But what I meant to say was...

Me again,

I'm noticing a bit of stage fright when I find this blank blog screen. I dribble out some stuff and only later do I remember what I wanted to say. Okay, now Toby is sitting on my left hand (he's 16 lbs) and so this is becoming increasingly difficult to type, but I wanted to add some stuff that I thought of while writing to an OMS pal, Laila. Here it is:

Having a nice night of listening to some old tapes (yes, tapes, as we only have a little tiny boombox left for entertainment. Oh, and the $20 TV that Tim broke down and bought at Goodwill tonight after ours was packed up while he boasted, "I don't need no stinkin' TV - think of how much reading I'll get done!") I digress. Anyway, it's the Guess Who and old Doobies tonight to help make me feel all sentimentally 'merican (or Canadian... details, please).

Can you tell I've had a pint of cider already?

My pack out is done. I had only 150 lbs of air baggage and barely the minimum of household effects to go on the slow boat. I may be the first person I know whose stuff is taken by pirates on some unnamed cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden. Anyway,  the mover guy had lots more boxes, packing material and - apparently - time, 'cause when he was all done he said, "Well, is there anything else you want to add?" which prompted me to scurry about the house gathering a paltry armful of random items like Steve Martin leaving home in "The Jerk."  Of course, now that he's gone, I'm finding all sorts of things. Like my tape collection.

Yes, this timeline feels like skiing (okay, you didn't say that, but many of you said that time goes by quickly):  At first it's all slow and you're pushing on your poles to get moving, and then before you know it the slope gets really steep and you're moving far too quickly.  So now it's the second-to-last night in Snohomish. Two more showers in my favorite bathroom. Okay, in my only bathroom. I think I joined the Foreign Service solely in the hope that someday, perhaps if I'm really, really good, I will live in a home with two bathrooms. Maybe. Yes, truth be told -THAT is why I joined the FS, to get a cool free house. In Djibouti.

I learned today that there will be 12 OMSers in my Specialist Class. This means that our bid list will have 12 cities on it. I was hoping for a few more, but it seems that the supply is smaller than the demand. In fact, they just opened the OMS position AGAIN, which makes three times in one year. I'm tellin' ya' - this is a really, really cool opportunity and all you have to be is a US citizen and between 20-60 years old... it's worth a look: http://www.careers.state.gov/   The OMS window is open through the end of the month, I believe. Any of you with office or administrative assistant experience should consider it and maybe you, too, will have two government-supplied bathrooms.

In Chad.

Okay, 'nuff said. Wonderful Tim is waiting on the couch where we can watch our new TV.