criplomats

Vacation continues! We spent a few fun days in Mountain Home with Pete and Ginger. Pete gave us a look under the hood of his fully-electric truck that Philip helped him convert. Ginger took me to Curves one morning, followed by a morning of shopping for fall clothes.

Tuesday we headed back to Hot Springs. On the way out of town, we stopped to see Ginger’s friend Mary, who loaded us up with enough brownies and peanut butter cookies to feed an army – and they are delicious! We arrived home in time to pick up Mom and have dinner with David and Alison. We had a lovely dinner on their backporch overlooking the lake, then we went out on the boat to look at the super-moon – gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John and I spent the following morning on the boat with them again. It’s always so peaceful in the mornings and beautiful – a great way to enjoy our coffee! Afterward we yakked with David for a while, then dropped him off downtown at the art gallery.

Cousin Julie came to visit us at Mom’s house on Wednesday afternoon – so nice to get caught up with her.

Thursday John went up to Rusty’s for the day. I met David and Alison for breakfast at Perkins. It rained pretty much all day and has really cooled things off. I took Mom to the beauty shop and ran some errands the rest of the day.

Friday John and I hit the road to Little Rock. He dropped me off at the new Southwest Power Pool headquarters (what a neat building!) so I could go to lunch with Leslie. We had fun catching up at Senior Tequila’s – always good to see her.

Yesterday we went to see our favorite masseuse, Janet Gilliam – she is incredible! Later Mom took us out for a nice steak dinner at the Porterhouse downtown. We took the scenic route home over West Mountain – so pretty.

We’ve been enjoying going to the gym every morning, trying new wine from our favorite wine store, and watching reruns of The Middle and Big Bang Theory. Life’s good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued our drive from Tupelo Monday morning and made a quick stop in Oxford, Mississippi, at their lovely town square. We poked our heads into a great independent bookstore and strolled around the courthouse. After driving through part of the Ole Miss campus, we continued toward the delta and crossed over to Arkansas in Helena. From there it wasn’t too much longer before arriving in Hot Springs at Mom’s house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a visit to our favorite eye doctor, Dr. Clem, John spent Thursday with his friend Rusty while I spent the afternoon at Mike’s Salon – one of the few people who can cut my crazy hair. At the end of the day, Rusty’s wife Cathie and I met up with the guys for sushi.

Friday afternoon we met with our financial adviser, then picked up Cousin Nancy for a yummy dinner at Caper’s. After dinner, we met Mary at the Afterthought and spent the night with her. We stayed up a long time yakking with a bottle of wine – fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning, we all went to Cafe Rosalia’s in Hillcrest for coffee. I arranged to meet handsome Cousin Jason who lives near our old duplex, recently back from an overseas deployment himself – what a cutie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also met several of Mary’s regular Saturday morning coffee friends and saw some old faces, like Judy who lived across from me in Hillcrest when I lived in the duplex, and my golf girlfriend Pam and her wife Rita. Fun!

We left there with Mary just in time to meet Deb and Doug at Casa Mañana for lunch. We sat around drinking tea long enough for happy hour – and out came the margaritas!

Not too much later, John and I went to Star of India to meet Pam, Ike, Ann, Jim, and Jackie for dinner – so fun to catch up with some of my besties. After dinner, John and I spent the night with Ann and Jim in Conway – where once again we sat up late yakking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After breakfast and a good catch-up session with Ann, we drove up to Mountain Home to spend a couple of days with John’s parents, Pete and Ginger. We had a beautiful drive up here and look forward to a couple of fun days!

After two years of not being able to really drive anywhere, it felt great to get behind the wheel of my new car and hit the road! Saturday morning, we loaded up Flavia and the luggage and drove out of DC. Freedom!

We detoured off the interstate and drove a few hours on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway, along the crests of the George Washington National Forest and the Thomas Jefferson National Forest – gorgeous! It was a bit of a surprise to see a rescue helicopter land in front of us. As we made our way past (after the blades quit turning), John noticed beagles in the back of a National Park Service truck; we surmised that a hiker was lost/injured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The views are stunning along the parkway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the night in Bristol, Tennessee, then took I-40 to Nashville. Along the way, we made contact with our friend Justin. We served with Justin in Juarez, then he came to visit us in Tel Aviv in 2011. We met up for lunch in Cookeville, Tennesee, and had a great time catching up! He’s heading to DC for language training before heading out to the Congo next year.

After that, we went south of Nashville on the Natchez Trace Parkway – how beautiful! We saw deer (including a little fawn crossing the road with mom) and loads of wild turkeys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Trace is simply gorgeous and oh, so peaceful. Hardly any traffic at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it as far as Tupelo, Mississippi, on the Natchez Trace and are overnighting here. Flavia is doing great on the road trip, thank goodness.

 

The last week in DC was big fun. I took a good leadership class at FSI. Being there, I had the chance to have lunch with Scott each day, often taking advantage of the lovely fall weather.

Last Monday night, we took Edward and Barb to RT’s for another great dinner. It was good to see them again before we left.

Wednesday evening, we met our A-100 classmate Nicole and her (new to us) husband Nikola for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Clarendon. It was fun to get caught up with her, meet her new husband, and chat about her bidding strategy.

Thursday after work, Cousin Donna picked me up at FSI and took me to her condo for wine and cheese (and, of course, to meet her kitties!). Her husband Jeff arrived from Arkansas while I was there, and we hit their neighborhood restaurant for a lovely dinner. So nice to see them both!

Friday evening, we met our good friend Cathy for another great dinner at Smith and Wollensky – great steak and a killer martini.

