Find a happy place

Coming off just a ridiculous work week, replete with power outages, downed internet for two days, brutal last minute doc arrivals and driving rain, not to mention an early monthly (thanks, body), I've decided to find a happy place.

I'm going to Cancun in a little bit over a month (good GOD I need to book that ticket). I'm staying at my old stomping grounds, VCI, and I have to keep reminding myself how excited I am about it. I mean, come on. If Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, then VCI is the happiest place in the universe. Seriously.

The staff, for one, most of whom have been there for years, are the greatest. I know most of it is because they have to be, you know, to keep their jobs and get tips and all that, but when you are a repeat customer for years and you're nice and respectful and fun I think they mean it when they appear happy to see me. The grounds - pool area, La Palapa restaurant, beach - just feel like home when I picture it in my head, when I imagine myself walking down to get towels in the morning. The smell, the warmth, the cool tile on bare feet... I seriously can't wait. I can't wait but I have to keep remembering that I can't wait, and I'm not sure if that's good.

I've taken this trip a ton of times (maybe twenty, and then there was that whole moving there twice thing) and the best trips are when I stay at VCI. It just feels good to be there. Like home. And the way I tend to move around, the concept of home is good. I like the idea of doing nothing for nine straight days, laying in the sun and feeling it on my skin and relaxing and seeing my friends and drinking coffee on the balcony in the early morning and walking around totally familiar places and discovering new places. Just that indescribable feeling I get when I'm there.

Cancun has its warts - more and more of them are sticking out all over the place. I get that. There is no such place on this earth that is paradise. But despite everything I know that is ugly and icky and camp about the place, VCI still remains an island of calm happiness surrounded by bad reputation, rip-offs, drunk tourists and other really bad bad things I'll let Rivergirl tell you about. The thing about taking a vacation from your regular life is that for a brief period of time you get to see past the warts and bask in the comfort that is the tried and true. That's what I need to keep in my head when someone calls me at 3:30 and says docs have just been emailed, can they sign today at 4:30 in Hollywood? Instead of my natural reaction of wanting to scream NO and calling them every name in the book before getting in to my car, driving to their office and kicking the crap out of them.

I've used this picture before (seriously, back in 2005 in like my 8th post, but nobody ever reads back that far, do you? DO YOU?!), but looking at it just kind of makes me take a breath. And then let out a sigh and then feel a little bit of calm. Calm is good.

I think that once I book the dang air I'll be jumping out of my skin (but, you know, in a good way). If nothing else it will get me past days like yesterday and the days leading up to it.