New job and new apartment (still waiting on the new addition to our family)

You know you are a bad blogger if you start multiple posts with an apology for the length of time that has elapsed since the last entry.

For those of you who don’t know, I have finished my initial 6-week training/orientation and received my first assignment: Washington, D.C. Slightly anti-climatic after spending months dreaming of all the exotic, dangerous, tropical, humid or polluted places we could end up in. After a weekend of stress and a few tears (we only had 3 weeks to find a new place to live), I started to feel nervous about what the job would actually entail and if I’d even be able to do it. The job blurb (only 5 sentences long) said that I would be a desk officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor working on Libya. Phew, I didn’t know anything about human rights, especially in Northern Africa. Now I wondered if the organization would be upset to have me assigned to them. (Organizations and embassies have NO say in who get assigned to their vacancies.)

So, fast-forward to today. I have finished 4 weeks of my new position. Although it said Libya, prior to my arrival they decided that I would be handling Iran. After my first day, it changed to Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. I enjoy learning about this area of the world and like the job more generally. I still feel at a disadvantage to the others in our office who have lengthy backgrounds in the topic, region or both. (My twitter feed has a lot of Arabic posts that could be helpful if I understood.)

We moved into a cute little apartment in Old Town Alexandria, VA. We really like it and think the space will work out well. It is 1-bedroom and a den. Tuesday shouldn’t need more than a den size room in the next 1.5 to 2 years. The movers delivered our stuff on Friday, July 20^th and we’ve been slowly moving in since. We were worried we weren’t going to have anywhere to sleep the first weekend because they were so late. (To preface, our building has a $200 move-in fee and a 5 pm deadline where they lock the loading dock or a forfeiture of an additional $200 deposit and $100 per hour late fee.) They told us 2 pm, which was perfect because we were planning to help the previous tenant (a colleague) move out that morning. They finished and pulled away around 11 am. At 1:30, I received a phone call from the dispatcher saying the truck’s ETA was now 4:25. (How are they going to get done by 5!?! We aren’t going to pay the late fee or for an additional day if they don’t make it.) She assured me it would be done and they would pay any fees.

A few more tense phone calls and discussions with the apartment manager later, they pulled up at 4:50pm. (10 minutes!?!?) The apt manager said that if I hadn’t been pregnant he would have locked up at 4:30 and gone home for the weekend. By 5:05 they had everything in the building and by 5:15 they had everything in the apartment. I couldn’t believe the speed!! The company proactively sent a manager to pay the late fee and everyone went home happy AND I GOT TO SLEEP IN MY TEMPURPEDIC MATTRESS! :-D

Lastly, for the curious, Tuesday is still doing well. We are 33 weeks along, have installed the car seat and washed a thousand loads of baby clothes. (Well, the best husband ever washed all those loads!) Some say I look small and others think I look huge. On our way to birthing class the other day, someone asked if we were on the way to the hospital to give birth. I can only hope that I’m that cheerful and calm in labor. Just relax....