The Breakfast Club remake

Thankfully, as far as I know, there is no planned reboot of one of my favorite 80s movies. But I relived it on Friday, or so it seemed like at the time.

I’m finally done with classes over here, but thing was, we ran out of classes before we ran out of time. We had to fill up the spare days, so I had some random “post research” class show up on my schedule.

Since I’ve already done a ton of research – even doing a presentation on it – it seemed a little weird, so a couple of weeks ago I asked the lady in what’s essentially a research library about it.

The library is really cool and has extensive information on each post. It’s really a great place to go, and I knew that because I’d been there multiple times.

So, when I asked what, exactly, I was supposed to do for this 8-hour day, she offered some suggestions, all of which I’d done.

She then suggested practicing my language, but I didn’t get language classes so there’s no language to review. Another suggestion was to do my distance learning classes, but I did them – and far, far more – on, well, the days we had assigned to do distance learning.

This is a little gripe of mine. I’m in the extreme minority as far as being one of those people who does the assignments on time and all, and it sometimes gets aggravating that everyone else is given a “catch up” day to do all the stuff we’d had assigned all along. If I were given the day off, that’d be one thing, but essentially, I wound up having eight hours of detention because I did what I was supposed to do when I was supposed to do it.

Seriously, there was very little I could do. Fortunately, the librarians understood my dilemma, since I’d gone in previously and asked. It wasn’t like I had to write “I will not do assignments on time” 500 times or anything like that, but I was completely grasping at straws as far as what I could possibly do to fill the time.

And I had to the drill was, the four of us assigned to this “class” had to sign in at 9 a.m., sign in after lunch and then sign out at 4 p.m. No leaving early, even though it was Friday. It really was like the Breakfast Club, only without Emilio Estevez.

I always get there early, and Friday was no different. In fact, I’d scheduled an Excel test at 8 a.m. and had one errand to do before the class. So, by the time I checked in with the librarian, I had pretty much accomplished far more than anyone else had, at least in that wing of the building.

Two of my other classmates kept busy doing their distance learning, and I mostly checked my email. I also got started early on my “check-out” procedure, which means that I’m going to be struggling to fill up my “consultation” days this week, as that’s what those are for.

But I didn’t care because I was so bored. I mean, I could have re-read the same information again but I just didn’t care to. I am as prepared as I’m going to be, and since I don’t have a car or a pet I’m taking and have no husband and no kids, there just wasn’t a single bit of research left for me to do.

I think I spent a good portion of the afternoon looking at strongboxes and playing Set Game and Sudoku online.

I felt bad for the librarian, who tried to offer suggestions as far as what to do, but I’d done everything. She asked if there was something else they could offer for the “class,” but honestly, I couldn’t think of a thing. It’s not that the library isn’t useful; it’s that I’ve already used it.

Assigning “post research” as a class was just redundant, although I completely understand that there simply was no class offered that I could have taken. God knows I checked.

Now, I am down to the last week before deployment. Packout is tomorrow and boy, I’ll glad when that’s done. I hope it’s in the morning, but the guy didn’t give me a time.

If it is in the morning, I hope to knock out a run to the main building tomorrow afternoon. I’m here through Thanksgiving, but I’m not convinced the people I need to touch base with are.

Packing up and out

Yay, the new swim suit fit! LL Bean is awesome.

Got the old one returned too, I think. I had a rough evening on Wednesday, which is the day I got to Bible study. The church is three metro stops away and right across from a UPS Store.

I had a Netflix coming that day, so when I left the apartment I made a mental note to verify that I had my post office box key in addition to my MP3 player, Bible, phone, wallet and package. Note what I did *not* make a mental note to check.

So once down in the lobby of the building, I realized that without a house key, I was going to either be crashing at a friend’s or a neighbor’s if I didn’t solve the problem before church, because the apartment front desk closes at 8. Since church doesn’t end until then, I went to the apartment's front desk and got the key of shame – this regular key on a big overseas key ring that says “Return after 24 hours or there will be a $25 charge.”

By the time I ran back up to the apartment to get the key, returned the key of shame, took the metro and got off at the church stop, it was 7:09, and the UPS place closed at 7. I carried the package across the street to church and, after Bible study, apologized for being late. Pastor Jim offered to drop off the package the next day, so I’m glad of that.

The whole thing was more annoying than tragic, because I’d had plenty of time to leave and just waited to time it right before realizing I’d forgotten my key. Grr.

“Returning swim suit” was one of the little things remaining on the list, and even though I’ve crossed that one off, it seems the list itself doesn’t get any shorter.

I’m down to two weeks left – I can tell by the packages of waffles in the freezer – and the “I’m going to be out of the country for two years” thing is sinking in again.

I’ve been through this before, of course, for time spans of 27 months, 12 months and 15 months, so it’s almost old hat, but the difference is this time I have some money and unlimited shipping.

This has led to innumerable trips to Target; two of these took place last week. My little Redcard card has now saved me almost $35, making the cost of my soul a little more expensive. As if that’s a consolation.

I’d lost track of what I’d put into the shipping boxes, which go away upon packout on Nov. 26. I really don’t think I need to bring much, as China pretty much has everything.

