all my favorite colors

I had an excellent but v lazy day - mostly because it rained, which made me decide to cancel my plans to leave the resort. Instead, I wrote this morning, had a late breakfast, and spent the afternoon in the spa, where I had a great massage and spent some time getting rained on in the hot tub.

I spent this evening eating various tasty things and drinking various tasty tequila drinks at Marea, while also plowing through an interesting book on the social implications of AI. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

oh think twice, it's just another day for you and me in paradise

I had a v lovely and lazy day in Cabo. I was supposed to go to a tamale making class today, which I had been looking forward to - but the presence of Irish Matt changed my plans, and also the fact that it will probably rain all day tomorrow made me want to spend today enjoying the sunshine. It didn't help that the class was almost an hour away, which felt like a real burden. So I cancelled and I have no regrets, although perhaps I'll have some regrets when I want to eat tamales this winter and can't.

Instead, I grabbed an early coffee and wrote on my balcony until I was too hungry to continue. Then I had a v tasty breakfast, followed by as much pool time as I could handle - I don't do well getting too hot, but with the clouds rolling in this afternoon, I was mostly shaded the whole time. I read a book (BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD, which is a strange and cozy little book by a Japanese author, featuring a bizarre coffee shop with time traveling properties). I really enjoyed it, and it also made me cry profusely while I was reading + eating tacos, which probably made me look insane, but c'est la vie.

Eventually, I showered, put on a dress, and went to Irish Matt's hotel. Security is tight at all the resorts and they didn't want to let me in because somehow the front desk hadn't given my name to the gatehouse - or they thought I was a prostitute, since most prostitutes show up at four pm.  But I got in, hung out with Matthew at the pool, and then Matt and Scott and I had a v tasty dinner and drinks and a whole bunch of fun stories. 

But now I'm back at my hotel and falling asleep at I type, so it's time for bed - goodnight!

but you can never leave

I had an absolutely fantastic day in paradise, no cynicism or tuesday scaries allowed. I woke up just as the sun rose, which I saw from my balcony. Then I walked over to the cafe and grabbed a cold brew, which I drank while sitting on my balcony and journaling for awhile, which was illuminating. Then I grabbed breakfast - I had huevos rancheros today, and while no one can beat Tony's huevos rancheros from my favorite cafe of my Marina-era youth, these huevos were pretty delightful.

I then spent most of the rest of the day at the pool, where the weather was absolutely perfect. I had a couple of margaritas, some excellent nachos, as much water as I could drink, and enough sun to give me some tan (and perhaps a slight amount of redness around the edges of my right shoulder and hip, which were the most exposed to the sun). The pool here is v. nice, and as expected it wasn't too crowded - the lack of the Thanksgiving/Christmas crowd is really playing out in my favor.

The real surprise of the day, however, was that I completely upended my planned solo trip....because in an extremely weird and serendipitous moment of fate, Irish Matt and I somehow discovered that we are both in Cabo this week. I have not seen Irish Matt since a month or two before the pandemic, when I visited him in LA; we had had some zooms since then, but it has been a v v long time. However, he texted me randomly yesterday morning, and as we exchanged pleasantries we found out that I was already here and that he was flying in last night.

So, of course, that was amazing, and we had to get together. He's traveling with another friend (Scott), whom I hadn't met but who is from Dodge City, Kansas, and so Matthew and Scott came over to my hotel for dinner tonight. Irish Matt actually came early, so we grabbed a margarita at the bar that I went to last night (and I was v. pleased to show the bartenders that I have a friend). This turned into a second margarita when Scott came, and so we were 45mins late to our dinner reservation, but clearly no one cared (or if they did care, this is a "the customer is always right" kind of place and so they didn't say anything). Eventually we adjourned to our dinner reservation at Mezcal, where we sat by a firepit and had some absolutely incredible Mexican food (a take on a tamale, some excellent fried rice with clams, some hamachi crudo thing that is so 2019, a birria and tortillas that was outstanding, and various amuse bouche things and flan for dessert). And my margarita at Mezcal was total perfection, so I'm riding high on tequila and life (mostly life).

It was, as always, an utter delight to see Matthew, and we had much to catch up on (and Scott and I had much to learn about each other). I think I'll meet up with them again for dinner tomorrow, so I'm pretty pleased about that.

And now, I need to go to bed - goodnight!

you can check out anytime you like

I had an excellent day in paradise, although I find myself looking for the little things that imply that this place is just as fallible to the whims of nature as any other (the small vanguard of ants trying to make it to the snacks in the spa; the possible mouse I saw out of the corner of my eye near the beach bar). I woke up at sunrise, although sunrise was obstructed by clouds. I had excellent enchiladas for breakfast and wished all my breakfasts could be enchiladas.

And then I spent the day at the spa - first to get a desperately needed manicure, and then to relax before a body treatment. I'm sure the main pool was also dead that since the resort is v quiet in the week after Thanksgiving, but I had the spa's adults only pool basically to myself for four hours. So I journaled, read, ate fish tacos, napped, etc, and it was glorious. 

Then, I spent an absurd amount of money to be tortured - I like massages a lot, but I had not done a wrap before, and it turns out it's for the best if I never do one again, because I was simultaneously overheating and claustrophobic and wondering if I would have survived infancy if 80s infants were swaddled in sleep sacks the way today's infants are. But luckily the wrap part was relatively brief (and I rebelled immediately and unsnapped myself to pull my arms out before the service provider had even finished the swaddling). And the massage was excellent, so I may go back later this week, although there will be no wrapping allowed. 

