miss anne smedinghoff

i ignored kaitlin's call. i was enjoying a saturday morning brunch with lilly. it would have been silly to take the call. it would have been rude to take the call.

i ignored kaitlin's second call. weird, i thought.

jeremy, she texted. call me immediately, the second message read. the third explained the urgency. anne is dead.

anne and i joined the Foreign Service three years ago to live a dream. and while each of the 90 of in the 151st A-100 class knew full well that our dream involved sacrifice, it's hard to really imagine a dream ending in the final sacrifice. i was stupid enough to brag about the rather reckless approach we took to our adventurism and our invincibility: I join the foreign service not to die, but to live; it's just that sometimes in the pursuit of the former, the latter sadly happens too soon, i willed.

i haven't had to learn how to eulogize well in life. but i found that the typewriter helped when i finally turned to write to Anne's parents. in short, in retrospect, she was one of the greatest souls i knew. the youngest in our class. the most daring in our class. Anne was killed while delivering books to a school for Afghan girls. she was 25. i have a new hero always.

Back in the Swing

Feels great to enjoy the warm almost-spring sunshine in DC with a return to the M Street courts with Andrew. Strange to think, but this spring marks the start of the fourth year of our Rafa-esque rivalry!

Here's the statistical update since 2010:

2011 - or "Enjoying Hyderabad's one outdoor leisure activity to the max"

Hot damn, 194-290 in an amazing 62 sets. That's a whole lot of tennis, and a increasingly getting-better 40% win percentage.

2012 - or "Somewhat more distracted and/or reluctant to leave the house"

Well, way less tennis for whatever reason, but 71-89 is at least a wee improvement to 44%. It's even better when you take Steve, who way outmatches me, out of the mix. How does 49% sound?!

ski weekend

wisp resort in deep creek, maryland is a great weekend trip from DC. a relatively scenic 3 hour drive to the great little resort community nestled pretty close to the mountain. the hill's really nice, has a good variety runs and a nice lodge. best part, of course, a great two nights in a beautiful rental cabin with Darren, Kaitlin, Sean, Andrew, Chris, Al, Barrett and Katie.

How many languages are spoken by that crew of globe-trotters? great question, glad you asked: Arabic, Chinese, German, Farsi, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Tajiki, Telugu, Urdu. Or, when you do the math, an amazing 54% of the world's population...

surprise headlines

orange you glad it's 2013?

a new year, a new city, a new adventure. as the black book of all things important from three years of diplomacy, telugu and india is now more than full, it's time for a new way of organizing, analyzing and commemorating the adventures ahead. thanks rhodia.

debrief by collage

how to understand two of the most amazing years of your life? the ups and downs of the extremes of india? only the best way i know: collage. A Scotched and Taped Evening.

until i find a scanner:

one last goa-round

one last trip to goa, my only three-peat destination in India. overnight bus from HYD-Panjim was do-able. unfortunately we had seats rather than a sleeper berth, but it didn't become uncomfortable until MULTIPLE folks started to vomit as we enjoyed the sunrise while snaking down the Western Ghats just a dash after dawn. the reason for the trip? David Guetta on the beach. nicely played, india, even if the disasterous entrance line and bar set-up were enough to be my final-straw of sorts here in india. it's simply time i go home now, i think.