Week One. Check

Week One. Check.

I’ve been checked in, sworn in, security briefed, fingerprinted, photographed, badged, and lost, but I’ve survived Week One. And survived it in heels, no less, although all that trying to impress people with professional dress is just about to come to a halt. I think I’ll have to resort to impressing them with jokes this week. 🙂

It was a bit of a weird week because most of the people I was scheduled to meet with were stuck in a snow storm in ATL, of all places. (In Denver, we usually call it Hotlanta.) So I fell through the cracks a little bit, which was fine by me as I spent the week trying to figure out the badge and all the secure entrances, the metro, the endless maze of hallways of just two of the State Department’s many buildings, and trying to shed the Deer in the Headlights persona. I think I’ve got Week One’s tasks under control. It also left a little time to beg IT for access to the intranet and an email, which I did manage to score on Friday, and to badger transportation to track down my UAB (my belongings shipped by air), which supposedly is coming tomorrow. Finally. Who knew it took ten days to ship a couple of boxes from Denver? Well, it was probably one day to ship the boxes and 9 days of paperwork, which is a great segue to my next topic…

The other Week One task was trying to figure out who in the government is in charge of what. And here’s what I found: the government has a lot of layers of people and positions and well, some waste. There, I said it. Whew. It feels good to get it off my chest…

[Now, no smart aleck comments from those of you who already knew that. You know who you are. Just shuddup, already. No dissing my employer.]

And two things before I close:

Kudos to the few people who responded with acknowledgement of the origins of my blog title, Where and Back Again : Steven Earhart, Alison Gentry Jaeger and Jordon Remke. Yes, it’s a little play on words from the alternate title of The Hobbit or There and Back Again. Clever, isn’t it? I thought so, too. It was a rare moment of great minds coming together. (Randy’s and mine.)

And the topic we’ve all been waiting for: THE ACTUAL LOCATION OF GODFORSAKESTAN. It looks like MED does things differently from the rest of the State Department, and I think I will find out where I’m posted sooner rather than later. So let’s have a little contest in the next few days, as I think I will be able to have my very own FLAG DAY CEREMONY and GEO REVEAL PARTY later THIS WEEK!!:

Contest rules:

Guess the location. Post it in a comment. The winner(s) get free lodging when they come to visit. 🙂 Only one entry per person. Everyone should enter; it’s free.

HINTS:

It’s probably someplace you’ve never heard of.

It’s probably on a very large continent that is the home of the largest subtropical desert on earth.

It’s probably not on your current Bucket List of Places to Visit, but you should probably add it. 🙂

Go.

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