Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

Last week, Feller and I went down to Santa Cruz for a Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers concert. I’ve written a bit before about how much I love seeing my favorites in concert, and this was no exception. RCPM is up there in my top three favorite bands, and I haven’t had a chance to see them perform in years. Roger Clyne consistently gives great, energetic performances, and I always leave the show feeling revved up and revitalized. Feller has started coming with me when there are shows I want to see, and it’s fun to share the music I love with him.

I haven’t listened to RCPM on a regular basis for a few years; I didn’t love two of their recent albums and haven’t even listened to their newest, but this concert took me right back to being 22 on a beach in Mexico hearing them live for the first time. My buddy and I drove down to Rocky Point on a whim, after seeing Cross Canadian Ragweed in Tucson, who announced they were playing in Mexico the following week. We didn’t have a hotel or plan, and we discovered that this concert was a huge fucking event. We found the one room still available around the corner from the concert venue and got down to partying.

CCR was great; they always, always were, which is why I was so heartbroken when they broke up. But RCPM? Oh, god, they were MAGICAL. I knew some of their music because I worked in a sports bar that had The Refreshments on the jukebox, but even the stuff I didn’t know felt familiar and wonderful. I am pretty sure there weren’t any fireworks that night, but that feeling you get when you see fireworks is so strong in my memories that I have to remind myself he was only singing, “The kids are lighting firecrackers/Boom, boom, boom” and that it wasn’t actually happening.

After that night, I was hooked. I saw RCPM anytime they played in Tucson and as many times in Phoenix as I could. I saw them in Rocky Point another three times, always as part of a fun road trip with the same buddy. They were the soundtrack to my life in the first few years after I graduated college; when I didn’t know what was going on or where my life was headed, I turned to Roger who just seemed to GET ME. And the concert last week just took me right back there, reminding me of all the fun I had while listening to this band.

Cozumel, Day 1

Feller and I landed in Cozumel yesterday, after what felt like forever traveling. The afternoon was full of napping and recovering from a Flying Hangover (and a cold, on Feller’s part), but we registered for all the diving we’re going to be doing through Scuba Club Cozumel (for which we got an AMAZING deal). We think we’re going to do a little shore dive from right outside our hotel room this afternoon just to re-acclimate ourselves with diving and the gear and everything.

We’re staying in a cool room with tiled floors and matching red, orange and purple striped curtains and bedspread. The curtains give the entire room a warm, rosy glow when the sun shines through them. The resort provides all of our meals, and so far, the food has been muy delicioso. I had AMAZING enchiladas con mole con pollo upon our arrival, which I hope sets the tone for the entire trip: amazing food, amazing experiences. AND they brought us dinner when we almost slept through it! THEY BROUGHT US FOOD!!

We’ve also signed up to do a couple of non diving day excursions. Somehow, we got corralled into talking to some tour guide guy at the airport, and he talked us into signing up with him. Feller’s a bit EEEHHH about it, and told me as we were walking away that we had just gotten “salesman’ed,” which is 100% correct. But I also feel like that we’re getting a pretty good deal, and that a couple of days of not diving will be fun. One of my favorite parts of Hawaii was the rainforest tour that we took, so I am optimistic. We’ll be spending one day touring Cozumel in a car, checking out Chankanaab National Park, a tequila factory tour, and Punta Sur. On another day, we’ll take a ferry to the mainland to have breakfast at Xcaret and taking a tour of Mayan ruins at Tulum.

Our trip is jam packed full of stuff, with all the diving and other tours, but we’re both just so excited. We’re both recovering from post-Christmas colds, so hopefully, we’ll be totally healthy and ready to go for the rest of the trip. Being here, really, finally, after two years of no real breaks in day to day life, feels a little surreal right now, but oh so wonderful. I stepped outside our room last night, after everyone else in the resort seemed to be asleep, and listened to the ocean hitting the pier just a few steps from our door and marveled that THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING. I don’t even have the words to tell you how happy I am to be here and how I already feel relaxed and peaceful and how, despite our full schedule, I know we’ll have plenty of downtime and feel so much better when we come back home.