The Way We Were

Our first year in Cuenca Cynthia and I were what I've termed "social monsters." It seemed we were at a Gringo Night, dinner party, or other gathering almost daily. Sometimes multiple events crowded our schedule, and none of them involved punch and cookies, if you know what I mean.

This was all great fun because in our previous world we never gave ourselves permission for much of a social life. Busy careers filled our weeks, and weekends revolved around chores and errands. We were like kids in a candy store, voraciously gobbling up every invitation that came our way or having folks over to our home.

But just as over-consuming candy is eventually bad for your system, so too the nights of falling into bed at all hours began to take their toll. Trips back to the States gave us a break plus a chance to evaluate our activities, and we decided we needed to scale back our social calendar.

We just couldn't hang any more.

So upon each return to Cuenca we backed off the throttle more and more until we settled into a healthier and more comfortable balance. In fact compared to our earlier days we became downright boring.

Out of nowhere all that changed. Shortly after Cynthia got back from a visit with our family in New Jersey earlier this month a steady stream of invitations started gushing in. Literally every day and/or night for the past two weeks we've been out there once again. Birthdays--open houses--dinner parties--symphony performances. Two days ago we had a "two-fer"--lunch with some blog friends who are in town, then a jazz concert at a local restaurant that night.

We were supposed to go on a all day outing to a botanical garden yesterday. I almost cheered out loud when I received a last-minute email announcing the trip had been cancelled. We got to sleep in and loaf around the house all day recuperating. There was another symphony concert last night but we put on pajamas and watched a movie instead.

I hope that one day of rest was enough, because tonight there's another birthday party. Tomorrow we're going to a barbeque. Tuesday it's a going away party for friends. Wednesday the Chamber of Commerce is hosting an outing. Thursday we're attending a benefit for a cancer hospice.

After that the calendar is amazingly open. But it's only Saturday-----.

Of course we could turn some of these opportunities down, but every single thing involves people and events we truly enjoy. At least temporarily the "monsters" are once more on the loose, and I must admit it's been an absolute blast.

When we got off the plane here in Cuenca three years ago we had no idea what our new life would be like. Suffice it to say on virtually every level we've been ecstatically surprised and pleased.