i know, long time long time. topics salient to my life right now are:

wedding:
one week from today, i'll be married, playing croquet, and sipping wine. wheee! it's been a whirlwind around here lately, with last minute preparations.
dress is altered, pressed, and hanging in the spare room. rsvps are counted, seating chart is made, and caterer knows what's going on. photographer is briefed and paid. cake is ordered and half paid for. flowers are ordered. hotel is booked. music is (almost) arranged, and ceremony is (almost) written. program is designed. it's mostly done. the things we have left are: buying alcohol, finishing the ceremony, buying food for the rehearsal dinner (buffet finger foods at karl's brother's house), and making sure everyone knows about said rehearsal dinner. oh, and i have to write letters to my parents (for presents, they are getting heart-felt letters from me, and a double frame with a photo of us from when i was a kid next to an empty spot to be filled with a photo of us from the wedding.)

cancun:
well, this isn't technically a salient topic anymore, since i got back over a week ago, but you haven't heard about it yet. this was my mom and sister and my annual trip to the beach. usually we go to st. thomas, but this year we decided to try cancun. it was the first time i'd been to mexico. flying in was amazing--there's nothing but jungle for hundreds (thousands?) of miles on the approach to the airport. no roads, no towns. nothing but jungle. there is no place in the US (well, maybe in alaska) that is like that, so completely undeveloped.

cancun itself is just a big resort town. i found it to be similar to tenerife in that respect. here we were in mexico, but you almost wouldn't know it (except for the number of VW beetles, and the quality of the guacamole.) the ocean was gorgeous, more brilliantly blue than any other ocean i've seen, and i've seen my fair share. but the water was rough, at least where we were on the east coast. we spent most days sunning ourselves by the pool, getting up every so often to jump in and cool off, then laying back down to sun the other side. the beach was lovely, but i only like beaches in theory, i've decided. sand and sunscreen do not go together.

in the evenings we went to markets to look around, then ate at whatever place caught our fancy. mmmmmmm, good mexican food! favorite meals included enchiladas with mol� sauce, and quails with rose-petal sauce (like in like water for chocolate! yum!) and of course, the chips, salsa, and guacamole was aMAZing.

i tried all week not to get burned, then didn't put sunscreen on my back on the last day and got pretty red. but it seems to have faded to brown without peeling, so i think the wedding-dress tan will be ok after all (i'm sure you were worried).

bus rides were always a good time. between the crazy drivers, lurching in and out of traffic and in and out of stops, it was an accomplishment just to stay in your seat. which made the woman sitting across the aisle applying heavy stage make-up (false eye-lashes, even!) great entertainment. then there was the militant (presumably) revolutionist. she and her friends were drinking beer at the back of the bus, then she got up and walked up and down the aisle shouting a rousing speech about something or other (i don't speak spanish, but caught words that sounded like "la bombas" "parlementaria" and "patronizacion"). she looked vaguely punkish, with pink hair, studded bracelet and belt, and a jaunty cap. after her speech, interrupted at one point when she got off the bus at a stop and tried to get some tourists to get on, she walked up and down collecting money. we just ignored her, which we figured was safest, since we couldn't tell what side of what issue she was promoting. in stark constrast to miss "viva la revolucion" was a musician who boarded the following night. his rendition of the eagles' "hotel california" on the guitar and, wait for it, ~~pan flute~~ was gutsy enough to get my last pesos out of me. public transportation in cancun: an attraction in inself.

a few of the 150+ photos i took: