Cabo day. Woke to see The Rocks outside my window.

Spent the entire day shopping. You're thinking, "No surprise there, DUH, that's all she EVER does." Not exactly the same thing here.

Pros and cons of Cabo:

Pros:
* Lovely 80's weather. Kept trying to remind myself, "This is December, month of freezing" and most heartily failed at that. It felt like June. Gorgeous.
* Sunny.
* There certainly were a lot of goods on sale, especially of the shiny and expensive variety.
* Unlike when I'm in, say, San Francisco, I did feel safe there, like nobody was going to rob/molest me.

Cons:
* Well, I didn't eat at any restaurants or even go to the bathroom while there. (Whew.)
* Every five seconds someone is pushing you to buy some shit. I bitched about getting fliers in my face for tours of the stars's homes in LA? Worse.
* Man, I hate being pushed to buy things. Hate it hate it hate it, and that's all this town was about.
* Oh, those poor iguanas.

I mentioned the 10 "sanctioned" stores? Yeah. We spent 3 hours in the first jewelry store we found fresh off the boat. And lord, the pushing and the selling...drove me nuts. I shudder to think of the money that got spent that day.
Yes, I got some pretty stuff (Mom surprised me), but all things considered, it was probably the least fun shopping experience ever since I last had to buy a bed from some guy yakking about Martin Yan buying a queen bed from him. It is not fun for me when I can't be left alone for 30 seconds to look in peace or think about it without someone being in my face pressuring me to buy now. Ugh. If I ever go there again, I'd rather lounge on a beach or do one of the excursions Mom didn't want to do.

To summarize the experience, I'll mention this: one guy was trying to sell Paula a scary-expensive bracelet, and she was all, "But I never wear bracelets." His response was, "Well, I used to never wear ladies' underwear either."

I also ended up getting a ridiculously expensive watch (I gather it's an Oprah watch. But of course.) that Christie the shopping expert recommended. Why did we get those? Because bizarrely enough, she said they help with various ailments- blocking electromagnetic whatever. I'd be inclined to think this is bunk, but she said her cabin was right next to the engine room and once she got the watch, she could sleep through it. This sounded bizarre to me (still does), but I don't sleep for shit any more, so...um, yeah, Mom got some and I didn't object. And darned if the things don't actually work. I slept for crap the first 2 nights on board (no real reason, everything was quiet and dark and comfortable), and slept good after the watch went on. Go figure.

At least I got to do a bit of non-frigid deck lounging at the end of the day, though.

They had a hypnotist show that night the whole group (other than me, that is) wanted to go to. I am so not into that shit (I had to sit through TWO of those shows at the state fair this year, and this guy was less amusing than the fair one), though it was mildly amusing that one of our party got on stage and claimed to be VERY well-rested afterwards.

Had more fun after dinner at the dance "contest" (not really), featuring the electric slide, the hand jive, massive amounts of conga and line dancing, and a "dance like it's Saturday morning" routine ("pretend you're showering! wind up the lawn mower! push it! drive! there's a sale on!"). Also watched a little karaoke before bed, because the disco was NOT hopping that night (sigh). Quote from karaoke night: "I'm Fluffy. And if you haven't met me, you haven't been to the bars." Having seen/read Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, a Fluffy reference amused me.

Post-formal quote from the cruise director on the photographs: "If you see someone else's picture you like, take it! In California, that would be called stalking, but we're in international waters!"
Speaking of the photos, I, as usual, have giant orange pumpkinhead in most of them. The funny thing was people thinking one chick's photos were good, and she was griping about how her face looked too shiny. I guess we all have our things...

Oh, and tonight's animal!

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