A day in the life of a Mexican

       Half an hour ago, on midnight betweeen November 30th and December 1st  of 2006, Mr. Vicente Fox handed off the Presidency of Mexico to Mr. Felipe Calderón. After six years in office, Fox looked like he was more than happy to pass on the responsibility to a collegue of his from the PAN party.

       If everything goes like planned, the Presidential band should be rested upon the shoulders of the new President of Mexico, Calderón, at 9:30 a.m. in Congress. But things are tricky, since for the past two days congressman from the PAN and PRD parties have set up a vigil inside the House of Congress of San Lázaro in Mexico City. The PRD is protesting against Calderón as President (even though he won democratically during the elections that took place in July according to IFE), they believe their contender, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was the winner.

       Ever since the announcement was made that Calderón had won in July, Mexico City has been the host to riots, strikes and the shut down of streets by the PRD followers. What the PAN is trying to do is support the legitimate winner of the Presidential elections and take control of the stands in Congress so that Mr. Felipe Calderón can take office. Only time will tell how the opposing parties will react. I just hope that for the well being of the country and its citizens, that everything goes according to plan and runs smoothly.

Picture Cher singing, "If I could turn baaaaaack time"!  Well, Mexican Congress thought that it would be a GREAT idea to do so!!!!  They are taking us back to the time in which phone operators HAD to connect calls between two parties. 

Did you know that if you have a missed call on your phone from a long distance number, they will no longer be able to leave a voice mail? 

This is because cell phone users have to "accept" the call by clicking certain numbers, AND with this they are accepting the extra charges that come along with it!

GEEZZ!!!! 

So the phone company now charge the Mexican population EXTRA money to receive long distance calls on cell phones. The company which benefits from such charges is already a MONOPOLY in this country with over 100 million captive clients!!!  Telmex phone rates are astronomical as it is - I payed 500 US DOLLARS today for ONE month of local calls.  We use Vonage for long distances calls in my house now. And our internet and cable provider is Cablevision - the FIVE hundred dollars were ONLY for local calls!

The owner of the TELMEX monopoly, Mr. Carlos Slim is already the THIRD richest man in the world according to Forbes magazzine!!!! The only two men with larger fortunes in the world are Mr. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet! 

Cut us a break, Mr. Slim and help Mexico move forward NOT backwards!

I am not happy that I have missed two calls because of this!  And since the callers can’t leave a message and your caller ID system doesn’t work for calls coming in from out of the country, I don’t know WHO CALLED!

You can read more about this at:

http://iblnews.com/story_en.php?id=19945

FOUR people that I know from totally different places asked me for MySpace account this week! 

I didn’t have anything on there, so I updated it this morning and I’m officially in the loop now: http://www.myspace.com/mariastellag

Friendster will continue to be my blog though, so keep checking in here for updates on my life!  As for the news from this past weekend; I can only say that it was FANTASTIC! Two of my friends got married, which turned out to be a cross cultural experience since one the groom is Dutch and the bride is Mexican.  I danced for hours and hours and hours with handsome foreigners…..

Ohhh, and I caught the bouquet at the wedding!!!!!! (Don’t read too much into this - I was just the tallest on the dance floor.)  Destiny or not, it’s always a treat to get flowers!!!!

Didn’t have any turkey and spent very little time with the family yesterday.  I didn’t even get to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade! 

I’m not complaining, since I had a wonderful day, just not very "thanksgivinish" this year!

Hope your Thanksgiving was SUPER DUPER!

P.S. - Thanks!

Have you noticed the map on the top of the page?  Thanks for leaving a pin of your current location, it helps me figure out who is reading this blog!!!!

TWO things happened recently which have let me know that I do have some readers, so I promise to make an extra effort to entertain. 

FIRST came the Frappr Map, which to my surprise has pins in all corners of the world!!!!   

