The only demon she couldn't defeat was death itself
Um, I think I have a new plan. And I mean plan. A grand plan. The plan with the most.
In short, I am going to turn over my mattress. Yes, I am serious.
It has been a while, and I think that flipping my mattress - a word that I have probably misspelled, with my apologies - will solve all of the angst and frustrations that I've been feeling these days. Really. Flipping my mattress like it's just a light switch.
.....
okay, okay - you got me. I am just being facetious. Silly me. No, though. There's a certain fear of stagnation for me lately. I may have talked of this before, but I've never been afraid to repeat myself. Like, I have a moderately comfortable job, if not one that actually makes me stupider (as in, I have a hard time completing sentences more often than not). I have an apt that is certainly nice for what I'm paying, and would actually still be nice at twice the price. But on this count, at least, I am getting ready to move. Move out to where my peers are. So that I can meet said peers, and expand my social network.
That's a phrase - "social network" - that I've borrowed from a new co-worker. A real abominable person, one that I aim to avoid as much as possible. I will spare myself the pain of even recounting the horrors that she induces. Suffice it to say, she sees her job - which is the same as mind - as just another opportunity to expand her social network. what the hell does that even mean? We make labels. We put labels on folders. We put paper in those folders. We put the folders in boxes. And then - then and only then, my friends - do we move the boxes and stack them neatly in a tiny room. In this sequence of events, do you see a possibility of network expansion? I certainly don't. There is a point where we are all kids, still. Kids with little to no adult supervision, but kids just the same.
Maybe I've always taken for granted to benefits of adult supervision. After all, would an adult let me stagnate where I am? Only a poor one I should expect. I was thinking for a short time that it wouldn't be such a bad thing to stay with my job for a while, maybe even moving to be a paralegal. it's not a necessarily bad job (except for the stupidifying part). And Chicago is.. nice. Quite lovely this time of year. Almost nice enough to make me forget the winters. And I hardly even mind the winters. I'm hearty, and pale, like my ancestors in the United Kingdom undoubtaby were.
Anyway, I was considering settling down. As settled as I could really get at this point, but settled jsut the same.
And then - I went West. All the way to Pacific. My cousin was graduating from college in Santa Barbara, California, and so of course I made the trip to join in the festivities. And lord, what a land Southern California is. Hell, even the airport in San Francisco was nice enough to cause my heart to stir. California is a place where you never have to ask yourself, "Will I be too hot today? Will I be too cold?" It's always 75 degrees, and mostly sunny. Maybe it'll rain once or twice a month. Or year. Yes, fine, earthquakes, and the coast falling into the ocean, whatever. It's worth it. Every day that I was there, I would wake up, walk to one of several coffee shops, get coffee and eat a pastry. Dude, what more could you ask for? Only that you be in Rome, or Paris, or even London, maybe, but for being in America, it really doesn't get any better.
I had never really gotten the allure of California. But having been there, and admittedly for only 4 days, I have seen the light. And while I can't see myself going out there any time soon, my brief trip did beget some degree of wanderlust. And so it is that I have made the decision to enter, post haste, the United States Foreign Service. Call me Daniel, but call me a Diplomat, too.
No, I'm not a fan of the current government, but I do have heart in the idea that you can really only make changes from the inside. They need good people to do good work. Or something. And hell, maybe by the time I'm a Foreign Service Officer of any importance, our world will be a better place. One can certianly hope.
I was going to go to grad school first, and then take some more foreign language. No more - that plan is off. Instead, I will take the test next April, and hopefully the Oral Assessments the next fall. And from there... wherever the State Department sees fit to send me. I may be filled up on god knows what antibiotics and vaccines (I've heard that the malaria pills are really big) are deemed necessary to keep me healthy sufficient to stamp passports, or call local police chiefs, or whatever the hell it is that entry-level foreign service officers do.
In the very least, I will get to travel. I could very well go to someplace like Africa, or South America, two of more dangerous continents. but you know, if what I want to do is live life, adn take what it has to offer, there's hardly a better way than to go to places I've never been, and would probably never go. That way, when I do become some important diplomat and eventually come to write my memoirs, I'll have something more exciting to show for my 20's than a list of labels that I've made.
ddm
email me
Um, I think I have a new plan. And I mean plan. A grand plan. The plan with the most.
