Tis the season to be jolly

It's Saturday evening, and I will start by saying, I am a jackass for not posting yesterday what I should have: IT'S MARIA'S BIRTHDAY AND SHE CAN DO WHAT SHE WANTS!

But now it's not, so happy birthday in blogger-land, Maria. Hope it was swell.

Okay so where was I? Thursday Joe came home, and on his way into centro from his new apartment way out in Cancun Plaza, he found that Kukulkan Blvd was closed to traffic right around party central. So he phoned me to find out that there was a Mana concert in the park under the flag and they closed off much of the zh. See, he's been gone for a month, which around here anymore is like being away for a year. He came over (the long way around) and we had dinner at Pasteleria Creperia, one of my favorite restaurants. Their Crepas Las Popeye (espinaca) are over the moon.

Janet came in on Friday morning. It was pouring rain in the ciudad and so I met Kim for coffee at Buzz Cafe, wading through the downpour, and then she dropped me at VCI so I could visit with Joan and the lot one last time before they left. They told me they had a great view of the Mana concert, but it didn't mean much to them. I love Mana so I am kinda bummed, would have loved to see it, but yeah, you know, that kind of stuff takes effort. They gave me some of their leftover groceries and we had some lunch and chit chatted, then I said my goodbyes and went home.

Janet had arrived and phoned me, dealing with some things that reentering made necessary to tend to. I chilled for a while, chatted with Elizabeth and made a plan to go out later to La Taberna with her and some others. Joe and Janet came over to pick up their suitcase they left here and we chatted a while, then I met up with Liz around 8:45 or so and we went over to the bar. It was a fun night, and since I had to be up and around by 9:30 this morning, I intended to not drink much and/or not make it a late night.

Right, that happened. From La Taberna, Lynda suggested that we all go to Canta Bar over in Plaza Las Avenidas. Liz heard her say Congo Bar, so pretty soon her heart was set on going into the zh. I just don't like going in there to party. They convinced me, though, assuring me that it would be just as easy to houdini from the zh as it is from centro, though my biggest beef was that it was more expensive. Oh well. The five of us (Liz, Lynda, Ricardo and Susan) all piled into a Tsuru and taxied on over to the zh.

Rather than Congo we went to Corona Bar across the street. It was pretty crowded. I thought it was a lot of tourists, but Lynda seemed to think there were more locals there. Saw some people I knew and drank a bunch of beer and some tequila. Finally (FINALLY) left sola at like 3am. So tack on to that a 20 minute taxi ride back to civilization and I got home in the 3:30am range. My ear was throbbing like crazy from the constant boom-boom-boom of club life, and when I finally went to bed at 4am the last thing I wanted to do was get up at 8:30.

So I didn't. My ear still hurt, and I was really tired, and I just didn't want to go to the City of Joy rummage sale, as previously planned, with Nancy. The posada for our AIDS charity started at 11 so I figured I would skip the bazaar and sleep a little. Nancy agreed to pick me up at 11:15 and we went to the center.

It was okay. They didn't have much in the way of refreshments or food, and I wish I would have known that so we could have stopped. Lots of kids and families there, and a good showing by the ladies of the IWC. Anita from City of Joy showed up too, and we talked about me going over and taking a tour of their facility. I am looking forward to that opportunity.

I think we got home around 2, and from there I attempted some napping, but it didn't really work out. So I am still pretty tired, but I have to get ready now to go to another posada (not a traditional one, but I am learning that some people here just refer to their Christmas parties as posadas, so you could be going to a real posada, or you could be just going to a Christmas party) at Carmen's house. Janet is coming over here around 7:30 (Joe has to work tonight - karaoke job with Raul out in Puerto Juarez) and then Kim is coming over to pick us up. Should be fun, but mellow, which I need, and I am sure it won't be a late night.

Now you are all up to speed. At least I got out of the house.