criplomats

Thursday was John’s birthday, and he had a really good day! We had a huge cake to celebrate with the visa section (made by our friend Sharapova), then we went out to dinner with Teresa, Michael, Keith and Whitney at Corralito’s – the manager, Raul, made John a special plate for his birthday pie (made by another friend from work). It was great to see John having such a good time!

It was a busy week all around. Last Sunday, we spent all morning cleaning out closets to start getting ready for our move. In the late afternoon, we went to Kerry’s house, where she had a huge spread of Jamaican food (including an oxtail dish that was good) – we yakked and ate for a while, then came home to relax and watch an episode of “Rome.”

Monday was a holiday to celebrate Day of the Dead. I celebrated by running a bunch of errands in El Paso – I love the Mexican holidays, because in El Paso, it’s business as usual, so I was able to start accumulating medical records from my doctor’s office.

Tuesday was the day that would not end! Erik and I left the Consulate at 6 AM and didn’t get back until well after 8 PM that night – we drove seven hours south to pick up an American woman and her two sons who ended up destitute down there and needed to get home. We brought them to a shelter in Juarez, where they stayed until we were able to take them to El Paso on Thursday to put them on a bus heading north.

Work during the week was busy – the death toll in Juarez is now over 2000 this year, so some of that number are inevitably Americans. It keeeps us busy in the office.

Saturday, John flew to Las Vegas for a magic convention. I spent all day at the Consulate, helping with the holdiay bazaar. After 12 hours of straight work there, I was glad to get home last night and have a nice bubble bath and a glass of wine!

Sharapova and Balbina serve up John’s cake at work

Day of the Dead

Dinner last Sunday night at Keith and Whitney’s: Yummy food and I love their pug, Nacho.

Book club on Monday to discuss “The Mouse that Roared”: Fun!

Dinner out with Pam Wednesday night: Three hours of great chit-chat!

Girls-only going away party across the street for our friend Ali: Lots of girl talk!

Friday: Most of the day at prison visiting with the AmCits, followed by a relaxing evening at home with John and an episode of “Rome.”

Worked most of Saturday trying to get caught up, then a fun get-together to give out Halloween candy at Keith and Whitney’s: Again with the pug!

Life’s good.

Carlsbad Caverns Latern Tour

False Docs with Death & Taxes (aka Teresa and Michael)

The Consulate celebrated an early Halloween with a party last night at the Consul General’s residence. John and I went as a consular pun, as “false docs,” a nod to the myriad of false documents our visa applicants bring us!

On Friday, my work group brought in a wonderful judge from Guadalajara and had an afternoon meeting with Chihuahua family court judges and other government officials who are involved in international parental child abduction cases. It was a great meeting, and a good opportunity for the local judges to hear from an internationally known judge who has been Mexico’s representative at the Hague.

The first part of the week was spent getting my regular work done and getting things ready for the conference. I had some, um, interesting clients. John took me to Corralito’s after work for a nice dinner on Wednesday.

Thursday after work, some of the local staff girls took me out for drinks and dinner – they are just so funny and cute! I’m really going to miss the incredible staff here. While I was out with the girls, John and our friend Jason went out. (John also went to the famous Kentucky Bar in downtown Juarez Monday night with some friends – while it was still light outside!)

On the Netflix front, John and I watched a couple of episodes of “Rome,” and also a cute, quirky movie called “Sunshine Cleaners.”

With Steve and Fah

This was a great week for seeing some old friends. On Monday, our A-100 classmate Steve and his fabulous wife Fah dropped in to see us on their way south. It was so fun to catch up with them and hear about their past year in Guyana.

Also this week, Angie, one of our favorite instructors from ConGen training,  was in town. We went out with her and some other ELO’s on Tuesday night at an old restaurant in El Paso that’s sort of an institution (with good margaritas). The next night, John wrangled me an invitation to join another small group from DC for dinner, including another woman whom I really like a lot.

We were off on Monday for Columbus day, so John took me cycling in New Mexico. We went about 18 miles – it was so fun!

Friday night, our neighbors came over for a backyard happy hour. It was a beautiful night outside and we enjoyed getting caught up. Michael and TFran had just returned from their anniversary trip to Copper Canyon,  Ryan was the point person on the Ambassador’s last visit, and Meghan just got her next assignment to Tunis, so there was lots to talk about.

Then Saturday, the real fun began! John and I enjoyed our last visit to Carlsbad Caverns so much that we wanted to go back. We started with our favorite lunch at Geske’s in El Paso, then drove about 2.5 hours over to the Caverns. I was really looking forward to seeing the bats fly out of the cave at sunset, so I was super-disappointed when the park ranger told us they had flown early, and we had missed them!  We hung out anyway, just hoping to see some…and it paid off. After about an hour, the resident population decided to come out! (The earlier ones where probably migrants, who aren’t in the know about when they should come out!) It was spectacular, and lasted about 20 minutes.

This morning, we headed back to the Caverns for our latern tour. We went through another part of the caverns (the left-hand cavern) with only a tour guide, our small group, and candlelight lanterns for illumination.  It was really fun!   At one point, we blew out our candles, and I literally couldn’t see my hand in front of my face!

After the lantern tour, we toured the Big Room again – so awe-inspriring! Until I went to the Caverns, I never believed something could be so beautiful.

On the movie front, we watched “Away We Go,” with Maya Rudolf, and “Revolutionary Road” – both really good.

On the latern tour at Carlsbad

John with the Ambassador

After our great trip to the conference in Burbank, we came back to the Consulate in full swing for the Ambassador’s visit to Juarez. We made advance site visits, went over his schedule in excruciating detail (only to have it change a million times), etc. before he arrived. I was in charge of the first event, a party for all of the entry-level officers at the Consul General’s residence. It was a great party, and I breathed a sigh of relief when it was over. The next night I was the site officer for a formal dinner party, also at the Residence, for the Ambassador and some of the movers and shakers of Juarez. That, too, went fine. John was site officer at a drug rehab facility the Ambassador wanted to visit, and helped with the motor pool (no small feat).

To celebrate “wheels up” on Saturday morning when the Ambassador left our district, some of us got together for a great Mexican breakfast at Tomochi’s.

We also went to a party Friday night to meet a fellow officer’s parents from Tennessee – they were great, and it was fun to relax a bit.

Tuesday we got back into our massages, which made me very, very happy! I also ran to El Paso after work that day to fiddle around some more with my contact lens prescription. I don’t mind getting older, but I do mind not being able to see well!

Saturday I worked most of the day at the office to try to get caught up on paperwork; Sunday, too. It feels good to move files off of my desk.