The Road Branches: OMS or Consular?

Today I was chatting (via e-mail) with my good OMS friend in a neighboring country when I realized that exactly one year ago this month, we were doing the very same thing. Now that may not sound very interesting until I tell you that at the time, I was in Washington state and she was in California and we were both obsessing over how our security clearances were going, and whether or not we were going to get an invitation to the next Specialist Orientation, and just in general imagining what our lives would be like as OMSes. We had met each other through the OMS Hopefuls Yahoo group during our application process and were fortunate enough to end up in the same orientation together last March.
So now it's one year later and we're still writing each other from work, but this time it's business-related: the VIP that our section is hosting is about to head to her embassy and section, and I was filling her in on how the visit was going from our end. From OMS Hopefuls, we've grown into colleagues in one short, but eventful year.


I can confidently say that we're both happy with our decisions to join the FS, our posts and our work. However, and you knew this was coming, we both acknowledge that perhaps OMS-hood is not a forever state of being for either of us, and perhaps for different reasons. For me, the State Department is going to be a "forever" thing, meaning until I hit the mandatory retirement age of 65. But I can't stop thinking about the other side of coin, and for me that would be my Consular Officer candidacy.


I'm writing this today because I'd like to share what seven months of experience has taught me about these two jobs. Seven months in one embassy is obviously a narrow window through which to view a behemoth organization like State, but it's all I know so far. And in truth, my opinions have been flavored by those of more senior coworkers on endless van rides to and from work, by overhearing conversations, reading cables, management notices and other blogs, and via lots of nosy questions to friends over cafeteria lunches.


To compare the two paths, I'll start today with what I know best, being an OMS.
PROS:
This job offers lots of variety. In one tour I could work in the Economic or Political Section, and in the next the Regional Security Office and in the third, perhaps  in the Front Office for a DCM or Ambassador. The subject matter and office environments will vary greatly, and as an OMS, particularly in the Front Office, I'd be the hub of what's going on and privy to a lot of information.


Yes, Generalists can, and frequently do, take assignments "out of cone" (hence the title). Meaning, for example, a Political Officer doing an Economic tour, or a Public Diplomacy Officer working in Consular; however, once established, it seems that Generalists continue to progress within their cone. But an OMS can bop all over the place.
Nearly every post has an OMS, so I won't be limited to only being assigned to certain posts - which could be good or bad, actually. However, if I were an HR Specialist or Public Diplomacy Officer, I mightn't have the same options.


When the VIPs come to town, an OMS will certainly be in the thick of things in terms of logistics and planning, but without the joy of endless meetings, late-night airport pick-ups and early morning hotel check-outs that come along with the VIP treatment. (Unless it's a CODEL, in which case anyone with a pulse is called to active duty. POTUS coming? Your pets will be put to work, too!)


All those cables and demarche requests that come from DC? Sure, I have to log them and nag folks to see if they're making progress, but it's not me writing the required mile-long cable on the Child Labor Situation in XYZ country, thank you. It's not me trying to figure out the vague directions from the Ambassador when asked to "brief me on the situation of women in the workforce" and then writing a speech for him/her to deliver on the subject. Phew!
CONS:
Being seen as "just the OMS" or having well-meaning folks try to compliment you by saying, "Wow, you're sharp! I bet you could even be a Generalist!" (read: "just like me!").
Mindless and repetitive tasks, like motor pool requests, and ordering supplies and filling the copy machines and printers with paper. But to be honest, these tasks really aren't mindless, as sending a van to pick someone up at the airport at 04:00 instead of 16:00 can have big consequences! But they're not, shall we say, enriching or stimulating. I'm not going to tell stories to friends about all the motor pool requests I do in a week, or start a conversation by saying, "Wow, you should have seen that vacation slip I copied today!
... oops, too late, sorry.

Finally, let's get down to brass tacks. There is a huge salary difference between being an OMS and being a FSO (I'm going to interchange these terms for the pure sake of variety: Foreign Service Officers ARE Generalists). An OMS will start his/her career as an FS-07. This refers to the pay scale.  After 18 months of service, we will receive an administrative raise to become FS-06. After that, any further promotions are based on merit, as judged by promotion panels who review employees' annual evaluations. During my recent training at FSI, many of us asked the class coordinator what the breakdown of OMSes was in terms of the pay scale, and this was the answer we received. There are currently:

FS-03- 40

FS-04 139

FS-05 253

FS-06 281

FS-07 125

As you can see, OMSes will top out at FS-03 and go no further, even if they personally reinvent the internet. And these FS-03s are nearly-mythical creatures, "Really? You actually MET an -03? Wow, tell me what she/he was like!"  In fact, the two 20-year veteran OMSes in our front office haven't reached that lofty plateau and one will retire soon without ever seeing it.