But will they have grits? Hmm… Jakarta didn’t, so maybe I should throw in some. (This is the prevailing school of thought.I’m now up to four canisters of them.)

I’ve been doing this for various things lately, not as much for the stuff itself but for the brand (even if it’s Target), or the form of the product. (Example: sugar. It’s not always pourable and in a convenient 4-pound package.)

So my box/pile of stuff is a little out of control, and my big spur-of-the-moment project yesterday after church was to get a grasp on what they’ve done.

As a result, I’ve created what no one outside of foreign service should ever attempt: an inventory list, in Excel (I was in classes all week), on everything in my HHV, UAB and CO. (These are the three shipments I get: by boat, by air separate from me, and carried on in the plane.) So far, I’ve only done the HHE and part of the UAB, although I will likely still add to it. (I realized it might be tough to get real milk in China, as Asians in general aren’t as big on it as I am, so I’m going to get some powdered just in case. And maybe some more grits.)

I’ve no idea if it was a practical idea to do this (or even all the shopping, for that matter), but I figure when I get the next post, I will have a start at figuring out how much, say, ibuprofen, I took in two years to gauge if I need more or less the next time around.  And it was a good time-waster on Sunday, which was a good recharge day for me.

The past week was far more social than I am accustomed to, and even though I enjoy the company I am an introvert and needed some down time.

I need that to continue through this week, if only because I have cooked a big, week-long meal and need to eat it. I’ve been out to dinner way too much lately, to the point where my last week-long meal started to MOLD. That was gross.

It’s also time to empty out the refrigerator, and if I don’t eat here, that’s not going to happen.

But some of the dinners have been awesome. In Delaware, we went to a pizza place and got strombolis. Mine was easily stretched to two meals, plus someone else gave me her leftover pizza, so that was another.

My favorite place here has been Fetoosh, which is a Moroccan-Lebanese restaurant somewhere between home and work. It’s on the corner, between a 7-11 and a gas station, in the same building as some other, larger restaurant. Don’t go to that place, go to Fetoosh. It’s fantastic, although the meals last, in general, for three meals.

Elizabeth, a former Morocco PCV who’s from Panama City, took me there first and wl-lah, it’s wonderful. I forced myself to get not couscous on Friday; I’d had that the first two trips and wanted to expand so I had the tagine djej (chicken).

The place is legit. It’s just fantastic and I might have to go again, really. I’m not sure when, though. I have plenty of food in the freezer plus just way too much stuff to go between now and then. It also requires a ride to get there.

But since introducing others to it, it’s been easier to get a ride. Everyone is anxious to go back.

Anxious. That’s the word for the week, although it might be more appropriate for next week. I’m just tired of class and getting too comfortable in my little college-like life. I might not be ready to get to my new job, but at this point, I really do want to just bring it on.

Checklists and countdowns

The to-do list is getting things crossed off of it, but somehow, it’s still not shrinking. With about three weeks to go before departure, this might not be a good thing.

It’s not that I can’t do stuff once I depart, but the ease of picking up the phone or whatever gets a lot more complicated with a double-digit time change. (It was 12 hours; now I’m not sure if it’s 11 or 13 … the international date line confuses me.)

Most of the money stuff is figured out and now I’m working on the medical stuff. I’ve been warned to get all the medical and dental out of the way before I hit China, so on Saturday I completed about $2600 worth of improvements to the pearly tea-stained whites.

This week, I also went to a doctor’s office to renew my prescription for a year. Getting the piece of paper wasn’t difficult, but now begins the hunt to get it filled. I need a mail order pharmacy, but after doing a bunch of research and deciding on one, I learned my particular brand of insurance doesn’t utilize mail-order pharmacies.

Great. Now it looks like I am going to have to switch medical insurance. Not what I wanted to do, but I don’t think it’s a big deal. I signed up for “basic” with the one place and should just have to upgrade to “standard,” although I am not entirely positive what that entails.

Really, every time I think I’ve gotten caught up, something else falls in the way.

But I do get things knocked off occasionally. When I got off work on Friday, I called the doctor in Minot to verify the fact that the knee bill was paid off. Two weeks ago, I’d called and the lady said yes but I was a bit skeptical because she was describing a different bill than the one I was asking about.

But praise God, both bills – topping $600 – have been paid. Oh, that was such a relief.

Tomorrow is a holiday, so I’m heading with some friends to an outlet mall, where I hope to cross off “get tennis shoes” and maybe some other assorted stuff.

My new apartment, of which I have photos, has an indoor pool, so I figured I’d get a swim suit. (In Jakarta, I wore a sports bra and shorts – that would likely not be appropriate this time around.) I took a chance, ordering one off Amazon.

It was the last available and I waffled on it, wondering if the size was right. I figured the bottoms would fit, but I have a lot of trouble sticking my shoulders in shirts so I wasn’t sure if the top would. I took a chance.

When it arrived, the bottoms fit fine. The top had to have been worse than any corset ever created. I couldn’t breathe.

Once I peeled it off – and boy, that was a feat – I caught a glimpse of the size tag. It was a smaller size than the bottoms!

