The Offsite Retreat, and Everything Else

A-100 has continued to be very busy. There is always a softball game, a happy hour, a party, tennis, or some other fun event when we are not in class. The classes themselves have been jammed packed with information. We've had some really excellent and interesting speakers. I think we've learned a lot in the last four weeks. It has FLOWN by.

Every A-100 class involves an overnight offsite retreat. Ours was last week. In the days leading up to it, they were somewhat mysterious about would be doing while we were gone. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it ended up being really fun. It was very well done, and unlike any other leadership/team-building exercises I've ever done before. The exercises were very creative.

So, now we are here. Flag Day, THE DAY, is TOMORROW! It is sort of surreal. You spend so long working your way through the hiring process that somehow, Flag Day always seems like some mythical, theoretical point that you will never get to. It is always somewhere out there in the future. But, mine is tomorrow. Every time someone would say today "oh, your Flag Day is tomorrow," it seemed a little shocking. I feel good about it. I feel like we will rise to the occasion, no matter where they send us. That's not to say that I don't have my favorite posts, and a list of places I am hoping will be enjoyed by my colleagues, rather than ourselves. But, I know that we will be fine, no matter what, and that's a pretty good place to be in.*

*Of course, check in with me this weekend. Let's hope my positive vibe stays put once I hear my name tomorrow!

A-100

It's hard to believe but A-100 is half over, and I haven't even blogged about it. Between classes, social engagements, house guests, unpacking, and attending to miscellaneous other responsibilities, I haven't managed to find the time. I fall into bed exhausted every night, thinking "I really should blog about this. . ."

So, how is it? I think it's everything you imagine it will be, and more. It totally rocks. My classmates are smart, charismatic and engaging. The classes themselves are generally interesting and well presented, although the pace is a bit frenetic. Most days fly by. The topics are all over the map. Some days there are light assignments to prepare for the next day, but there is not a ton of homework. For those of you wondering (and worried) about the tigers, I have waited for the inevitable warnings about blogging, but they have not yet come. No one has actively discouraged us from blogging, although I was ready for that.

The bid lists have come out for our first assignment, and bids have already been submitted. It was really a fantastic list. We had an amazing array of places to consider. I think most people were pleased when they saw the possibilities. Our Flag Day, the day we learn our assignment, is next week. This is a day that we've been anticipating for so long; it's almost surreal to think we will actually live it soon. It's terribly exciting. And terribly frightening, but mostly exciting.

DC itself is also just phenomenal. There is always something to do here, no matter what your interests. It has been really fun to be able to just hop on the Metro and explore. There are great restaurants, great music, fabulous museums, all of the tourist stuff. I could live here for years and never get bored.

All in all, this has been a really good experience, and we're really glad to be here.

DC At Last (And A Few Thoughts on Packing, and Oakwood)

We made it! It feels so good to finally be here. When I caught sight of the Capitol dome driving into the city, it brought tears to my eyes. What a journey this has been, from the FSWE to this moment. In just a few short days, I will have the Bid List in my hands!

Before I get busy with other things, a few notes on packing: I have read of people with spreadsheets and lists and evil master plans to take over the universe with their packouts. I was not one of those people. I made the mistake of a) waiting until I got The Call to start cleaning out my house, and b) taking only a week off between my last day of my old job and packout. The latter was a HUGE mistake, and did not leave me enough time to pack properly (I'd lived in my house almost 10 years and have a child.). Consequently, I scurried around and made giant piles for UAB, HHE, and to drive here in the car with us. I have little idea what I have with me, but I know I erred on the side of being in DC for lengthy training, and brought a little of everything. The car was so full that we looked like Ma and Pa Clampett pulling into town. It didn't help that I decided to pack in trash bags to save time and space! With my luck, I will probably get sent abroad as soon as A-100 ends. Anyway, I can now see the benefit of maybe taking a little more time and creating a few more lists of what I am packing, and what went where.

