Author Archive

You may be wondering why I’m blogging at 11pm on Friday, instead out celebrating or…well…sleeping (I am pretty tired). The simple explanation is that I’m waiting for State’s online HR system to come back online from scheduled maintenance so I can look at the summer bid list. Imaginary conversation between me and you (because...
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is the overnight offsite leadership development and team building training for A-100. is out in West Virginia. is not about trust falls and high ropes courses. is about learning about how teams evolve and interact. is about working together as a team. is about learning from our experiences. was challenging. was thought provoking. was...
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I’ve already written about The Bid List, the magical inventory of all of the amazing places we may spend the next couple of years. As a brand new hire, I need to bid on every post. So on Tuesday morning (Monday evening), I’ll send in my bid list with with each post ranked high,...
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The following post tiger approved* The worst part about last night was waiting for Chad to get home so we could talk about the bid list. We are both sooo excited because a full third of the list meets our time frame. Also, there are some really awesome jobs and places on...
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First: I am soooo tired, I think that I will go to bed as soon as I finish this post. I don’t know if it’s all of the excitement of meeting so many awesome new people (I still haven’t met everyone), or if it’s that I’m getting up an hour earlier than usual, or...
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By the magic of the Internet, I can post an update right as I’m starting my A-100 training as an Entry Level Officer (ELO) in the Foreign Service (I actually wrote this a while back). It’s taken a loooong time to get to this date, and I thought some people might be interested to...
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So, I know the reasons why I decided to volunteer to host the Friday RoundUp (1. I’m crazy, 2. I’ve got a couple of days off, 3. I’m crazy), but I didn’t realize how daunting it can be. I definitely don’t read every FS blog out there, but when I sat down last night...
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I’ve been home from Las Vegas for well over 24 hours now, and I thought I had decompressed enough from the trip to take a look at the blogs I follow on my reader (which I didn’t have time to read while I was out there). I’m almost ready to look through my Foreign...
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Yesterday was year three that Chad and I attended the City of Alexandria’s birthday celebration, which I’ve written about before. Every year we enjoy the concert by the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (this year’s theme was movie music), the fireworks, and the cannon fire support. However, this year I brought my camera and tripod –...
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I know 24 days seems like an arbitrary number to countdown from. It isn’t nice and round like 25 would have been, and it isn’t quite as logical as 21 (three weeks). However, it’s the first time in a while that the foreign service career really feels like it’s happening. Getting the offer was...
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