What a difference six days makes

Last week, I went to DC to re-take the foreign service oral assessment. My reasoning was because I want to extend here in Minot but, with my low OA score the first time around, I’d risk not getting another offer should I turn one down. You only get 18 months on the register, so by the time I would be free to accept an offer – November – I would only have six months left in which to get one. With there only being four offer groups this year (Jan, March, July and Sept), it’s not really likely there’d be a lot more than that in 2014.

  

It’s really important to me to finish the Hope Village project, and we’re thinking it can get done in October. I’ve put in for a six-month extension with AmeriCorps, so that would leave some leeway for disassembly time, too. (That could get ugly.)

So I decided to couch my bets and re-take the OA, and man, I kicked butt. I have no idea, really, what the difference was, but I not only got another 18 months on the register (after I cleared the review panel again, anyway) but scored much higher this time, pretty much assuring me an offer for the next class after getting on the register.

Of course, in light of the fact that I wanted to go on the do-not-call list until Nov. 1 or so, I was hoping that the final review would take awhile. There was no reason to think it’d go fast. I mean, the original clearances took forever and, at that time, they didn’t talk to anyone in Minot yet. I had to update those changes and re-submit some paperwork.

I figured I’d have a month, at least, before getting re-put on the register and asking to go on the do-not-call list again.

And I enjoyed DC. Didn’t do anything in particular, but just wandered a bit. Stayed in Crystal City this time – I think I’ve been totally around that city – and went to the mall-with-stores in Virginia somewhere, the place with the LL Bean store.

Didn’t buy anything but tried on some clothes, knowing I really will need to upgrade my wardrobe. Joy.  At least I know my LL Bean sizes.

DC was gorgeous, with flowers everywhere. It snowed the day I left Minot and, even though it was chilly, it was so much better than where I left it wasn’t funny. And it gradually warmed, with it being maybe 80 by the time I left.

When I got back, it was 30 again in Minot, but two days later, we hit 60. This caused massive rapid snow melts and turned my RV (I move back May 10) into lakefront property. I moved some stuff out there and the boardwalk that cuts through the mud (not complaining!) actually *floats* right now. My little trailer is pretty much at the end of a dock.

It’s stunning that a six-day turnaround can do that much as far as weather goes. And it continues, because tomorrow the high is supposed to be 39. But the sun has been nice while I’ve had it.

But speaking of six days, that’s how long ago it was that I took the oral assessment. My goal here, remember, is to assure me that in January I will not have a problem getting a State job. If not January, then whenever the first offer group of 2014 happens to be.

My understanding has been that I have to go through any security updates and then have my file re-submitted to the review panel for final clearance and then being given a new spot on the register. Based on the scores that I’ve seen, my new score would put me in the top third of the list, if not higher. Essentially, I’m confident that, even if I was on the do-not-call list for both the July and September offers, I will get a spot after Hope Village’s mission is complete.

And, this being the federal government and me having updates to investigate, I fully expected weeks to go by before they had enough time to contact my supervisor and my other contacts here to verify my employment, etc.

Today, on the Yahoo group for this job, someone mentioned he’d gotten an offer for the July class. Good for him, right? They’re sending out offers early, so that’s nice and positive. I didn’t think anything of it.

I have multiple email addresses and the junk ones I don’t check that frequently, maybe twice a day. Around 4 p.m. today, I checked one of them. And found a note that I’d not only been placed on the hiring register, but I’d also gotten a job offer.

Holy cow. I’m completely and utterly shocked. And yet I cannot accept it. I am committed here through Dec. 15, and I’m fine with that. I’m just stunned I got cleared with no updates and in SIX DAYS.

As I understand it, it’s fine if I turn down one offer and will do so. I would requested to have gone on the do-not-call list if I had thought there was any chance of being cleared so quickly.

But six days? This is absolutely insane. I’m not even back into the groove after being in DC for four days!

So tomorrow I am going to try to call the registrar and get this fixed. I am not taking the offer, but seeing it in my inbox is just bizarre.  

This maid my day.

It's the editor in me.

The days get longer in what, nine weeks?

I’ve informed people that if I complain about mud, they are to bitch-slap me upside the head. Mud will be such a welcome sight after this snow that I (not anyone else) have no place to whine about it.

This is just insane.

Yesterday, I was at an annual conference for communicators and the guy who introduced it said, “Welcome to the winter conference.” I didn’t even get that it was a joke.

Winter has been eternal. I’m just tired of it, but I think we might be turning a corner.

Last week, we got 11 inches of snow. It held off Saturday for the fund-raiser but snowed all day Sunday and Monday. Monday morning, even though we’d only gotten seven inches officially by that time, it was above my knees in my driveway.

There was no way I could have gotten out. I shoveled for a half an hour and managed to get out of my front door (waist-high drifts) but walked to work, taking a chance that the Monday meeting would be canceled, which it was.

Later in the day, Steve came by with the Bobcat and liberated my garage. I moved the dregs when I got home and holy cow, spring snow is heavy.

