Vacationing with A Boy Day 3: What Happens in Mexico, Stays in Mexico

Greetings internet...yeah I know I haven't been keeping up with my Vacation series. Sue me!!! Its been a crazy kind of week here at the home base, but now I finally have some time (and humor?) to keep this going. So without further BS...let's travel back in time about a month to our day in Mexico!

Today's Towel Animal: A Frog...later known to us as "Wise Frog." We grew quite attached to this one...

Today's Fruity Drink: Giant Mango Margarita from Pancho's Backyard

Today's Bottle of Wine: Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay

Location: Cozumel, Mexico

Huge Mexican Flag!

Highlights: DIAMONDS INTERNATIONAL, the fun xylophone players at the restaurant we had lunch at, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, now being able to say I've been to all three of the major North American countries!

Today's Lesson: FIGHT-CLUB!
So I know that vacationing with one's significant other is supposed to be a dream come true and perfectly romantic all the time; at least, that's how they show it in the movies. You're always smiling, every minute is fun, and your usual personality clashes are left at home with your poor abandoned pet (sorry Dean!). If this describes your typical couple's vacation...GET THE HELL OFF MY BLOG RIGHT NOW!!! You're officially labeled..."that" couple. The truth is, unless you're reading from a script and the Carnival Cruiseline film crew is in front of you, clinging to this vision of the couple's vacation is probably going to end up totally disappointing you. This rosy vision of a vacation for two is pretty naive considering even the BEST plans/planners are often way too ambitious and most vacations involve being outside in places that are hot and humid. EXPECT A LITTLE DYSFUNCTION!!!

As you might have picked up by this point, JP and I decided the best way to spend our first hour in Mexico was arguing. Originally, we were going to take an excursion to see some Mayan Ruins, but we decided a 7 hour trip that consisted of roughly 3-4 hours of sitting on a bus was NOT worth $100 each. Therefore, we decided (read: I half-heartedly researched things to do in Cozumel and JP forgot discuss his personal desires with me) to COMPLETELY AVOID making plans for the day and "wing it". I would NOT recommend this plan to anyone unless you're visiting a place you're intimately familiar with already. Sooooo after wandering around all the tourist trap shops near the pier, having an awkward argument by a taxi stand, saying things we generally didn't mean and angrily getting into a cab... we decided to go shop for jewelry???!!?

TANZANITE!!!!!!!

I know...it makes no sense...TOTAL dysfunction. Are you really surprised? DID YOU READ THE TITLE OF THIS BLOG?? This is what we do...vacation or not vacation. The truth is about 5 minutes into the cab ride neither of us really cared about why the fight started. The water was too blue and the diamonds were too shiny. Could we have communicated better? Of course we could have...but a minor lapse in these skills shouldn't ruin an entire day in paradise! We moved on, did some shopping, bought some AMAZING TANZANITE JEWELRY and totally salvaged the day...TOGETHER. Its nice to have some alone time on any vacation (see Day 2's blog), but don't forget that you're also there to have a good time doing things you BOTH enjoy! The lesson we took away from Cozumel was to take the time to really talk about what BOTH of you want to do BEFOREhand, find a compromise and don't let bickering get in the way of buying shiny things.

See we made up...and not just because of the earrings!! Love you JP!

Maybe I'll publish Day 4 later tonight to compensate for my absence...
Jill-Ron

ZOMG!!! 1 year of living in Sin

So yeah! Its been roughly a year since JP and I moved in together here in Silver Spring. Its been a crazy year, but one worth celebrating!! Here on Dysfunctionally Functional, we're going to do just that with a series I like to call "Vacationing With a Boy: Adventures In the Caribbean." It has a nice ring don't you think? I could TOTALLY make sequels with it!! Getting ahead of myself though...Enjoy!!!

Vacationing with a boy Day 1: Man Cheers in Miami

As anyone reading this blog knows, I feel that living with someone you're ostensibly going to spend the rest of your life with before actually getting married, is non-negotiable. I would also submit that going on vacation with that person is a pretty big part of the spouse try-out process. While JP and I have been on numerous vacations together, we had never been on a trip totally alone, just the two of us. Keeping this in mind, we planned a cruise vacation to the Western Caribbean on the beautiful Carnival Liberty for early May of this year.

I've done a few blog posts now in a segment I like to call "Man Gripes" and now for the first vacation blog, I'd like to introduce a new segment called "Man Cheers." As someone who generally travels alone (at least while in the airport), I am used to getting up at crazy hours in the morning to wait for Super Shuttles and lugging all my luggage EVERYWHERE with me so people don't steal/plant illicit substances in it. This time I had a boy with though and I made two awesome discoveries about how great having a travel partner is.

1.) Traveling with a boy (that owns a car) means we get to drive the Land-Barge to the airport on our own schedule instead of messing around with Supershuttle. Good old Supershuttle wanted to pick us up at like 4 AM so that we would have "ample time" (read unnecessary, RIDICULOUS amounts of time which usually results in JP eating a large gross McDonald's breakfast) to make our flight. Instead we left at 5 AM (first time we've ever left RIGHT on JP's schedule!!) and arrived at the gate maybe 30 minutes before boarding. Not enough time to gorge on a greasy fast food breakfast, but enough to grab a bagel and not feel rushed.

2.) Traveling with a boy means that I can use the restroom, throw away my garbage, or buy a magazine without lugging ALL my carry-on luggage with me. I had enough freedom in the Miami Airport bathroom stall to freaking WALTZ people...it was amazing. I also didn't have to worry about knocking over racks of magazines/books/candy/valuable breakables with my backpack. SERIOUSLY...YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS!

Otherwise, the rest of this day was fairly uneventful. The cruise ship stole JP's bottle of wine he packed (because it was in his checked bag, not carry-on). We found out that "Blackberry don't has Airplane Mode!" and that JP walks VERY quickly through airport terminals. Our cabin was great, the ship was lovely, our waitstaff at dinner was pretty awesome.

Stay tuned as I update throughout the week on the various fruity cocktails I enjoyed, fun happenings on our vacation, and general tips and tidbits about vacationing with a boy (there will be photos!)!!

Love,

Jill-ron!