Post-Mexico!

I'm alive. I survived vacation!! It's amazing how greatly anticipated vacations are but then once they're over, you feel like you need a vacation from your vacation. One trip to Mexico and 2 or 3 road trips later, we are finally home and I am trying to dig myself out from under a giant pile of laundry. Today is my recovery day and despite sleeping in I've done my best to get stuff done.
So in a word? Mexico was AMAZING. A-MA-ZING. We didn't want to leave. It brought back floods and floods of memories of Thailand and China and left me missing the ol' days when maneuvering airports and sleeping in terminals was a way of life. But further than that, it was my first real RELAXING vacation with John. We didn't have a HUGE agenda on our plate, we could come and go as we pleased, our hotel was centrally located and just exactly what we were looking for...but I'm kind of getting ahead of myself. I wrote down a daily log of what we did...so...I will probably break that up into several posts. For now, I'll end that with YAY for Mexico and move on to other things.
We got back last Wednesday (I think...I have no sense of days right now...still) and after much confusion and lack-of-decision-making, we randomly decided to road-trip it up to DC. Why? Because we found out John's sister Emily was going to be in town for the 4th of July!! And we realized to our horror that John hadn't seen her in 2 years! Time flies when the Marine Corps owns your life. So we drove up Saturday and visited with John's dad in Richmond. He took us to a really cool gallery place which I had fun perusing through (it was literally a warehouse that had been turned into tons and tons of studios). In the afternoon, we randomly ran across a newspaper ad for Pablo Francisco. And he was in Richmond. THAT night! So we figured...why the heck not? We got tickets, went to the gallery and then got to the comedy club (but not before being scoped out by a creepy drunk guy who wanted me to give him a ride somewhere...not John or his dad, just me. Yeah no thanks...). There were two opening acts whose names I can't remember but who were both pretty funny. Then Pablo came on and can I just say I have no laughed until I cried in a very long time. I couldn't even really understand what he was saying the first minute or two but I was so overcome by hysterics that it didn't really matter. I think that was the whole point. And can I also say that Pablo looked GREAT! I think he lost some weight or something because he looked awesome. After the show we explored a sporting goods store and then had dinner. We said goodbye to John's dad and got to our hotel room to discover that they only had smoking rooms left (even though I swear we booked nonsmoking). Thankfully, growing up in China has its perks. I'm not high maintenance and am not picky about accommodations. HOWEVER...I will point out that the longer we were in the room the more we had to laugh. I said to John, "Um, do you get the impression we were put in their party room?" "Uh more like ANGRY room." It was true. The place seriously looked like it had been recently trashed and hard. Every wall was patched from being beaten in (and yes, I DO mean EVERY wall), the faucet had a constant leak, the shower curtain not only was reattached to the wall from obviously being pulled down but it also dropped so that during your shower the shower curtain would slowly creep to the middle and let shower water into the bathroom onto the floor. Yeah. Classy. The cherry on top that literally made me laugh out loud was when I was trying to turn on said shower, I kept completely unscrewing the shower handle from the wall in the process of trying to turn it on. I finally just laughed and said, "I hate to say it but I think the shower is broken" to John. All in all, it was a funny experience. But we probably won't stay there again unless it's on the nonsmoking floor. We stayed there once before and it was perfectly fine. I can't shake their creepy mirror behind the bed though. It literally looks like a one way mirror...and it wouldn't surprise me if it was. Hmm...
Moving on...the next day we drove up to John's mom and step-dad's house and met his sister there. It was so nice catching up with all of them and we enjoyed an AWESOME dinner at Clyde's. Let me just say...AMAZING crab soup. The next day was the 4th of July! John, Emily, and I headed out around noon and took the metro into DC with great crowd expectations. We were not disappointed. The beginning of the day wasn't too bad but by the end of the night I was having serious China flashbacks. We went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History for awhile (and saw Dorothy's ruby slippers!) and then headed out to the mall to find a nice grassy spot for firework viewing. There was a lot of activity on the mall including a lot of booths set up by the Peace Corps (which is where we got lunch) as well as a Hare Krishna Festival........yeah I don't get it either. 4th of July...Hare Krishna...didn't know there was any relation. I still don't think there is. After some wandering, we found a spot and passed the time talking and playing cards along with a little exploring while someone guarded our spot (and a Captain America sighting!). The skies kept threatening rain but never gave more than a few drops. Right before the fireworks, Emily and I "braved" the portapotties and I realized, yet again, that Americans have no idea how EASY they have it. I literally saw a girl shove a finger-full of lotion up her nose before going into the portapotty, all the while making a HUGE scene about how horrible it was she had to use one and gagging on her way out. There is a plethora of things I wanted to say; I decided my best weapon was to stay silent, smile, and treat the portapotty like it was no big deal. Because that's what it is: NO BIG DEAL. Be glad you actually have an enclosed place to do your business, lady. I've been in situations where I didn't even have that. Sigh. Okay enough of that. Around 9pm the fireworks started and they were beautiful. It was a little odd not hearing the national anthem or SOMETHING before hand. They just started out of the blue...but they were lovely nonetheless. Afterward, the MASS of human beings herded itself down the blocked off streets like a giant river of people. We held hands to keep from being swept away from each other. When we finally got to the metro entrance, we were greeted with an endless line of human beings. We decided to wait it out but over time realized it wouldn't clear up any time soon. I got in line and moved about 20 feet in 15 minutes. John wanted to go to another metro station and after seeing that the line I was in was in fact bottle necking with ANOTHER huge line and we weren't going anywhere fast, I agreed. The other station was a walk but a nice one since most of the area was deserved by then. We found the other station equally empty and took it home. I felt a little dizzy and sick on the train but other than that everything was fine. It was a great day and it was so nice to catch up with Emily. The next day we drove home.
Now? Now John is back working and I am home alone. It's been nice to catch up on cleaning and laundry and just enjoying being home with my kitties again. I know school will start soon enough and I am in no hurry.
So there you have it! Stay tuned for Mexico episodes currently in the making.