Viernes Negro

Strangely enough, an influenza derived from pigs ruined my wedding. I found out about it last Friday. I must be one of the few, privileged, wannabe brides who can actually say that a short-lived, quasi-pandemic called "swine flu" ruined my wedding. The wedding was ultimately canceled because the Iberostar Tucan resort, which was itself unaffected by the illness, was forced to suddenly close down due to low occupancy rates, since nobody wants to travel to Mexico because of the swine flu scare. With the resort closed, the wedding was no longer.

I cannot tell you how much distress planning a destination wedding has caused me. When I received the final news from the Mexican resort rep, I felt like a cosmic force had punched me in the stomach and taken the wind out of me. It was like I had received the final blow, meant to knock me out, after a long, hard struggle with wedding planning, coordinations, an unexpected economic recession (which affected guests ability to attend), and difficult travel agents. I spent 1.5 years researching and planning and piecing everything together only to have a global, pig-induced pandemic ruin everything. All of this for a wedding that I initially swore would be easy to plan and drama-free. I cannot imagine a wedding filled with more international drama than mine. And the worst part is: I got no satisfaction from it, whatsoever; the wedding isn't going to happen.

My misfortunes, however, do not end here. On the same day that I found out about my wedding, I was laid-off from my job. The economic recession took my job a month shy of my third year anniversary with the company. The company was forced to downsize because too many of its clients went out of business without paying their mounting bills, among other business-related calamities. Just when I thought that the recession was starting to get a little bit better. Just when the rate of job losses in the country was starting to decline. Just when I thought the worst might be over, this happens. I cannot say that the news was totally unexpected, given the economic circumstances, but I was not entirely psychologically prepared to be working one day and not the next.

To top things off, on the Friday that all of these events occurred, I was in the middle of battling a horrible cold. I have been sick and unable to breath through my nose for about a week now. I usually never get sick with colds, much less colds that last over a week. I went to the Dr, to make sure I didn't have swine flu (with my recent string of luck I would not be surprised if it were) but it wasn't. Its just a cold. I probably got sick because of all the stress I've been dealing with as of late.

So, here I am. Unemployed and weddingless. You would think that I would be more upset about it all, crying and depressed and stuff, but I'm not. I'm actually fine. I'm a little more resilient than what I thought. I feel like I have been given a new chance; I now have a second chance to plan a better wedding (with less international drama) and find a better job. I feel upbeat about my prospects and I am grateful for all the free time I can now enjoy.