So there’s this explosion in the parking lot…

I was working on my homework late this morning when I heard fire engine after fire engine pull past my building and around the corner. I thought they turned up a side street, but apparently they were all converging on a hole that had erupted under the next building’s parking lot. A transformer-thing-a-ma-jigger had blown up underground, starting a not-terribly-small fire that caused an eruption of water, dirt and asphalt. Fortunately it was away from the building; unfortunately it was next to someone’s minivan. Many of my classmates live in that building, and within a split second they lost electricity and then water. The mass of lines that caught fire also supply cable TV for the entire complex, so it was quite the trifecta.


By the time I came by to see what was going on, a few hours later, the water was still bubbling away in the hole like a cauldron, and the electric company guy was digging at the molten parking lot asphalt as if it were soft mud. I offered half of my room to two classmates, but one was allergic to cats and the other is planning on getting a hotel room. The rest are borrowing bathrooms in other buildings to wash up and snuggling deep into their beds, as there is no heat tonight either. My friend who just ran (and completed!) her first marathon now gets to climb five floors to her cold, dark, no-water room in reward. There are too many displaced families to find new rooms for all of them, so the management has said that unless you’re old or disabled – you just get to bunker down in your own room until it can be fixed. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not.


I suppose it’s good training for whichever corner of the globe we’ll all be flung to in the coming weeks, just a bit sooner than expected. In the meanwhile, I’m guiltily making myself a cup of tea before washing my face and slipping off to bed.


Oh wait, before you go, a small group of us had a really great time visiting the Cherry Blossom Festival yesterday! It was crisp out, but very blue-sky sunny. Take a look:

G’night all.

To my EPD friends: Congratulations (and some random thoughts)

I learned today that eight of my former co-workers were promoted today at Everett PD to Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain and Deputy Chief. More than I had expected when I left about a month ago, so it was great to see the list of names of those earning more bling on their uniforms.

Congrats to everyone!

Meanwhile, watching the world news doesn't feel quite the same when you have new classmates who are already slated for some of the headline locations (that I know of: Sana'a, Yemen and Islamabad, Pakistan). And my apartment complex is full of evacuee families from various posts. The way that natural disasters and civil unrest seems to strike randomly - there's no guarantee that we're either safer or more at risk in Bogota or Seattle, Bucharest or Snohomish. So we might as well just go for it.

As my mother says, I have to just follow my star.

Five days and counting.

What's the price of guilt?

From the Tabbies:
So yesterday we heard a key at the door, two lady voices (one was mom) and then some kinda' loud dragging noises. We weren't going to stick around and see what it was, no way, so we bolted under the bed - I mean c'mon, what would YOU have done? But after the coast was all clear - about an hour - we came into the living room and we see this, this thing:

Mom kept picking us up and putting us on it, she seemed pretty excited about it but this thing didn't smell right, wasn't like anything we'd seen before. Really, did she expect us to be all rolling and scratching on it already? We're not dogs! We see what she's up to; she's trying to bribe us. She'd better be feeling guilty for dragging us out of our kittenhood home to this place with weird noises and smells and NO GARDEN.

Okay, y'know, I guess it's not too bad. Good to get the claws into some sisal rope again. We're not gonna' go sleeping on it or anything, but, you know - we'll give it a try.

So, to answer the question: the price of guilt is about... $129

I can't wait to see what she drags in if we move to Africa!!

Weighing the Pros and Cons

So our bid-list is due on Tuesday morning, and I'm still mentally re-arranging my order. Each day that I'm certain I've picked a winner, I learn some game-changing tidbit and the cards get reshuffled. While still maintaining a modicum of discretion, I'll list the places by region and the pros and cons:

1. Massive North American City - (remember there are more than two countries in North America!): Pros - tons to do, probably good job opps for Tim, easy access to come home or for home to come to us, chance for language training. Cons - see title after "1." Massive cities tend to come with their own drawbacks such as traffic, pollution, crime.

2. Tiny Central African City - Pros - close-knit community, chance to really get to know my coworkers instead of just clocking out on Friday evening and returning on Monday morning. Adventure in spades! Nice housing, Tim speaks the language already and would feel comfortable in the environment and no pet quarantine (they have bigger fish to fry than to bother with pampered American pussycats!). Cons - See title after "2." And apparently ants, lots and lots of ants. Oh, and I speak the language very, very poorly. Security concerns (in Central Africa? Really?)
3. Gritty European City - Pros - I've always wanted to see this country and explore the countryside! And we just sold Tim's grand-dad's accordian to a guy who is sending it back to his brother in this country. It's like we have kin there already! Cons - See first adjective in title. Add bad traffic and ZERO experience with the language.

4. Schmancy Eurpean City - Pros - See title. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Zero hardship pay, in fact returning to Snohomish should incur hardship pay after living in this place. Cons - See first adjective in title and remember that schmance doesn't come cheap. Yeah, I speak some of the language, but Tim doesn't and there certainly won't be any development jobs there for him to sink his teeth into.

5. Dangerous South American City - Pros - timing is perfect for language training for me, higher pay rate, big embassy with exposure to many other agencies working there. Cons - The weather sounds as if it will always be early-April in Seattle. I've had enough of that. Also, see adjective after title and realize that we'd be greatly restricted on free movement to visit the countryside (with good reason). Hmmm... why is this one in the top five again?

So there you have it. All will be decided in NINE days.

Anyone care to offer their vote?

I must admit - it's pretty cool!

So the sun came out today, and tomorrow it is predicted to be in the mid-70s. This kind of forecast, particularly coming off a Northwest winter, can brighten any mood and put a spring in even the tiredest step.

Okay, I've gotta' say it - being at the Foreign Service Institute is pretty darn cool. It's like being back at college again, with the campus of brick buildings interconnected with pathways past statues of great Americans (I see ole' Ben Franklin every day). The cafeteria is full of students, often chattering away in every language you can imagine as they practice between classes. We have a super group of Specialists from all walks of life and parts of the country, too. As we're arranged in our daily classroom alphabetically, instead of by specialty, I sit next to people who I wouldn't know otherwise, and being towards the beginning of the alphabet - I have a second-row, center seat.

The amount of information IS overwhelming; I must admit. It feels as if they are lobbing tennis balls at me, dozens of them, each with some vital task written on them, while they say, "Don't drop any! Oh, here's another one, very important! But this one's easy... it's *online*!"
There are so many balls in the air by now that we have to rely on each other for reminders about what's due, where to find which form to fill out, which video to watch etc... Exciting to be in the thick of it all, but utterly draining as well.

We're spending more time researching our bid lists these days. We each have a complex matrix of considerations in making our preferences: Family, pets, schools, weather, the type of unit we'll be working in, danger or security, health concerns, proximity to family and so on. Plus there's an element of strategy as we each try to figure out who will likely get which post, and which one we may have a good shot at. One classmate finally just said, "You know - just surprise me."

We've considered making flashcards of all the flags of the countries up for bid so that when they project the flag up on the screen at Flag Day - we'll at least recognize which country it is when they call our name to "Come on down!" I eat my breakfast on my Flags of the World placemat each day. (The cat bowls are on their Cats of the World placemat; they need to be prepared, too!)

Okay, it's time for more homework. Big Day will be next Tuesday - ready or not, here it comes!