John with Young Marine Quinones
The highlight of the week was attending a naturalization ceremony in El Paso and seeing 998 legal permanent residents take the oath of allegiance to become U.S. citizens. There were people from 53 countries represented, from Iran to Tonga – pretty amazing. Of course I teared up – no way I could sing the National Anthem and watch people wave tiny American flags without it! We spent the morning alongside volunteer groups like the Young Marines (pictured above) helping with crowd control – it was a really nice experience.
The rest of the week was pretty low-key. We had drinks with Michael and Teresa after work Tuesday at their house to talk about our bid lists. John and I went to Los Bichis for dinner Friday night. We also watched the Coen Brothers’ “The Big Lebowski” this week – it was good comic relief.
Last night we went to a big St. Patrick’s Day party at Matt and Daisy’s house – always fun. It was also a going-away party for our friends Kathy and John – we’ll hate to see them go. Matt and Daisy always go all-out for a party and last night was no exception.
We’re in the middle of a three-day weekend…aaah! The Dude abides!