Repondez, s'il vous plait!

Sports fans, the title of this blog is no mistake. It is the exhortation to please respond. Not that I am asking you to respond to me; I am asking you to respond to your potential hosts or hostesses!

Really! Pick up the phone or send a note or an email with either your regrets or acceptance to his or her soiree! It's not that hard, people, and your hostess wants you to do it so she may plan accordingly.

It's just not optional. If the host puts R.s.v.p. on the invitation, for crying out loud, respond! Even if he doesn't put it on, respond anyway! Help the poor individual who is trying, against a mighty social tide of indifference, to entertain you and share your company.

And while we're at it, only the people to whom an invitation is addressed are the invited parties! From time to time, if you have an extra houseguest and your potential host is a close friend, you may ask if your extra person may be included. But don't substitute your kid for your husband if he can't make it, or bring your kids with you when their names are not included on an invitation. And don't ask. If your hostess meant for your kids to come, she would have included "and family" or their names on the invitation.

Finally, send a thank-you note when you have partaken of someone's hospitality. You do not always have to bring a hostess gift, expecially when you are not staying overnight, but a nice bread-and-butter note is always a nice surprise and greatly appreciated. And it should go without saying that you send a note in thanks for a gift.

Sigh.

Travel is Broadening

We succumbed to the lure of the Caribbean cruise, and spent a week on a ship to celebrate our 30th anniversary later this month.

I felt the facility left something to be desired (none too clean and almost every piece of upholstery needed redoing; food was mediocre) but I enjoyed the ports of call.

It is very clear to me why people in Central America and Mexico want to live in America illegally. Even the worst slum I have seen in this country hardly compares to a lot of the living conditions in Belize. We saw some Mayan ruins there, and to get there took a long bus ride on a narrow, very bumpy road. There were a few nice homes, but most people lived in corrugated iron shacks with no window glass. The area near the docks was okay, but again, nothing compared to Florida or California, or even Cozumel, Mexico.

Guatemala is a beautiful country, but again people lived in relative squalor. There are no true sand beaches there that I saw, but it is very green and hilly. They have a great shipping industry, too, so I hope the commerce there will eventually raise the standard of living.

The Americans on the cruise were very obese. It was amazing--I have never been around so many fat people at once in my life. It was possible to eat very healthfully on the cruise, but it was also possible to eat a lot of junk--including cheap ice cream, cookies, and bland, tasteless desserts. The best dessert I had was a dish of raspberry sherbet.

There was a lot of hard selling of jewelry and art--and only some of these things were truly worth buying. There were some Picassos and Ertes and even a couple of Peter Max paintings, but a lot of it was very pedestrian, including the Painter of Schmaltz, Thomas Kincaid.

Cozumel was very tourist-trap, but a lot of fun. We had a fantastic lunch at a restaurant called Pancho's Backyard. Best taquitos with guacamole and salsa I've ever had.

The key lime pie on Key West was surprisingly underwhelming. My own is better!

Wes drank Cokes in every country to compare them. Yes, there is a Coca-Cola bottling company in Belize!

Nice to come home, though. It was fun, diverting and broadening (and we bracketed the trip with trips to the Disney resorts and Downtown Disney, which was, as always, lots of fun) but now it's time to get down to business for Christmas!