Yup, I know…usually people do dry January after indulging on New Year’s Eve. But, you know me, I can’t do anything like a normal person. However, I do have my reasons. And…technically it isn’t really all of February that I will abstain from consuming any alcohol. Having just come back from Mexico and an all inclusive resort, the first two days of February did include consumption of alcohol on the beach. We traveled on the 3rd, so I was able to start my dry February three days into the month. Although, with the fire drill at the airport, I was tempted to get a drink at 9:00a, breaking my hard and fast rule of no alcohol until noon. More on that later.

Normally, I don’t participate in these kinds of cleansing routines, but I really feel the need to do this after eating and drinking myself into at least ten pounds of extra weight. I don’t really know the exact damage done because I haven’t been brave enough to climb on a scale. Since we were extra vigilant about masking and other COVID precautions, I didn’t drag my ass into the gym to expose myself to others that I knew would not wear their masks or maintain a healthy distance.

So…what was the excitement on the return to the states? The day we arrived in Mexico, we learned that to get back into the US, we were required to have a negative COVID test. After much angst and research on the Internet, we were prepared to pay big bucks for our test and travel to town to get a test. And then, the travel goddesses smiled upon us when the hotel sent an email stating they were contracting with a lab to provide free COVID testing to guests. Not only that, but if we had tested positive, the hotel would have put us up for 14 days for free! We scheduled our tests after a little confusion over where to get an appointment. While the test was not a lot of fun (I thought the swab reached my brain), it only took about 20 minutes from check in to test. We got the results the very same day (that evening). Here’s where things took and interesting turn that affected my ability to return to the US. Biggest lesson learned: Always listen to my wise wife. She checked her negative form to make sure they spelled her name correctly and everything else on the form was accurate. Seeing my wife checking her form, I thought I better check mine. Normally, I wouldn’t have even done that…a mistake, of course. I checked my form and they put my wife’s birthdate instead of mine. My wife wanted me to go to the concierge and get that corrected, I thought I could explain it at the airport, stating they had put the wrong date, showing it was my wife’s. Yeah, no. They would not accept the form at the airport. But, again, the travel goddesses shined, although the lesson was clear. I’m a doofus and my wife is always right! They had a mobile lab at the airport and for a mere $17.00, I got another COVID test. This was was even more unpleasant, because they swabbed both nostrils. I’ll admit, I cried afterward. Yup, I am a wussy, too.

During my stay in Mexico, I was always obsessing over my Amazon stats and again, I should have listened to my wife, because she predicted I would break even well before we arrived back home, and she was right. Bottom line is that I am very happy with the response to Inspiration Takes a Vacation. Maybe you will decide to join other readers and check out my latest book. You know the drill…click the links below.

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