Greetings friends, family, and lovers,
Richard here with an urgent request that you RSVP. If you’ve already RSVP’d, thank you! If you’ve already purchased your ticket, even better! If you’re looking for flights, here’s a deal we found out of LaGuardia ($509 round trip as of 5PM March 6th). It’s very important that we receive your RSVP (even if you’re not coming)! We’ve got a few things planned that require us to make sure we’ve accounted for everyone who will and won’t be with us in Mexico this July.
I’m in Mérida for two weeks to sort out a few more details for plasaj. Specifically, food and drink. If you’ve met Diane and me, you know that we love to eat and we want you all to enjoy every morsel we offer you…So, if you’ve got any food restrictions, let us know when you
RSVP so that we can make sure you make it back home alive, unbothered, and most importantly, well sated.
I love this place because I’m a sucker for an old city with impossibly narrow sidewalks. I’ve been roaming around Centro and taking in the mix of architectural styles. There are colonial mansions, art deco municipal buildings, really beautiful mid-century markets, and lots of homes and stores that look like they’re in various states of decay, yet sport floor to ceiling glass facades with exposed steel supports (I suspect this is some flavor of brutalism but I’m not an architect — I just like pretty buildings 🤷🏿).
The thing that always gets me about this city is that it’s built at what feels like a human scale. The buildings don’t tower over you. You can actually look up and see the sky. There are telephone poles with wires crisscrossing in impossible configurations. When I’m out in the afternoons and the grannies are sitting in front of their homes, I hit them with a “Buenas tardes,” and their wrinkled faces light up (right before they laugh at my wild accent 😂). Sometimes I walk past a house and peep into the doorway to see a family sitting in their living room watching TV. People are seldom seen scurrying around like we do in New York. This is a city that knows how to chill out.
I’ve been trying to chill out, too. When 4pm hits, I close my laptop for the day. I take a little stroll before my morning meetings. I engage more with friends and family (both here and abroad). I actually read! I take time to sit and watch the trees sway in the breeze. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that the majority of my time is spent in the official uniform of chilling out: shorts and a tank top.
Another thing that happens here is when silence falls and I’m sitting quietly, I can imagine futures. I think about the kind of life I want to build with Diane. I think about the shape of Lulu’s life. I get to dream about the people I love and how we can move into the unknown together. Maybe it’s the way my brain works, but this only gets to happen when I’m away from the constant everything of Brooklyn. I stop reacting to things and just dream for a while.
So, what’s the takeaway? Diane and I love it here and we want you to experience a taste of what makes us happy.
📖A thing to read: 5 years of traveling with you
🎧A thing to listen to: Shy FX & T Power — Everyday