A day in the life of a Mexican

Seems like I only live in Monterrey on weekdays, kind of miss the weekends in town!  But I can’t complain, the roadtrips have been a BLAST!

  Drinks in Austin, lunch at diners in the middle of nowhere, lakes in Texas, shopping at the outlets in San Marcos or the mall in McAllen or San Antonio, a cabin on the Sierra Madre, an apartment on the beach, caves in northern Mexico.

I love my weekends! 

The only thing I haven’t been able to cram into this year is skiing. (watching the Olympics doesn’t count, does it?)

(click on picture for larger view of last weekend)

I woke up this morning in PAIN, I had a toothache. The worst I have ever had in my life!!! Felt like one of my molars had a HUMONGOUS cavity! I took a couple of Advils, put some Orajel on the affected area and called my dentist for an appointment.

I arrived at the appointment a few hours later and explained to the doc that I hadn’t been able to chew anything because of the tremendous constant pain.  He looked worried and asked me to open up.

He goes on to examine me for 10 minutes, tells me ALL my teeth look healthy, but nonetheless goes ahead and takes x-rays of my teeth. 

He comes back from the dark room with the veredict.

I AM STRESSING OUT MY TEETH! 

MY MOUTH IS UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE!!!!

Apparently, I must tighten up my mouth in my sleep which pressures the teeth and bruises the nerves, therefore the terrible pain!!!!

The dentist asked me about the stress in my life over the past week and I start to think back and realize that I had been under a lot of stress.  BUT I thought I had handled it well!!!! 

I guess I did, but not my teeth!

So his recomendation for me was to RELAX (for the sake of my teeth)!!!!!!!!

Great excuse to go get a massage next week!!!

So I’m driving to class this morning at 6:38am and I get a red light.  No cars in view, but nonetheless I stop.  A bit bored and still kind of sleepy, I observe my surroundings.

A brown old looking building that gave me a feel of downtown Cuba to my right (not that I have ever been to Cubabut it looked like many pictures of it that I have seen), I notice a shack on my left with a tin roof and all. And then I notice a store/restaurant ahead of me.  A small entrance and a cardboard outside their door.  The cardboard read, "ONE Chicken for 30 pesos OR TWO for 70 pesos". 

I had to reread the cardboard several times for it to sink in.  Yes, that’s what it said!!! The small store sells 1 chicken for 30, or 2 for 70. 

I thought about pulling over and talking to the owner/clerk, but the small store was still closed so early in the morning. I’ll probably stop by sometime next week.  Who knows, maybe I can help them market their product differently.   I might even learn a thing or two about why they announce it this way.  It seems quite odd to a college educated person, but I’m pretty sure there must be a reason. I’m interested in finding it out……

Anyway

People are often unreasonable, illogical,

And self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you

Of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some

False friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,

People may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone

Could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,

They may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,

People will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,

And it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,

It is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

Written by Mother Teresa.

Since I still can’t stop thinking about U2, I chose a topic appropiate with my mood.

One of my best friends took me down memory lane a few hours ago by showing me a whole bunch of our high school pictures (most were taken over a decade ago). Anyway, one topic lead to the other and our evening ended with the two of us reminding each other the many things that we have done IN THE NAME OF LOVE!

SO many things that seem so irrational when they are thought about now, but seemed natural at the time!!!! 

Awww…. there’s nothing like love.

Such a powerful state of being!

Cheers to LOVE and all those LOVERS out there!!!   

Here are some of my favorite LOVE related quotes: 

You don’t love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her.

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.

To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.
~ Lao Tzu

Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
~ Franklin P. Jones

If you have it [Love], you don’t need to have anything else, and if you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter much what else you have.
~ Sir James M. Barrie

Real love stories NEVER have endings.

Woke up just like every other morning but was soon reminded that it was Valentine’s Day by the flowers and balloons all around!

The chubby angel, better known as Cupid seemed to be everywhere!

Despite all of this, I didn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day in a romantic way. 

But I did celebrate; the FIRST year anniversary of my knee surgery!

Toasted to my knee (among other things) with a group of single friends with whom I had dinner.

Good day, or like Bono would say…… BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!!

I am still overwhelmed by the MAGNIFICENCE of the U2 concert last night!!!!

It will definitely go down as a memorable moment in my life. 

That’s how much it touched me!

Let me try to explain what went on before, during and after the show.

The local news showed people camping outside of the stadium for the concert more than 48 hours before it started. My tickets were for the ground level, (aka. no seats), so I decided to be nice to myself and my knee and arrive only 4 hours before the scheduled starting time.

My youngest sister was nice enough to drive a few friends of mine and me around 5:00pm. I had taken precautions and had parked my car early that morning next to the exit gate of one of the public parking lots close by.

The venue for the concert was the stadium of my university, a stadium that I had been in countless times before, BUT had NEVER seen that crowded; over FORTY TWO THOUSAND of us enjoyed the show last night.

Upon arrival, the second thing that I became aware of was the easiness of it all. Everything was well organized and seemed to be running smoothly. Kudos to the organization team because that’s how it all went for the rest of the evening!

The opening band was one that I had never heard of before, but actually liked, they are called - The Secret Machine.  They played for about an hour while the sun was lowering itself behind the mountains.  Beautiful site and it was at this time that my friends and I were able to move closer to the stage.

The wind started blowing harder and jackets, scarves, hats and gloves started to appear.

The crowd roared as Bono stepped onto the stage and the back panel of the stage lit up. 

UN, DOS, TRES ….. CATORCE!!!!! 

HELLO  - HELLOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And so the concert started on that note with Vertigo.  It was possible to watch every move and gesture the U2 band made, thanks to HUGE panel screens and the wonders of technology.

The light show was amazing, there were moments in which the whole stage was illuminated by just one color and at other times graphics were displayed, towards the middle the lights reflected the image of Bono in black and white, and at other times it showed videos that went with the songs.

Bono sang from the heart and gave it his 100%!  He greeted the Mexican public in Spanish, which was a pretty nice touch of his and to my surprise he kept on speaking Spanish throughout the concert!!!! And not only that but he mentioned he was sorry for not returning to Mexico before.

(Explanation:  During his last visit to Mexico in 1997 U2’s head of security, Jerry Milly, was seriously injured by one of the bodyguards of the son of the President of Mexico. Bono had stated back then that he did NOT want to come back to the country, and many of us thought we would never see him back in our country.)

I thought it was nice of him to ask the public for an apology, and with this tour it’s like he’s giving Mexico a second chance to win his trust back. 

I don’t know who handles his marketing, but my hat goes off to them all. They used as many key elements as they could to make the public connect with U2. For starters, the stage is set up for it, there are two strips that go out into the public. kind of a semi circle which helps the attendees feel like a part of the show. If that wasn’t enough, Bono took the liberty of inviting two women up on stage with him at different times during the concert. Not only did he hug them, but he sang to them as well from a kneeling position!!! 

Bono also talked about the Mexican dream and mentioned that Mexico is a country of the future, just like U2 is band of the future.  The crowd exploded with enthusiastic shouts after his comment!

Someone from the public handed him a Mexican flag and he lay it over one of the speakers next to him on stage. He used images people can relate to in one of his light shows, like Frida Kahlo, Pancho Villa and last but not least a picture of Vicente Fox next to one of George Bush.  The crowd didn’t react in a positive way when the picture of our President was shown on screen, lots of boooooing came then. I’m not sure if they were booooing Fox, Bush or both. So it wasn’t a positive reaction, but my guess is that’s exactly what they were looking for.

He brought us all together the moment he sang, "Ay, ay, ay, ay…. Canta y no llores".  The whole stadium joined in to complete the melody (a Mexican classic to which pretty much EVERYONE knows the words to). So together we all sang…. "Ay, ay, ay, ay…. Canta y no llores…. porque cantando se alegran los corazones, cielito lindo".

To top it all off there was a full moon that night, not only did Bono notice the beautiful moon, but he sang to the "Monterrey Moon"!

How does a girl resist a man like that? 

None can! Many of us were moved to tears (men and women) when several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were read out loud by an Asian girl portrayed on the screen.

Bono understands the pull he has, the power this gives him and he acts like an instrument in the fight for justice and peace.

PRICELESS!

The 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy have started.  Is it just me or have they not received as much media attention as in they did in the past?

Or it might be that I don’t watch as much Tv as when I was younger. Maybe it’s because Mexico doesn’t have any winter sports. The lack of cold weather (snow) in this country doesn’t help.                     

I’m just glad to have the Olympics back once more!

I didn’t particularly expect to receive a cup this morning, but I got one. A free cup; to pee in!!!!

Apparently, the private university I go to has seen a lot of drug problems lately and are performing RANDOM drug tests to its students.

I was one of the lucky few who received a clear cup with a red lid this morning at the Health Center.

The results will be ready in a week. No sweat.  I have NOTHING to worry about. Just thought it was funny/wierd/uncomfortable and quite random.