We head out with Catalina (Joel), in his car towards the church. Luckily when we arrived, it was not raining, so we quickly headed indoors to clear any sudden rain that might show up. We get seated and being that nothing can ever start on time, one of the church deacons comes up to Liz and I and starts asking if we will do him a favor. I was thinking he would say something more along the lines of can you please move back a few rows (as we were sitting on the 2nd one), but no, his request was NOTHING along those lines. He kindly asked Liz and I if we would each take up the collection ($$$) when it was time during the mass. I thought to myself you have got to be kidding me. Because Liz had a part in the ceremony (the deliverance of the Bible to Valeria), she was excused and we ended up nominating Lala as the "collector" for the other side. Lala and I agreed, well actually I kind of forced her, to take both collections up to the altar.
The ceremony lasted roughly 45 minutes or so, short sweet and simple. As we headed back outside, we realized that yet again while we were in the service, it had began to pour and I don't mean just a little rain spot here or there....I mean POURING! We made a mad dash our for Albert's truck, packed it in, closed the door and on we went following Catalina through what became rivers and streams of some of the streets in Monterrey. I mean, you'd think the folk here DON'T believe in drainage systems...there were corners were the water was running so high and fast, all you were missing was to bust out with your raft and life jacket to go water rafting on a darn street for crying out loud!
We finally made it to the "casino," and no this is not like the ones you find in Las Vegas. They call ballrooms in Mexico "casino's," and I ain't talking just A "casino," it's El Club de Leones (high society) place to host your shin digs. Pretty much if you ever want anyone to know how much $$ you have, you host any even in "El Club de Leones," and they will know you are swimming in some extra dough.
Well the stretch from the parking lot to the damn entrance of the place would prove to be an even greater feat than simply trying to stay dry and I do mean D-R-Y! We all stayed in the truck for a little bit in hopes that the rain would simmer down a little and to also observe my cousin and some of the guys that were part of the court (or better known as chamberlanes or escorts) and see where on earth they headed because all we could see was the side of the building. We never thought the entrance to the casino would be almost a block around the corner of the building we were seeing...and I'm not kidding. Try running that distance in heels and pouring rain coming down - all the while trying to maintain your balance so that along the way you don't fall flat on your face and then really make a big mess of yourself.
We finally reached the door but by then it was too late! I swear when we walked into that place, for one it was like a freezer so we were shaking uncontrollably, but two, we all looked like "uracas mojadas," (soaked crows). I mean we were all just completely drenched....from the top of our heads to the bottom of our toes. We looked around and headed for the nearest restroom to dry off. The only thing we accomplished in the restroom was to get a glimpse at ourselves and how wet we were because there was nothing to help us dry off....in fact, it seemed like the roof in there was leaking as well so I was like forget it, I need to dry off, NOT get more wet so I just made sure the stringy hair was "in place," and headed back out to find a place to sit.
After looking around and figuring out that the initial tables we had chosen to sit at did not have plates which ultimately meant food would NOT be served at that table, we chose a spot towards the wall. Down came my cousin from a set of stairs and the shin dig took off.
Dinner consisted of some bread (rolls), a broccoli type soup (that to me tasted like it had some kind of nasty cheese flavor), and the main dish cordon bleu. Now, let me back up if you are thinking YUMMY! This poor chicken must have thought, what horrible things are being done to me. I mean, I haven't eaten this dish but twice before this time, and the 2 times I've eaten it, what you get is a piece of breast (nice and plump) stuffed with cheese, and wrapped in bacon. This was not what we got here. This cordon bleu was crusted, the bacon had a not so pleasant taste and it was excessively too much cheese....okay do you get my drift here..oh maybe not, so here are some more visuals (okay just picture this). Eva claims that when she dug in to cut a piece off, a whole cup of grease came out and that about did it for her! Oh and before I forget the sides, steamed (not real well...I was told they were kind of hard) veggies (peas and carrots) and spaghetti...with pieces of ham that when revealed to Al, he about died. I don't think he's ever heard of spaghetti with ham - that was hilarious.
Needless to say, I was ready to eat some plain grilled chicken at that point but I was stuck. I don't think the waiter had ever served and then picked up anyone's meal as fast as he did our table. Either the meal was flat out declined (this would be Albert) or poked at, tasted and then passed up (pretty much everyone else). I think the only one that really liked everything was Lala.
Dessert turned out to be what saved my poor and hungry stomach. We got ice cream in a wafer bowl. Due to the metal in my mouth, I was going to stick with the soft, cold stuff, being the vanilla ice cream with a dab of chocolate syrup and pass up on the wafer in fear of breaking a brackett. Being that the ice cream was probably made with goat milk and trust me on this one...they seem to use goat for everything it can possibly be used for, the ice cream was actually pretty good. So much so, that I asked Albert if I could have his and he kindly passed it up. I think he was just protesting EVERYTHING because there was an absence of a certain liquid he likes to consume - BEER, and from the near immediate spit of the Whiskey by Al that was being served, I gathered the alcoholic beverages pretty much inhaled profusely (SUCKED!) On that note, gosh even the coke was horrible. I so was dying for a Pepsi right about that time.
Next came the cake, which I think only I consumed it....okay pretty much devoured it....only thing left on my plate was the edges of the cake. You see, I don't like the frosting...it was pineapple flavored with strawberry jam in between. Anyways, I thought it was delicious.
Okay here are few highlights of the rest of the party.
Music: DJ was OK...had good music, but didn't know how to play it...pretty much played one genre for an hour and then changed it and played another hour of that. It seemed that techno/club music is what he played the most of since there were about 100 teenagers (friends I suppose) of Valeria's. It was real funny to see how there was a mass exodus of boys and girls once that music stopped - the place was practically empty after that.
Off the wall stuff: Berenice, my cousin, was trying to practice her English and decided she'd do so with Al (Eva's boyfriend). She starts with asking his name and when he says Al, she asked if that is short for something else to which he responds Alford. She proceeds on telling him that her name is Berrynice with the straightest of faces possible. Al responds ok, I'm sure thinking okay so what is your name. Berenice responds again, no you see my name in English is Berrynice and in Spanish it's Berenice....oh my goodness, we about peed laughing...you had to be there to really understand...it was really funny.
We called it quits and headed home a little after 1 a.m.
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