criplomats

This was a fun whirlwind of a week, starting on Monday with around a dozen of our A-100 friends at a happy hour. Of course we didn’t think to take a photo until many people had left, but we did manage to get one. It was great to see folks and reconnect!

Later in the day, I met my good friend Pam for coffee in the afternoon – and also on Monday I walked with Flavia to DuPont to get her health certificate. She’s resting up before the trip!

Tuesday I shopped in Georgetown then met Lea for happy hour at Boqueria DuPont – always good to talk to her and especially to hear about her new job in Consular Affairs. Wednesday I met Megan, my fellow RCO and also RCO boss for a while, for lunch at North Italia – again, wonderful to catch up. Although we text almost daily, I hadn’t seen her in person since 2019!

That evening we met two of our favorite A-100 friends for dinner in Ballston. It was perfect weather for sitting outside (we have been so very lucky with the weather!).

Thursday was lunch with my friend Jenae who we served with in Juarez and Buenos Aires, then a wonderful dinner at the Maple Room in Vienna with our friends Thomas and Anju.

Friday was a long coffee chat with the fabulous Amy W.

…then I went to the Museum of American Art and the Portrait Gallery (co-located). It’s one of my favorite museums, in part because they have five or six works by Howard Finster. They also had a beautiful, interesting sculpture exhibit and an exhibit by three female Japanese artists, two of whom were put into internment camps during WW2. Friday night, we met our Arkansas friends Kelly and Brian for dinner while they were in town!

Saturday we met Aaron and Sarah (from our A-100 class) and their two cute kiddos for lunch in Ballston, then John and I spent the rest of the day recuperating from a fun but busy week! We’re ready to get this show on the road!

The view on the lake just doesn’t get old! In this photo, you can (barely) see a line of Canada geese waking up and crossing the lake. I love the peacefulness in the mornings and watching (and hearing) the lake wake up.

The week, part one:

I’m pretty sure this is the same fawn I saw on West Mountain a week or so ago on my way to yoga because she was about in the same spot. She’s so pretty and decided to pose for me when I stopped to snap her photo on Monday. Aside from yoga on Monday and Tuesday mornings, the first part of the week was mostly getting ready to leave Hot Springs: getting Flavia a domestic travel health certificate, getting nails done, driving to Little Rock for hair (all the important stuff!), and getting the house closed up. In between chores, I continued my Gilded Age binge and am now up-to-date on episodes. Monday afternoon, I stopped by to visit with David and we had this visitor on the back porch – I think it’s some kind of young heron. He was pretty inquisitive!

David and Alison dropped me off at an airport hotel on Wednesday where Flavia and I stayed the night before our very early flight to DC — and there we begin part two of the week!

Part two —

Flavia was a good traveler on our direct flight into Reagan National – I love the view coming into DC! We got settled into John’s hotel suite, then I went off to meet Lea for coffee – it was great to see her!

It was even better to see John after almost a month! He took me out for a nice dinner at 60 Vines nearby.

Friday I went to Main State to get a typhoid vaccine – it was so fun to be back in the building again and even better to know I was there but didn’t have to work! I ran into someone from my first tour in Juarez (Candace) and someone from my second tour in Tel Aviv (Emily). I had coffee with Laura Mc (Buenos Aires) and a separate chat with Jill M (Guadalajara and Buenos Aires). After tracking down a missing packing at SA-1 in the retirement office (um, in my retirement counselor’s desk drawer even though I had emailed her repeatedly trying to find it…but all’s well that ends well, I guess…) I went back to Main State to join John and my old RCO colleague Neal:

John and I ended this busy Friday with a lovely dinner at Ris.

Saturday was a gorgeous day outside. I walked up to Chef Geoff’s to meet Lea for brunch, then walked to the Hirshhorn Museum. On the way, I ran into one of my A100 favorites, Kellee F (with whom we served in Islamabad), so she walked with me and we sat in the sculpture garden yakking for an hour or so – what a fun bonus! The exhibits at the museum were really good! Twin brother graffiti artists from Brazil (who go by the name of Osgemeos) had these fantastic and fantastical pieces, among hundreds of their pieces:

A Laurie Anderson installation was a graffiti-filled room with a huge acrylic crow:

One of my favorite pieces was by an artist from Ghana, Amoako Boafo, called “Cobalt Blue Dress,” done in a finger-painting style in oil – it was huge and absolutely eye-popping!