After that, I relaxed, showered, and spent a few lovely hours at the bar of the restaurant I went to last night, where I read a bunch and talked to the bartender and ate some sushi. And now I'm going to go to bed - goodnight!

dance monkey

I have arrived at my vacation destination (Cabo San Lucas), thanks entirely to the fact that on Thursday I switched today's flight to leave from Kansas City instead of Des Moines. A delta plane slid off the runway in Des Moines last night and shut the whole airport for many hours; no one was hurt, but I would have been very injured if I had missed a whole day of my trip.

Flying out of KC was easy - they remodeled the airport since the last time I flew out of there (probably over a decade ago), and the whole experience was quite easy. I worked all the way to Houston, worked some more while eating lunch, and got done with enough tasks that I could sign off without guilt for the remainder of the day. I read a book on my flight to Cabo, and when I landed in Mexico it was all as smooth as it could possibly be. 

Cabo is perhaps almost embarrassingly touristy - all the signs are in English, all the airport immigration/customs people spoke English, everyone takes dollars, and you could almost imagine you're in a fancy enclave of LA instead of in Mexico. The resort I'm staying at is particularly fancy, and everything so far is lovely.

Since I'm pretty wrecked from the trip, I was pretty chill today - I drank my welcome margarita on my balcony, then unpacked, walked around the property to get my bearings, and had an early dinner. They know about my crab allergy and my gluten issues, and so I had some tasty sushi that they assured me wouldn't kill me. The only bummer is that it might be cloudy all week, which is extremely unusual here, but we'll see how it unfolds.

And now I need to go to bed - goodnight!

nothing on the screen, it's that kind of night

I spent the last couple of days doing family stuff and also planning to avoid/evade/escape the snowmaggedon that descended on Iowa last night. Yesterday I woke up in time to make brunch for the metro dwellers before they headed north - I think people had originally planned to hang out longer yesterday, but the imminent snow changed their minds. After they left, I cleaned up around the house, did various tasks, made various lists, etc, etc. And [censored] and I went out to Mom's to have Thanksgiving leftovers, which were nearly as delicious as they were the day before. 

Today, I awoke to a winter wonderland - but it wasn't as wintery as it could have been. I packed (possibly over packed), watered plants, cleaned the kitchen, talked to [censored] and briefly to my mom, and finally got on the road around 2:30. I was supposed to fly out of Des Moines tomorrow, but I made a snap decision to fly out of Kansas City instead, which I think was the right call since there is no snow down here and many flights in Des Moines are cancelled. But I decided to come down before dark, and so I spent the evening safely ensconced in the hotel, pretending to work but mostly spacing out.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

you're a world away but you're still the same

I had a v lovely Thanksgiving, and I hope you did too. I got a decent amount of sleep last night, which helped me power through this morning - I did various kitchen tings, made a pumpkin custard for dessert, browned some chorizo for the queso I wanted to make today, portioned out the cheese, and packed various tings to take to Mom's for the feast. I also put a clean duvet cover on the guest bed, which should be enough of an onerous task for anyone on any day. And then I showered and headed out to Mom's, where I was the last to arrive, as per usual.

Aunt Kathy, Drewbaby, and Sammie came down for the day, and we had a v nice, lowkey Thanksgiving. Mom made all the usual fixings - corn casserole, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, gravy, and turkey. I was in charge of carving the turkey this year, which was of course bittersweet - I carved it the last couple of years anyway since the electric knife interfered with Dad's defibrillator, and I want to say I did an acceptable job this time. But dinner was v. nice, even if we all seemed to end up in food comas while watching football after.

So we sat around and did basically nothing all afternoon. But then I rallied to make the queso and also a big batch of guacamole, both of which were excellent if I do say so myself. So we ate that and ended up playing Codenames, which was quite fun - we decided to go generational with the teams, so each team had one Boomer, one elder millennial, and one younger millennial. That ended up being Sammie, Mom and I against Andrew, [censored], and Kathy, which was pretty evenly matched. They won all three of the first set, but we won all three of the second set, so it ended in a tie. It was no Rail Baron, but it also ended way earlier than Rail Baron (albeit later than [censored] seemed to want), so I'll take it.

Then the millennials came to my house, while Kathy stayed over with Mom, and we're all safely ensconced and awaiting brunch tomorrow. There's a major winter storm on the way and so I don't think people will linger, but we shall see. Goodnight!

does this mean you're moving on

I had a pretty low-key day - any day when I only have three hours of meetings is chill in my books, and I was able to get some stuff done that I've been putting off. There are still some tasks standing between me and real vacation, but I think I can get them done relatively easily, so we shall see. 

Anyway, I wrapped up around five, did some various house and laundry tasks, and then braved the grocery store for some last supplies. I should have done more prep tonight than I did, but I didn't get enough sleep last night and it was affecting my desire to do anything after dinner tonight. But I have tings laid out for my last prep stuff tomorrow morning, and then I can celebrate Thanksgiving in style (if "style" includes an unnecessary number of dips).

But now I need to sleep if I'm going to get everything done in the morning - goodnight!