Thursday

The very first sort-of social thing I did within this Monterrey community after arriving almost nineteen months ago was attending a going-away party for a number of Sunshine's coworkers who were returning to the US. This group going-away party was interesting because I met a hundred people for the first time and tried to memorize at least half of their names, fully knowing that many of them were people I might never see again. Separating the people I needed to remember the next week from the people who were leaving was even more difficult than just being expected to know everyone. Well, the circuit is completing. I've just returned from the first of four going-away gatherings planned over the next month. This one was for Sunshine's coworker Matt, the man who drove me over the border when I moved here almost two years ago. This parting wasn't very painful because we will be working closely with Matt when we are all back in DC shortly. Then tomorrow night's thing will be a sort-of catchall party for Matt and Sunshine and others leaving soon. Then Sunshine has a going-away (of a sort) shindig next Monday that I will probably not attend. Lastly, sometime in December, we will have a party thrown exclusively for us. It's a string of engagements that will be bittersweet, the socially distant nature of this life--always coming or going--really moving to the forefront. During tonight's party, a new coworker who arrived on the job only today experienced her first community event here. She's slated to replace Matt, actually. She was being confronted by one hundred names. She handled herself with greater aplomb than I probably managed nineteen months ago, but I still commiserate. You don't have to remember my name, Stephanie. I'm leaving. [Cavin]