¡prospero ano nuevo!

two thousand seven: so far, so good - which obviously isn't saying much seeing that it's only the second day, but FSC kicked it off with a bang so let's hope the good times keep rolling. (my birthday is in two days. clearly the good times will continue to roll...)

for those of you who were in a paper bag, i spent NYE in Punta Banda with 20+/- of my closest and not-so-closest-but-we-partied-just-like-we-were-closest friends. Danielle, Nikki, Chad, Dave the dog and i headed down to Mexico on Saturday with Katie & Co. close in tow. upon arrival it was apparent that our rental looked like a mental institution and/or that an old lady had died in the house, and possibly still remained in one of the many creepy closets. i thought a shower would calm my senses, but i was foolishly mistaken. clearly the joke was on me, because there was no hot water. none. so i was standing in a cold, Mexican shower with my flip flops on because no amount of money would ever convince me that it was ok to be standing there barefoot, crying. it was sad. i was scared.

thank the good lord that we had some friends in another house not too far away, so we piled back in the cars and headed over to drink our sorrows away. seeing them was definitely a morale booster, as we had spent our last Mexican rendezvous for Danielle's birthday with some of them. my first and last tequila shot went down smoothly and i was finally at ease. (don't worry, i said first and last tequila shot. obviously a copious amount of shots were thrown back after that point, but give me credit - i learned a little something from La Fonda. ixnay the equilatay.)

night one drew to a close, so Danielle and i proceeded back to our shack for some unforeseen reason and slept in the death bed. we then reeked of death and campfire. it was awful - or awesome, depending on how you look at it. so long story short about the haunted house: we had a sober moment of clarity and vowed never to go back. the other house(s) were spacious enough to accommodate us all, and thankfully people were nice enough to share beds. those Hollyweird kids saved our lives.

but i digress... back to the mayhem.

Chad brought enough weed for the Sovereign Military Order Of Malta's army, but unfortunately they couldn't make it down so that left us to burn through it. my Sunday started with four people passing three joints around the fire pit leaving me pretty freaking stoned. so i did the only thing i could do - drank beer. the rest of the day was filled with more drinking, more smoking and for sure frolicking on the beach. Eric introduced us to the fabulous game of Viking Kubb, which we now don't know how we lived with out. (FYI: in search of purchasing our own Kubb set on the world wide web, i stumbled across the fact that the annual World Championship is held on Gotland. those interested in trying out for the team inquire within.) drinking dreidel , Sudoku challenge, and losing at poker were also some of the reasons why i was pretty drunk and had to nap before midnight rolled around.

champagne flowed freely when the clock struck twelve and madness ensued. i honestly haven't laughed as hard as i did that night in a long time, which is saying a lot because i'll pretty much laugh at anything. we had a great group of people and i'd like to think that we all had the best time.

Mexican highlights (in no particular order):

- Mike slept wearing a sleep mask. it said something on it, which at the moment i can't remember for the life of me. to make myself giggle, i'll say it said "take me to sleepy town".
- Reed showed off his sick dance moves. Reed's mom had some sick moves of her own...
- the PIMP cup.
- Cody Cody Slutz tried to talk Elek "off the ledge" when in fact he was unquestionably the deciding factor that pushed him back over.
- Nikki and Nick made out - even if it was "in jest"(so they said...) - in front of everyone.
- the little girl who was vacationing next door was doing snow angels in the sand - face down.
- we partied with Benicio del Toro. (not really, but you would have thought he was Benicio del Toro, too, if you were drunk/stoned/in the dark.)
- Nick threw up. Mike took pictures of Nick throwing up. Eric stood in the shower watching while Mike took pictures of Nick throwing up.
- Elek some how became "Papa Elek", and Danielle and i found much glee running around saying "Papa Elek! Papa Elek!" in an Irish/Scottish accent.
- Godfrey flew a borderline gay kite.
- Eric thought he was going to be murdered.

resolutions i've made because of this trip to Mexico:

1.) i need to "Jump Around" more.
not only was it just good old fashioned fun, but for some reason Danielle and i were sore the next morning. jumping was the only physical exertion from either of us the entire trip (unless walking from one end of the Kubb court to the other counts. yeah, didn't think so...), so in short, we clearly don't jump enough.
2.) i'd like to find a giant fake marlin to hang above our fireplace.
i may even possibly sponge paint the wall an awful orange color just like Nana did. (possibly is the key word.)
3.) i hope to take many more trips to Mexico.
or just take more trips with friends. best case scenario: more trips to Mexico with friends.
4.) i'm going to try and get as many people as humanly possible to start using "Mexican" as an adjective.
it's really quite effective. for example, Danielle cut her foot and it was bleeding a little. if she would have simply said "i have a cut" i would have felt bad, but not that bad. but the fact that she said "i have a Mexican cut" really got my attention. also see my multiple uses of Mexican as an adjective above. it works. you will like it - maybe even love it.

in closing, thanks to (Papa) Elek, Cody and crew for feeding us and giving us a place to stay. and i'd also like to give a very special thanks to Nick because every now and then i catch myself busting out a "in the morning when i rise" - and it's golden.