2003-12-19 - 1:08 p.m.
The Parents are coming! The Parents are coming!!
They arrive on December 27. I have been very happy and excited about this for awhile now. But something occurred to me this morning that kinda kicked my ass ...
I wanted them to come because I miss them. But I also wanted them to come to see how well I've done. Not in the monetary sense, obviously, but ... I wanted them to see that being in Mexico was a good thing for me, the right thing.
D'oh.
How many things could go wrong here? First of all, their idea of the 'right thing' and my idea might be (probably are) very different. And now matter how hard we try, none of us is going to be able to convince the other that our 'right thing' is THE 'right thing.'
Second, even if we had the same idea of the 'right thing' how on earth could I prove it to them in the course of a nine day tour of the all the most touristy, American-packed parts of Mexico?
I wanted to show them the Mexico I've seen but I can't. The Mexico I've seen has been risky. Not dangerous necessarily. It has definitely involved alot of being really flexible about schedules and transportation. Generally I decide a few hours before I leave whether I'll stay put or move on to the next city. And then where exactly I go depends in part on when the next bus leaves. I can leave in the middle of the night to take an 8 or 10 hour trip and save some money on hotel costs. And if the bus driver gets lost for 3 hours, no big deal.
Cheap food. Some really really cheap food on the street ... 60 cent tacos, 50 cent fruit cups. Yeah, I got sick a few times. But now I've got a whole new gang of migrant farm workers in my intestinal tract so that kinda food is no longer a risk.
More than a few _crap_ motels and hostels. Normally I decide where to stay when I arrive. The Lonely Planet guide generally tells you what you need to know about a place. Often the cheap places are lovely and an awesome bargain. But at least four different times, 'cheap and clean' could only be considered accurate if you had been knocked senseless before you came into the room and dragged out before you came to.
I can't take my parents on that trip. I just can't. They are grown ups and they could probably handle it if they had to. But I can't bring myself to do it.
When I opened the book to make reservations, I couldn't even look at the $20 places or the $30 places. I went straight to the $40 to $60 spots. And started calling. Guess what? Mexicans, probably Americans also, like to travel during the holidays. Hmm, surprise, surprise.
The hotels were booked solid. Terrible. It was terrible calling place after place and hearing 'No.' Long distances is REALLY expensive. It cost $20 to make the calls.
I finally found some places that were outrageously overpriced. Ugh.
Now I am dreading it more than a little. I can see the faces they might make, I can 'hear' the things they might be thinking. As it is, I am now expecting the visit to be a total failure. I am afraid that they will be miserable and not say anything to me about it. I am afraid that they will only see the bad parts and think that this whole thing thing was a huge mistake.
I suppose it is a good thing that I realized before hand that I had this expectation. They they'd 'sign off' on my trip.
It is also very possible, likely even, that I am underestimating them. And for that I do apologize.
But I am actually quite afraid it is going to be a disaster.