Meanwhile, my Economic Officer co-worker at the end of her second tour, and her tandem Consular Officer husband, were just promoted to FS-03. Granted, they're each very capable and qualified, but they're both just straddling 30 years old and in five years have accomplished what only 40 out of 838 OMSes worldwide have.

So does this mean that if I'm bothered by this fact that I'm just in it for the money? No, certainly not. Because I'm truly not. However, it is a bit disappointing to know from the start that my promotional horizon is so limited. Someone put it to me this way: if the highest we can go is to become the OMS to an Ambassador, it means that at that point our life will be completely at the whim of the schedule of another. Want to go home at 5? Nope, the Ambassador has decided to work until 7:30 and needs you to place calls, provide copies or materials, make reservations etc... Have vacation planned? Oops - so sorry, the Ambassador's spouse had his/her eye on the same date and you have to stay behind to mind the home fires.

That sounds a bit harsh, and I need to back-pedal a bit: an Ambassador's OMS is truly the eye of the storm, requiring professionalism to the highest degree, resourcefulness to be able to make things magically happen and intelligence and intuition to know where and to whom to turn to keep everything running (seemingly) effortlessly for the principal officer, the direct representation of the President in the host country. It's by no means a cake walk. 

Still, it can be a little disappointing to know that the best I can be is to be at someone else's beck-and-call.  And this is coming from someone with a deeply-ingrained motivation to serve, who truly just wants to make others happy and comfortable. Somewhere deep inside me is the urge to do a bit more.


Which brings up the next topic: chewing the fat about being a Consular Officer. I've gone on long enough today and will leave Part Two for the next entry.


Sorry there are no pictures in this entry, but a shot of me scratching my head or furrowing my brow in concentration just isn't an attention-grabber anyway.

Back at Hogwarts!

Let me first give full credit to my OMS pal for naming FSI "Hogwarts" (and you know who you are, Foreign Obsession!). She got it exactly right. I'm back at FSI for a one-week course for Front Office OMSes and it's just like when I left it. Except that it's 35 degrees and there is half the population here and absolutely no one having lunch out on the patios. The same cafeteria, same cashiers, same shuttle buses, same jockeying for an open computer before class - yet so much has changed in my life in these past six months.

When I was here last I was all questions about what my first post would be like: the job, the office, the coworkers, the boss, the apartment, the city, the country, how Tim would like it, how the cats would adapt etc... and now I have the answers, the images, the memories already beginning to be stored. I have the names and faces of new friends and an idea about what the heck they're talking about during training.

I'm very excited to be here, however. While I still am hoping for a chance at switching over to being a Consular Officer, if that doesn't come to pass, I really want to do the best job I can as an OMS and that will probably involve Front Office assignments or at least subbing when needed. (Oh - I should explain - Front Office refers to the Chief of Mission's office, which means the Ambassador, the Deputy Chief of Mission or the Consul General if one is not in an embassy.) It's a very different assignment from my current one, and so I am excited to have this chance to learn about it.

But also being here lets me do a few other things: meet other OMSes (and for the first time I'm one of the youngest in the group!) and hear about their assignments from Florida to DC to Where-ever-istan. It also lets me refill my enthusiasm for the job. Not that I'm unenthusiastic IN the actual job, but I find that learning about the possibilities - of which they seem to be limitless - helps me stay motivated and excited about what's coming next. It's not just me; it's endemic in the life and the career. I'm only six months in to my first post and already catch myself thinking about what this summer's bid list will look like. My next assignment will be "directed" as this first one was, and so extra training to boost my skills may help me land a good one.

Or... there's always the Consular Officer option. That excites me even more, and to make that a reality I just need to boost my standing on the hiring register by passing a Spanish language test. "Just" is a light word for a Really Big Deal (for me that is). My language skills have, well, changed. I can't say they're worse, as I've added vocabulary for sure, but they are not moving at the speed they were when I was in dedicated language training. It'll be quite a stretch to pass the language phone test at this point.