And SECOND came an encounter with a lady at Office Depot. I was waiting in line to make copies, minding my own business while listening to my iPod when someone taps my shoulder. She looked like a familiar face, so I smile back she then goes on to tell me that she recognized me from THIS BLOG - cause she’s a reader!!!! Wow! I was amazed, but don’t think I’m famous just yet (and probably never will be, so don’t keep your hopes up). This took place in the SAME ZIP CODE in which I live and she’s a friend of a friend of mine.  Therefore, technically, not a stranger.  But I never knew she read my blog, because I had NO idea who visited the site AND she never left comments!

So here’s a solution -  For those of you who want to leave comments and can’t because you don’t have an account here, I have created the account just for you!!!   Use it if you want to! You can have access to it if you LOG IN HERE on Friendster with the following, mariastellag AT gmail and use maria as a password.

Voila!

With all that is going on in my life lately, I almost forgot to share the good news. The 4th annual Terry Fox RUN(race for cancer research) took place in Monterrey two weekends ago and it was a TOTAL success!

Here’s the proof that I was up at 6:00am on a Sunday morning supporting the cause!

AND here’s a mystery guy who was asleep at Starbucks that day:

So the guy e-mails 6 days later! Apparently he thinks he owes me chocolates, and that the sweets will fix it all.  I’m very understanding, but come on…..six days later!?!?!?!

I have other things to worry about, like my trip for which I haven’t packed yet! I’m leaving on Friday, hopefully my to do list will be reduced to ZERO by then, in the meantime I continue to run around town getting errands done, making phone calls, etc. (I have been working on a volunteer project, which I’ll disclose when the time is right. It’s something which I am passionate about and eager to lead.)

I had planned on getting a lot more done yesterday, until I got a call from my father telling me that my mom’s business had been broken into durinng lunch hour.  I took off to her office as soon as I heard, the police was dusting down the place for prints as I arrived.  Needless to say, my afternoon was spent helping out there and I left the police headquarters until 10:00pm.   I read the local newspaper everyday and have seen statistics of violent crimes jump lately. I KNOW that crime has gone up, but it’s a different feeling when you get to experience it first hand. 

So as you can see, I am swamped with things and the last thing I need right now is to have to deal with this guy. A person whose words and actions aren’t congruent.  I haven’t replied to his e-mail, because I have nothing to say right now.  "Bring on the chocolates and lets forget about me"?  Not the mood I’m in right now.

Lack of reliability and crime piss me off!

THE STORY: It has been 48 hours since this guy called and told me he’d come over to my house and he NEVER arrived here, called or e-mailed.

UPDATE:  I just wanted to make sure that he wasn’t dead, in a coma, kidnapped or anything of the sort (my logic told me these scenarios were unlikely, but I needed confirmation).  So I called his office during lunch time, when I knew he’d probably be out. Talked to his secretary, and she said that he had been into work earlier this morning. 

Mystery solved. 

He didn’t die,  and there’s no one keeping him captive; he’s just a bastard!  Plain and simple.

Man, these bastard types seem to be all over!  Could we just ship them off to an island and keep them there forever??? Ahhh, if only dreams came true!

No NEWS yet.

Maybe the guy died on me!

I’ll let you know if I hear something from him.

Enjoy your weekend!

I took a couple of classes in college on quality control, I learned all about the japanese theories, the american ways, etc.  But today I wonder if I should take another class because I can’t seem to apply these simple criterias into MY LIFE!

My dates need to go through some sort of screening -  cause the JUST IN TIME isn’t working for me. NOT AT ALL!

Let me explain further: It is SOOOO not working that 14 hours ago a guy I have seen a few times called my cell phone and told me he’d come over to my house and he has yet to arrive!  I haven’t received any calls from him, no e-mails, NADA. He just DID NOT show. 

Why would a guy CALL ME and TELL ME that he wants to see ME and then NOT make an appearance??

Ugghhh….. I need to go back to my books and try to figure this one out!

Any ideas of why a normal person would do this?  OR have I been dating another MENTALLY  CHALLENGED MAN?