Today, my boss from Guadalajara came to visit – we sat in the hotel lobby drinking coffee and catching up. He’s one of my favorites and I hadn’t seen him since I broke my leg in 2019 (the last time he saw me I was on a walker!). He’s just as smart and funny as ever, and it was good to laugh with him again!

Afterward John and I took the metro to Pentagon City Mall, where he also treated me to a nice brunch at the Ritz Carlton next door. And, to keep our record intact, we ran into a colleague from Buenos Aires (Jess) on the metro home.

It’s so fun to be back in the city with so much to do!

The week was filled with friends and family, starting with brunch at PeeWee’s last Sunday with David and Alison. She is such a wonderful cook and hostess! It’s always a treat to go to her home.

Monday afternoon, Ann came to spend the night. We yakked till we were blue in the face. We went downtown on Tuesday to pick up a few things and it was fun to remember all of the times we had wandered around downtown as teenagers.

James and Marybeth drove up from San Antonio and we went to Julie and Scott’s for pizza Thursday night – big fun!

Marybeth went to yoga with me Thursday and Friday. Friday night we went out for BBQ with David and Alison. Afterward we sat on the porch and watched a big storm move across the lake – it was lovely to sit outside and hear the rain – and we were treated to a rainbow after! (Actually, I think it was a double!) Saturday we were back at David and Alison’s for a lovely dinner and lots of storytelling after dinner.

The packers came on Tuesday to pack up our UAB shipment. I did a lot of cleaning and pre packing, but in between chores, I’ve been bingeing on “The Gilded Age” – so good! I finished reading “Talk: The Science of Conversation” by Alison Wood Brooks – lots of good tips and reminders. Neighbors Jim and Kathleen invited me out for a fun boat ride this afternoon, too!

I was thrilled to talk to Charlie’s new parents this week and hear that he’s doing well! They also sent me photos today of him and their other doggo – he looks happy! I got his DNA results back and was a little surprised!

Pam picked me up at the airport on Friday after I returned our rental car, then drove us to Hot Springs. She spent the night Friday and we started a marathon Scrabble session first thing Saturday morning on the balcony. By 5:30 in the afternoon when she headed back to Little Rock, we had played six games – what fun!

My Honda was delivered Wednesday, after being shipped from Argentina. Sadly, the display panel was kapoot when it arrived, so it’s currently in the shop getting fixed and getting new tires. Fingers crossed!

Chuck came for cocktails Thursday afternoon and we enjoyed sitting outside under the fan with a cool drink.

I made it to yoga a couple of times this week, and was thrilled to see this little fawn on West Mountain Drive both coming and going to class:

On a sad note — John and I made the very painful decision to not complete Charlie’s adoption. He was perfect in every way, but he went into terrible distress when left alone. I recorded him multiple times and he cried, panted, paced, and yipped/howled the entire time he was alone (never more than 3 hours and usually shorter). After long discussions with the vet and the director at the humane society, we decided that we were probably not the best fit for Charlie and that he’d be happier in a household with folks who were home more or had another dog. 
Luckily, the director at the humane society (an amazing woman) knew of an older couple whose last rescue had died, and they were looking for a second small dog to be a companion for their dachshund. I took Charlie on Saturday for a meet-n-greet, and the dogs got along well! I kept him until Monday when they could pick him up. I spent a long time talking to them and really liked them. They are from California originally but have been in Arkansas for decades, retired teachers, smart about dogs, and wonderful people. They’ve always had multiple dogs and are used to integrating them. When they go on road trips, the doggos come along! This was an agonizing decision to make, but John and I both felt Charlie will be happier.

I totally enjoyed bingeing on Wimbledon tennis matches this week, including today’s men’s championship! Lots of fun!

Ann’s sister Robin was in town on Wednesday and she came to visit in the afternoon. I hadn’t talked to her in years, and we had a great time catching up. After she left, I had a video chat with my friend and former boss, Angela – another nice catch-up chat. On Thursday, I had hamburgers with Alison and David in their gazebo with a lovely lake breeze. My good friend Leslie came over late Saturday and spent the night. We had dinner on the balcony and talked until midnight, only to resume today over coffee before she headed back to Little Rock.

The State Department fired over 1,000 civil servants and 250 foreign service officers on Friday. The firings weren’t strategic, were not based on merit, and were not done according to guidelines. Many friends were summarily escorted from the building after decades of building a successful career. It was shameful and heartbreaking, and I’m not sure how we will recover from it.