Which brings me back to FSI:
I've seen a few familiar faces in the hallways, people I've been seeing since March. Which means I'm seeing people who have dedicated nearly a year to their language training. January seems to be full of folks who over-winter in Chinese or Russian, or other languages that take that long to learn. (Maybe it's just that everyone is bundled up that makes me think they're not here to learn Spanish or Portuguese?) By possibly making the switch to Consular, I'd be sent to the back of the line and back to taking two more directed assignments and the very real chance of being sent to somewhere where I'd need ten months of Arabic or Estonian or Tajik or whatever. And then I'd be here to watch the seasons change and the new faces come and go, come and go. Meeting people only to watch them ship out to post and then come back for a week of training, as I have done.

It's an interesting life, this. Opportunites abound and I'm happy to be here for ride.

PS

I was thinking this morning about my last post and also what my friend a fellow FS Specialist Mike commented, and it has prompted me to write about OMS training a little bit. I'm doing this primarily to defend the nice folks who trained us all, myself a little bit, and also to (hopefully) shine some light on what future OMSes and those in training now can expect. Granted, this is one person's opinion and not a carved-in-stone prediction of what everyone will experience. However, I believe it is common enough to be of value to others.

I must start with a FS  cliché that I truly hoped I'd never have to write: It depends.
OMS training is three full weeks of introduction to the super-varied work of an Office Management Specialist in the Foreign Service. The goal is to prepare employees for their roles in huge embassies and in tiny remote consulates; to help them be successful in Front Offices, in Regional Security Office positions or in Political and Economic sections. There is no one job description, no one way of doing things, no one standard procedure that is uniform for every situation. Therefore, the training is more of a broad overview of topics that we will one day (immediately or years from now) encounter, combined with hands-on-keyboard practice with some of the common programs that we will generally encounter in our new assignments. Things like time and attendance, travel arranging, tracking employee evaluations, ordering supplies and services, reading or retrieving cables - these types of programs seem to be common to nearly every section and an OMS should expect to face these tasks regardless of her/his assignment.

So if I'm defending the OMS training - then why did I feel so lost and unprepared? Why so much panic and so many (alleged) tears? Who or what is to blame?

First, I'm certain that I'm harder on myself than anyone else ever will be - so I should confess that the panic and tears were (mostly) internal.

Second, in order to get this job, we have to be the type of person who likes to do things well, who has been successful in their previous career(s) and is probably used to being the go-to person. When I left my former position, I was at the top of my game. I felt fluent and confident in every aspect of my work and relished my job because I understood it; I knew what was expected of me, how to do it, when and why. Then my confidence hit a new peak when I learned I was accepted by the Department of State to become an OMS - woo hoo, who's better than me?  I'd say that many of us felt the same way. We would not have been hired if we were low-achieving slumps.

So now take this same person and pull them from their familiar, warm bath and stick him/her in a new country, new culture, new language, new food, home, family, friends and coworkers left behind in the US, and plop them into a job where they have (generally) no overlap with their predecessor to show them what they're doing and what is expected, in a unique professional culture with very little outside equivalent, and it's no wonder you get someone who feels cold, naked and shivering. I think it's normal to have some deer-in-the-headlights months as we scramble to find our equilibrium and routine, our little victories and accomplishments that we've been so accustomed to from our previous lives.

This is where the "genius" of the FS hiring process comes in: they know all this.
They know that very few people are going to come to their doorsteps, resume in hand, with actual embassy experience. Sure, there are those who were interns, or who have experience from being a FS family member - but they are the minority. Many of us (myself included) had never been IN a US embassy before; some had never been out of the country before embarking on this career - it's not a job requirement. This is why they choose people with the raw characteristics (the 12/13 Dimensions), gleaned from every possible source and life experience, that they know will allow them to eventually float to the surface in the ocean of FS assignments. They didn't hire us because we'd used e2 Travel Arranger before - they hired us because perhaps we'd figured out other new programs in other jobs. They didn't hire us because we'd written a Dip Note before, but because we showed them we were resourceful in figuring out new tasks through whatever means available.

