My Plan for My Tales Here in Cozumel

So today´s our last full day here in Cozumel. We´ve had so many adventures, that it just wouldn´t do our little trip justice to try to blog in an internet cafe, especially without any photos of our own. So my plan, for ALL YOU out there just waiting for the exciting details is to create a day by day account of my time here in Mexico, but once I get home. That way I´ll have the photos and the time to blog the way it should be done. But it´s been a great trip. We´ve met a bunch of really interesting and kind people, and I´ve learned some interesting things about Cozumel culture that I didn´t necessarily expect. And oh ya--the water is incredible. So I will blog soon!

My First Few Days in Cozumel

Hi! So finally I´m here in Cozumel, Mexico. I´m here with Stacy and it´s been fun. We´re staying in this very modest, no frills place called Hotel Pepita. It´s $40 per night for a room. Again, it´s no luxury hotel by ANY stretch of the imagination, but it works and it´s clean. So we´ve been going to the beach to swim and we went SCUBA diving three times. We´re done with the diving part of the trip so we can just chill and all that. We went to a few beautiful dive sites like Palancar, Paradise Reef, and Yucab. It was like swimming in an aquarium. Of course we haven´t been diving in years, so we were rusty. And in terms of what I have to work on, I had issues equalizing my ears when we heading towards the bottom (80 feet) and I finally think I solved my issue of buoyancy...I added more weights to my belt, so I have more control in terms of sinking or floating up (when I don´t want to!). I have a link here that talks a little bit about why the reefs here are considered so great for diving. Unfortunately, I won´t have any photos up from my trip until I get home, but I am trying my best to blog overseas!

Good Times, Bad Times...

Well, tomorrow at 4:30PM I make my presentation to the veterinary college...augh. I'm presenting a case on "Aspergillosis in a Moluccan Cockatoo" tomorrow. It's something that every graduating senior has to do. Let's just say I am not fond of public speaking. But anyway, it's gotta be done, so I guess I have to do it. A while ago, I was going to try to convince some of my friends from the NYC area to make it up here to watch me and hopefully get a kick out of me speaking "intelligently" about veterinary medicine. But that plan fell through when I booked my trip to Mexico, because I'll be leaving soon after my presentation tomorrow night---I'm leaving for my long awaited trip to Cozumel tomorrow night! So that's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow as they say. But in terms of having out-of-towners up here at the same time, it wouldn't work because I'd be leaving town immediately. Anyway, Marcus moved back to the tri-state area early to start his new job at a hedge fund company and he likes it, so that's good. The next few weeks are pretty hectic because we're not in the same place. Plus, a lot of things have happened recently, like a new addition to our little family. So I need time to appropriately blog about that. So that's going to have to wait because it's late at night and I wouldn't be doing the situation justice.

Frozen Dinners and Falling Off the Veggie Wagon

When I'm in school all day or in the hospital all day, it gets really old eating the same frozen meals...especially since I'm a vegetarian (although I recently fell off the wagon...). So the selection is weak for us vegetarians. But Marcus discovered this great brand---Amy's. Their frozen meals taste and look like real, wholesome food! It's great. And the brand makes all different types of meals. It's a tiny bit more expensive than other frozen dinners, but it's well worth it. Even the frozen pizzas are impressive. So back to my temporary lapse of vegetarian judgement---well I was at my favorite brunch spot up here in Ithaca, the Elizabeth Restaurant, and they added something called the Life Changer to the menu...and it truly is life changing. It's the mother of all hamburgers, the creme-de-la-creme. It was seriously the BEST hamburger I've EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. Everything from the bun to the cheese stuffed into the meat, to the stir fried leeks...oh geez. So the first time Stacy convinced me that splitting the burger with her was fine, and no one has to know. Then we went back a second time and I ordered it all by my lonesome...then I knew I had a problem. So I swear that the next time I enter that restaurant I will NOT eat meat!!!

Seren, Stephen, Music

So did you watch that documentary "Meeting David Wilson"? I found it really interesting. I saw Terry-a and Steve's newborn daughter Seren, this weekend on a whirlwind trip to the tri-state area. So beautiful! Terry-a schooled me on feeding and burping basics. It was a lot of fun to not only meet her, but see my friends as parents. It's sort of surreal. On a not so good note, I just got word that Stephen and his girlfriend Alex got into a serious car accident in Hanoi. But they're okay now. I'm really hoping Stephen will make sure that there was no internal head trauma. His head had actually hit the windshield and he needed stitches. On another completely unrelated note, and a much less serious one, I was listening to my old CD's in the car when I was driving to and from NY. I just want to say that even if you don't like R&B, or if you think it's cheesy, if you've ever heard the vocals of Jodeci and Intro (remember them??), you have to admit it's like perfection! Most people have no business doing remakes of Stevie Wonder songs, but Intro did, in my opinion, a worthy remake of "Ribbon In the Sky". And Jodeci's "Come and Talk to Me"...and "Forever My Lady"...Gorgeous, gorgeous voices. I tried to find out where the members of Intro were today, and sadly it turned out that the lead singer, Kenny Greene, died of AIDS related complications back in 2001. Anyway, Stephen and Alejandra, I hope you're okay!

Talking About Race

I love talking about race and race relations. It's really important and it's so complicated. I was watching the horrible Today Show and there was a piece about a documentary called "Meeting David Wilson". It's about a filmmaker named David Wilson who contacts another man also named David Wilson. It turns out the filmmaker's family was owned by the other David Wilson's family during the most prominent years of slavery...I say "prominent" because in my opinion, on many levels slavery didn't really cease to exist here in the States for quite some time. Well it sounds like the documentary is airing on MSNBC tonight at 9PM EST. I am not sure if I can watch it, but I would really like to. On a completely different note, Marcus is coined to start his new job at a start up hedge fund in just a couple of weeks. So he's going to be moving down to the NY area a little earlier than me. Last night Stacy and I watched David Schwimmer's (of Friends fame) first, I think, directorial attempt. It's called "Run Fat Boy Run". I think it was mostly character driven, not the greatest. Overall it was a nice, but predictable film. But that's not always a bad thing. I wouldn't go out to watch it, but if it was on TV I'd see it again.

Sadness, Tag Sale, and Moving

Again, I took a leave of absence from blogging. Last week Twinkie, our almost 14 year old cat was euthanized after being diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. So we're devastated to say the least. It was so sad because the day before he died, I was arguing with my realtor down in Long Island to make sure that the building accepted cats. Anyway, our place feels empty now. On a more positive note, we're preparing to move down to Long Island in May. I've been listing excess furniture on craigslist like there's no tomorrow. We're in a 3 bedroom apartment with cathedral ceilings and we're going to a 1 bedroom...we're gonna miss this place. But it's exciting, too. Plus we'll finally getting closer to where we want to be long term (New York City), and one day we'll hopefully be back in the boroughs. I watched Oprah yesterday and it was about that man who's having a baby. I don't know what the big deal is. Technically he's still female. I realize it's not a conventional pregnancy, but if he still has female organs, then he's biologically a female. Today Oprah's going to be discussing puppy mills, so I really want to watch it. Maybe now that Oprah does a story on them, people will finally understand why being from most pet stores keeps these horrible businesses going...