criplomats

With James and David

After a great week in DC, I’m en route to Juarez via Hot Springs – and boy, is it hot and humid here!

My favorite cousins David and James were both in Hot Springs (David from Diego Garcia, James and Mary Beth from San Antonio), so I was quite happy to be able to see them. David and Alison had a small BBQ at their beautiful lake house, so we spent the afternoon yakking and eating. Later in the evening, we took the boat out for an evening cruise – really lovely. I was also very happy to see David’s old friend Lon, who I hadn’t see in ages. To see the two of them together just cracks me up.

The class in DC was very good – glad I was able to go. One of the more interesting things we did in class was to go to the DC morgue one afternoon, and the best part of that was listening to a grief counselor talk about dealing with families of the deceased. The whole class was about working with American citizens overseas.

Jim, Mary and I had drinks on Tuesday night with our friend/colleague/mentor Dean at Circle Bistro. It was great to see him – he always has good advice and he still has that mischievous smile! We were also happy to have a delicious dinner with our good friend Stephen on Monday night, too!

Wednesday night I was on my own, so I walked over the Key Bridge from the hotel and walked around Georgetown, shopping and sightseeing. I picked up some delicious Indian food and beat the rain to get back to the hotel to enjoy it.

Thursday was my favorite – Harry’s for dinner with Jim and Mary. I had my typical fare: martini, Cesar salad and twin tenderloins. Yum, yum.

So that’s the week – I’ll head out of Hot Springs later this afternoon. I’m anxious to get home to see John and Flavia!

Stephen, Mary and Jim

I left Juarez on Sunday morning to come to DC for a consular class. Long day of airplanes, but made it just fine. I’m excited to be in the class, and especially excited to spend time with my A-100 classmates Jim and Mary – we got together last night to catch up, and will spending a lot of time together this week.

The week at work was busy, due to high passport demand, but John and I relaxed after work Tuesday night with a massage (ahhhh!). We also watched “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” “Blood Simple” and part of “The Company” – all good. And of course, I watched the men’s French Open final on Sunday.

Went to a baby shower that was actually fun (!) on Wednesday night for a girl in our office.

John took me to dinner at Corralito’s Friday night for a good dinner out. Otherwise it was a pretty low-key week. John is keeping up the cycling!

Texas Canyon in AZ

John and I were invited to attend a Foreign Service recruiting event in Scottsdale, Arizona, this week. John was up for a road trip, so we left early Tuesday morning and headed out for our 7+ hour drive. The event was in the late afternoon, and it was a lot of fun. There were close to 150 people there. We were on a panel with our friend Dink, who ran our orientation program while we were back in DC. It was great to see him and have dinner with him afterward.

We drove back home the next day, not in as much of a hurry going home. We stopped in Texas Canyon (above) for a photo op – it was so pretty with these huge rocks. We also went to a cheesey road side attraction called “The Thing” that John has been wanting to do since we first saw a billboard for it in NM. And we had a delicious lunch just over the AZ-NM border.

We started the week with book club Monday night at our house – we read Jeffrey Davidow’s ”The Bear and the Porcupine,” about Amb. Davidow’s experiences as ambassador to Mexico. We had a great discussion.

The rest of the week was pretty low-key. Last Sunday night, we watched “Rachel Getting Married,” which was pretty good. We started “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” last night.

I just spent a lazy morning watching the men’s championship of the French Open.

John continues to ride bikes with his new El Paso buddies on Saturday and Sunday mornings – he’s really enjoying it!

View of Chihuahua City

This was definitely a week for trips. I left super-early Thursday morning with Mike, a member of our local staff, to drive down to Parral to visit an American in prison. It was a long nine-hour drive through the Chihuahua desert. After an interesting visit at the prison, we turned around and back-tracked to Chihuahua City, the state capitol (above) for dinner and overnight. Friday morning, we went to the state prison there to drop off some vitamins and other toiletries for another inmate, then headed back to Juarez.

This was my first prison visit, but won’t be my last. The U.S. government makes these visits to Americans to monitor their treatment, provide them with a list of lawyers, etc. I was glad I had an experienced local staff with me to walk me through the process. All went well.

Saturday morning, I got up early again and headed to Hot Springs for Memorial Day weekend with Mom. I stopped by Alison’s gallery on the way into town, then picked up Mom and headed out to Kay’s for a pot-luck dinner with family. I was happy to eat some of Aunt Gusta’s delicious corn bread, along with Lacey’s beans – yum! It was great to see everyone, and a perfect evening to sit on the porch and watch the hummingbirds and bunnies in the yard (along with Kay’s three-legged cat trying to stalk the bunnies). It’s been a rainy Sunday today.

 Earlier in the week, we had another massage at home – what a great treat! The rest of the week was work as usual.

I finished reading “Three Cups of Tea” – very good book about an American mountain climber who falls in love with the children of Pakistan and starts building schools in the most remote regions of the country near K2. Great story and true. Soft power in action.