Finn rocks. And skips and jumps. With Clara along for the ride, we headed down to the Raleigh-Durham area a couple of weekends ago for the Super Slippers Classic. We were thrilled that Brooks and Presley came up from South Carolina AND Noelle and Mica drove west from Wilmington. We dined at Chili’s and remembered some glory days of me serving the famous Awesome Blossom.
Finn got plenty of ribbons, as usual, but let’s get to the important part: Team Brooks sneaked by Team Presley for the win in axe throwing with a slim margin of two points, 83 to 81. I see a future with a new sport if jump roping doesn’t work out. Or consulting for the World Bank. Love our family and friends, such favorite people.
Meanwhile, on the left coast, Rob, Amy and Hugh treated my own mother to a trip to the rose garden. Wish I could have teleported. Kevin and I had quite some fun using AI to create essays, songs and the spoken word about Mom and Mary Ellen. Mom received a mix of Shakespeare, Anne Lamott, and Edith Piaf. Mary Ellen was described by Enid Blyton and Dolly Parton, among others. Imagine that!
I just want to share Finn’s list of ten words/phrases describing Mom. It’s too good not to share.
I love these three little pigs. Every year on Mother’s Day, Josie and I are treated to the sweetest brunch. This year, Sophia and Tatum decorated and cleaned and cleaned, and Clara, Georgie and Finn served us delicious lattes on the front porch while the dogs ran circles around them.
There’s nothing sweeter than coffee stirred with a laugh and a dash of love, even if I am “bruh” on occasion.
It’s confirmed! Finn and Clara have finished the youth group year with a visit to the National Cathedral to be confirmed under strands of stained glass blue sunshine and gospel blues.
The girls in their pretty white dresses and Finn in his borrowed blue suit jacket knelt before one of the priests in his ruby red robe and we laid hands on them and felt blessed. Bishop Marian was an excellent speaker—joyful, humble and clear.
Deacon Adrienne commented more than once on Clara’s very thoughtful comments and questions throughout the study process. She felt called to the occasion strongly, it seemed. Finn was more skeptical about the need to get confirmed having been baptized in late elementary school. Both perspectives were great. Having twins is so interesting.
Lunch afterwards at Cactus Cantina was a nice way to close out the year. “Eating together brings joy,” as Strega Nona advised. Amen!
I am pleased to announce the selection of Kevin Tomlinson as Operations Manager in the Eastern Europe CMU in ECA VPU.
I would like to thank Kevin for his dedication and contributions to our region as Practice Manager for SSI. He has ably handled a number of sensitive issues and built an exciting program of engagement on issues of inclusion and social sustainability. This new role will open up a very different but no less important set of challenges, which I am confident Kevin will take in his strides. Please join me in congratulating and wishing him all the very best in ECA!
Below is Kevin’s kiosk announcement that will be posted shortly.
Best regards,
Martin
Kevin Tomlinson, Operations Manager, Eastern Europe CMU, based in Kyiv, Ukraine
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Kevin Tomlinson as Operations Manager in the Eastern Europe CMU, in the Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA). Kevin will be based in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Kevin is currently Practice Manager for Social Sustainability and Inclusion (SSI) in the South Asia region, based in New Delhi. Kevin, an American national, joined the Bank in 1998 in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department in the Latin America Region (LAC) as a Project Assistant. He has since held various corporate and operational positions. Prior to his current assignment in the South Asia region, he was Practice Manager for SSI in ECA.
In his new position Kevin’s top three priorities will be to: (i) oversee timely pipeline delivery in the Eastern Europe CMU with a strong focus on quality assurance; (ii) support effective implementation of the portfolio delivering integrated development solutions to our clients; and (iii) lead and mentor the Eastern Europe CMU operations team.
Kevin was selected to this position through the Bank-wide competitive managerial selection process. His appointment is effective July 1, 2024.
What to do with two teenage girls on yet another day off school? Bonus points for being outdoors AND incorporating history AND having enthusiasm from the peanut gallery? Go on a field trip of course! Clara and Georgie were genuinely joyful about this mini road trip to Morven Park in rural Virginia, a home and manicured grounds with 240 years of stories and about as many paintings of hunting and hounds.
It was a nice respite in these months of a Barbie clothed in barbed wire. Two girls laughing, happy to do history and a little walking, and thrilled at the prospect of rolling down a huge, green hill. No concern about grass in the carefully straightened hair or eye rolls at the whimsy of such a childish activity.
In Leesburg proper, we browsed a sweet boutique and ate fries at a family diner and giggled over dumb stuff. I guess this unremarkable day was remarkable because the girls were back briefly, leaving their armor of self-tanning spray and disdain at home. I love these girls.
It can be weird to have worlds collide, but Tatum handled it with her usual grace on her 17th birthday. We brought together family, friends from Jakarta, Marina from Stuart Hall and Sophia and Georgie. Plus the relevant grown-ups. And we ate at our newly favorite restaurant, Artha Rini Indonesian in Kensington. In classic Indonesian style, they didn’t have staples like nasi goreng or jasmine tea, which made it quite perfect. Tatum ordered her favorite, sticky rice, but it didn’t compare with Ibu Nengsih’s.
Following explicit instructions, I made a funfetti cake with Betty Crocker strawberry frosting, but the shark candy, mermaid candles and seahorse cookies were by own contribution.
Tatum still wants to become a shark researcher and is looking at colleges with a marine biology program, handily being those along a beach. She is indeed on tap to take AP Environmental Science next year, so she’s on the right track.
Her teacher comments have been glowing—she contributes the most of any student in her physics class, has made top gains in precalc and has “sophisticated literary analysis skills” and is recommended for AP English next year (along with AP statistics and art). She’s not loving school, but she’s doing a great job despite that. They love her.
And her friends span the Maryland-Virginia divide: in addition to lovely Marina from Brazil but a fellow boarder at Stuart Hall, Tatum is spending lots of time with Sophia, Tommy and new beau Beaman, all students at Whitman. Prom was a big highlight this spring—for Josie and me, as well as the kids. It’s something to celebrate when the children you love are doing happy things.
It was so cold! There’s nothing like the word spring to make a little chill even chillier because all one wants is for the sun to have the decency to shine. Especially if one goes south like the birds. Spring in Nags Head was a little indecent, to be honest: cold, windy and cloudy.
But we made the best of it. Well, I guess that depends on perspective. Clara said on the car trip home, grumpy for lack of UV rays for spring break tanning, “Mom, we went to four museums in four days. Is that, like, your perfect vacation or something?”
We went to the beautiful beach at least once a day, although usually we didn’t stay more than ten minutes because it was so blustery. The waves were raucous and even Bali ran from them and not into them. But we were together, except for Tay who had finished her spring break two weeks earlier. Trent, finding his Master’s at East Carolina, joined us for two nights also, happily.
One of the “museum” visits that Clara so enjoyed was a stop at a wildlife refuge near Alligator River. Aside from having a very nice visitor’s center, the back roads there were perfect to give Finn and Clara their first turns behind the wheel. The roads were made of dirt or gravel so the rare other cars on the road were going only as fast as bees sliding on honey. Clara was cautious and cool, Finn was elbows up and foot down—driving a little faster than expected! They both did great and stood a little taller when they stepped out of the driver’s seat.
Other highlights included going to Kitty Hawk and learning more about the wonderful imaginations and methodical discipline of Orville and Wilbur—and their mother’s uncanny ability to build and fix things in the home; getting brews and beer for Kevin; driving through the gorgeous campus of William & Mary; seeing the Cape Hatteras light house and learning about German U-boats being nearby during WWII and the resourceful isolation of families living in the light house; playing Bananagrams; watching the show soap opera-style but somewhat historically realistic Jamestown and visiting the actual Jamestown or at least it’s replica.
I loved the visit to Jamestown, although it wasn’t the site of the archeological dig of course. It is impressive to think of the courage and creativity all of those first arrivers had to call upon. The efforts to recreate life from England must have been both so comforting and so maddening. The Native Americans must have been astonished by the bizarre sights—neck ruffles and corsets could hardly have been helpful.
Having been to the very spot on the other side of the earth, the Banda Islands or Spice Islands, that other European ships were reaching at the same time, I can see in my mind’s eye cosmic history’s lines colliding and bursting into flame in the arc of history. The galvanizing of globalization.
Overall the trip was good family time with the exception that Tatum couldn’t be there, but it wasn’t perhaps the most springish of spring breaks because of the overcast and blowy weather. Next time, maybe we could “spring” for a place with a hot tub—or better yet, a place with sunshine. Kevin loved it though, climate and landscape alike being a true break from the frying pan that is Delhi.
Double unders, triple unders, frogs, side swings, twists, flips. Nope, I’m not talking about making flap jacks. I’m talking about Finn and his rope. The boy’s got moves. He’s had fun developing his freestyle and his pairs work with Riley. This spring, he has traveled to Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio for competitions, picking up medals along the way, although he wants no mention of it.
We have a few more tournaments this spring and summer, locally, in North Carolina and Nationals in Salt Lake City in June. Despite the hours and travel miles logged, I guess it’s too late to jump ship now!
While I’m “manning” the home front in the way only a woman can do, Kevin has been working on the far side of the moon, or it might as well be. The far side of the world, in any case. He’s around here, or was last month anyway:
Since Christmas, he has been in Kabul, Afghanistan; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Bangkok, Thailand; and several states in India. I don’t know exactly what all the work entailed, but his favorite moment and ours involved the very hearty applause for cutting the ribbon around a port-a-potty.
@theterrace 