Subprime Banking Mess

La Boda (The Wedding)

We’ve hosted parties here before, up to 80 or so people. We’ve even hosted a wedding, but the entire wedding party was only 12 people. Christine and Mario’s wedding was by far our biggest, at 130.

I was fairly successful at keeping my control freak nature at bay. I provided the space and my maid (who, along with some family members, prepared the meal). Christine and her family did the rest.

The wedding was a huge success. The bride was beaming and exquisite, the groom happy and handsome and Alex and Pao officiated brilliantly in English and Spanish. The food was even great.

I think the one thing that set this wedding apart from so many others that I’ve attended, was the very bi-cultural nature of the entire evening. Family and friends from both sides blending together, communicating with whatever language skills they had. Some would effortlessly switch back and forth between English and Spanish, while others muddled their way through with “Spanglish”. But it worked. It worked very well. So well that it didn’t end until 5:30 in the morning.

I guess at 5:30 in the morning we were a little negligent about closing shop, because Rodrigo awoke to find the neighbor’s two dogs curled up asleep on the couch; the front gate open as well as the front door. (The dogs must have enjoyed themselves because the next evening they were waiting outside the front gate for someone to let them in.) In retrospect, I guess it was a good thing that the dogs were there. Otherwise, someone could have walked in and robbed us blind while we were sleeping.

The drama began the second day after the wedding.

Christine and Mario left Monday morning for Mexico City. That afternoon I called Christine’s parents at the house that they were renting, in order to plan a hand-off of some items that Christine couldn’t fit in her luggage. That is when Ruth (Christine’s mother) told me that she was taking Larry (Christine’s father) to the hospital. He was admitted that afternoon. Diagnosis: amebas and severe dehydration (particularly dangerous for Larry since he has a kidney transplant). He was immediately started on intravenous antibiotics and saline solution.

Meanwhile, the bride and groom were in route home to Denver, Colorado. Mario, traveling on a tourist visa, was turned around at U.S. Immigration and, after a night in a holding cell, sent back to Mexico City (supposedly because he did not have six months remaining on his visa).

The next day we moved Ruth from the rental house up to the ranchito, to wait for Larry’s release from the hospital.

In summary, Larry recovered and he and Ruth returned to the states on Saturday (one week after the wedding instead of the planned three days). Christine is in Denver, working and wandering around their new home, which has to feel very empty without Mario. Mario is with his family in Mexico City and he and Christine are working with an immigration attorney to try and figure out when, and if, Mario will be able to return to the U.S.

It’s complicated.