I Left My Heart in Cabo San Lucas: Beach Pics

I'm sitting at Peet's (coffee shop, for those non-Californians among you) working on lesson plans today, daydreaming about being back at Capella.  Here are some pictures of our time in Cabo from Cari and JJ's camera.  Feast your eyes on the beauty & preciousness (of Jude).  


*you may have to enlarge these since I can't figure out how to make pics bigger on my blog.  

Jude and me upon our arrival in Cabo

Cari and Milo in the Capella lobby.  Check out his scrunchy face.

JJ and Milo having dinner at "The Office."  So sweet.

Judebug with our butler, Victor (aka guacamole master)

plunge pool on our patio, overlooking the resort & the Pacific

I got the boys shirts to match their eyes :)

me & my piggies getting some sun

view from my elliptical in the fitness center

(totally untouched iphone photo)

who wouldn't work out every day if this was the view???

me, Cari, and the boys

infinity pool numero dos: on the beach

terribly grainy picture of me and JJ
before a debauched night out starting at Cabo Wabo
(you don't wanna know where it ended)

just a pirate ship, no big thang

Cari and JJ: on our patio pre-date night
(side note: I fell in love with that dress but it didn't fit me so I got it for Cari!)

oh Capella, how I long for thee
(another unedited iPhone pic taken from patio)

If you're even thinking of going to Cabo, I can't recommend Capella highly enough.  Just click on that link and you'll start salivating.  I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is being back home after 8 blissed out days there!  Only regret: not getting pictures of the cute waiters/resort staff.

Here's to being able to return in 2012!

What I'm Workin' With

The idea of leaving Capella (our resort in Cabo) is downright depressing.  So I just won't think about it. The physical beauty here is astounding: our back patio, complete with a private plunge pool, overlooks the resort and the Pacific, which rages onto the beach day & night.  The water is teal-clear.  We have a two-level white couch covered in colorful pillows.  We each have our own bedroom and shower (that's not entirely true; I'm sharing with Jude). :)  Our butler makes us homemade salsa, guacamole, tortilla chips, and decadent meals.  

When we started to run low on Corona, another case was delivered promptly.  Today Jude woke up with swimmer's ear, and a doctor came to our condo and had antibiotics delivered within half an hour.

And the staff.  They run around with towels and bottles of water in bins of ice.  They are so friendly (and some of them very cute!).  I wish this could be real life.  Here are some pics:

view from our back patio

one of the three infinity pools (the adult pool with swim-up bar aka my favorite one)

Cari enjoying our newest discovery:

the spicy mango margarita with chipotle salt rim

More pictures to come.  All of these are just iPhone pics--totally unedited.  Cari and JJ have a really nice camera, so I'll share more pictures when they upload those.  In the meantime, I am happier, tanner, and more well-rested than I've been in ages.  Trying to figure out a way to move here . . . 

Quiet Time

It is damn near impossible for me to sit still.

I should ask my mama if this has always been true, or if it's a (bad) habit that I've cultivated over the years (and through an increasingly technology-dependent world).  If I am being honest, I will admit things like:

1. I don't really like to go to the movies because it requires me to sit still (and with decorum) for two hours, and

2. I get anxious during massage/acupuncture/anything like that--we're talkin' even LUX SPA TREATMENTS HERE--because I have to be motionless and quiet.  So mostly, I don't do these types of things.

Same goes for meditation.  I've tried it, repeatedly, as I know it would be so good for me & my restless soul.  And yet, my mind gets the best of me every time.  I can't stop thinking about the next moment.  Right now, I'm sitting on our incredible patio in Cabo San Lucas, looking across our private plunge pool into the rowdy Pacific.  I'm in a loose tank top and drinking a really good glass of red wine (that JJ shipped here from San Francisco).  This should be the most calming environment EVER, right?

I'm pretty calm right now . . . in Claire terms, anyway.  But still, my mind races with these thoughts:

~should I put on my cardigan or not?
~can't decide if I want to read blogs or read my book (Little Bee, btw)
~I think I left my dish in the sink & it's rude to leave it for the mayordomo
~tomorrow, would I rather run on the beach or go to the fitness center?
~I should be lesson planning


Etc., etc.  I'm not sure that I've ever just been IN THE NOW for more than two minutes.  I literally bob my leg up and down when I am sitting.  Constantly.  CANNOT BE STILL.

Anyone else have trouble with this?  Specific ideas for overcoming this incapacity for calm?

Hope you're somewhere as beautiful as I am right now.

hola de hermosa Cabo San Lucas!

Hola from Cabo!  Suffice to say, it is breathtaking here.  I can't post pictures yet, because we haven't loaded any from the camera, and I can't email them from my iPhone lest I receive an otherworldly phone bill.  But here's how it's gone down so far:

~we were greeted at the airport by a friendly gentleman who packed us into a van and handed us Coronas with lime for the ride to the resort

~upon arriving at the resort, a very friendly staff showed us around the grounds (teal ocean, infinity pools, restaurants on the beach) and took us to our villa. . .

