Social Weekend

I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately.  I’ve been much more social than I usually am, although I’ve gotten more invites than usual too.  Maybe it’s just that things are picking up after the new year, but this has been a busy weekend.

It started out with with hosting the DG social (that’s Democracy and Governance).  Every quarter (or so), our office hosts a Friday social with one of the other USAID offices.  This quarter’s invite went to the EXO (I think it stands for the executive office).  Guess whose turn it was to play “host?”  You guessed it - me.

I could have done what everyone else does, which is hire some folks to come in and cook, but I’m not that smart.  So I asked Choko and Louise what kind of food they like and Choko immediately said Italian.  So I decided I’d cook Italian for everyone.  I was fortunate in finding (and buying in advance) some frozen sweet Italian sausages a few weeks ago, so I had a good foundation to work from.  However, this being Liberia, the country decided to run out of cottage cheese (forget ricotta) so a good lasagna went out the window.  I managed to get some good eggplant, yellow peppers, zucchini     and other cheeses and wound up making a decent spread.  It did, however, have me cooking from 8:30 to 12:30 when folks started arriving.

Perhaps the best part of it was near the end, when I skyped Ann so that Choko and Louise could say hello.

Overall I think folks had a good time and they liked the food, as you can tell from the largely empty table, but man did I have a mess on my hands.

I didn’t have a chance to clean that evening because I had to attend a going away for several people at a near-by bar that overlooks Monrovia’s port.  By the time I got home, I was exhausted.

I slept like a rock, but couldn’t totally sleep in because folks had told me that I was supposed to be playing volleyball the next day.  So up I got and was ready to go at 8:45.  Fortunately, I didn’t have to play (more on that later).  I was however, the official “neutral party” so I did the drawing for the brackets and played line judge for the entire morning.

Being line judge, I had a great view of the court.

As you can guess, the buff guys with no shirts on are from the Marine Corps detachment.  Unlike last year, they did not win the "tournament."  The Coast Guard won.  They had several older guys that really knew how to play volleyball.  Then they told us they are stationed in San Diego and that’s what they do for their physical exercise training.  By then it was too late for anyone to file a protest.

Anyway, a good time was had by all.  I left by noon to go home and clean up my mess of a kitchen.  Which I did, just in time to go and play soccer.  

Earlier in the week our chief financial officer asked me if I wanted to play with him and some of the guys from the embassy.  Figuring it was a good excuse to exercise I said sure.  Well, I had a great time and man do I need to get into shape.  I didn’t embarrass myself too bad, except maybe for the spill I took trying to sprint after a pass when a young guy passed me to chase it down (I swear, we bumped shoulders, I did not fall over from the back blast created as he blew by me!).  I’ll save you the image of what my knee looks like this time.

So today, I’m sore, but none the worse for the wear.  I’ve decided to take the day off and just recover!  All this socializing is making me feel old!