back on solid ground

so I'm officially back from my week-long biz/pleasure trip, sailing out of LA with stops in acapulco, zihuatanejo/ixtapa, puerto vallarta, and cabo san lucas. as i mentioned in my last post, the first half of was legitimately stressful as we scrambled to line up participants for our on-board project, but the last half was -- if you'll excuse the horrible pun -- rather smooth sailing. we didn't necessarily "party" too much but we got to spend time in every port. i saw the famous cliff divers in acapulco, worked on my tan while laying out on the lovely playa las gatas in zihuatanejo, went snorkeling near the famous los arcos rocks in puerto vallarta and... made a beeline for the airport in cabo san lucas.

here are a few pics from the trip:
*EDIT* blogger is being dumb, so i'll have to upload pics later...

i was pretty much attached-to-the-hip of my two teammates 24/7 for the entire week (although since they both work for the client and not for the agency i guess they're not exactly my "teammates" but the working relationship was very friendly and low-key), and now that i'm back, i have to say that i'm pretty content to lay low and just hang out w/myself for a bit. it's not that i'm anti-social, but i'm the first to admit that i need some me-time once in a while... even if i'm not doing anything particularly exciting i just need some time to veg and recharge.

today's big activities included sleeping late in my delicious, delicious bed, doing piles of laundry, cleaning my apt, sorting through a week's worth of mail, going to the grocery store and cooking a big vat of turkey chili while watching an incredible movie -- hotel rwanda. seriously, don cheadle is the man (although it goes without saying that the actual man that inspired don cheadle's character is obviously the real hero here). it's a fantastic film if you haven't seen it.

watching the movie tonight and being on a huge cruise all week with 2,000 of my closest friends made me pensive about people. we're so different in so many ways (we passed a funeral procession in the tiny and winding streets of acapulco, and it made me think about the different ways that cultures observe the ceremony of death), and divided by culture/race/socio-economic status/education/sexuality/religion/whatever (tourism sign seen in acapulco touting a gay tour -- "cum party on the beach with us!" in sparkling glitter on a rainbow-colored sign. subtle, no?), but at what point do all those fall to the wayside and we just become fellow humans? just people who want fame, glory, family, love, money, power, success, whatever? seeing that movie and keeping an occasional eye on the news makes me feel like times of crisis bring out the worst of those divisions instead of highlighting the humanity that unites us all.

ANYWAY. i was so not planning on going there and pretending like i am all deep and shit. just thoughtful, i suppose. also -- the vat of turkey chili was a success. it's definitely still mid-80s and sunny during the day here, but the evenings get nice and cool. it's not quite cold enough for a jacket or anything (right now i am sitting in my living room with the porch door open so i can feel the cold air but i am also wearing a tank top, so it's not exactly frigid temperatures or anything), but definitely cool enough to enjoy a steaming cup of hot chili and a tall glass of red wine. yum.