My President's weekend was spent party in Miami, which turned out being a lot more interesting than I expected. It was barely warm, for Miami standards, which means it was about 65 everyday. Although this is a major improvement from snow covered NJ, people in the 305 have thin blood and were walking around with jackets on...seriously.
But the cold weather wasn't the only surprise. I got to meet my Mom's new beau, who was nothing short of fascinating. I'll spare you the gory details, but what I won't spare you are the tales of my experience at my first ever indoor flea market. Fasten your seatbelts everybody.
This indoor flea market was in Hialeah, which for those of you unfamiliar with Miami, is essentially Miami's "hood". Pulling into the parking lot, I was immersed in a cheesy junkyard. Every car was at least 7 years old and equipped with some sort of tacky enhancement, including various rims, lights, paint jobs, dice, flags, stickers, mufflers, etc. It was like the scrapyard from hell. Outside of the massive building were various lingering characters. There were the begging homeless, popular in Miami because of it's weather, baggy-pant-wearing cholos, women who seemed to be crossing a fine line between prostitution and dive club hoppers, and of course, the infamous Chongas. (For more background on Chongas, see the previously blogged video "Chongalicious') Situations like this make me nervous and eventually lead to sweating, thanks to my sheltered childhood here in Point Pleasant Beach. Once we walked in however it only got more bizarre.
As soon as we walked in the door, I was bombarded with walls of 5 dollar skank-gear, 15 dollar jeans with dragons and big velcro pockets, and big, obnoxious, rhinestone studded chains. I knew already that I was going to have to suppress a lot of laughter. This place was enormous. I could have easily spent 2 hours here, it was enormous. Unfortunately our time was only about 20 minutes, but I saw plenty of good ish.
The entire building was filled with various vendor stands selling almost everything from clothing, jewelry, drug paraphernalia, grillz, fried chicken, makeup, perfume, haircuts, hats, etc. Shown in this first picture are the various typical household items used to hide drugs, so when the police are searching for your weed, heroin, etc, they'll never find it in your can of Sunkist. Fade 'Em Up seemed to be very popular amongst Hialeah brothers, and Mr. Golden Teeth will make any Grill you need. (Weren't Grillz cool like 5 years ago? I'm pretty sure even Nelly isn't wearing those things anymore) And of course, the best deal for white tee's around. But my personal favorite was the "In Loving Memory" t-shirt stands, which were a-plenty. I like the tee with a stairway going up into the clouds...very classy.
Needless to say, next time I'm in the 305, I'll be spending most of my time here.
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