EbTheRedHead: I'm In MIAMI b*tch!

After going back and forth with my friend, I was slowly realizing we might jump on a plane in a few hours. I started to get anxious. NOT GOOD. All of the sudden, I had so much to do in such a short amount of time. As soon as I received the confirmation text, I knew we were set to go. She had a lot to do as well and we ended our conversation. She will be at my place at 4:15am. HOLY MOLY! What do I pack? I didn't want to check in any bags so I brought out my weekend bag. I figured I'll pack lightly since we'll be staying with a friend of hers. There was talk that others might be staying at his apartment, too, so I didn't want to have too much stuff with me.
I started to clean up frantically. Over the years I would have my New Year's Eve ritual of having a clean apartment, a stocked fridge, a packed suitcase by the door, as well as having my red underwear on underneath my clothes. I quickly grabbed my red undies so I wouldn't forget. I threw in a wrap dress I won on ebay months ago and checked the weather. It was barely 80 degrees, but I forgot how that felt like. lol. I packed in a pair of skinny black pants and a top if we went out the next day. I threw in two bikinis and my swim coverup and had some nude flip flops that I would use as my walking sandals. I decided to wear some blue skinny jeans on the plane, so I packed 2 casual tops in case we walked around. I also packed my gym clothes that I was going to use as my pajamas. Again, not sure how the living situation was going to be for the next two days, so I played it safe by sleeping in my gym clothes. lol
I finished cleaning up my apartment and then took a quick body shower and followed up with a self mani and pedi. I was too excited to go to sleep so I finished reading the end of my book and felt good about it. I knew it would be impossible to read out there and wanted to end that chapter of 2016.
I probably knocked out around 2:30am only to wake up to my alarm going off an hour later. I knew I wanted to sleep on the plane anyway so I didn't have a problem with this at all. I texted my friend to see if she was awake and jumped in the shower again to wash my hair. Everything was happening so fast. By the time I was getting dressed, she texted me that she was going to be at my place in 15 minutes. YIKES!
I had everything ready when she called me to let me know that she was downstairs. I rushed to meet her with my bags, but she had a present for me for Christmas. I ran back up to my place to drop the gift off and grabbed hers. She ordered the lyft and the next thing you know, he was waiting for us. My anxiety was getting the best of me. I just wanted to be on the plane so I could knock out and not feel this way. I could tell my friend was super excited but I warned her that I wasn't feeling so great. I needed her to understand how terrified I was getting on the plane. She could tell by my expression how worried I was and seemed to understand.

Hiding behind sunglasses. She was pretty excited. I wanted to sleep it off.

Everything at the airport was a blur. I remembered feeling a bit overwhelmed while we waited to board on. I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but I just wanted us to be there already. I did manage to knockout on the plane and woke up right before we landed. I did it! We're on ground and we're safe!
We waited a while before her friend arrived. He was running behind schedule. I was slowly feeling my normal self but my friend never slept on the flight. She was still super excited we were in Miami for New Year's Eve. I was out of it, but since I was nervous about keeping food down, skipped on eating and now I was starved. Once he arrived, we agreed to go get breakfast.
We were in East Miami which was indeed, 20 minutes away from South Beach. The last time I was in Miami was almost 10 years ago with my ex. We had came down for the Winter Music Conference. Those were some crazy times, but because I came at the last minute, I had no idea what was going down tonight. It DID feel good to be away from Chicago. A change of scenery works wonders.
We went to a sportsbar called Batch which was around the corner from his place. I needed some coffee BAD but her friend had other things in mind! lol. It was way too early for me to drink but it dawned on me that our mini getaway was going to be insane! We were in MIAMI!!

Breakfast at Batch. I cleaned off my plate!

After a couple of hours at the bar, me and my friend realized that he was not going to move from his spot. We wanted to walk around and find the nearby mall he mentioned earlier. We took matters on our own hands and told him we would come back for him later. He was enjoying his time at the bar and we didn't want to interrupt him.
The mall was semi outdoor so it was cool to walk around. My friend desperately wanted to lay out. She figured we could kill two birds with one stone and nap in the process. We headed back to get our friend but he still wasn't ready to leave Batch. We wasted some more time there before we finally dragged him back to his place to drop off our stuff. He had a pool at his building and we wanted to lay out before the sun went away. It was cloudy in Miami but luckily no overcast. We changed into our bikinis and headed up. It was relaxing laying out. We took advantage of the time and dozed off.

As you can tell, cloudy day but not even sun to get any color. BOO!

We managed to get in 30 minutes of sleep, but whenever a big cloud would roll in, it covered the sun and we would get nippy. We stayed out about an hour before realizing it was 5pm now. He mentioned to us that he had some friends coming in around 6pm and we wanted to get a head start getting ready. My friend wanted to get a professional mani and pedi and luckily there was a salon across the street from his apartment. We walked back down to throw some clothes on, but our friend had never laid down to rest himself. He was still drinking. I was surprised he wasn't tired but he told us before we walked out that he was going to try to lay down a bit. We knew we had a long night ahead of us.
A lot of my friends found out through social media that we were in Miami. It was funny because my friends know how I am. I am hardly the spontaneous type. Not to mention, I didn't accept two invitations for other weekend getaways. I had some explaining to do! I texted back friends while my friend got her nails done. The salon owner came out and gave customers a glass of champagne. How sweet!
After about an hour at the salon we went back up to the apartment to check on our friend. Just like we thought so, he was completely knocked out. We took our time getting ready. My friend noticed that his phone was buzzing off the hook. He had his phone on silent but people were calling him like crazy. My friend had a back up plan on meeting other Chicagoans that were in Miami if this wasn't going to pan out. We were more worried about looking our best, so we continued getting ready.
Of course, like clockwork, our friend woke up. He knew his friends made it in and were waiting on him back at Batch. They did not know where else to go. He quickly got ready and we all walked over to find them.
Luckily his friends were in a good mood. They had been waiting for over an hour but ate in the meantime. We all introduced each other and didn't realize our friend had parked himself at the bar again. Me and my girl looked at each other and realized we might have a situation in our hands.
We were waiting on a 3rd friend to come by. We still had no clue were we were going to spend New Year's Eve at. Once the 3rd guy arrived we started to brainstorm. South Beach was out of the question. Our new friends insisted it would be too hard to get in anywhere this late in the evening. By now it was 10pm and we still had no idea where to go.
One of the guys closed out our friend's tab at the bar. At least he was proactive! lol. We gathered around and by the 3rd guy's suggestion, settled on going to Sugar, a hotel rooftop nearby. We took a walk over and got there in no time flat!
We made it inside and that's when we all started to get excited. WE FOUND A PLACE AND WE HAD TIME TO SPARE BEFORE MIDNIGHT! Once we got up to the rooftop, we ordered drinks right away. I was feeling good and our new friends were fun! Everything was perfect! Me and my girl hugged and kissed each other at the stroke of midnight. We made some amazing friends. We stayed there past 2am when our crowd was dwindling down. It was just me and my friend with the 2 guys waiting at Batch earlier. Since they drove down here, they were going to stay with us at our friend's place. We wanted to see what else was going on and they suggested a cigar lounge. We took a cab over there and made our way in. I was getting exhausted by now, but my girl was still going strong. Around 3am I couldn't take it anymore. My eyes were closing in on me and I had to go. My friend stayed out longer. I was impressed but as for me, it's lights out!