Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers and pals out there.

Many of you know that I’m in the US visiting my kiddo for the week. It’s been a great trip so far, mostly because I’m catching up with my daughter. But it’s also been great because of all the fun stuff we’ve been doing. We went to the Denver Art Museum and saw a terrific exhibit by German artist Daniel Richter. We went to Celestial Seasonings and had a factory tour. And we’ve been to numerous restaurants, all of which have better service than any average restaurant in Cancun…

My internet connection here is unstable, so I haven’t been working and have barely been checking email. But maybe this is good, it gets me to go out and have fun.

Anyway, enjoy Turkey Day if that’s something you partake in.

Yesterday we took my visiting amiga americana to Cancun’s Museo de Arte Popular Mexicano (Mexican Folk Art Museum). And as usual we enjoyed it thoroughly. They continue to add to their large collection of Mexican arts and crafts, so each time we go there we see new pieces. And this time we listened to the audio tour, something we hadn’t done before, and it really added a lot to the experience.

But as we were leaving husbandito did his always-make-new-friends thing and started talking with one of the people who works in the museum. Well it turns out that the museum, surprise, surprise, has never made any money there (it’s in a bad location and is always empty). And so the owners, who also own Xcaret Eco-Park, have decided to move the museum to Xcaret sometime in the next couple of months, sometime in January according to the employee.

The good thing about this is that Xcaret is popular so people will FINALLY start seeing this great collection of Mexican arts and crafts! The bad thing is that this museum was basically the only place in Cancun to see a large collection of good quality arts and crafts. So I’m completely bummed out, but not surprised at all. I guess now I have yet another reason to go to Xcaret again.

If you are a Cancunense and you have not yet been to the Museo de Arte Popular Mexicano I highly recommend it, but you’d better get over there soon.

One of my closest friends from back home is coming this week for a visit. It’s wonderful, and it will throw my normal work schedule out the window. I haven’t seen much of her in a few years so we will doubtless have lots of good talks. And she will be my excuse for going over to Isla Mujeres or maybe down to Playa del Carmen or Puerto Morelos or Tulum for a day. We might even, god forbid…could it be?…go to the beach! Maybe even more than once during her visit.

People who don’t live here often assume that folks who live here have a life of leisure, that we have one foot in the sand and our fingers wrapped around a margarita at all times. Well, when you live here you learn quickly that beaching it is a luxury (you also learn that tequila is for people who like hangovers). Some folks here manage to make it to the beach pretty often. But I’m not one of them. And I don’t care. I love beaches. But I also love not having skin cancer. And I love getting my work done. And beach days mean too much sun, and, for me at least, they usually mean getting basically nothing done. I guess being on the beach makes me tired, or stupid, or time flies while I’m there, or something.

Anyway, my friend is coming. So I will be making an effort to have some fun around here. Instead of making my usual effort to get some work done around here. Who knows, it might be good for me to kick back and not work so much. Maybe.

So I’m running along in the Parque Kabah, which is finally no longer the Lago Kabah (lake) and is really, truly back to being a park. Though it does still have areas of standing water, aka mosquito nests. But I digress, which may be the point.

Any how. I’m running along. And there are all these butterflies. They are flying in pairs, swooping together and flitting around in dizzying circles that make you feel twisted inside just from trying to watch them.

And I’m thinking how lovely it is. The butterflies everywhere. Almost brushing up against my face. Almost hitting a tree. But never actually hitting anything. Just flitting and fluttering merrily.

As I’m running I’m realizing that, more than usual, there are tons of caterpillars in the path, worming their way along. So then I’m dancing along trying not to step on these caterpillars, these future butterflies, and I’m trying hard to be hit and graced by the present butterflies, but they never meet my challenge.

Then finally my running is over. And I’m stretching. I have one leg up on a hip-high bar. I’m wondering where my flexibility went. And I’m looking down at the foot holding me up, the only foot on the ground. Then a caterpillar comes out of nowhere, well, it comes from over there. And it is coming straight to my one foot on the ground. And it reaches my foot.

So I’m thinking the caterpillar is going to climb up my foot. Neat. But no. It goes under my shoe!? And then I can’t see it. And then I start getting nervous that I’m going to squish it if I shift my weight AT ALL! And I’m so in love with butterflies that I just don’t want to squish this caterpillar/future butterfly that is under my shoe.

It stays under there. And it stays. I’m worried I’ve already squished it. I consider how to shift my weight to the other leg, to the foot up on the bar. I’m sure I will squish my caterpillar if I bring down my other foot and put it on the ground.

So I’m starting to freak out. And I’m starting to talk to this caterpillar, out loud. “Have I killed you? Are you coming out from under my shoe?” And then triumphantly (for me), and rather nonchalantly (for it), the caterpillar comes out from under my shoe. It wiggles along. No harm done. Had a nice break in the shade. Off to greener pastures. See ya.

I’m so happy that Obama won the U.S. Presidential election. I’m happy because he won so decisively. I’m happy because he ran a clean campaign. I’m happy because there were no “October Surprises,” because he was properly vetted. I’m happy because he is a good man and I absolutely believe he will make good decisions for the country. But the thing that makes me happiest is how happy everyone else is.

My cell phone has been bursting with victory text messages from all my happy friends. All of the email lists I belong to are buzzing with we’re-so-happy-emails.

And the people I read on Twitter are positively giddy. One Twitter member that I follow changed his icon/photo from a caricature of himself with his own white skin to a caricature of himself with black skin.

And here are some Tweets from Twitter members I follow:

• A Twitter member who was on a flight to Japan said this “On approach to Japan, a flight attendant announced Obama’s victory. There was a burst of applause from economy; in business class, silence.”
• Is Michelle Obama not the most awesome First Lady-elect that ever awesomed?
• There is cheering in the streets in my neighborhood.
• Jesus H. Christ, Barack H. Obama. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.
• Big giant exhale. Ahhhhhh
• Wow!!! processing…never teared up at an election night result before. Exciting times.
• Now to roll up our sleeves and dump Sarah as our Governess…stick a fork in here: she’s toast.
• Tears of joy last night, wow! Loved Obama’s speech, I was sobbing.
• Ike reigned at my birth, but JFK’s the first president I remember. Obama will be four-year-old Ava’s “first” president. That thrills me.
• Something I’ll never forget: stepping off a plane to catch a snippet of McCain giving his concession speech. There is no sweeter welcome.

It’s so exciting, so gratifying to be part of this victory. I think Obama was right last night when he said “I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.” He’s right, this victory is ours. We did this and we are damn proud of ourselves right now.