criplomats

Flavie on her favorite rug

Flavie loves rugs, especially this one, made by Joan’s housekeeper back in Costa Rica.

For people who don’t normally eat out much, we seem to have been in restaurants a lot this week. Last Sunday, we took a drive to El Paso to eat at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing (where I had gone to the farmer’s market the day before). It’s such a fun, funky atmosphere with 1950s decor. Thursday night, we went back to El Paso to pick up a few things, and had dinner at Mesa Street Grill.

Saturday we went on a “windshield tour of Juarez” with some folks from the Consulate.  John and I had seen most of the sites, but we had not yet been into downtown Juarez, so it was fun to drive through. There were some beautiful, grand, old houses on the main street, and we saw the cathedral and the Mission de Guadalupe. The downtown sector was bustling with shoppers. After the tour, we had lunch together at an Italian place, Caruso’s. It was a good time to sit and socialize.

Saturday night, we joined a small group of folks to meet the new NIV deputy chief and her husband at Frida’s, a neat restaurant dedicated to Frida Kahlo. Good conversation, food and margaritas. It was odd because this is a pretty well-known restaurant, but it was practically empty on a Saturday night – we speculated it was due to the continuing violence in Juarez. In fact, the owner of Frida’s was gunned down a few weeks ago while he was leaving another one of his bar/restaurants.

(I came across a fairly short article about the history of vice in Juarez – click here if you are interested.)

Work got pretty interesting this week – it was my first full week in the immigrant visa section. These are people whose families are Americans or permanent residents, and the families have petitioned to get the person to live in the U.S. For the first time, I had to tell an 86-year-old woman in a wheelchair that she couldn’t go live with her daughter in CA. (Why? Because she had been living with the daughter illegally on a tourist visa for the last year, so she is denied re-entry for 10 years.) Then I got to deny a guy for 10 years because he had a string of illegal presence, attemped illegal entry, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, burglary, etc.  I was happy to tell him no. His wife stood there crying and sniffling about the children – I figured I was doing her a favor. (That said, I’m sure he was over the back border in Texas before I went to lunch that day.) Anyway, it’s interesting.

John left super-early this morning for DC. He was selected to be the Post EEO counselor, so he went to training for a week in Washington. If an employee has some sort of grievance, John will be their liaison. Once again, John is the family super-star!

We watched an odd, but good, movie this week: Lars and the Real Girl.

I uploaded some photos of the house since we got our artwork and other things delivered. We really feel at home now!

With Border Patrol in May

Thanks so much to our good friend Stoker for getting Criplomats back in business!

During our little hiatus, life in Juarez has continued pretty much as normal. John was selected to work in Guadalajara for a week, which he really enjoyed. (While he was gone, I realized how much I enjoy his good lattes!) He also spent a weekend in Mexico City with his buddy and former co-worker Keith, who is still working down there with Fidelity.

Last Saturday we had a fun breakfast at the H&H Cafe and Car Wash, a tiny hole-in-the-wall with good huevos rancheros and even better people-watching. We came back to Juarez that afternoon for a surprise going away party for a co-worker. The next day, John left for Guadalajara, and I went to a small get-together for some more of the recently-arrived officers. Lots of coming and going during the summer months.

I moved over to the immigrant visa section last Monday, but ended up back in non-immigrant visas on Thursday and Friday due to the high workload there. As fas as I know, I’ll go back to IV next week.

We’ve watched a few movies in the last couple of weeks: Love in the Time of Cholera, Oceans 13, and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. I also re-read Barbara Kingsolver’s Pigs in Heaven while John was away in Mexico City.

I hung a hummingbird feeder and am happy to report we have a pair of black-chinned hummers. We also hung a seed feeder in the front yard, but so far there haven’t been any takers. The only birds I have seen around here are sparrows, house finches and grackles.

Flavie continues to play and want to sit in my lap, which is so pleasant. We sure miss our Noodle.

This was a busy week – 4 days were spent touring around El Paso and Juarez to help us understand border issues. We:

• Took an after-hours tour with Border Patrol
• Visited a mid-wife clinic in El Paso
• Took a Juarez neighborhood tour
• Toured an immigration detention center
• Toured all aspects of two bridges, including the inspection of tractor-trailer rigs
• Toured two factories: one that makes Lego toys and the other that makes the padded fabric for car seats
• Toured the Mexican passport agency and their Civil Registry

Socially, it was a busy week, too. John was still not feeling well last Sunday, but we carried on with a small dinner party for our friend Martha, who left Juarez on Monday. I also dropped by a welcome lunch for two new arrivals, Marwa and Al, who we knew at FSI.

Tuesday we had a farewell dinner with our friends Vivek and Bovni, who are heading to India – they took us to a good Middle Eastern restaurant, Al Zaituna – small, but good food and great fresh pita bread.

Friday we attended a fun going-away party for our section chief Jeff, who is going to Iraq for a year. It was at the home of a local staff employee, Martha – those girls danced all night, while the rest of us ate great tacos and visited.

Yesterday, John and I explored Las Cruces, NM, a bit – we enjoyed their farmers’ market (John found some local honey) and we had a good lunch at a little Mexican diner, Delicias Cafe. We drove through old Mesilla but passed on the shops there. We’ve spent the rest of the weekend getting things organized at home – we received our small, second shipment this week (kitchen table, etc.). Oh, and we watched Juno last night – very good.

Thanks so much for all of the kind notes about Noodle. We still can’t believe he is gone.

This past week was kind of strange with Noodle being so sick. We spent a lot of time at home with him during our three-day weekend (Monday was a Mexican holiday) – he seemed to enjoy the fresh air, so we sat outside a lot with him.

John got the grill going last Sunday, and we had Martha over for dinner. It’s great to have the grill back! Monday night, we met some work friends in El Paso for Chinese food at Sam’s – it’s sort of a sentimental favorite with some of the officers who are leaving.

Thursday I celebrated my birthday – everyone was really great at work, and John grilled me a wonderful dinner. Friday night we went to Los Bichis for seafood with Martha – she is leaving on Monday.

After our traumatic day with Noodle (see post below) on Saturday, we were able to enjoy the evening with our friends Steve and Pat Petkoff from Little Rock – Pat and I worked together, plus they were our neighbors on Saddle Hill. We had a nice dinner at Billy Crew’s, just over the border in New Mexico. It was so fun to see a familiar face and get caught up on everything back in Little Rock!

We lost little Noodle this morning. His blood work last week showed his kidneys were failing – we chose to keep him at home in hospice this past week and keep him comfortable and in familiar surroundings. We kept thinking that he would pull through like he’s done so many other times before, but he couldn’t. Within the last 24 hours or so, he couldn’t walk and was just so weak, bless his little heart. He was certainly a trooper!

The vet in El Paso was really sweet and made the process bearable. We brought him home and buried him under the oleander in the corner of the yard – pretty much right where he is sitting in the photo above. He’s buried with a little eulogy we wrote for him, and with a container of his favorite treats.

He really was a great little cat, and was so happy the last few years! We sure are going to miss him.