cancun surprise

Ahh, Cancun.

Well I booked a trip to Cancun for Ben's Christmas present, and this is how I told him. Early in November I said, "Don't spend any money on Christmas, I already spent all our money, we're getting a flatscreen TV." Okay, he said, cool, whatever. A few weeks later I mentioned that it might take a while to install it, so he might want to take off a few days of work in January. Later I casually noted that it may be unseasonably warm in January, so he might want to be sure he has some appropriate clothes (bathing suit, etc.) to wear. By December 25 he had a pretty good idea we were going somewhere, so when I let him know where (Cancun) and when (January, Thursday-Sunday), it was an expected surprise, which was good. Ben does not like the surprises.

We went. We saw sun. We were again surprised, since I believe Pittsburgh is dwarfed only by Seattle in least sunny days. It was shocking to us, to my translucent vampire-ish skin, but we recovered nicely. I made sure to wear my favorite accessories: the spray tan and the SPF 35. We felt great. And no back pain, for either of us, which was something monumental. I don't think either of us have awoken without back pain for years. At first we thought it was the humidity, or the sea-salty air. Or maybe the negative ions from all the waves. But then we remembered there are no 30- or 40-pound children to hold in Cancun. Unless you leave the resort.

We did have one trip out, the second (and last) full day we went to a snorkeling reef and looked at fish, and sting rays, and ocean water. It was so amazing to be there, but it was almost as amazing to see the resorts fall away and be trekked through incredible poverty to go to another tourist attraction. I thought of how broke we are because I stay at home and how broke those people actually are, working or not. I thought of the kind of amazing strength of character it must take to work at a resort, serving incredibly rich people (*and us!), and then go back to your home, with stray dogs roaming the neighborhood and maybe a broken down family car you all use...to go back to the resort daily and not get bitter. And I was proud of those people. And I thought, I could do that, if I could see the Sea every day. Maybe.

Ben was a nervous wreck in customs and we literally had nothing even remotely illegal or not allowed and had receipts for everything that he categorized and added up to the cent. The customs agent practically rolled her eyes at us, like, it's not you we're after, sir. I think even the drug sniffing dogs rolled their eyes as we passed.

I was not surprised that we had a fabulous time. The children were at our place with the grandparents and did fine. Ben and I got a chance to reconnect, remember what we saw in each other all those years back. And relax. And just rest, which is something that is rare, when you have kids. I remembered that I could read books with more than 20 pages, and with bigger words than "fox" and "socks."

And although I did not feel ready to leave, we did leave. We loved it all, it was the best kind of surprise that we could still function as human beings without all the stuff--the kids, the house, the responsibilities. The world went on without us, as it would if we died, or got terribly ill. This world is indifferent, and we got a chance to remember that if we don't take the time to have a little rest it'll just run you down, if you let it. So we loved Mexico. Surprise?