What to do while waiting for the Foreign Service...

So, I'm still in a holding pattern waiting for my "call up" to the Foreign Service (my fingers are crossed for the January 26, 2015 foreign service specialist orientation class).  I thought I would make a list of what to do while waiting** -- in no particular order.

• Commiserate with others who are also waiting by checking online forums and yahoo groups.
• Read blogs about how others waited -- yeah, real exciting stuff.
• Watch old seasons of The Amazing Race on Hulu and think:  would I want to be posted there?  The answer mostly is Yes.

• Finish up grad school.  I'm in my last two classes and have been accepted to graduate at the end of December.
• Procrastinate working on my final, final group project of grad school.
• Start working on things that should have been done long ago, but will be really important once I get into the Foreign Service:  make a will, make a healthcare directive, check life insurance, setup a revocable living trust..fun stuff like that.
• Procrastinate on all that stuff above while I read other FSO/FSS blogs, especially ones about Flag Days.
• Start thinking about what goes, what stays with Mark (at least during training in DC), and what can get tossed, donated, or recycled.
• Work on hobbies.  I made this jacket:

• Determine to hit the gym or exercise more while I still have time before an orientation class starts
• Procrastinate on that by planning upcoming trips:  Madrid for Thanksgiving and Oklahoma City for Christmas to see my family.

Gotta go, the Racers are off to Estonia (YES, I would like to be posted there) and I have to check the forums at careers.state.gov for any updates.

**Assuming one is not already working.

Pumpkins!

A few days back I got an innocuous DIY email that normally I would have deleted.  Something caught my eye on this one, though:  pumpkin carving templates.  I was intrigued.  Apparently this is a "thing".  A click here, a google search there, and I started thinking, "hmmm, I could do this."  So, I convinced Mark to go pumpkin hunting** yesterday and we came home with nine:  three big, three medium, and three small.

We both tried our hands at carving yesterday, and here are the results:

Mark's is the skull and mine is the witch.  Pretty good, I must say.

So, today I was feeling bold, and chose this pumpkin, a big one that's nice and tall, too.

I thought, why not two carvings on the same pumpkin, so this is what I came up with

And got my tools out

Viola, the results

I've got six more pumpkins to go...but not today.



**We drove, maybe, 2 miles down the Lynnway to a stand setup with hundreds of pumpkins; but "pumpkin hunting" sounds so much more, well, Autumnal.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

What a beautiful October day, today!  Autumn is definitely here.  One reason I like this time of the year is that our electricity bill is usually the lowest.  The heat is not on yet, fans are off, and no need for air conditioning.  Although, it is getting nippy at night, so we'll see how long we can hold out before turning on the heat.

This is a photo from Saugus, MA overlooking the Saugus River from the bike trail, taken last weekend.  I think we have about one more week to wait for some really good color along the coast.

So far the Autumn is going well.  School has started back up and I'm taking my last two courses:  Economics (MBA 630) and Global Management (MBA 780).  I've enjoyed my return to school, but it will be very nice to be done this December.  Especially if graduating coincides with a job offer from the Foreign Service.

Speaking of which, I checked and I'm #8 out of 17 cleared candidates on the financial management register.  I'm feeling pretty good about that.  According to the Foreign Service Institute's course schedule, there is a January orientation class scheduled.  Congressional budget willing...it will happen and hopefully I'll get an invite.  Not much more I can do other than wait, I guess.

Oh, I bowled a 214 last week.  Honest!

Time for an update...

Hello there...

It's been a while, so I thought it was time for an update.  Let's see...I had just gotten most of my medical tests done and was in the process of getting security clearance.  Also, I was in the spring semester of school.

Well, a lot has happened since then, thankfully.

• I got my medical clearance (and found out that I'm pretty healthy, actually)
• I got my top secret security clearance
• I passed the final suitability review panel
• I got put onto the Financial Management Officer register of cleared candidates
• I finished up my second semester of graduate school
• I took three more classes over the summer

Summer was fun:

A week in Provincetown

Some time in Maine (thanks, Neal and Dean!)

And some fun closer to home, too