criplomats

The highlight of the week was going to see Lyle Lovett and his Large Band at the Plaza Theatre in El Paso Friday night. I think it’s the 3rd time I’ve seen him – he’s fabulous. His band is great, although Francine Reed isn’t touring with him. But he has great musicians with him, including Russ Kunkel on drums (from the old days of James Taylor). Wonderful!

The Plaza is a beautiful old theatre that was recently restored. It’s an ornate adobe style – my favorite thing were the twinkly stars on the ceiling.

Saturday morning I went to the farmers’ market again in Las Cruces to buy some local honey (delicious) while John shopped at the used bookstore on the square. Afterwards, we had a great lunch at Nopalito’s before heading back to El Paso and Juarez.

The rest of the week was pretty low-key. We watched “The Other Boleyn Girl” last night, which was pretty good.

Flavia got in bed next to me last night to watch the Olympics – she’s so cute! I think my nose is red because I – of course – got teared up at Michael Phelps’ medal ceremony.

John and I just got back from a trip down to Marfa, Texas – about 3 hours from here – to meet our good friends Jim and Joan from San Antonio. We had a blast! Marfa far exceeded our expectations. Its population is 2121 according to the sign at the city limits. It’s like something from the 1950s. I’ve never seen so many nice bikes parked on the street without locks, we left the key in door of our casita when we left, and we saw a vintage VW Bug parked on the main street…with the keys dangling from the ignition.

The town is small with a great old court house that presides over everything. It has turned into sort of an artist colony with lots of galleries. We got to town mid-day on Saturday and started our visit with beer and BBQ at the Adobe Moon Cafe. Then we checked into our casita, Casa Agave, just off the main drag. We spent the afternoon drinking beer on the front porch and visiting. The rain forced us inside for a bit, but cleared up nicely in time to walk over a couple of blocks for a fantastic dinner at Maiya’s. After dinner, we dropped in at the local theatre to catch a few of their “24 Hour Plays” at the Goode Crowley Theatre – an evening of short plays that were just written the night before and handed to the actors Saturday morning. Lots of fun, and a really nice theatre.

Of course, around 9:30 or so, we had to head about 9 miles outside of town to try to see the Marfa lights. No dice, but maybe next time.

The drive to Marfa is kind of cool – very deserty with cool mountains. On Hwy 90, we saw this big blimp thing that was hovering low to the ground. The sign said it was an Air Force Tethered Aerostat Radar Site  – according to the web site, it’s used for drug trafficking interdiction. Coming back, it was flying high above us – very strange to see in the middle of desert. We also saw lots of hawks and deer.

This morning we enjoyed some of John’s great coffee on the porch, then walked over to the Brown Recluse for good migas before packing up and heading out. It was so great to see Jim and Joan!

The rest of the week was pretty busy. We stayed home last Sunday after the torential rains the day before – the streets are just too iffy to try to get out. Monday night we hosted John’s book club. We read (or some people read…) “Arts of Power.” Another night we went to Michael and Teresa’s for drinks, and Friday night we went out for seafood with Caroline and Harold.

I started reading the new David Sedaris book, “When You Are Engulged in Flames.” Much more fun than the book club book this month (sorry, John!).

Did I mention I loved Marfa? Click here to see our photos.

Yesterday we were housebound because of pouring rain off and on all day. There is no drainage in Juarez, so the streets flood, and things aren’t a lot better in El Paso. So, our planned trip to Las Cruces and El Paso was postponed. One odd side effect from the rain (aside from a roof leak) is that our door bell rings for no apparent reason now. Last night during the rain, it rang a lot. Thankfully it stopped during the night, but it’s been doing it again this morning. It’s sort of creepy.

This was a pretty busy week. Last Sunday, I went to a brunch at Porto Bello’s for a newly-arrived officer, Connie, whom we had over for dinner with another officer later in the week. John got home from Uncle Perk’s party in the early afternoon – he had a good time at the party and was happy to see a lot of family.

Another new officer, Ryan, just moved in across the street from us, so he came over one night for a drink. In the small world category, he knows our friend Jim (of Jim and Joan fame) through the World Bank, or at least knows him electronically.

Thursday night I went to a girls’ night at another officer’s house – it was fun to sit around and yak. Friday night we went to Corralito’s for dinner, then watched “The Dead Girl,” a pretty interesting movie.

Here’s hoping the rain stops so we can get out to do our shopping…

With my friend Scott in Monterrey

I got the opportunity to go to Monterrey to work this Thursday and Friday – it was a lot of fun. Monterrey is very pretty and cosmopolitan in comparison to Ciudad Juarez, especially in the part of town where I was. Starbucks on every corner, big malls, tall buildings, late model sedans (not F-150s), etc. My hotel was quite fancy, too.

Thursday night I went to a sunset happy hour with some of the officers – we were in an outdoor rooftop bar, surrounded by the gorgeous mountains of Monterrey, great breeze, then a full moon. It was great!

That said, I was happy to come home to Juarez. The house was empty when I got in late Friday night because John flew to Little Rock to go to Uncle Perk’s 90th birthday party. Many of you know Uncle Perk as the “hummingbird guy.” John got to see lots of his family, plus Mary, Doug, and Deb. Wish I could have been there!

Tuesday night I went to a Rotary Club meeting – I’m on a committee to help put together a college-level symphony concert here in Juarez with a symphony from El Paso.  There are 12 clubs here in Juarez and it was neat to hear about their charity projects – they are pretty active.

Last Sunday afternoon we went to Michael and Suzanne’s house for lunch. John took me back to Corralito’s on Wednesday night. 

Work was pretty low-key. John is already beating me in the immigrant section, doing way more cases than me each day. How does he do it???

The rooftop bar in Monterrey

May 2008 with Steve and Pat

I think I spoke too soon last Sunday when I wrote that nothing too exciting had happened with the duty phone.

Shortly after I said that, I started getting calls. Long story short, at 10 PM Sunday night, I was at the Juarez morgue to identify an American who had been hit by a bus. He was a fugitive wanted for kidnapping and attempted murder – he had shot his ex-wife (she survived) and ran with their 9-year-old boy. He dropped the boy off at a church here in town, then stepped in front of traffic. After the trip to the morgue, I called his next-of-kin to notify him of the death. Wild night.

On Friday, I had the opportunity to help repatriate a US teenager who had been living with her boyfriend several hours from here. We spent the day driving south through the desert to get her and bring her back, so I got to know her fairly well. The day ended by walking her over the international bridge to return her to her mom. I hope she does OK – she’s a sweet kid.

They told us in school that we would have cases like the two I’ve written about here – I just didn’t realize I would get them so soon after arriving in Mexico! The good news is that I really enjoyed it.

As a side note, on the way back to Juarez with the teenager, we stopped at Villa Ahumada for lunch at a roadside burrito stand – they are known for their cheese, and it was delicious. It was a pleasant little town, lined with burrito and cheese stands. Um, I didn’t know that just two months ago, the narcos had conducted a massacre in the town.

We had a lot of rain here this week. The streets of Juarez flood easily, so we found ourselves slugging through pretty deep water on the way home from work Tuesday.

Over on the right side of this page, I added a “Free Kibble” link. You can click on it daily and it helps feed shelter dogs and cats. I usually don’t do stuff like this, but I saw the 11-year-old who set up the program on TV and it seems like a neat thing.

The rest of the week was pretty quiet. John took me to Corralito’s Friday night for a good steak dinner and to celebrate relinquishing the duty phone. Last night, we went to a fun cookout at our neighbors Michael and Teresa’s. Here’s a photo of Darren and grill master Michael: