Watch out DC-Area Businesses - I'm on Yelp!

So, two things today inspired me to join Yelp!

1)   I desperately need a haircut, but I'm terrified of choosing a new stylist. So, I turned to Yelp and went with someone who had great reviews. I'm looking forward to my haircut with Marsha at Tracy & Company salon next Saturday. I will definitely review my experience.

2)   I've been ordering groceries online from Safeway since I moved here. The first few experiences were okay...a few problems that I was willing to overlook in the name of convenience. That changed today.

I typically order all my heavy stuff to be delivered - cat food, cat litter, cases of soda, canned goods, etc. - about once a month. Well, I placed my order yesterday to be delivered today and there was only one time slot available, noon-1pm. A one-hour time slot runs you $12.95, but I decided it was worth it since I was stocking up on everything and probably won't need to order again for awhile. So, I'm waiting  at noon for them to come, and at 12:25 I get a call from the driver. He informs me that the store hasn't even pulled the orders for today and he can't guarantee when he'll be able to deliver. If I have any questions or want to cancel, I need to call customer service.

Since I had no plans anyway (I'm sick and staying home), I figured I'd let them go ahead and deliver whenever today. But at 3:45pm, still no groceries and I'm getting impatient. So I call customer service to see what's up. She tells me that the driver is unexpectedly running 3-4 hours behind on deliveries - well, no crap! No offer to refund the delivery fee or anything until I start complaining about how useless a service their delivery is if they don't get there even close to when I'm paying them to get there. She explains that it was unexpected delays, blah, blah - well of course it's unexpected! If you expected it, you wouldn't have offered me the option of a one hour delivery window from noon-1 today! It's 4:30pm now and still no groceries. Needless to say, I'm going to attempt to avoid shopping at Safeway now and decided to make my dissatisfaction known.

Thus, I will now review everything on Yelp! My Safeway review is already there, and I'm going to make an effort to write honest reviews of all the places I visit while in DC, because I know I use the site to find good companies too.

Recent reviews by Robyn S.

What's this?

STILL WAITING...

Well, you have probably inferred from the title of this post that I still don't know where I'm going. I've been putting off blogging because I keep thinking that I'll find out. First, I thought I'd know before Christmas- fail. Then I thought for sure I'd know by the end of the year - another fail. So, now we've been given the date of January 10th. And in the meantime, I thought I'd post a few pictures from the graduation ceremony where I got my American flag...

All the American flags....you'll notice a few Afghanistan flags sprinkled in there for the Mid-Levels

Me with Administrator Shah

I love the photo of me with the Administrator because, for some reason, I'm the only one in my class of 60 who is posed like this. Everyone else has this super serious handshake pose. Not sure what happened there...

The whole DLI 15 class

Happy New Year!

Still waiting...

Well, I haven't written anything in awhile...I was waiting until the 10th when I found out where I was going, but that plan was thwarted. On the 8th, they told us that we'd all be getting American flags at graduation because they were unable to assign the majority of our class. That was disappointing. So, graduation came and went...Chris came to DC for the weekend, so that made it enjoyable. We had a nice dinner on Friday night, saw 'I Love You Philip Morris', had a delicious crepe at Eastern Market on Saturday morning, made a trip to Ikea....oh yeah, and Chris brought me a cat! Tiger is now a city cat with Wally. I think they've readjusted to being together now.

This week has been wonderful. We moved into our cubicles on Monday - my home is in the Bureau of Food Security. I've had some great meetings that have really helped me figure out what my purpose in the agency is and what I should be doing for the next year or so. I'm hoping I'll get my assignment by Christmas...check back soon!

Pics from graduation to come!

Settling in...

I haven't blogged in awhile...mostly because I was at home for Thanksgiving and have been working on unpacking since. As of this evening, I'm down to 3 more boxes left to unpack. I'm still working on finding homes for everything that I've already taken out of the boxes, but it's slowly coming together. I'm hoping it will all get done in the next 3 days because Chris is coming for my graduation ceremony on Thursday.

I can't believe that my initial 5-week training program is just about done! This Friday I'll find out where I'm heading for the next two years of my life. We've been warned that they're having problems placing all 60 of us right now, some some of us will be getting US flags at the ceremony and finding out our assignments later. I know that the agriculture group is among those that are having problems being placed, so I have my fingers crossed that someone has claimed me by this Friday.

I've been spending most of my time outside of training working on the apartment, so I don't really have any exciting stories...

I'm sure everyone has heard about the debacle of WikiLeaks publishing thousands of cables from U.S. Embassies around the world. Since the published documents are classified information and we've all signed agreements not to utilize classified information outside of approved methods, government employees are prohibited from accessing them on WikiLeaks, so I've only seen and heard what's been reported on the news. It's been a big topic at our training lately because it will severely impair our ability to interact with foreign governments, not to mention it endangers the lives of both US government employees and those who have been working with us. I can understand people wanting the government to be more transparent, but the way that this was done is going to have a huge impact on how the foreign service agencies are able to do their work. It angers me to think that someone single-handedly endangered the lives of hundreds of thousands of foreign service workers, most likely without even thinking about the consequences. But anyway...

Photos of the finished apartment to come, as well as graduation pics...visit my Facebook page to wager your guess as to where I'll be assigned! The winner will receive an undetermined prize from me!

Time to unpack - and Myers-Briggs

I am now in the process of moving in - finally! The apartment looks like a mess, but hopefully it'll get cleaned up when I get back to town on Sunday morning. In the meantime, today at training we learned our Myers-Briggs Type Indicator so we could talk about interpersonal skills and our communication preferences. I am a ENFP - extraverted intuition with introverted feeling. Okay, so that doesn't mean much, but when I dig into the description, I think it fits pretty well....here's the quick summary...

ENFP's tend to prefer what might be over what is. They approach the world with optimism and trust, taking risks others might avoid. They find new challenges more appealing than what is known and verified.

ENFP's focus on possibilities and people's potential. They like to talk with their network to find out what people think about an issue. They prefer collegial relationships, shared rewards and consensus in decisions. They are warm, flexible and encouraging leaders, and can be energetic followers when treated with respect. 

ENFP's value meaningful relationships. They want to make the world a better place. The focus on developing potential in others, finding a purpose in life, and bridging differences. They want to be authentic.

ENFP's like to work with general direction and freedom to accomplish the task in their own way. They like frequent feedback and appreciate supervisors/teachers with warmth, enthusiasm, and humor who provide individual recognition. They enjoy verbal communication and are typically verbally fluent; however, they become awkward when they need to express their deepest values.

When they feel frustrated and misunderstood, they become scattered and have trouble focusing on the task at hand. They fail to follow through on their decisions - become rebellious and excessively nonconforming and ignore deadlines and procedures.

Energizers: variety, challenge, being taken seriously and valued for competency and skills, freedom to innovate creative and effective solutions

Stressors: being disrespected, competence doubted, overloaded with details, supervision that is too close and communicates distrust and doubt, too little outside stimulation, rules that inhibit the creative process

When ENFP's are stressed, they withdraw, shut down and avoid people. They become passive-agressive. The generate possibilities with no data or follow-through. They become convinced that they have medical problems that don't exist.

Okay, there's more, but I think that's enough. If you know me, I think it fits pretty well. For those of you who from NCGA, perhaps this explains why it just didn't work out for me...

Here's hoping my career at USAID is a better fit!

Uggghhhh!

Well, this morning was interesting. I had my appointment to go visit the storage facility at 9am. In order to get myself out to Manassas, VA (about 40 miles away), I had to rent a car. So I chose a lovely blue Prius from Zipcar that lives at one of the last Metro stations on the orange line in Virginia. I loved driving the Prius! If I ever buy another car, I'd want an electric car like the Volt or the Leaf, but I have a feeling foreign countries won't have the infrastructure to make that work. So maybe a Prius...? But I digress...

So I arrived out at the storage facility and they took me to my stuff - three very large crates, which were surprisingly mostly full. They sat me at a table with the inventory that the packers had made and a group of three guys began pulling out items, calling out the number on the box, and I told them whether it stayed in storage or came to the apartment. First, I was surprised at how much of the stuff is coming to the apartment...it sure looks like a lot, but really, I guess it's mostly kitchen stuff and clothes. Second, and most disturbing, my BRAND NEW desk is broken. And I mean, irreparably broken. Grrrrrr! I'm hoping it's just this one thing and I don't have boxes of broken things waiting to further disappoint me when I open them. So, I asked my HR guy what to do and he directed me to the claims department, where I will no doubt be required to fill out paperwork and wait...and hopefully eventually get reimbursed for the things that are damaged. Luckily for me, I have the receipt showing that the desk was purchased about a week before the move, and I have pictures showing its condition, so hopefully there won't be any disputing that they broke it. We'll see....

