This is what happens when you wait a week to blog

Hm. What's been going on? I am completely avoiding the beach until I move into VCI, it's such a pain in the ass to get down there that unless I do it daily at this point it won't do a thing for me. So why bother. Soon I will be stumbling distance from the pool and beach so I will just get my tan back then. This way I don't have to shave. It has been chilly (well, for me, downright freezing) so it's not like I'm wearing shorts or anything.

Thursday I made an appointment with Anto for a haircut - hadn't gotten that done since sometime in October. She did a great job as usual. I didn't get a coffee (my tradition) there though as I was bussing it back and screw that on a crowded bus. I stopped at Sushi-Ken on my way home and that was that.

Friday I did some running around with Joe I think. We ran some errands and got some of his necessary documentation for his FM3 renewal, and stopped by his accountant to make him an appointment for later that evening. Found a guy in there that spoke English and was happy to translate at the meeting, which is good for me since there is no way I could have helped. I got home sometime around 4:30 and made some soup for dinner, and just started to get into chill mode when Chris phoned. He was in centro (he lives out in Punta Sam) and was wanting to have a couple beers. Sounded good to me.

I met him at El Chat off Tulum at around 7:30, then from there we went to The Pub. This is an Irish-inspired pub in Plaza Infinity (off Nichupte, the mall-ette where Dharma Spa is) run by a guy from Colombia who was educated in England. Chris tells me the guy spent his inheritance on this place, and it looks it. Very nice place - lots of wood and a great bar and back bar, comfortable chairs and tables, huge screen TV showing futbol, that kind of thing. Clearly attracts the higher class. We had some beers and a tributory shot of Jameson's, and then Chris got a text from his landlord saying she thought that Cynthia Davis was singing at Roots tonight. I told him, no, there is a headliner, Brownman, that I had heard about, and that some friends of mine were going to see. We tried to see if we could score a good table, but thought we would just take the chance instead.

When we got back over to Roots (a jazz club down the walk street from El Chat), we walked right in, and I saw Cynthia and hugged her hello and asked if she was singing at all. She said no but this kid just started and he was great. My girlfriend Kelly spotted us and snaked her way through the crowd - she had two chairs at her table with her husband Jorge. This kid was freaking amazing. He is Trinidad-born and NY-raised, and had some musicians with him from Cuba. His venue arranges the accompanying musicians, but these guys sounded like they had played together for years. Check him out at www.brownman.com, no lie, this kid was incredible. During his intermission he actually hung out and chatted with the four of us the whole time, so that was fun. Chris bought a cd and we all got on his mailing list, then he jammed for another hour or so. Awesome. He couldn't hang with us much after the show however, as he was due to be in Cuba at noon the next day.

So after Roots, the four of us continuted on to El Chat again, just because it was close. It gets a little murky here, but suffice to say we continued drinking. We really were having a good time but the problem is there are no limits - in the US, closing time is closing time. In Mexico, they generally don't throw you out til you are done drinking. The rest of our group wanted to go somewhere I wouldn't have liked (strip club..) so I begged off. I know this much: I was home in the 4:30am range and I am not really sure how. I woke up fully clothed, lights on, etc. That's nice.

I had a 9:30am IWC meeting of course (because it only seems to make sense that I would be out all ours before a meeting), so I hosed off and tried to convince myself that I wasn't going to go. Kim called and by the end of the conversation I was back to going. She came and got me and off we went. The meeting was sort of a fog anyway, and it ended up that Helen and Alicia and I sat around and had a drink (you know, because I needed one) and stayed until about 1:45pm. Alicia dropped us off at Helen's and I helped her up to her apartment (she has osteoporosis and arthritis among other things) and then I grabbed a cab back to my own apartment.

Joe was supposed to be coming around right about 2:30 to pick me up and take me and Sergio to Playa to look at a restaurant there. He came by around 2:50 and we stopped for a slice at Costco, arguably the first thing I had eaten since last night's soup (because though I picked at some bread at the meeting and had a tamale, I can't really remember it). We got to Playa around 4:15 and met with the owners of a place called La Diez. One of the partners was looking to sell his share of it. We checked out the whole operation (it's really cool - they have taps on like 6 tables - self serve draft beer. Very cool) and then got to know the owners. We hung out for a few hours and made it back to Cancun around maybe 8 or 9. I camped out on the hammock and then went to bed around 10:30 - exhausted and fired up to sleep like a rock. I did.

Sunday we watched those two incredible football games - hung out with a gambling fool named Tyler - I say fool only in conjunction with "gambling". He is from Canada but we have seen him for the last three weeks at Caliente, he's been on vacation making money gambling on sports. Yesterday turned out to be not such a successful day for him, but in the end he was "only" down $1000 US so he was pretty happy - a slight scenario change would have placed him at $6000 down for the DAY. Crazy shit. After the second game ended he was hungry - he wanted Ruth's Chris but we talked him into Laguna Grill and had a great meal (though Joe wasn't too jazzed about his choice and I have been in the bathroom quite a bit already this morning - you want to know that too, right?). Home around 10pm and almost straight to bed.

I am now back to normal physically I think, and I feel like I am caught up blog-wise. Tonight we go back to Laguna Grill to meet some posters from Trip Advisor and Cancuncare - tourists and locals. Meeting around 8 and then the rest will move on to Corona Bar at 10 or so, but not me as I flipping hate that place. It's a Monday, I am determined to behave. This all-night stuff needs to end, good Lord.

It's the 16th and that means I am 33 days out. I hate thinking about it.