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Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Gems About Mexico and the Answer to Your Burning Question

I don’t want to talk about the honeymoon anymore. Not that it wasn’t great, but I’ve moved on and so should you. It was last week’s news. But I will offer you these gems of information, things you should know about Mexico:

— “Hey man, you want to party tonight?” “Hey man, want some weed?” and “Want to get high?” are all legitimate questions you will be asked while in Mexico. On the street, on the beach, on the marina, in a box by a fox. Anywhere. No, this is not just me being silly, those videos you saw in elementary school about saying no to drugs (wherein some high schooler approaches kids in a playground and says in a weasely voice “Want to get high?” It was so unbelievable) are a reality. The proper response is to laugh really loud as though caught off guard. And then to continue laughing while you walk away, repeatedly saying “no” between laughs because they just don’t take no for an answer. Even if you are into getting high, these muchachos might be undercover agents. You don’t know. And I don’t really know, do they even bust people for selling drugs in Mexico (barring this one rare occasion)?

— While some (my co-workers) may argue the reason for my outrageous sunburn, the one I got in less than 30 minutes, is because I was close to the water, I argue that the real reason is because I was closer than usual to the equator. I might go for the water-proximity argument if the worst part of the sunburn wasn’t on my scalp, where my part is. But since my scalp is still peeling from that sunburn and I didn’t walk around Mexico with the top of my head pointed at the ocean or the pools, I simply can’t. The lesson? While the equator thing might be off (I haven’t looked it up, but it stands to reason. Equator = closer to the sun), it’s a good idea to wear sun block. Apply liberally and often (we wore sun block but didn’t re-apply often). Also, buy a hat to protect your scalp. A peeling scalp is very unsightly. Especially when you have dark hair, like me.

— Haggle. Name your price. Walk away when they refuse your price and if they don’t see the light, then it wasn’t worth it anyway.


That’s it. Remember those three things and you’ll do fine.

So the honeymoon news was last week. This week’s news is the answer to the second most popular question (the first is "How was the honeymoon?"): "How’s married life?" The answer: great. Thank-you.

Truthfully I can’t say that married life is much different than being committed to someone before marriage. The few differences are that Stoker and I can now sleep in the same bed without being cursed by our families and therefore we don’t have to go through the whole (sometimes agonizing) goodbye thing every night.

Before you’re married to someone you’re committed to, there’s this annoying ambivalence to your relationship most apparent in how others treat/see you. They’re not so sure. You’re relationship isn’t really real. You might feel like it’s real and valid and beautiful. But no one else sees it that way. You’re just sort of playing house until you’re married. I’m not saying this is how it is because that’s what I want, I’m just describing something I’ve seen around me. Well. Now we’re married. What changed isn’t so much me or how I feel about Stoker, what changed is really in the minds of others. At least that’s what I think, and that’s how it feels. Especially when someone asks me, “Well, how does it feel to be married?” Not much different, just more secure about being with Stoker and growing old together.

1 comment:

Stoker White said...

I did a little bit of research about this. If nothing else, at least you can say some of this stuff and sound like you know for sure what you're talking about. That's actually half the battle.

The equator is not always the part of the earth closest to the sun. But I really think that it has to do more with the amount of atmosphere between a person and the sun, not so much the distance from the earth to the sun. If the sun is closer to the horizon the rays pass through more atmosphere. Dust, Ozone, etc. All of this reduces the amount of sunburn a person might get. This wasn't what my research was, I'm just thinking it out.

Anyway, the sun is directly overhead at the tropic of cancer on June 22. The tropic of cancer runs almost right on top of Los Cabos. So, if you're in Los Cabos around June 22 then the sun is almost directly overhead. So being there when we were the sun was at it's strongest. There was almost the least amount of atmosphere possible between your poor, little scalp and the sun.

Thank you! Thank you! I just proved the Nikki knows what she's talking about!

(thunderous applause)