Feb 28 2005
Cancun Trip: Part 1
Is vacation ever bad? I’m not talking about going to a specific place because you have to. That’s not technically the type of vacation I’m talking about. Not like the visit to the mother in law’s house who you haven’t seen in a long time who lives in a place where you wouldn’t visit unless you had to. I’m talking about a real vacation. Somewhere that is a destination with great weather, or a landmark type place. Is that ever bad? Hell, even Celmatic who went to Spain, came back home, and went to Spain again in a matter of a couple days had a great time even though he was on a plane as sad as could be for half the trip. I think if you plan something out, look forward to it, and are able to spend time with the family, it’s always going to be good. And seeing topless chicks on the beach makes it even better. More on that later.
The only part that isn’t great is the travelling. I guess if you make it a road trip, the travelling is part of the fun. But air travel has to be the worst, especially when you hate planes like I do. I hate planes so much that after our flight from San Jose, CA into Dallas, TX, which I thought was a tough ride, I asked what everyone thought about the flight. It turned my stomach it was so bumpy. Everyone else said they didn’t even notice. Man, I thought it was a bad one. I almost saw my mother in law mouth the word “wussy”, but it could’ve been something else. But the one thing that I hate more than anything else is air travel. If I had to be on a flight with tons of turbulence, or get my wisdom teeth pulled out again, I might go wisdom. At least I won’t be scared of crashing while getting my wisdom teeth pulled out. But then again, I was spitting blood for three days straight after my wisdom teeth were pulled.
We (the wife and kids) went to Cancun, Mexico with Carol’s brother Carlos, his wife Kelley, their two kids, and my mother and father in law. I can see the grimaces on your faces already. But actually, they are all great people and tons of fun. These folks know how to have a good time. Kelley and Carlos were there to renew their vows, on their 10 Year Anniversary and we decided to tag along and make a vacation out of it. Nice excuse huh? Sure, we want to see you guys renew your vows. I’ll admit here and Kelley will probably read this. If they renewed your vows in Omaha, Nebraska, I probably would’ve had meetings all week and not been able to go. But Carol and the kids would’ve been there for support! In all reality, I would’ve gone. But I would’ve brought 14 books instead of the 4 that I did bring.
In preperation for this trip, I had wrote down three goals.
- Spend time with the wife and kids the entire vacation
- Get some reading done
- Work out as much as possible
That third one is usually the one that doesn’t happen. I’ve been on vacation at other times where gyms are right around the corner, and after the first fired up session, it’s usually hard to go back. I wanted to make sure that wasn’t going to happen. Plus, the resort we stayed at called the Moon Palace was all inclusive so drinks and food were aplenty. If I didn’t workout, I might gain 20 pounds.
When I heard where were were staying (Moon Palace), I thought it was a gay resort. But it wasn’t. Actually the second or third day we were there, I saw a man shoot a stare right through me near the rest room. I hurriedly went to the rest room and got out of there quickly. He glared at me again, but it could’ve been because I was wearing one of my Michael Jordan jerseys and he was simply admiring. Either that, or he secretly wanted to hammer me.
Like I said, the resort was all inclusive. For breakfast, there was a buffet. Omlets, cereal for the kids, all the fruit you would want, chorizo sausage, potatoes, platanos, and shredded beef. For lunch, there was a buffet, or other places where they grilled chicken, steaks, and burgers near the pool. And for dinner, there were several restaurants as well as the good old buffet. If you only wanted a snack, they had nacho bars where you could grab some chips, cheese, salsa, and chili. Everything was just there waiting for you. And of course, everywhere you turned, someone was serving you a drink. I drank mostly pina coladas and banana monkeys and never got even buzzed once, so I think they were light on alcohol. Carol thought maybe they were just watered down. I think my high was 7 drinks in one day, but it was literally like drinking a slurpee. But unlike 7-11, this slurpee machine never broke down.
I’ll have several more posts later this week, but wanted to tell you about my huge dilemma. In Mexico, if you are dark skinned, you are expected to speak Spanish, unless you are African American. Any other dark color, they expect it out of you. And if you don’t, it’s almost like the locals are ashamed. And I’m half Mexican, so you can imagine the looks I was getting. It was as if, I was letting my fellow Mexicans down. I tried to explain to them that I was Mexican American, meaning I grew up in an English speaking household, but it was like Spanish should’ve been encoded in me at birth or something. As someone who is expected to speak Spanish, I either faked it, or tried to play dumb. But neither way worked. For instance, if after I was served, told the waiter, “Gracias,” I was then spoken to in Spanish. Just for saying gracias, I was knee deep in a conversation I didn’t understand. And by that time, they were able to figure out that I was faking it, or just trying to be nice, and would walk away disgusted. However, if I simply acted like I didn’t even know that “hola” meant hello, I received the same disgust. This went on all week long.
I also gave Brian the goal of reaching 55 stars on his Nintendo DS Mario 64 game. He had 37 to start with and got a few on the flight over, and even met a boy named Christian who was a good 4 years older than him who helped him get the lock to the Luigi door. But he only had a few more stars than Brian. By Saturday, Brian was at 45, and only had 10 to go. I didn’t workout on Friday when we got in, but I did workout Saturday, running on the treadmill for 20 minutes and lifting, so I was off and running. Would I continue? You’ll see …
Read Part 2.

looks when Hollywood wants her to play a character that takes away from her hottness. Let’s take Losing Isaiah for example. She played a crack head mother of a young infant, and she almost made you want to date a crack head. And when is she going to turn the corner on the age scale as well? Maybe the most perfectly shaped bazooms in the game? 