So it’s going back. I was extremely disappointed because it really was awesome, but that was the only one they had.

If I don’t see one at this outlet mall in Delaware, I’m going to just cut my losses and take a chance on one from LL Bean. They have 10 percent off through tomorrow, so I’ll have time to order if I come home empty-handed.

Really, I’ve curbed the shopping. I just don’t know what else I could possibly bring with me. I wish I had some books, but I’m not going to lug stuff over there. I have access to a lot of periodicals through the department library and I guess I’ll just go with that.

The computer situation is what’s tricky. The laptop isn’t going to be coming back, and I am trying to make sure everything is backed up in case stuff gets weird. But my external, which I’ve hardly used, is crashing – or something – as I’m trying to make copies of stuff to put on thumb drives. I wanted to just leave the external and take off the music and the Thru the Bible series and leave everything else, but I started getting all these “failed to write” errors. And during the copying of U2, too. Bummer.

So in tomorrow’s trip to Delaware, we’re also stopping at Best Buy. The advantage of Delaware is it’s a no sales tax state, so I plan on picking up something else to back up, although I am not sure what. It’s just weird. It’s like the external is failing or something.

And it’s not a good sign when your backup is failing.

At least I’ve had all my shots

As of Sunday, I’ll be down to T-minus 30 days before my estimated departure date. I have a reservation for 12/3 to Guangzhou, although it can be changed if necessary.

So long as my visa comes in, I’ll be leaving as scheduled, but there still is a lot I’d like to accomplish.

Really, about the only thing I’ve completed in full is to get all my vaccinations. Even though I had a ton of them in PC, I didn’t have a record of some and it was just easier to get them re-done than dig up the paperwork.

At the beginning of October, I had something like seven – plus a flu shot – and on Halloween, appropriately, I finished off the last three. I’m not really sure what Japanese encephalitis is, but I’m fairly confident I won’t be getting it. The trade off is I couldn’t lift my left arm on Friday, but whatever.

I should be immune (ha) from any more vaccinations for a good long while, especially since they went ahead and gave me the yellow fever one. I’m not up on all my infectious diseases, but at this point I can’t imagine there being much left that I might need.

So that’s one item on the list that’s been checked off, but I just have so much to do in a month that it’s a little daunting.

I’ve fought some of the financial fires I previously mentioned, but there are still little flare-ups from the ashes. One of the retirement places, in particular, is putting up a fight in me consolidating some accounts elsewhere. I’ve had to make three calls on that one.

On the plus side, I think the AmeriCorps insurance came through on the knee bill, but despite that, I got a “we’re turning over your bill to creditors” letter from the hospital. I called them to try to straighten it out, and the lady assured me they did get the check and she would straighten it out.

I don’t believe her and will call back.

It’s also confusing because there are multiple bills and right now I’m not clear on which one was completely paid. What the lady said and what I had in my hand didn’t really mesh.

So Monday I’ll be doing more calls, but I think I got the third fire – the one where I had given the wrong account number – taken care of. The problem repeated itself, but I think I just didn’t catch it in time. I do know the first $193 credit did finally find its way to me. That was the most important thing.

Our training right now is all over the map. Really, we have no way to know what type of work we’ll be doing in our jobs, so they’ve assigned random stuff to fill our schedules until it’s time to depart.

Next week we have two days of “coaching.” We’re supposed to bring in a list of personal and career goals. Uh…

Last week, we worked on PowerPoint. Previously I’d made a sum total of two presentations from scratch. One of those had about 60 slides but the other had maybe eight.

The classes weren’t overly helpful, but I did get to make two short presentations, which were fun to do.

The directive on the first was “something you really like,” so I did Florida State football. I had a little “Running Wild and Free” slide and used all kinds of clip art and screen grabs. (That was a GREAT trick to learn.)

The second class was a bit more advanced, and we were told to do something not work-related. It had to include a video clip.

Well, for some reason, Scotty Emerick popped into my brain and I did a little thing on his songwriting. All kinds of screen grabs and animation, which can drive you nuts. I had one where I had the name and photo of the different co-writers enter the screen at the same time as the photo. Each had a different animation and the timing required a lot of work.

I knew I was onto something when, when I asked Lisa to help me imbed the video, she took a look at my screen and burst into laughter.

My final slide, which came after a “Bus Songs” tribute, had a page that, after sitting on a photo of Emerick, Willie Nelson and Toby Keith for a minute, had “I’ll Never Smoke Weed” float up and then “With Willie Again” follow it, forming a circle. A couple seconds later, a pot leaf clip art bounced into view and twirled around a couple of times.

Then, it went into the last few lines from a video taken from YouTube: “In the fetal position, with drool on our chins, we broke down and smoked weed with Willie again.”

I recognize I’m a bit partial, but I really did like my presentation best. Certainly more than the person who did “planning a destination wedding.” Blah.

I must admit, though, that in light of all the security warnings we are given about cyber security and all that, I was kind of concerned people were going to bust in and drill me on why I was doing internet searches for things like “whiskey image” and “marijuana leaf clip art.”