Tonight I'm having my grocery order delivered for the first time. I'm interested to see how this works out.  For $7, the grocery store brings my stuff to my door for me within a 2 hour window. I got free delivery for my first order, but I'm pretty sure this will be the first of many times I'll use their service. To ride the Metro to and from the store is $3.20, plus the time I spend in the store and the hassle of having to carry everything (and buy only what I can carry). This is great because I ordered huge bags of cat food and litter, cases of soda, etc. which I would never be able to get home without a vehicle.

Oh, and last night I had dinner at a wonderful little Vietnamese restaurant with my friend DaNita, a former NCGA coworker here in DC, followed by some fro-yo. It's always so nice to get to hang out with people outside of my training class! And if you come visit me, I may be taking you to Saigon Bistro, so be prepared...

Lovely weekend

Week 2 of training seemed to drag along for some reason. On Wednesday, we went out to the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington. It was fairly interesting - learned more about medical services overseas at post, educational options for your kids, and what kind of resources are available to families overseas. They definitely take excellent care of foreign service officers and their families. We had another happy hour over in Rosslyn afterwards, which was fun. Thursday and Friday we did some group projects and heard about a few more programs and benefits.

Yesterday I decided to go out and see a movie by myself, so I saw Morning Glory, which I really enjoyed. Afterwards I took a quick trip down to Filene's Basement and found myself a pair of flat black boots, which I think will officially allow me to fit in in this city. I got home and made myself a real home-cooked meal. 

Yummy chicken pot pie!

I had to improvise since I don't have any baking dishes yet, but luckily the skillet I bought was oven-safe, so it worked out just fine.

In other news, tomorrow morning I go to Manassas, VA to access my storage unit and sort out what's coming to the apartment. They'll deliver Tuesday at noon! I'm going to have to recruit some help to put my bed together and move some things around...we'll see how successful I am with that.

Also, Wally now insists on sleeping under the covers with me. It's cute, but annoying...

   

Wally is spoiled!!

I don't know what he's going to do when I'm away for four days at Thanksgiving....

I also got a very nice package in the mail yesterday from my friends, Chuck and Cris France! 

I'm particularly excited about using the Star Wars bandaids...and being able to open the bottle of wine when my stuff gets here on Tuesday!

Today brings cleaning in preparation for the delivery, grocery shopping, and dinner at a Vietnamese place with my friend DaNita, who works for NCGA here in DC. Should be a nice end to a lovely weekend.

Stuff is Here!

I have to say, having wireless in my apartment make life much better! Also, I got word yesterday that my stuff has finally arrived in DC! I'm still working on scheduling my time to access my storage unit (which is an hour drive away from my apartment in Manassas, VA) and then a time for everything to be delivered. Hopefully this will all happen before I come home for Thanksgiving next week....

That's right, I'm coming home for Thanksgiving! I figure it may very well be the last time I get to be home for Thanksgiving for a number of years, so I may as well take advantage of it while I can. We're finishing training early on Wednesday, so I'll be in early Wednesday evening and flying back early Sunday morning.

Today was my first rainy day in DC. I have never seen so many dogs with raincoats! It's cute, but also slightly disturbing.

Tomorrow we have a field trip to the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington for the day. It'll be nice to be somewhere other than the training facility we've been in for the past week.

First week = Done!

So I've made it through a week of training and feel like I'm learning a lot. The first three days or so was all about benefits and taking care of paperwork. Did you know that there are 207 health care plans available to government employees? It's overwhelming. Luckily, foreign service officers have a unique opportunity because we can change our plan every time our permanent duty station changes (ie, when they send us overseas and when we come back to the US) in addition to the yearly open-enrollment season and other typical qualifying life events. I'm pretty sure I chose a good plan, but if I am unhappy, I'll be able to change soon enough.

We had a DLI 15 happy hour on Wednesday night at The Laughing Man Tavern, which is just a couple blocks from the Reagan building. We have a fun, social group of people in the class, so it was fun to get to know some of them better. On Thursday I was off for Veterans' Day. I spent the day ironing and hanging up all my clothes...sounds awful, I know, but I was so happy to do it! And Saturday night I met with the sister of a former coworker and her husband for dinner downtown. It was so nice to have a conversation with someone outside of training! Hopefully we'll hang out again in the next couple months before they move away.

It was a gorgeous weekend here...mid 60's and sunny. I walked down to the grocery store this afternoon, which was so nice. I rode the Metro back, of course, because I can't haul all those groceries on a 20 minute walk.

Oh, and the best news, I have wireless in my apartment now! I feel like part of civilization again. Hopefully I'll be blogging more in the future since it'll be more convenient that having to go down to the common areas.

Random Tidbits from DLI Training

Today they gave us a list of stats on our class...almost 50/50 male to female ratio. Ag is the second-largest group with 9 DLIs – 3 mid-levels and 6 junior officers (second only to financial managers, because apparently USAID has not had its own budgeting system for something like 6 years and is now rebuilding). 

After the first 5 weeks of training, we split off to do training for our particular focus area, but then we do Individualized Development Programs for the rest of our time here. As far as I can tell, myself and two others in the Ag group don't have extensive world travels (and, coincidently are the only non-Peace Corps volunteers). I'm going to put myself at 10 months total in DC.

On December 10^th, we have a flag ceremony. The administrator is supposed to be there to give us the flag of the country we're going to. So I'll know where I'm going in 5 weeks. I'll start taking bets soon.

I don't get my first paycheck until December 2^nd. I am very poor at the moment.

We have cubbies, like in kindergarten. Mine is blue – very exciting!

The government pays for us to take public transportation to and from work...that'll add up to an extra $21 each week for me. Nice perk.

Tomorrow I have to pick a health insurance plan....there are something like 15 options and I am overwhelmed. Also have to pick dental, vision, life and disability coverage. I haven't even looked at those options yet.

I can make it home from work in 15 minutes...which is nice because the view of the sunset if beautiful from my apartment.

First DLI happy hour is tomorrow. (I miss happy hour with my NCGA coworkers...we'll see how this new group is).

Orientation - Day 1

The first day of orientation went well. I left myself plenty of time to get to the Ronald Reagan Building via Metro this morning, which was good because there was a disruption on the Green line, so everything was running behind and all the trains were jam-packed because of it. So, I had to wait for the second train to come to squeeze on. I left the apartment at 7:10, and even with the issues, I was at the building by 7:40. I think, with no issues and good timing, it should only take about 15 minutes, but I plan on always leaving plenty of time...I don't like being late!

So, I made it to the building, was escorted to our classroom, where I sat at a table with five other DLIs (which is what we're called – we're DLI 15). We were sworn in right away...turns out I didn't have to memorize the oath of office, but I had anyway. We heard from a panel of retired USAID mission director, who had some good advice. Here are a few of their insights...first, coming in completely fresh with no idea of how USAID functions or what you'll be doing is an advantage (HOORAY because I definitely fall into that camp!). Also, all of the panel members kept reiterating that there's really no use in trying to do “career-planning” because you'll just end up frustrated when the positions, locations, etc. that you've planned for yourself aren't there for you. Also, I learned that after I'm tenured (approximately 4 years), I have the ability to take positions in other program areas (education, policy, environment, health, etc.) to try them out. One of the panelists had worked for USAID for 30 years, and said that almost every day was pure enjoyment. I find this promising...

We had some additional briefings on logistics and security, and then we had our formal swearing-in ceremony with the acting USAID administrator (Dr. Rajiv Shah, the actual administrator, is traveling in India with President Obama this week). I learned that, by next year, 50% or more of the US Foreign Service Officers will have less than 2 years of experience. The rebuilding of USAID is a huge effort...our class alone is 60 new hires. Apparently, before starting the DLI a couple of years ago, they didn't even bring in 60 new hires in a year. We're supposed to be 'agents of change' for the agency, however we've been warned that not all of the long-time employees are so thrilled with this prospect. I can understand that. We'll see how it goes.

I was home by 4:00 this afternoon. According to our schedule for the next five weeks, it looks like we don't have to be in until 8:30am from now on. Yay for an extra 30 minutes of sleep! The rest of this week is mostly administrative stuff – getting badges, filling out paperwork, learning about benefits and USAID organizational structure.

On December 10^th, we'll have our flag ceremony, where I'll find out where I'm going once I'm done with training. That's not too far away...

First Week in DC, Alone

My first week in DC had some highs and lows...the biggest low of all being the fact that my stuff was supposed to be ready this week, but the truck broke down somewhere between here and St. Louis, and I won't be able to get my things for another couple weeks. This also means no internet or TV in my apartment for another couple weeks.

Highlights of the week included my Tuesday as a tourist, which included stops at the American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery and the American History Museum, as well as the Ronald Reagan Building, which is where I'll be working starting tomorrow. The portrait gallery had an exhibition on Elvis, who I've never really been interested in, but I found it really cool. Also, Elvis was hot. I never really got why he had the female following that he did, but after seeing the pictures, I get it. On the American Art side of the building, the folk art section was my favorite...lots of really interesting pieces, mostly related to religion, slavery, and oppression of different groups of the history of the country. Also, there was a large Norman Rockwell exhibition, with all of the pieces from the collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg...which leads me to wonder, why do those two men own so much of his work? I think the pieces are interesting, but really not my cup of tea.

I remembered the American History Museum from my visit when I was at National Youth Science Camp after high school. They had a neat exhibit of moveable paper books (i.e. pop-up books), and the collection of the dresses from the First Ladies is always interesting. I think that my favorite was Nancy Reagan's inaugural gown. I didn't make it through the whole museum because I was hoping to avoid rush hour on the Metro (I was still unsuccessful).

On Wednesday, I got to have dinner with my friend Mel, who was in town for an NCGA meeting. It was so nice to see a familiar face and catch up on what's been going on back in St. Louis. Mel went home Thursday afternoon, but the directors and managers from St. Louis came in for their staff meeting, so I got to see them that evening, which was great timing because that was the day that I found out about my stuff being delayed.

Yesterday I rented a car from Hertz for the day so that I could drive out to Ikea in College Park, MD, stop by a mall, and do some grocery shopping. I paid $23 for the rental, plus $5 in gas, $2 in parking, and $3 for the Metro ride to and from the airport. Now the apartment feels a little better...I got a real comforter (the best purchase of the day!), a skillet and saucepan, a few real dishes, and some baking dishes. Now I can make real food! And stay warm and comfortable at night! I didn't find a winter coat that I liked, but I will probably head out for that this afternoon. I'm feeling better about life now. The mall was an interesting experience...coming from St. Charles, which is probably 90% white, living here is completely different. Good different, but still taking some getting used to – the population is so diverse around here. I hear so many different languages every day...maybe someday I'll be able to understand some of them.

Alright, well I'm going to get back to life now. I'm hoping to be better about blogging once I have internet in my apartment, but until then, I'll do what I can!

The Move to DC

Well, I made it to DC. I arrived Thursday night and went to my hotel downtown, where I ate dinner and went to sleep. Luckily, the apartment complex had my unit ready early, so I was able to get in shortly after noon on Friday! Here's what it looks like (empty of course):

Kitchen

Bedroom

Bathroom

Part of the living/dining room (there's more around the corner of the kitchen too)

Sunset from my window (complete with glare off the glass!)

I ventured out to Target (which is about 10 minutes away via Metro) and to Safeway (about a 15 minute walk, or 2 minute Metro ride) that afternoon to pick up some food and essentials. Chris arrived with Wally at about 10:30pm. Wally did surprisingly well this week with the temporary move to Matt's with Chris and then the flight to DC. He was curious about everything when he got to the apartment. Chris bought a great air mattress in St. Louis and brought it with him for me to sleep on until my bed gets here. So we inflated that and went to sleep.

Saturday was busy – we went to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, which was entertaining.

People watching from dumpsters...

and the tops of Porta-Potties

'They told me this was Disneyland'

Then we had our first Zipcar experience, which went very well. We picked up a truck nearby the apartment and drove out to the Ikea in College Park, MD to pick up a chair and sofa and a few other small things. We got everything back and unloaded and returned the car on time. All in all, a good experience. I witnessed a fight on the Metro on the way back from dropping the car off, so now I know what to do in an emergency on the train. We assembled our furniture and went to bed.

Sunday morning we got up to go to Founding Farmers (Chris's favorite restaurant in DC so far) for breakfast. We shared some donut holes and I had a HUGE bowl of oatmeal. Delicious!! Then we walked along the waterfront by the apartment before stopping by Safeway again so I could take advantage of Chris's presence to buy lots of groceries.

Then Chris went home :( It was a very sad night...not having anything in the apartment compounds how bad being alone is. USAID tells me I won't be getting my shipment this week – boo! So hopefully they'll give me time off to have my things delivered since they only do deliveries during the week. Next week maybe...I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  

Pack-out

So I haven't blogged in awhile, partly because I was in Mexico last week and partly because things have been crazy getting ready for the movers to come today. I'll eventually write about the trip to Mexico, but for now, I'll focus on the pack-out.

Yesterday the moving company called and said the moving team would arrive between 10AM and noon, which I thought was awesome because I could sleep until 7 and then get up and do some last minute sorting, do a quick photo inventory, and then shower before they arrived. So I got up and felt motivated, so started working on the last-minute things, like filing some papers, pulling out utility account numbers to cancel them, sorting toiletries, picking jewelry to pack, etc. And at 8:10, the driver called and said he was about 10 minutes away...CRAP! I had to run out and move my car, shove some stuff in the 'Do Not Pack' closet, and then the semi pulled up.

Huge semi parked in front of the house

I am, of course, still in my Pjs, haven't eaten, brushed my hair or teeth, and feel completely frantic. For those interested, here's what our house has looked like for the past couple weeks...

Piles of books on the piano

Piles of crap in the office

More piles of crap in the office

Piles of crap in the bedroom

Wally - thinking 'what the heck is going on?'

After a quick walk-through, the team of packers split up into each of our rooms and went to work, while I sat on the couch playing on my computer and answered their questions. They probably started the actual packing at about 9AM...by about 1:30PM, they were done. All that's left in the house right now is the couch and loveseat that are going out with the trash on Monday, the spare bed that will eventually go to Erin's, a few things that will be sold on craigslist or donated to Goodwill, clothes and toiletries. And the cats (who are both in hiding).

Not sure what I'll be doing for the next week, but I have a feeling I'll be busy enough.

Ikea furniture

I got my new Ikea furniture on Saturday! Well, I got most of it, but unfortunately they didn't have the awesome green sleeper sofa that I want. I'll pick it up when I get to DC. I spent Sunday assembling furniture and watching football games, and then Chris helped me put together a couple of things that were too unwieldy for me to do alone. Here's a sampling of what I got...

Armchair with awesome patterned slipcover

Red desk & chair

Dining room chairs

If you haven't been able to guess, I like colorful things! I'll have the patterned chair and green sofa in the living room with a coffee table made of 4 smaller tables, 2 dark brown and 2 yellow. Then yellow and red floating shelves on the wall, the red desk in a little nook between the living room and kitchen, and a shiny white dining table with the light blue chairs. I think that about covers everything. I'm looking forward to decorating the new apartment...that should keep me busy for a couple days at least.

In other news, the moving company is coming on Thursday to do my pre-pack survey, so I'm busy sorting out what's needs to be sold/donated/given away, what Chris is taking to his brother's house, and what I'm taking to DC (which also has to be sorted into what goes to the apartment and what goes to storage).

I'm leaving for Cancun in 5 days! Time to start packing...

I got my Travel Authorization to DC!

Moving is stressful! We got rid of a lot of stuff last weekend between the yard sale and Goodwill, and there are probably a few boxes worth of stuff still to go. I finally got the movers scheduled to come pack up all my things on Oct. 26th and have my one-way ticket to D.C. for Oct. 28th. But there are still a lot of things to get done between now and then...most notably to me at this point, get our house rented to someone stable and reliable, and get my lease for my apartment in D.C. signed. Both of these things are going to give me an ulcer!

Renting out your house is not a fun prospect...when we moved in, we took a lot of time picking the 'perfect' paint colors for every room, which are probably not going to be perfect in the eyes of a renter - in particular, I'm guessing our purple and yellow "office" and the dark blue bathroom and accent wall in the dining room probably aren't for everyone. So, we decided that we'll let tenants paint (of course, we get to approve the colors though). It's sad to think that it may not even look like 'my' house anymore, even though we'll still own it. Plus, finding the right tenants has been difficult so far...we're headed into our second round of applicants and I have my fingers crossed that something will work out this time.

Then there's the lease in D.C., which is more stressing to me for some reason. My training program can be anywhere from 3-12 months, so I've been told by my HR liaison. This makes finding a place very difficult because there aren't many reasonably priced options that offer month-to-month or really short term leases. I'm not too keen on the idea of renting out a room in a shared house, and most wouldn't let me bring Wally along anyway...so, I found a nice apartment, but I'm really worried about having to move out before my lease term is up. I don't know why it bothers me so much - I'm sure it happens often, but I hate the idea that I could potentially be paying for a vacant apartment for months if I get an overseas assignment before the lease is up.

