John and I celebrated 17 years of marriage today! And what a great 17 years it has been! We’ve gone from Little Rock to Costa Rica to Mexico to Tel Aviv to Pakistan together (accompanied by cats Louise, Noodle and Flavia), with no regrets left behind. We are so happy to have the friends and family who have supported us along the way! Everyone always talks about how hard marriage is – I’m happy to say it’s been pretty darn easy!
The other highlight of our week was John’s success at our National Day party. Typically, embassies around the world throw a big party for the 4th of July. Here in Islamabad, they changed it to be on President’s Day this year, due to the unbearable July heat. John was in charge of the event, which was a huge responsibility – and, it went off “flawlessly,” as the Ambassador put it. He really did a great job – and it’s no small feat, given the 500+ guests in attendance. He was exhausted by the time it was over – the adrenaline was really running! He took Friday off as a day to recuperate.
The beginning of the week was a run-up to the big event, so we had dinner a few nights at the Club as John worked on last minute details. Friday, our usual gang went to the French Club for lunch.
Last Sunday was very relaxing. We watched a couple of movies, including “Lincoln,” which was wonderful.
This weekend was nice. Saturday, I worked for a while in the morning to get a visa out so a local staff person could go to the U.S. for training, then we went out to dinner at Polo Lounge with Rick, Howie and Petit, which was really enjoyable. I also had a nice relaxing manicure-pedicure in the afternoon.
Today I had a wonderful Thai massage – it felt so great – lots of stretching. Afterward I went to the Embassy to check out the truck art sale and competition, then Laura and Scott came over to play Settlers of Catan, a fun board game. We had an excellent day to celebrate our 17 years together!