There is no way that OMS training (or any of the other trainings for generalists and specialists) can prepare new employees for every situation they're going to face; it's simply impossible. Every post, every section, every predicament faced will be different and therefore while they try to teach us about the variety of situations that probably/maybe will come up  - the bottom line is that they have to hire people who they trust possess the internal tools to figure stuff out.

This process of figuring stuff out can be painful for those of us who are used to already knowing what to do and how to do it. It can take months or a year, and as soon as we're snappy and fluent and feeling like the top of our game - we pack up and start all over again. This discomfort can make you feel alive or it can be overwhelming - and probably both. I know I will gain from the pain (sorry for that last phrase) in the long run.

In the meanwhile, apparently y'all are going to hear my creaks and groans. Please don't take this as an indication that the FS system or I are intrinsically flawed. I think it's just the way it is.

Thanks for listening.

Tiny Victories

Subtitle: Confessions of a Freshman OMS

Today was an anniversary of sorts: it has been exactly 12 weeks since I first took my seat in the Economic Section at Embassy Bogota. It has also been about two months since I came home and cried in frustration, feeling like a total idiot for not knowing what the heck I was doing. So I'd like to take this time, if you don't mind, to celebrate some really tiny victories that came to me today. I will do this by way of before and after descriptions:

1. Task: Boss says, "Find me that cable I drafted in either 2009 or 2010 that had the words 'US Company' in the title."

Before: Stare at him blankly. Consult deepest darkest memory from OMS training (last April) about running advanced searches on our cable system. Start to hyperventilate when search result turns up 43,671 hits. Try not to cry.

After: Repeat same steps above with blank stare replaced by confident nod, and with only minor frustration at seeing the number of hits. Blame stupid search program instead of stupid self. Recall that previous OMS cross-referenced all cables since 2009 in handy Excel sheet; actually locate said Excel sheet and in one minute, find the requested cable. Print and send electronically to boss, feel like hero deserving of medal.

2. Task: Invitational traveler who we are bringing to Colombia for a conference will not divulge the personal information necessary for me to make hotel and airline reservations and arrange for electronic funds transfer for her travel advance.

Before: Panic. Pester co-workers with questions and start to hyperventilate (again) as they describe one possible Herculean work-around after another for my predicament.

After: No social security number for her new travel account? We'll make one up!
No bank account information? We'll bring her to the embassy cashier for a cash advance when she arrives!
No visa card number? We'll use her co-worker's to hold her hotel reservation!
Bring it on sister - is that the worst you can throw at me? Ha!

3. Task: Co-worker is out sick and that important letter from Secretary Clinton and corresponding Diplomatic Note (aka DipNote) have to go the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Before: Look terrified at boss as he casually lobs the task into my court. Frantically search office for other possible victim to assist and realize I'm the only one in today. Panic (again).

After: Feel - but don't show - terror (bosses can smell fear; this deception is an art you must master quickly). Consult electronic files of previous DipNotes for samples; realize that none match the requirements and start to sweat. Remember the nice lady from Protocol who I met months ago who does these things all the time and beg for help with the very, very formal and traditional formatting and wording. Semi-stifle a few "argh!"s as the formatting goes haywire, and by five minutes to five - have her return my latest version with only "a few small changes." Remember that these need to be sent via courier with a returned proof of delivery. Relish the knowledge that I know how to request a courier via eServices and how to say, "proof of delivery" in Spanish.

4. Very Big Deal Conference coming in three weeks needs interpreters for complicated technological topics for multiple days and in two cities: Bogota and Medellin.

Before: Consider new line of work and pull suitcase off shelf.

After: Breathe in. Start to break huge task into small chronological steps on notepad. Remember how to use ARIBA procurement system that made me cry just two months ago (there's a lot of that going around!). Write very detailed notes in ARIBA to overworked procurement staff regarding our needs (first, smile in the knowledge that we HAVE procurement staff and that I know their names and where they sit), attach funding information, list dates and technical requirements. Enjoy sense of relief knowing that when I have to contact these interpreters to finalize the details... they will be bilingual!

All these things happened today, and I'm still here alive and willing to share them all with you. In fact, most of them happened after lunch. I must admit that I still feel trepidation starting up the computer in the morning, wondering what fire will need to be put out, or what nasty knot in need of untangling will pounce on me via a casual e-mail. There are a LOT of things I do not know how to do still. A LOT. But there are now a few things I do know how to do, and that's what I'm happy about today.