We are pleasantly suprised by our Oakwood accomodations. We are pretty picky about housing, but agreed that with everything else we had going on, there was no way we were going to try to find our own housing, when we could just do Oakwood. From all of the criticism we'd read on the Yahoo group boards, we were expecting dumpy on-campus college apartment living. Our kitchen has junky particle board cabinets and early 80's almond colored appliances (I can barely hear myself think, the dishwasher is so loud right now). The bathrooms are similarly outdated. However, the carpet is new, much (although not all) of the apartment has been freshly repainted, and many of the furnishings appear new, and are relatively stylish. The linens are nice, and there are six place settings of dishes (although, only four chairs for the table!). The layout of the apartment is nice, and it's more spacious than I expected. All in all, we are pleasantly surprised by it. I'm glad we chose it, as it certainly was easy to simply show up and check in like you would at a hotel.

And now, more unpacking! Maybe I'll find something interesting...

Moving Forward

Somehow, it all worked out. For logistical reasons, it made more sense for me to take the baby and go to my in-laws last night. My spouse stayed here with the movers and continued to work on things. The movers showed a little after 4, and were done around 8. I had a nice dinner, the in-laws and the godparents got to see the baby (who is currently teething and screamed the whole time, but that's another story), and there was even strawberry-rhubarb pie. And, I got a good night's sleep to boot.

The house is almost empty. I have to pack the car and clean the dregs out from a few more rooms, clean a bit, and then...dare I say it? Then, we'll be done!

Movewatch 2010: The Update

So. The moving company just called. It turns out that the load on the movers' truck that "had" to be unloaded at 7am today at a location 87 miles from our house is...still at that location, and still loaded. Yes, that's right, they've been sitting there all day, and are...still 87 miles from my house. The company representative called to give me a "helpful" update: they will (allegedly) be at my house at around 4pm. Today, supposedly. He has apparently "ordered" the truck to leave for my place without dropping off the existing load.

Frankly, although it's a bit of a pain that they keep moving the date and time of the move around on me, I really don't care. I mean, I'm here at my house doing all of the last-minute things I would otherwise be doing. I'm beyond sick of cleaning and organizing, and would be going crazy even without playing the movers' version of musical chairs with my move date. I can roll with just about anything.

However.

I did get a little annoyed when the moving company rep apologized to me that they "weren't able to accomocate" me yesterday, as though all of this was occasioned by their attempts to help ME out by moving on a Sunday. I pointed out to him that the move yesterday was for THEIR convenience, not mine. He said something else that made clear that he didn't know how many times they had called and changed my the date/time, so I walked him through the timeline. All he could say was "um, it's not usually like this."

We were supposed to spend tonight with the in-laws, who live 90 minutes from us. We were supposed to be having a turkey dinner. Given the movers' current ETA, that's obviously not going to work, and I feel horribly guilty, even though it's not my fault. I'm sure the in-laws were looking forward to seeing us all one last time, and my spouse's godparents are in from out of town to meet our child for the first (and perhaps only) time.

Where's Waldo?

There used to be a PSA that came on one of the local cables channels. I can't remember what time it used to air. I want to say 10pm, but that seems kind of late for this particular PSA. Anyway, my memory is that it just had a graphic of a clock, and a solemn voice would say, "It's 10pm. Do you know where your children are?"

I am reminded of that PSA today. The voice echoes in my head, albeit slightly modified: "It's noon. Do you know where your movers are?"

Nope, no idea, because I still haven't heard from them today. They had a drop off at 7am 87 miles from here, and were going to call when they were done there.

The Initiation Rite of Packout

I think we are being hazed. Our packout has long been schedule for Monday. On Thursday, they called to see if we could move it to Wednesday. I pushed back on that, because we are leaving on Wednesday. On Friday, they called and said they were coming first thing Sunday. Yesterday, they called and said that the truck broke down, and they would be here between 10 am and noon. This morning, they called and said they could be here by 4:30. I explained that they were welcome to come, but we are having a huge party tonight. They decided to come at 7am tomorrow, instead. Then, they called one more time, to see how tight our timeline is, because they are supposed to be somewhere else at 7am tomorrow. Current ETA: early afternoon tomorrow. Want to take bets on whether they actually show then?