involved in building then taking down an entire carnival fair = us.  (facedesk)