criplomats

I was glad to see John and Flavia again! I flew back to Georgetown Thursday and got home in the wee hours of Friday morning. Flavia has spent a lot of quality time with me since I returned.

Last Sunday evening I finally met David and Alison’s friends, Roy and Becky – D & A had me over for dinner with them. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings I went to yoga. It was my last time to have yoga class in the old church; Karen is selling the business and the new owners are moving it to Park Avenue. While I loved the old church, I look forward to being in a building with level floors and one that is next door to a great coffee shop. The community is the important thing!

Speaking of my yoga community, we were shocked to learn that Brian R passed away suddenly on Monday evening – I had just been next to him in class Monday morning and chatted with him afterward. We are all thinking of his wonderful wife Lisa and their children. It was absolutely shocking.

Tuesday I took BBQ to David and Alison’s for dinner. I met Kathy W and Terry H for lunch at The Goat on Wednesday – we hadn’t all been together since 2015! We had a great time catching up and reminiscing about our days together at Retail Data Systems (RDS).

John took Friday off so we enjoyed a nice three-day weekend. Saturday evening we went to a fun wedding celebration at a local outdoor bar for two folks from our embassy community.

We’re watching the excellent “Count of Monte Cristo” and the wonderful “Vladimir” with Rachel Weisz and John Slattery (one of my favorite books). In Hot Springs, I binged on “The Pitt.”

Ann and I flew to NYC on Tuesday for a few days of theatre and fun. We spent the night in Little Rock at the airport the night before our very early flight. We had a lot of fun – she picked our plays for the week, and we threw in a last-minute musical, as well. We snagged opening night tickets for previews of “Death of a Salesman” (Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf) and we were thrilled with Wally Shawn and Andre Gregory’s new “What We Did Before our Moth Days.” We also loved “Bughouse,” a one-man show about outsider artist Henry Darger, and we also enjoyed “Chess” (the musical – and I was happy to hear “One Night in Bangkok”!).

We loved walking through the Museum of Modern Art, where I got to see an original O’Keefe and Twombly, among other fabulous works of art – just to inhale the atmosphere is invigorating. Our last day we walked through the Chelsea flea market and had coffee with a delicious bagel nearby. We had two celebrity sightings: Sam Waterston was at the Wally Shawn play and Jonathan Banks was a couple of tables away at Carnegie Diner.

A highlight of the trip was a visit with my former boss, Alyson, who John and I worked for in Monrovia. She and husband Rick had us over for coffee and we spent two hours catching up and yakking. Rick is a wonderful musician who composes for theatre, so he and Ann hit it off and found common connections (Ann directed a show that Rick wrote part of the music for – how’s that for small world?!). We thoroughly enjoyed our visit!

Ann and I haven’t traveled together in a long time, but we did great. Neither of us wanted a death march of tourist attractions, so we took it slow, stopped for coffee and pastries along the way, and opted for relaxation over the need to hit attractions. We stayed at the Grayson Hotel on W 39th and really enjoyed it. We flew home Saturday late afternoon – until next time, New York!

John and I celebrated our 30th anniversary this week! It’s so hard to believe 30 years have gone by! We’ve had a blast!

I flew to Arkansas this week, leaving late Monday night and arriving mid-day in Hot Springs on Tuesday. I had a couple of doctors’ appointments on Wednesday, then I went out shopping and to dinner at the Goat with Alison and PeeWee. Thursday I had an appointment in Little Rock, followed by a good lunch with Mary at Three Amigos, then a very welcomed hair appointment in Maumelle. The sun was really cool on the drive back to Hot Springs, right before sundown.

I went to yoga Friday morning – Kathy W. and I had a good visit over coffee at the Kollective, then we browsed in some of the little shops downtown – great to catch up with her. Pam came on Friday night and we had Scrabble weekend. We played non-stop Scrabble until she left today after lunch – lots of fun!

The weather turned to spring on Saturday! It was 80 degrees, and we enjoyed a lovely lunch with David, Alison, and PeeWee in the gazebo. David grilled brauts – yummy!

I love being back at the condo, although I wish John were here, too! The sunrise yesterday was beautiful!

I worked on a lot of “administrivia” this week: reviewing our tax return, getting absentee ballots ready to mail, looking at Medicare billing, picking an air purifier to ship, etc. – plus a run to the grocery store and the butcher. I also enjoyed watching more Olympics, primarily ice skating. And today we cheered on the U.S. men’s hockey team, despite not knowing any of the rules! (The women’s team won gold, too!)

John had an interesting outing this week to one of the ports to watch a grain ship from America unload I-don’t-know-how-many tons of wheat, then he toured the plant where they make it into flour. Turns out, all the bread here is made from American wheat – who knew?

Sunday evening we hosted a reception for staffers from the Hill and members of the UN Foundation who were here to see some of the UN projects on the ground. The guests were all impressive – young, smart, polite and it was really a pleasure to meet them. (The funniest thing was that a herd of cows decided to come into the neighborhood to graze right before they arrived!) Monday was a U.S. holiday, so Mellisa and I walked in the national park (and fed the manatees, of course!) then we had lunch at Oasis Cafe. I had a fun chat with my old boss Pete M. on Wednesday!

I’m reading “The Life and Death of August Sweeney” and still plugging away on the financial planning book (I had to take a break from it!). We continue with our crime dramas, and added a very old show on BritBox called “Spooks” (aka MI-5).

Earlier in the week we had donkeys in the neighborhood!

We thought about John’s dad Pete on Monday on his birthday. We miss him.

The lovely French ambassador, his wife, and an old friend of theirs came for a coffee roasting demo and breakfast yesterday morning. We had a good time visiting with them, and folks always seem to enjoy watching a roasting session and then drinking really good coffee!

This week was pretty low key. I watched some of the Olympics, mostly ice skating and some hockey (who knew I liked hockey?). I took time out from sports to watch the House DHS Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday, and to make a couple of runs to the grocery store. There’s only one kind of fresh pasteurized milk here, and it’s a mystery to me (and the grocery store, apparently) when it gets restocked. I don’t mind using “shelf milk” (UHT milk) for daily coffee and yogurt-making, but you really need fresh milk to make a good latte for the weekend. The fresh milk comes in glass, recyclable bottles, which is nice. It’s super-expensive (like most things here), but worth it.

John and I finished Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution” (we won!) and really enjoyed it — and we learned so much that we never learned in school (or learned and forgot?). We also have kept up with episodes of “Shrinking” and “Hijacked,” and we watched the original Kurt Russell version of “Miracle,” about the 1980s US men’s hockey Olympic team. We have started a sort of hokey but sweet police show set in Ireland called “Hope Street.” (If anyone has TV recommendations, please let us know!)

Mom would have been 101 this past Friday. I can’t believe she’s been gone 11 years.