All the clearing of snow at Hope Village has gone to naught. It’s everywhere again. We have yet to be able to put up the dining tent (not that the kitchen trailer is here anyway) and the teams arriving tomorrow will be sleeping elsewhere.

We have no running water just yet and there’s still a ton of snow (and mud, not that I’m complaining about that one) everywhere.

It is getting so very old.

And, just think, it’s April 20. In two months and one day, summer arrives and the days start getting shorter.

Up until now, my winter in Morocco was the coldest I’ve spent but this one obliterates that. At least as of April 1, I no longer think, “Sheesh, last year at this time, I was in Indonesia!”

Tomorrow, I’m headed to DC, which should be a nice change of pace weather-wise. It’s find of funny because Laurie texted me about the weather and how it’s so much colder than Orlando. But even in the 50s, it’s still a good 20 degrees warmer than I am.

Hopefully, though, once I get back the warming trend will take off.

In the meantime, though, the snow is coming down again and I’ve hunkered down for the evening. I really had planned on going out tonight but I hadn’t planned on lugging tools for two hours so I’m kind of whipped, not to mention doing laundry.

Last night, I ran out and tried to get Jason Bourne movie I was missing at the used DVD store. I thought I picked up the right one for my collection at the pawn shop the other day but got home and realized it was one I’d already had.

So, faced with nothing to watch (Netflix service takes a week here, so I’m between movies), I caved and bought season one of “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

Five bucks well spent. God bless Waylon Jennings. Every show needs a balladeer as good as him.

I still remember that Enos, or Sonny Shroyer anyway, is an FSU alum.

What a fun drive down memory lane. In the words of Rosco P. Coletrane, “I love it, I love it!”

Ole! $27,041 - Gracias, Taco John's!

Yesterday for me what like the rapture.  Something I’ve known was coming and had been preparing for, but I couldn’t believe it had arrived.

After three nights of absolutely no sleep and some bizarre, stress-induced dreams, I woke up yesterday and the thought went through my head: Oh my God, it’s TODAY.

 

After months of planning – well, not so much planning as just waiting for it to arrive – the Taco John’s fund-raiser finally got here.

At the same time, we had yet another “prepare the campus” day that was successful but we weren’t able to do the one big thing we needed to do because we had a weather forecast for 10-16 inches of snow this weekend. You cannot put up a 50-foot circus tent and expect it to stay up with that much snow on it, so we delayed that another week.

But I had little to do with that; I had to get going on setting up the Taco John’s stuff at all three stores. Got started at 8 a.m. in the office, loading stuff up and trying to make sure all the Is were dotted and the Ts were crossed.

Not to mention the vacuuming the floor because I spent two hours on Friday (the equivalent of “Fruitcakes” and “License to Chill”) slicing paper for thank-yous to be handed out with orders. That left little paper slices and lots of dust and I really didn’t want to walk into a mess on Monday morning.

So after loading my car with buttons, T-shirts, flyers and everything else, I set out to meet Megan at 9 a.m. at one store. Honest to God, I was so wired I don’t even remember the time in the car. I had “Big Dog Daddy” on and was just blasting. My brain was totally elsewhere and going about 800 miles a minute. I kept coming back to the road in front of me, thinking, “Wow, I don’t remember making that turn.” Not the safest of driving conditions.

But fortunately I didn’t get nailed for speeding or anything else and got all three stores plastered with information about Hope Village, T-shirts delivered and thank-yous distributed, etc. Then I hustled to pick up our newest employee, who was covering the first shift at one of the stores before heading back to the store at which I was starting.

The fund-raiser was from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and I’m telling you, everyone and their brother came in at least once that day. People started coming in at 10:50 or so and said, “If I buy it now, will it count?”

It was absolutely nuts. And so much fun.

It is very weird to me, because I am a total introvert, but I love doing that stuff. I was handing out pins in the drive-thru, just walking by and motioning for people to roll down the windows so I could hand them out.

Part of that is these pins are “Summer of Hope” pins and T-shirts that the Long-Term Recovery committee did last year. They got in a bind and wound up with too many and an unpaid bill. I championed the idea of paying off the tab (something like $1500), taking custody of the shirts and essentially just bailing out the committee. I took a chance on making enough in the fund-raiser to cover it, and fortunately, we did.

So now, I never wanted to see those pins again. I handed out probably at least a hundred at my location and I thought they were doing so at the South and I thought we ran out by lunch, but today when I went to church I plopped some stuff on my desk and behold, there was a bag of about 15 pins. Grr.

Anyway, I was out in the parking lot, the drive thru, the street (some of my sign-holders didn’t show and I spent an hour and a half in 31-degree weather waving a sign – no gloves; I'm getting sick now) and elsewhere, talking with flood survivors, members of the community, friends and neighbors. It was totally cool.

At one point during lunch, the drive-thru line weaved through the parking lot, back down the road and to the main street. Taco John’s updated the total amount raised on the marquee every hour. I had forgotten about that and when I checked on the kids waving signs on the first shift (it was the second, third and fourth shifts that had the no-shows), they excitedly said, “Is that us?!” I looked up and saw that after one hour, it was $3,600.

