Look Mom! No hands...!

I keep looking over my shoulder and expecting somebody to take this all away.  Something along the lines of the last words of a Red Neck: "Hey, watch this..." I keep having thoughts that the State Department is going to call up and they are going to change their minds and withdraw the offer of employment.

I know that isn't the case though.  It is just that it is all too good to believe.

After 3 other careers and the necessity to upgrade my skills with another masters due to the global economic meltdown, I passed the Foreign Service Exam. (I will write about the exam later...) It is what I should have pursued all along.  I lived in Cairo (twice), Athens, Houston, Addis, Munich and that was all before graduating High School!  I went to college the first time with the intent to major in Political Science.  Somehow I talked myself out of it...and had several lifetimes of work in the business world using a MBA from Thunderbird.

Still in school for the second masters, I promised my wife, Deidre, after passing the Foreign Service Exam that it would be months and months before I would pass the security/background check.  And I told myself that I had months to study up on German so I can pass the FS language test.  Months....I promised.

Deidre made me promise again because we had to update the house so we could rent it out.  So, Deidre went about gutting 2 bathrooms.  And figuring out what else needed to be done.

And then....the phone call.  I passed the security/background process in 20 calendar days.  I have never heard of anything so short.  One of my fellow co-passers at the FS Exam just now got through it all....9 months after passing.

Deidre panicked and we went into overdrive.  I was on the list so it could still take months, but who knew....

And I got the call to join the August class (the 155th/August 2010) shortly therefore.

Of course, Deidre had to navigate my panicking that I hadn't passed the German test and was going to have to go through the entire process again and set up another candidacy.  She did what she always does, and pat my head and tells me to keep marching.  Spending too much time fretting does no good.

Deidre ended up laying the last bathroom tile an hour before we pulled out of the driveway to come to DC.

We are at the Crystal City Oakwood (closer to Reagan Airport than a grocery store and Metro in the basement) and after A100, we got assigned to Tel Aviv.  I am up to my eyeballs in Hebrew.  D just finished her last class for her Masters in Religious Studies.

Life is good.