OK so I uploaded pictures from my trip to Mexico. There are pictures of Anne’s wedding, and pictures of me with some other friends. Go to this link and press on “Mexico City”. Enjoy.

The Miss Universe 2004 Pageant will take place next Tuesday in Quito. Venessa is already there (did I say that her office is next door to mine?). She looks so pretty in the pictures, but all the other delegates look gorgeous too. I wish all the best to her and to Canada! Good luck.

When I was 18 I had an accident in which I broke both my right arm and my left collarbone. I was immobilized for about a month, and when they took the cast off my right arm I could not move it, I had to go to physiotherapy where they put my arm in a pail of warm water, sort of like a jacuzzi, and they did some massages. Eventually I was back in action. My left collarbone still looks funny because it didn’t heal straight, if you look really close you’ll see that it does not look like the right collarbone.

Ever since, whenever there is cold humid weather (in Toronto that means about 300 days of the year!) I may feel some pain in my collarbone or in my wrist. And that’s why at first I didn’t pay much attention to the pain that started about 2 months ago in my right wrist.

Yesterday I went to the Aches and Pains Clinic at the First Canadian Place Medical Centre for my first physiotherapy session. Oh what a difference a couple of years make (ok, ok, maybe not a couple of years since I was 18, but definitely not more than six or seven… ok eight). The rehabilitation consisted on a really strong ultrasound therapy, like a massage but with the ultrasound machine. They also applied tiny electric shocks to both my arms, those felt really ticklish but today I am in more pain than I was before. I have to do some exercises and go back on Monday, I also probably need to get a foot stool for my office desk and a back rest, all this pain is very likely to have been caused by bad posture, and they found ganglia on my left and right wrists, apart from the tendonitis in my right arm.

So I’m back in Toronto. The trip was great, though the movie that they showed on the Air Canada flight from Mexico City to Toronto was pretty bad. It was Calendar Girls, they were promoting it as the next Full Monty but it’s really boring. Instead I read my book which is just great, it’s an incredible story and I am reading it for my book club meeting next week, the book is Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. It is really scary, it’s a futuristic novel but based on things that are happening right now, in some parts it makes me think of Brave New World, in other parts I imagine Dark Angel. Anyway, it’s a great book, not because of the prose or the style, but just the issues raised. I am really looking forward to my book club meeting to see what the other people have to say about the book. IT is really interesting and I sincerely recommend it.

My friend Jana came for lunch yesterday and me and my brother cooked for her. Later in the evening I went to the famous “taqueria” El Charco de las Ranas to eat tacos al pastor. My aunt and uncle (Anne’s parents) went too and we talked about the wedding. Apparently there were 50 violins, not just 30, and it ended at 7:00 in the morning, but then they all went to their house. Good thing I came back home at 4:30, I just can’t do that anymore, I think it’s my old age!

Today I’m going for lunch to this really nice restaurant, Alfredo di Roma, I love it, they are the creators of the Fettuccine Alfredo, and it is exactly the same recipe as they have in Rome (it’s the same restaurant, not even a franchise). It is also a good place to see and be seen (which for some reason is a very important thing to do here, in Mexico City).

Later I am going out with my friend Fede, we’ll have lots of fun.

So I am having an all right time. The best thing is that I’m with my mother and my brother. I have been visiting some people that I hadn’t seen in a long time, and today I had lunch with my very good friend from high school, Marga, she is also planning on moving to Canada, she and her husband will be leaving in a month, but she’s going to Vancouver. I’m so excited for her. Here’s a link where they have been writing about their plans.

I went to my aunt’s house yesterday and there was this big family dinner. There were so many people that there were just enough shrimp for everyone, some people had to have chicken. It was fun.

Some friends are planning to have dinner on Saturday, I haven’t seen some of them in more than 2 years.

So the wedding was great. There were about 600 guests, and the ceremony was beautiful with a beautiful choir singing in the back of the chair. As we were all getting out from the church, there were fireworks to celebrate the newlyweds. All the guests took a trolley-like bus and it took us all to the reception. When the newlyweds arrived there was a group of about 30 violinists playing. It was beautiful. My cousin looked really pretty and for dinner we had foie gras, cream of Brie, and beef filet. Two different kinds of desserts, but I skipped them. There was wine and liquor and champagne flowing. Later the dancing started, and at about 2:00 in the morning that ritual of modern weddings called “the throwing of the bouquet” happened. Of course I joined the group of desperate single women trying to be the next one to get married and, as always, I didn’t get the bouquet. My sister didn’t either. We left at 4:00 thought the wedding was still going strong, but we were so tired. I took some pictures and will be posting them on my yahoo pictures as soon as I get back to Toronto, because the internet connection here is a dial-up and it takes long to upload them.

I am in Mexico City. I got here last night really late, the Air Canada plane was like 20 minutes late and then it took me like another half hour to go through immigration. As always, the line I have to line up in is really crowded. I finally met my mother, my sister (who is here from San Diego for the wedding too), and my brother. They already had the “tortas” ready for me. I can’t make them in Toronto, since it needs that special something that they put in them in the joint. They definitely cannot be homemade.

The wedding is tonight, and it is a black tie event. I thought it was going to be in my cousin’s garden, but apparently it is not. It is going to be a big event, with about 800 guests and in an ancient convent in downtown Mexico City. I’ll be taking pictures.

I was really sick yesterday and had to miss work. My stomach again. I don’t even know what I ate that made me sick, but I am thinking it could have been the painkillers I’ve been taking for my wrist.

Tonight is the last episode of Frasier, and I have to pack, because I am leaving for Mexico City tomorrow. My cousin Anne is getting married on Saturday and I am going to be there until May 24. I will be blogging from there.

Yesterday I went to the Dominion store at Front and Church. I was planning on getting some ground beef to cook some hamburgers, because the pre-prepared hamburgers didn’t look that good. I only found a pack of extra lean ground beef in the fridge, and it was kind old, didn’t look fresh. The first thing I thought was “I’m not buying this” and put it back, but soon I remembered Dominion’s policy “It’s Fresh or it’s Free” and “We’re Fresh Obsessed“. And I grabbed it again, went to the butcher and asked him to prepare me another package of extra lean ground beef. Then I went to Customer Service and showed them the spoiled one, and the good one, they gave me the good one for free! So I am pleased to certify that Dominion is true to their word.