In short, I am going to turn over my mattress. Yes, I am serious.
It has been a while, and I think that flipping my mattress - a word that I have probably misspelled, with my apologies - will solve all of the angst and frustrations that I've been feeling these days. Really. Flipping my mattress like it's just a light switch.
.....
okay, okay - you got me. I am just being facetious. Silly me. No, though. There's a certain fear of stagnation for me lately. I may have talked of this before, but I've never been afraid to repeat myself. Like, I have a moderately comfortable job, if not one that actually makes me stupider (as in, I have a hard time completing sentences more often than not). I have an apt that is certainly nice for what I'm paying, and would actually still be nice at twice the price. But on this count, at least, I am getting ready to move. Move out to where my peers are. So that I can meet said peers, and expand my social network.
That's a phrase - "social network" - that I've borrowed from a new co-worker. A real abominable person, one that I aim to avoid as much as possible. I will spare myself the pain of even recounting the horrors that she induces. Suffice it to say, she sees her job - which is the same as mind - as just another opportunity to expand her social network. what the hell does that even mean? We make labels. We put labels on folders. We put paper in those folders. We put the folders in boxes. And then - then and only then, my friends - do we move the boxes and stack them neatly in a tiny room. In this sequence of events, do you see a possibility of network expansion? I certainly don't. There is a point where we are all kids, still. Kids with little to no adult supervision, but kids just the same.
Maybe I've always taken for granted to benefits of adult supervision. After all, would an adult let me stagnate where I am? Only a poor one I should expect. I was thinking for a short time that it wouldn't be such a bad thing to stay with my job for a while, maybe even moving to be a paralegal. it's not a necessarily bad job (except for the stupidifying part). And Chicago is.. nice. Quite lovely this time of year. Almost nice enough to make me forget the winters. And I hardly even mind the winters. I'm hearty, and pale, like my ancestors in the United Kingdom undoubtaby were.
Anyway, I was considering settling down. As settled as I could really get at this point, but settled jsut the same.
And then - I went West. All the way to Pacific. My cousin was graduating from college in Santa Barbara, California, and so of course I made the trip to join in the festivities. And lord, what a land Southern California is. Hell, even the airport in San Francisco was nice enough to cause my heart to stir. California is a place where you never have to ask yourself, "Will I be too hot today? Will I be too cold?" It's always 75 degrees, and mostly sunny. Maybe it'll rain once or twice a month. Or year. Yes, fine, earthquakes, and the coast falling into the ocean, whatever. It's worth it. Every day that I was there, I would wake up, walk to one of several coffee shops, get coffee and eat a pastry. Dude, what more could you ask for? Only that you be in Rome, or Paris, or even London, maybe, but for being in America, it really doesn't get any better.
I had never really gotten the allure of California. But having been there, and admittedly for only 4 days, I have seen the light. And while I can't see myself going out there any time soon, my brief trip did beget some degree of wanderlust. And so it is that I have made the decision to enter, post haste, the United States Foreign Service. Call me Daniel, but call me a Diplomat, too.
No, I'm not a fan of the current government, but I do have heart in the idea that you can really only make changes from the inside. They need good people to do good work. Or something. And hell, maybe by the time I'm a Foreign Service Officer of any importance, our world will be a better place. One can certianly hope.
I was going to go to grad school first, and then take some more foreign language. No more - that plan is off. Instead, I will take the test next April, and hopefully the Oral Assessments the next fall. And from there... wherever the State Department sees fit to send me. I may be filled up on god knows what antibiotics and vaccines (I've heard that the malaria pills are really big) are deemed necessary to keep me healthy sufficient to stamp passports, or call local police chiefs, or whatever the hell it is that entry-level foreign service officers do.
In the very least, I will get to travel. I could very well go to someplace like Africa, or South America, two of more dangerous continents. but you know, if what I want to do is live life, adn take what it has to offer, there's hardly a better way than to go to places I've never been, and would probably never go. That way, when I do become some important diplomat and eventually come to write my memoirs, I'll have something more exciting to show for my 20's than a list of labels that I've made.
ddm
email me
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