All in all it was a good three weeks in DC. We saw lots and lots of friends, enjoyed taking a few classes, ate some great food, and just enjoyed being back in America! Next stop – Hot Springs!

For Week Two in DC, I had a consular class in the new consular office building, which has consolidated the consular mothership into one building, not too far from Main State. It’s great to have everyone under one roof. Our class was for mid-level officers (like me) who are going to work in the American Citizen Services sections at post. Lucky for me, my good friend Jim was also in the class, so I had a built-in seat mate and lunch buddy. Lots of good information, and a reminder that ACS work can be very, very hard. Since no two cases are ever the same, you have to rely on your knowledge of the law and good judgement, for the most part.

The socializing also continued! Monday night we met George and Melissa at our favorite restaurant, RT’s in Alexandria. They had taken us there the last time we were in town, and we loved it! She-crab soup and pecan-crusted halibut for me, please. It was wonderful to catch up with George and Melissa; they are doing great.

Tuesday after work, Cathy and I went to Jim’s cool condo and sat on the roof – lovely! Beautiful view, nice wine and cheese, and the chance to finally meet Jim’s partner, who is really cool. The weather was glorious.

Wednesday evening, we braved the rain and went to Lorton for dinner at Ray and Patty’s house. Ray was the principal officer when we were in Juarez. The kids are getting all grown up, and it felt like we had just seen Ray and Patty yesterday. (I loved seeing Patty’s sign on the door when we arrived: “Ran to pick up the kids from school – come on in!”)

Thursday we spent a much-needed night near home; I drove to one of my old haunts for a mani-pedi, then we just relaxed with a little TV. We did pretty much the same thing on Friday after a drop in at happy hour nearby with some friends – afterwards we put our feet up with a glass of wine and watched “Hannah and Her Sisters” at home.

Yesterday morning we grabbed our umbrellas and drove to Eastern Market so John could visit his favorite used book store and a gaming store. I love poking around the market – and was delighted to run into our old neighbors Katie and Charlie from Tel Aviv. Hard to believe that Katie was pregnant when I last saw her and now has a darling toddler.

In the late afternoon, we drove to Springfield to see TFran and Miguel’s new house. Meghan and two of their cousins were also there; we had yummy pizza and yakked for a few hours. And it was great to see their dog Jasper, who is all grown up now (he was a puppy in Juarez with big ol’ ears).

This morning we went to Scott and Laura’s for brunch with Nathan (who I knew in Islamabad) and Jacob (who I knew in Tel Aviv). Scott was a close co-worker and daily lunch buddy in Islamabad, so it was great to see him and Laura in their super-cool new house. After stuffing ourselves with homemade migas and peach cobbler, we headed up to Silver Spring, MD, to see Cathy’s new place – also lovely with the added bonus of hardwood floors and old growth trees.

Last Sunday we did some shopping at Tyson’s Corner and watched “A Most Wanted Man” with the now-deceased Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

All in all a good week! The only real downer is that our other two pieces of luggage have not turned up. My hope is flagging, but I am trying to remain optimistic that they will show up. Unfortunately, my bag had several things that just can’t be replaced (like my medical records). Keep your fingers crossed!

 

 

 

 

Our first week back was set aside for consultations and administrative tasks. It was great not having to dive into a class right off the bat.

Last Sunday, I started the long quest to buy a car. Wow, way harder than I thought. After countless emails and telephone calls with car salesmen, I finally ended up with a great Honda CRV yesterday. I had originally thought I would buy a Toyota, but couldn’t seem to find a fair deal without a lot of game-playing. (Example – when I told them I wanted to title and tag it in Arkansas, they insisted they had to do it for me. One dealership told me tags for Arkansas would be $594; another said $395. In reality, the title costs $10 and tags $27.) Anyway, I drove off the Honda lot happy.

It’s been such fun seeing old friends this week!

Tuesday night we got together with some of our Islamabad friends: Joseph, Sunera, Barb, Edward, Brett and his girlfriend Lara. We started out at our apartment for drinks, then walked to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner.

Wednesday night we walked over the Key Bridge into Georgetown to have dinner with our “rabbi” Dean at a lovely French restaurant. He’s retired from the Foreign Service now, and always fun to gossip with and get advice.

Thursday night we walked back over to Georgetown and met our former neighbors from Juarez, TFran, Miguel, Meghan, and Neal. We had a great time drinking Margaritas and eating Mexican food. Everyone was just the same as always! Here’s the obligatory selfie:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday night we met our good A-100 friends Jim and Cathy for dinner at Smith and Wollensky’s, one of our favorite steak houses. They are both doing wonderful and we picked up the conversation where we left off a few years ago.

The rest of the week was spent talking to our DC colleagues who have responsibility for the Mexico portfolio. For example, I talked to the folks who deal with international child abductions and the person who helps the Mexico posts who have fraud issues. It’s just a way to put a face with a name and get a head start on some of the issues you’ll see when you get to your post.

We also did a mandatory high stress outbrief – anyone coming out of countries like Pakistan, Iraq, or Afghanistan get a briefing on resources that are available if you think you may suffer from PSTD or other stress-related maladies. And I did a half-day class with Consular Affairs on some cool management tools like process mapping, etc.

After our car-buying trip (which dragged on forever), we went to Brett and Lara’s for an afternoon of Settlers of Catan (I won, finally!). Afterward, we drove to Georgetown to see a fun 3-D movie, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a silly sci-fi movie with a great 1970s soundtrack. Fun!

 
On the luggage front, John and I each received one bag late Tuesday night, but the other two are still MIA. One of the pieces we got had a Bangkok security sticker on it – um, but we didn’t fly through Bangkok. We’re still keeping our fingers crossed that the other two will show up soon!