It was so amazing to see the total grow. I went down to the South location – which is the biggest one – and it was truly packed. There, I had to hold the sign so I didn’t get in on the radio remote, which was OK because it was done in the office and not in the crowd. But I got to pop in and see Megan and her father, who is the owner of the stores. I had been working with her but hadn’t met him yet, so that was cool.

From there, I visited the mall and by that time – after three or four hours – the total was $14,000. The employees were just so psyched to be a part of it, too. The guys at the mall were just pumped, and even earlier in the week, Steve had bought lunch at the South store and, while in the drive thru, the employees saw his car signs and were all excited and made a point to meet him and tell him they were stoked.

Everyone was. Rick, one of the marketing guys, told me when it was over that he’d seen me handing out pins at North, so he did that at South a little later. He went to hand out some and people would hold theirs up, saying, “We were at the other store for lunch and we’re eating dinner here now!”

With one hour remaining, we were at $23,130. That right there was more than I’d expected. Honestly, I thought $15k was a safe bet and $20k would have covered the two salaries we were hoping to cover with the event. In my wildest dreams, I thought maybe $25k. So the total -- $27,041.71 – just blew me away. (And we’ve yet to count the tip jars, so it really will be around $30k.)

Around 6:30, I think it suddenly occurred to about half the people in Minot they had planned on hitting Taco John’s, because that was just a mad, mad rush. Out of pins, I decided to go ahead and hand out a box of T-shirts and started going up and down the drive-thru again.  I wish I’d brought the other three boxes!

There were still people in line at 7 p.m. so they extended the event for 15 minutes, which was amazing. I was camped out at North, and I kept watching the board and waiting for the total. I finally logged on and realized they were still counting, so I headed down to South to meet Megan.

She made the call to add the tip jars in later and change the marquee to the sales amount only – I didn’t want to leave without taking that final photo.

And man, it was such a cool photo. I didn’t get to update the Facebook page until after 4:30 p.m. or so, but once I did it totally took off. Megan had been updating the TJ’s site constantly, but she had an office to work in – I was walking up and down the drive-thru lane!

Once I got on, though, it really took off. I had noticed the “likes” increase again during the middle of the week, and on Saturday they went from about 490 to 510 or so. I made a point to recognize the 500^th person. This morning, I’m over 530, and the final total photo had been viewed by over 10,500 people.

So this has just been amazing and beyond anything I’d imagined. I am so thankful for Taco John’s!

www.facebook.com/HopeVillageND

Set-up story in Minot Daily News about it. 

Take me down to flashback city

I’m watching “Rock of Ages,” and I have absolutely no idea of what the plot is supposed to be, but it is so funny. Man, I miss 80s music.

The Foreigner concert at the fair last year was fun, too, in the same way. They referenced this movie and having had more songs than any other band in it. Classic 80s. So this movie is a trip, even if the plot is suspect. And Paul Giamatti is just to funny. So are the cell phones. And the hair. Seriously, what were we thinking?

Pretty much doing anything right now to take my mind off the weather. I’m really not thrilled with Mother Nature right now. She’s being a real bitch to Minot.

 

We had a week of temps around freezing and then boom, it sunk back down to the teens today. With snow and without sun. I was supposed to go to a meeting today and started to drive and just said screw it. I pulled on the pumpkin pants and walked in rather than tackle the roads. And it turned out to be a good decision because the meeting was canceled.

Tomorrow, though, I have got to drive. I have an 8:30 meeting and then 2-3 other errands I have to run before going in. There is a HUGE fund-raiser on Saturday and I am trying to get ready for it.

This thing fell into my lap. The marketing person for a local fast-food place contacted me to see if we could brainstorm some kind of fund-raiser. So I tried to come up with some ideas and then, back in October or something, went to meet.

Before I could pitch any of my lame ideas, she said, “So, what we were thinking about was donating 100 percent of the proceeds to Hope Village on a Saturday in April.”

Uh … OK! I pretty much tossed my ideas because that was just beyond my wildest dreams.

The company, Taco John’s, has been utterly fabulous. I am just scrambling to do my part of the work, which is minimal. I’m delivering hats and buttons and am getting representatives to the church on time, as it were. PK was on the radio today and Steve will be on the noon show Thursday. I’ve got commercials and PSAs and have Facebooked the thing to death.

The only thing I don’t have just yet is volunteers to hold signs. I have one of the two stores almost covered (the third store is the mall so we can’t flood it) but the other one is wide open. I also need to get people there who can talk about Hope Village if asked.

I can be at the one store for almost the whole day, but I have to go to the big one for at least two hours during the live remote. (Oh, yeah – Taco John’s is all in. It’s fantastic.)

So I still have a few kinks to work out.

This week is when things get rolling. We’re getting the camp ready, have the big fund-raiser next week along with another set-up-the-campus day. Then the volunteers start, and just when the campus opens, I have to dart out to DC for three days.

By the time I get back, we’ll be in the thick of things and it’ll be nonstop until I’m done.