Wish me luck tomorrow.

Cambiando el tema, otra vez y otra vez

Changing the subject...again and again
That's what I find myself doing in the past few days. As my remaining days in language training have now dwindled to seven, while I'm still definitely focused on continuing to learn (ojala!), I'm also having to divert my attention to the job soon to be at hand: being an OMS. Not just an OMS, but a brand-new OMS in a really, really big embassy in a really big city. Yeah, I think I mentioned this before; can you tell it's on my mind? It's been nearly three months since the end of my OMS training and the time that I learned about all things "e-This" and "e-That." All those important programs that people rely on the OMS to know inside and out. That training feels como un recuerdo brumoso - sorry, like a foggy memory. Like a styrofoam take-out box, my brain and even my life has been divided into distinct sections with no sauce seeping from one quadrant to the others.

• The personal life: wife, daughter, the-cats'-mother, friend, sister
• The OMS life: cables, safes, combinations, classified vs unclassified, dip notes, seating charts, travel arrangements, country clearances, work requirements
• La Vida Espanol: classes, homework, evaluations, hallway chit-chat, EXAM
• The Colombian life - more questions than answers: Housing? What to bring? Car? Cat litter? Cat food? Clothing? Banking? How to get the cats to Bogota?
• The FSO life: exam preparation, oral assessment, registry (Still haven't hit the Consular registry - five weeks after passing the oral assessment. Oh well, I'm in no hurry.)
• The DoS life: diplomatic passports, visas, travel orders, amended travel orders, pack-out dates, vouchers, per diem, check-out procedures  

En pocas palabras: There is a lot going on, and I feel like I'm spinning plates and have to keep running from one life to the next to make sure none of them come crashing down on top of me. Those palabras weren't very pocas, sorry.

I've been so busy being busy that I haven't let myself get excited about my first post yet. But I need to do that.

So to help get my mind off the mental circus, the Washington, DC Folklife Festival was kind enough to select Colombia as one of the three showcased "themes" for their festival this year on the Mall. The other two were Soul Music/Detroit/Blues and the Peace Corps. There were three large areas dedicated to these themes and filled with booths/tents demonstrating various aspects of each. For Colombia, they broke it up regionally, and there were people from each part of the country displaying their customs, work, music, food, handcrafts, produce etc... Everyone was speaking Spanish; the music was great and I was thrilled to notice that I could understand the majority of what each person was saying. I think I learned a good bit about my host country and now I have images of the faces, sounds of the voices and accents, in my head.

Here are a few pictures, although they're not great because I feel awkward taking pictures of people like a tourist sometimes:

These are "llaneros" (plainsmen) and they were playing music that men play when out on the range with their cattle.

Women from Chocos on the northern Pacific coast, singing funeral songs and describing how the funerals are colorful occasions to celebrate the life, instead of the death, of the person.

This saddle took only two days to make (I think - I had a little trouble understanding the saddle-maker guy.)

Seeing his work did make me think of going riding again when we get down there, though.

Today let me lift my chin and look to the horizon again; to stop being busy being busy for a bit and be excited about what brought me to this place to begin with. Besides running from life to life as listed above, I've also been sentimental about the people who are no longer here or who I've moved away from. (And it seems that there are a few flat spots on the globe, too, as some of y'all have apparently fallen off the edges! I guess you're all busy  being busy, too). This life will be one of continual hellos and goodbyes, of getting excited; getting busy, getting nervous; getting comfortable; getting excited again.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

But all those cycles let us feel alive - heck, they just let us FEEL, as I believe a daily routine perpetuated endlessly tends to dull our senses.

I expect that in twenty years I will have a collection of delicate colored glass bottles on a shelf, labeled with names, places, experiences (good and bad), that I can occasionally take down, uncork, savor, and replace.

Perhaps I should let remember to let myself enjoy them in the moment they're created, too?

An address?

By now you probably know that we're moving to a big embassy in an even bigger city, but today that vast unknown got a bit more focused. I received an e-mail from my predecessor saying that she knew who the woman was who was living in "your apartment" currently, and she'd see if that person could take some pictures for me.

"WHAT? You KNOW where we're going to be living? I don't even know that yet!" was pretty much the entirety of my response to her.

