{"id":7292,"date":"2024-01-14T08:21:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-14T13:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=7292"},"modified":"2024-01-14T08:21:40","modified_gmt":"2024-01-14T13:21:40","slug":"do-we-have-to-go-back-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=7292","title":{"rendered":"Do we have to go back to work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"290\" src=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_3141.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7293\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_3141.jpeg 320w, http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_3141-300x272.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption>Artist Tony Valiente<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>John treated me to an excellent lunch at La Cabrera yesterday, then bought me this fabulous piece by Tony Valiente at the Mercado de Pulgares (flea market). I\u2019ve enjoyed meeting Tony over the last year or so, but hadn\u2019t stopped by to visit him in a while; I\u2019m glad to add this crazy piece to our art collection. Folks like Tony are one of a kind &#8211; he reminds me of the people Mark Sloan wrote about it \u201cSelf-Made Worlds.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"304\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_3142.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7294\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_3142.jpeg 304w, http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_3142-285x300.jpeg 285w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" \/><figcaption>With Tony<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Work this week was busy as we both tried to catch up after being out of the office. I\u2019m the acting Consul General while my boss is out, as well as my normal duties. John and I had lunch with our friend Jenae one day to talk about our respective trips to Antarctica over the holidays &#8211; she also had a great trip. She had a penguin jump into their Zodiac boat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thursday night I met Lea, Katherine, and Bhavna at a wine bar &#8211; we had fun just catching up and chatting. The wine bar was interesting &#8211; it was self-serve: you put your table\u2019s plastic card into the wine fridge\u2019s slot, select the amount of wine, and it automatically dispenses, not unlike a Coke machine. I laughed so hard and wish I had a video of it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This morning I had a great video chat with my friend Stacie in Paris &#8211; we worked together in DC, then she was in the country next to me while we were in Africa. She\u2019s working hard to prepare for the Summer Olympics in France &#8211; I do not envy her, as it\u2019s a Herculean effort to protect the huge number of US citizens who will travel there for the games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last Sunday I met Lea for good seafood at La Mar, then read Ruth Rathblott\u2019s \u201cSinglehandedly.\u201d We met Ruth on our cruise and really enjoyed meeting her. I enjoyed her book with its thoughtful take on disabilities and how we all hide something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John and I watched an excellent movie last night with Peter Dinklage, Marisa Tomei, and Anne Hathaway &#8211; really fun and charming. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John treated me to an excellent lunch at La Cabrera yesterday, then bought me this fabulous piece by Tony Valiente at the Mercado de Pulgares (flea market). I\u2019ve enjoyed meeting Tony over the last year or so, but hadn\u2019t stopped by to visit him in a while; I\u2019m glad to add this crazy piece to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7292"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7295,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7292\/revisions\/7295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}