So, I'm focusing on the more fun tasks I have before I go...things like figuring out how I want to spend my gift card to the spa, picking out new furniture and planning a going-away party.
Everything will get done eventually....right?

Emo is moving!

So, yesterday we had our yard sale to start getting rid of all the things we don't want to move around the world. It was a beautiful day to be sitting outside all morning, and we sold LOTS of our stuff, so I will call it a success! The rest will be listed on Craigslist or taken to Goodwill this week. It feels good to see that there is less stuff in the house that has to be dealt with...plus, our garage is completely cleaned out so we can park both cars in it again (for the 1st time in over a year)!!


                                                                                    Today will be a sadder day :(

We're taking Emo to my her new permanent home at my parents. I keep reminding myself that she will be much happier in a place where she can run around outside rather than being stuck in an apartment, but I will miss her!

Temporary Unemployment

So, last Friday was my last day of work at NCGA. There was an after-work get-together for me and Judy, who retired earlier last week (pictures of the festivities to come). I got to spend the night at my friend Heather's following the party. We enjoyed a bottle of wine...maybe more than one...around her fire pit and had a very enjoyable evening of gossiping and goofing off. It was quite fun! And I got to see her adorable 2-month-old twins who were so well-behaved that they slept in until 8:30 on Saturday for us!

This leaves me a month and a half of life without a job. So far, it just feels like I'm on vacation...I've been running errands, doing laundry, organizing things for a yard sale, and spending time at the pool. I have a huge list of things that need to get done before we move out of our house and I'm trying to be sure to get a few things done each day, even if they're small. It's strange to wake up in the morning and not have anywhere to be and not see the people who I've talked to every day for the past two years...we'll see how I feel in another week or so.

Scuba - better late than never!

So, I'm not a good blogger...it's been more than two weeks since my first and only post, so I'll try to do better from now on.

Back to two weeks ago - August 29th -  My friend Mel and I took an intro scuba lesson at 8:30am (thanks Groupon!). I'd never been before, but Mel had done a similar class on a vacation and freaked out. So she was trying it again to see if she could do it, and I was just curious.

We got to wear wetsuits!

Once we got in the water, we learned how to breathe with the gear in the shallow end (3'). Both Mel and I panicked at first...eventually we got it.

Then they taught us how to deal with your respirator coming out of your mouth underwater. That was the scariest part...you have to expel the water in the system before you breathe in again. I was scared I'd breath in a gallon of water, but it worked out.

Then it was off to play in the deep end. I have pictures from that part too, but I'll have to add them later. All in all, I enjoyed it. I'd consider doing the whole certification course in the future...or shallow diving somewhere that doesn't require certification. Mel, on the other hand, decided it wasn't for her. We had a good time though, and spent the rest of the morning laying out at Mel's pool.

More photos:

Finally!

Over a year ago, I decided to put in an application to join the foreign service for USAID. More than four months passed until I was finally called for an interview last November. They flew me out to DC, I went through a pretty intense interviewing process, and headed back home. Another three months passed before I got a pre-employment packet in February. After an intense background check and physical, I waited another four months until last week, when my job offer finally arrived! On November 8, 2010, I report for training in Washington, DC!

Chris and I are frantically trying to figure out everything that needs to be done in the next two months. Chris will be moving in with his brother in St. Louis and finishing out the school year at Webster Groves while I go through the training program in DC. We're working on renting out our house for the next year, organizing and taking inventory of all our stuff, heading out to DC to look at apartments (which are amazingly expensive compared to living in St. Louis!), and trying to remain sane.

My last day at my current job is September 17th, and in addition to all the stuff I have to do, there's a lot I want to do before leaving St. Louis (and I'd be happy to have company!). Here's what I have on the list so far:

Cardinals Game
Blues Game (which will be checked off on Oct. 9 - thanks Max!)
Art Museum & Zoo
Botanical Gardens
St. Louis Art Fair
Grant's Farm
Eat at Eclipse...and Pi...and Ted Drewes
Go up in the Arch (which I haven't done since grade school)
Visit the local wineries


Anyone have other things that should be on the list?