Bogota is a BIG embassy. Our Desk Officer told me that depending on how you count the heads (which other agencies one includes or doesn't), it is either the largest or in the top three in the world. Because of this, and also knowing that it's the busiest time of year for transfers as people like to move while the kids are out of school (makes sense), I haven't wanted to tug on the GSO's sleeve with questions about our housing. But it seems that the Housing Board has met, and we've been given an assignment (subject to last-minute change). It's a 3-bedroom apartment on the 4th floor with lots of restaurants and two parks nearby. She told me the address, but when I tried to run it through Google maps, I got two different locations, and it was just rooftop views anyway. Really, I don't know any more than that.

Although we can't be guaranteed our choices, when asked, we requested to live in the "planos" area of the city rather than the "altos" area. Basically - in the flats instead of the steep hills. Steep hills sound great, perhaps we'd have a great view and the neighborhoods might be a bit leafier and above the pollution. However, steep hills + grocery shopping on foot + 8600 feet altitude = coronary, so we opted for the planos instead, and this is where that apartment is. Somewhere. 

For my classmates who are already feathering their nests and arranging their offices at their posts, this news my sound rather stale, but I've been here all this time wondering what it'll all be like while they've been realizing it. It's been two months since OMS training already and there are still five weeks to go. I'm comfortable and well-adjusted here in Falls Church and FSI, and stepping off the board into the deep end still feels pretty scary. I'm not sure if it's better or worse to go last? I've been able to read the success stories of my friends, but meanwhile it's been FOUR months since I've had a regular day job where I had to actually DO stuff, instead of just learn about it.

So, seeing an address, knowing that there were people meeting with the Housing Board down there in some conference room with a file with my name on it, describing my family size, considering that we have pets and noting my rank and job title and finally deciding that we're going to live at XYZ address - I guess it is just finally coming into sharper focus. It's going to happen. I've also been receiving all sorts of e-mails from my predecessor regarding the stuff I'm going to have to do, have to know, have to be responsible for - frankly, I'm kind of nervous.

I just need to remember that everyone had a first post, right?

Thanks for listening; I feel better already.

Blossoms and Roots

Blossoms

Springtime has hit me, metaphorically and literally.
Last Sunday I spent nearly the whole day, under amazingly bright blue skies and temps in the mid-70s, wandering through Arlington National Cemetary for my first time. With a day like that, I can't boast that I had the place to myself, but I can show you some pictures of how beautifully in full-bloom the spring trees and flowers were:

And dripping in my favorite color: pink!

I spent a good few hours exploring up and down the hills of the massive grounds, overlooking DC to the East and the Potomoc in between. For all of you who've been there already, you know the setting. Each of my sojourns into DC reignites that patriotic feeling of being part of the Big Team now, something that has carried me through the months (years) of work and waiting to get here. Therefore springtime just feels like the right season to be in now: budding, growing, opening to something better.

Roots

Meanwhile, the past six weeks - during which my classmates and I have been the target of a deluge of new information - are starting to gel and settle into our new lives. Perhaps tiny trepidatious roots are starting to grow? We've been learning about how to do our new jobs; we've researched the cultures of our new host countries; we've read the names of our new co-workers and some of us have had e-mails or even met them in person. We've completed presentations about the issues we'll encounter when we get to our assignments and a lucky few have even seen photos of our new homes (I haven't yet - but if you want to see a room full of women squeal and run to one computer monitor en masse - just announce, "I've got my housing pictures!"). All the while we're still finishing the closing up our current/old lives here.

I'm noticing that the disparate snippets of information I've been gathering are starting to fit together into full sentences of knowledge. So far it's been like one big game of Concentration, where I've been turning over two cards at a time, hoping for a match. I'm starting to remember where things are, what they mean, how they fit together. Finally. Even the Tabbies are settling into a nice routine. Each day when I come home from FSI on the shuttle with my classmates, I walk through the door, set down my bags and call out to them so they know I'm not the (dreaded-she-with-a-vacuum) housekeeper, and I hear two thumps of kitties jumping onto the carpet. Dodger always comes to greet me first, still ruffled and warm from his spot on the bed, and Toby a moment later - bellowing hello.

A routine equals roots, right? A settling-in and relaxation in one's environment.

Perhaps it's all a circle, and these roots will soon form their own blossoms.

That's all for now.