With Wayne in San Antonio
I spent the last two weeks on the border, working in the Consulate in Nuevo Laredo. It was my first time there, and like Juarez, you can see its U.S. sister city just on the other side of the Rio Bravo. I had a great two weeks. I was working mostly in an advisor capacity to help an entry level officer who’s running the American Citizen Services section, and to look at their operations to find inefficiencies or other improvements. The ELO I was working with is just a doll, so that made things even easier. It’s a small post and they seem to have very high morale – it made me want to go to a small place sometime in the future.
I was able to walk to work daily, even though cartel violence keeps most of the city off limits. They have a great coffee shop where I ate on some days, and got very good lattes on most afternoons. Evenings I stayed in the hotel and relaxed. They had a nice gym that I went to every morning.
The highlight of the stay was getting to drive to San Antonio over the weekend to see Mike and Wayne (regrettably Jim & Joan and James & MaryBeth were all out of town). I arrived Friday night. We had a yummy breakfast at their latest morning spot, Maria’s, then I shopped till I dropped. That evening we had a nice dinner at Rebelle, and I drove back on Sunday. Short trip, but sweet!
I was happy to get home Friday night, albeit late – good to see John and Flavia after two weeks! John took me out on Saturday for a nice lunch at a new-to-us restaurant, then we watched “Bridgett Jones’s Baby” which was actually good.
While I was in Nuevo Laredo, I was saddened to learn of the death of one of my favorite local staff members, Toni. She was a long-time employee and much loved. She died after a long battle with cancer. We’ll miss you, Toni.