~ . . . in which our sweet butler, Victor, had tamales, guacamole, and pico de gallo for us on the dining room table!

Can't wait to walk down to the beach today.  Though the view from my room is almost as exquisite as the view from the plunge pool on our balcony. ;)

Only regret: abandoning my Spanish when Jaime and I broke up.  I had actually been getting good, and then just quit cold turkey.  I hate thinking that I could be fluent by now if I'd kept it up!

Pictures coming soon, but for now, this is where we're staying.  Seriously.

Girlfriends, Good Food, Wine, and Jax Teller

How lucky am I that Micaela, Marianne, and Jessie chose to spend vacation time here with me in San Francisco last week?  And let me just say that our trip was everything we dreamed it would be.

four girls in Napa

Marianne is the sweetest person I've ever met.  And she's incredibly beautiful, loyal, and says the cutest things. ♥

Jessie can party like a rockstar.  She's a hot & hilarious bad ass with some amazing stories.  She and I could get into some pretty serious trouble if we lived near each other.

And Micaela is my girl.  I feel closer to her every day, and am so thankful this trip gave us so much time together.  This woman could fill oceans with the love she has to give.  It's pretty unreal.

at Rubicon Estates (Niebaum-Coppola)

Texas/Oklahoma girls in Golden Gate Park 

Jessie stopping in for a quick tattoo on Haight St., ha!

foggy day at my favorite beach

wine!

Marianne was such a good sport since she doesn't really like wine :)

happy

one of my favorite pictures from our trip

at Vesuvio in North Beach.  BEWARE!

on this trip to City Lights, I discovered a new poet

with whom I'm now a little obsessed: Evie Shockley

the Golden Gate Bridge was actin' up a little with the fog

Other things we did:

*Visited my neighborhood restaurants and wine bar

*Watched (and re-watched) super hot Jax Teller sex scenes at Cari and JJ's house

*Stayed up till 4 am with laughter, a few tears, and lots of stories

*Had a bit of a traumatic experience running into my exbf's good friend, who told me that my exbf is getting married (still coping, y'all)

*Ate authentic Italian food in North Beach

*Spent some time on my back porch

*Saw the Painted Ladies (or as I like to call them, the Full Houses) and busted out the Full House theme song 

*Drank lots of coffee!

Hurry back, girls!  My house is so empty without you.

New York City trip in pictures!

This post is seriously late, but I've been busy recovering from a whirlwind trip, jet lag, and the knowledge that I have to be back in the classroom, bright-eyed & bushy-tailed, Monday at 8 am.  WHAT?  Ugh.  Scratch the bright-eyed & bushy-tailed part.

New York City is magical, as was seeing all my friends together (we all got together Saturday night for dinner in Brooklyn--12 of us!--some friends from childhood, college, grad school, etc. etc.).  Summer has those pics on her camera, so I will post them as soon as she sends them to me (ahem, Summer).

But here's a summary of my trip, in photos:

Summer and me out exploring

In Times Square, right after we exited the biggest Forever 21 in the freakin' world (5 floors?)

how delighted was I to spot a dress made out of cards??

me with itty bitty Baked by Melissa cupcakes

seriously, they are about the size of a quarter!

Summer and Adam's boys

Radio City Music Hall

The closest I came to Carrie Bradshaw was visiting the Patricia Field store

(where I fell in love with a gold glitter iPhone case)

Times Square

check out the marquee--the Bronx zoo cobra was on the loose!

btw, if you don't follow @BronxZoosCobra on twitter, you're seriously missing out

a morning alone in Union Square . . . 

. . . where I spotted these precious school babies!

my darling friend Marisa at Motorino Pizza in Brooklyn

if you live in NYC, run there pronto!

we had broccolini & margherita pizzas

and love bomb cocktails!

Marisa and me at dinner--old friends!

heehee

Make it work!

my college friend Peter in his office at Kensington Press

(I'm suffering from job envy: he reads fiction manuscripts all day & decides whether or not to publish them!)

in the theater district

(I love how the light is shining on the "i")

Simon & Schuster, for those of us obsessed with literary presses

taken from the Brooklyn Bridge

(oh how I wish this were properly centered)

walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, heading to Grimaldi's

aka the best pizza in NYC

goodness gracious alive, this pizza is good

I love this picture of Summer with the "Live Your Life" sign in the background

Aside from a couple mishaps (including losing my phone & having to buy a new one), it was a phenomenal trip.  Summer was the best hostess ever (as was my dear Marisa, whom I stayed with one night!).  I wish I'd had more time so that I could have spent more time with everyone . . . but all the more reason to make NYC a yearly vacation!

Hope y'all had a wonderful week.  I'm glad to have returned to the blog world!  Happy Monday.