montezuma - 1, NGJ - 0

my absence for the past little while can be attributed to those little microbial beasties that like to get into your digestive tract and make your life miserable. on wednesday i started feeling a little off at the very end of the day, so i headed home a few minutes early, and sure enough, within hours i was at the mercy of montezuma. conchita/golden girl #1 was wonderful. she forced chicken soup and chamomile tea on me, and just when i had finished sounding miserable to brendan on the phone, complaining about how all i wanted in the world was some sprite or gatorade and there was no one to go to the store to get some, she appeared at my door offering me some sort of apple soda that is the sick drink of choice in mexico, and was close enough to sprite to make me stop acting so pathetic.

overall, wednesday night was one of my worst experiences in recent memory. i was up constantly and when i tried to sleep i couldn't because my body was so sore. thursday i stayed home and jennifer did bring me all of those things i was whining for the night before. so i got hydrated and started in on what would be a 72 hour diet of saltines, chicken soup and gatorade. i went to work on friday armed with anything i might need and just hoped that i could get through the day without any embarassing incidents. and so it went, though there was an office birthday party at the end of the day for all of the may and june babies, and i could barely look at the incredible spread of food.

saturday morning i woke up feeling quite a bit better, and by that point i was pretty used to the gurgling in my stomach, so i was feeling pretty unphased. i headed into mexico city for the second time since i've been here. again, the metro was a piece of cake. it's laid out just like the one in paris and D.C. so it even feels deceptively familiar. i went to chapultapec park, which is a massive greenspace in the heart of mexico city. signs at the park claim that it's the largest urban park in latin america. there are tons of museums there, but i was content to just people watch and get the lay of the land. i stumbled on a couple of interesting street performaces of sorts (pics are on flickr) and then i decided to do a bus tour on the double decker buses i had seen cruising around last weekend. since i was going on a banana and six saltines in my stomach, i thought keeping walking to a minimum was probably a good idea.

the double decker bus tour brings me to two interesting observations on engineering and/or liability, depending on your perspective. before i got on the bus, i went to one of the restrooms around chapultapec... you pay your 4 pesos, and then you go through one of those revolving contraptions like they have when you come out of the subway. coming out of the bathroom, you go through another revolving contraption... what i failed to notice when i went into the bathroom was that when you are feeding your pesos into the coin slot, you are standing in the way of the "exit" revolving contraption... i discovered this when i almost crushed the scull of a small boy who was excitedly paying his way to go pee as i was exiting... when i hit resistance, i looked down and noticed why i couldn't go any further. i sheepishly excused myself to his dad, who was less than amused by the ways of the clumsy gringo.

and my kharma didn't wait long to come around... when i was on the bus tour, i picked a seat that was up top, and on the sidewalk side of our route. i was happily taking in the sights of a few upscale neighborhoods that i hadn't been to on foot, and may never get back to, when it occurred to me that we were driving down a narrow, tree-lined street, where the branches were at or below the level of the bus's top deck. this occurred to me because what felt like a sizable branch whipped me across the face. the bus had just started from a stop, but our speed was great enough to inflict quite a bit of immediate pain and residual tenderness.

both of these things brought to mind liability in the U.S.... particularly because i had just finished a bill bryson book (i'm a stranger here myself) where this is one of the topics he covers. i think lawsuits would have long ago taken care of any public restroom set-up where you could - relatively easily - inflict bodily harm on a small child or where a tourist service threatened to leave any of its less attentive patrons' faces maimed.

after i got feeling back in my cheek, the tour was great, and i will suggest it to anyone who comes to visit. mostly, it shows you that this city is unbelievably massive, and we only say the spots hight on the tourist list.

last night i went to a barbeque with jennifer and miguel. it was with some friends of miguel's from high school... they're in their late 30s now, and don't get together much, so they have little morethan their memories from high school to talk about. and they were thorough. we were there until almost 2am... the upside is that i had something other than chicken soup! carne asada for the first time ever, in fact, and it was pretty tasty.

today was a beautiful day, so of course i went shopping. there are sales everywhere in july so i couldn't resist. it's also election day, but i just checked for any news on TV and there was nothing yet. hopefully they will have at least a tentative ruling tonight... i am really hoping to live vicariously if AMLO (the leftist) wins, since i am still lamenting the 2004 outcome. if he loses, i'll have to look up how to say "i feel your pain" before i go to work tomorrow.