Relaxing after a hard week

This week was the grand opening of the new Consulate building – it’s fantastic to have a nice, safe and clean environment to work in. We’ve been working out bugs and trying to get used to our new space. We opened for business on Wednesday and had small numbers of applicants the rest of the week.

Thursday the VIPs started arriving. I helped plan a party for officers, spouses and VIPs at the Consul General’s house Thursday evening. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and the weather was nice enough to sit out back on the patio.

Friday morning we had the official ribbon-cutting, complete with a very moving flag-raising by a local high school color guard and national anthem sung by a woman from the El Paso Opera. The governor of Chihuahua was there, along with two Ambassadors. We were all busy as bees trying to make sure everything went smoothly, which it did ( Luckily, one of our officers was a professional events planner in a former life!).

Friday night John and I crashed – we had a nice dinner at Corralito’s, then opened a bottle of wine, put our feet up and watched a movie. We were pooped!

Let’s see…the rest of the week before and after the opening:  The office was closed on Tuesday for Veteran’s Day. I spent the day shopping and putzing around in El Paso.

John had a great time in Las Vegas – he got to see a lot of his magician friends at the convention. He flew home on Wednesday. We celebrated by grilling steaks and catching up over dinner.

Yesterday, John and I took off in the truck for New Mexico. We drove up to Truth or Consequences and walked around a bit. It’s an odd little town. It seemed neat, but a bit shut down for winter, so we opted to keep moving. (I wanted to go there because my friend Luke told me about a friend of his who, for his funeral procession, had his casket placed in his bass boat and pulled through town.) Before leaving the area, we made the loop up to Elephant Butte Dam – really pretty.

To get to Silver City, we drove through the Gila National Forest – gorgeous! I think we got up to 8900 feet and the temperature dropped as low as 35 degrees – we even saw snow on the roadside. It was sunset, and the views and the light were just beautiful. We saw a curious family of mule-earred deer along the way, along with bunnies and hawks. The drive through the forest was our favorite part of the trip so far.

We drove into Silver City at dark, so we just grabbed a bite to eat and checked into a hotel (where I am writing this post). Our plan is to explore around town, then head back to Juarez. Tomorrow is a Mexican holiday, so we’ll have another day to relax before going back to work.

Comments are closed.