It finally sprang

It looks like spring is here for real. We’re now here on Day Four of straight sunshine here in Kurdistan and it’s flipping gorgeous outside.

Sen. Duckworth, me and a bunch of other people.

Yesterday, we opened a new community center for hanging out. It’s a refurbished house and it’s got a couple game rooms, an exercise room, a big room and a nice rooftop area to chill. We had a big party to open it, complete with a BBQ. The head military guy here spent all week smoking pig and cow. It was fantastic. I tried to go back for more brisket, but it was gone.

Other than that, it’s just been another dull weekend. I’m working more than I did last time I was here because in addition to main gig, because I’m on three other projects at the same time. As a result, I’ve been in the office more over the weekends that I did when I was here before.

But like last time, I made it outside! I was able to do one of the grocery runs yesterday, which was cool. It’s the third store I’ve been to here. The one I went to first last time was sort of run down, but the other two were pretty modern, although yesterday, the power blipped about three times while we were in there.

That happens a lot, on a daily basis. It’s one of the reasons I tend to stick to the ellipticals here and not the treadmills. When the power cuts off, those things stop abruptly. That could be painful.

Next week, which begins on Sunday for me, might be a tad slower. Since the day I arrived, we’ve had back-to-back-to-back “visits,” which is what we call it when high-maintenance people come through. Well, the people aren’t high-maintenance in themselves, but the whole situation gets complicated because logistically, every minute of the “visit” is prescribed. (Even “comfort breaks.”)

One of the visits involved two disabled senators, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Sen. John Isakson (R-GA), plus Sen. Angus King, an Independent, from Maine. Erbil is not a disabled-friendly place, but they weren’t here all that long.

Read Duckworth’s bio. She’s got a phenomenal background, and her visit here was the first time she’s returned to Iraq since she was shot down and lost her legs. Part of her trip was to visit the site where she went down. The women at the consulate had a photo op with her, but we didn’t get time for anything more.

I also did the little constituent meeting with Isakson because we don’t have a lot of people from Georgia. He went around the room – about eight people – and asked where people were from. At my turn, I explained that both my parents were from Louisiana but when Daddy graduated from college, he got a job in Attapulgus, GA and the closest city with a school was Tallahassee. I told him I’d understand if he threw me out, but he let me stay. He said he’d been to a wedding in Attapulgus and told the others present, who were mostly from little tiny towns, that their little tiny towns looked like Atlanta compared to Attapulgus. I reiterated that was the reason I’m from Florida and not Georgia.

Now I’m down to the last half of my Erbil stay. I’m glad I hit the grocery store, but honestly, I don’t need to go again. I got enough potatoes and frozen veggies to last the rest of the time and I don’t need to be tempted with cookies. I’m still working on eating my way though what I brought, but I’m doing all right. I finished the pasta and lentils and the end is in sight for the popcorn and powdered milk. Still working on the rice; I had a really big bag, but if I wind up finishing off the powered milk or powdered sugar (I brought brownie mix!), then I have a container I can downsize into.

There’s a possibility that I might get a third TDY up here, and I’d welcome that. I’m due to depart Iraq at the end of September, and from what I’ve been told, the person I’m substituting will be taking leave from the end of August until mid-September. That’d work out just fine for me.

Although I love being in Baghdad, I love it here, too. They’re very different but for me, both experiences have been positive.

A wet damper on plans

Halfway through my Erbil stay, I haven’t exactly followed through with ambitious dream of preparing for a job interview next month. Instead, I’ve been shivering and dodging raindrops.

It has been gorgeous out, though. Unfortunately, only about 30 percent of the time. When it’s gorgeous it really is fantastic. But for whatever reason, it’s been incredibly wet. Apparently it’s wetter than it’s been in 30something years. It stormed twice after 6 p.m. yesterday and kept me awake, which is weird because in Baghdad, you can’t hear anything inside the apartments. The windows are thick and I’m on a middle floor, so there’s no rain pounding on roof. Here, though, I can hear it just pounding, and my curtain is open a little and the flashes of lightning light up the whole room.

Usually, the storms don’t last for too long, but they’re brutal. And unfortunately, I didn’t pack a raincoat. Although there’s a distinct rainy season here, it’s usually over by now so I took it out. It starts in November or so, and this year it hasn’t gone five days without rain and usually there’s been way more than that.

I am sticking to the gym, and last night I had to wait out a storm in order to get there. The gym is just in a little metal building, so it’s not really a place you want to be while it’s pouring out, but it wasn’t too bad.  But maybe last night’s and today’s will be the last. Hope springs eternal, I guess.

The worst part has been, with the last three days’ rain, the chill. I’m back to not being able to get warm. The buildings have wall-mounted heaters but the walls and floors just hold in the chill. This morning, I’ve had three cups of hot tea and two cups of hot chocolate, but I’m still chilled. Mostly it’s my toes.

Since there wasn’t a lot to do after work last time, this time I brought some stuff to knock out, thinking I’d have a couple hours a night to kill. That hasn’t happened this time. First, I’m still covering a couple things from Baghdad, so I’m doing more there, but in addition to the main job here, I got added another project. As a result, I am not getting out at 5 p.m. or so like last time.  That pushes everything back, and I’ve vowed to do more than the half hour in the gym that I did last time. In Baghdad, an hour is the bare minimum and sometimes I’m in there up to three.

Except for one night where I worked until 6:30, I’ve been good on that (and that night I walked three kilometers) but that where the rest of the plan falls apart. I’m not getting to the gym until well after 6, so it’s well after 7:30 or so that I walk the two blocks home (or run, if it’s raining again), take a shower and grab a bite.

My original idea had been to commit about two hours a night to preparing for a couple of upcoming things and continuing the online Spanish. Kaput! Now I’m trying to reorganize and get a little forward progress. On this. The Spanish is probably going to go by the wayside because I didn’t get the assignment I thought I’d get, but it might switch to another language soon. Either way, it’s not the important thing. That’s the prep for this thing I have coming up and boy howdy, do I need to prep for it.

I am getting better about focusing on it in the mornings. Normally I wake up around 6, but here, except today, I’ve been up around 5 a.m. Not on purpose; who does that? The light comes in the window; when the sun is out, it’s out early. But I get up, make breakfast, check on Zippy and then have been looking at the stuff, though not as much as I should. I keep thinking I have plenty of time but man, it goes fast.

Running out of everything

I’m back for another round at the office in Erbil and have been welcomed with open arms, hugs and pleas of “never leave again!” The people here are so nice.

And the weather is much nicer than it was over Christmas. By that I mean warmer, I suppose. The mornings and evenings have been chilly but over the next couple of weeks they’ll warm up, I suppose. But it’s super wet and has been for awhile.

There was to be an outside meeting somewhere an hour or so road trip away the third day I was here. The sun had been out two days at that point and it started out gorgeous, and then all of a sudden these Noah-like floods came. They had to call off the meeting, and then a few hours later it was gorgeous again. And then, again, it was time for the ark.

It’s wetter than it’s been in years, and I didn’t bring a raincoat. I intended to, but I had to do some strategic packing this time around. Last time I was here, my bag was so crammed going back that I decided to upgrade to the big bag.

It’s not just a lot of root beer I need to unload. I’d sent all my dry food from Istanbul to Baghdad, and with our cafeteria offering all the already-cooked food I could possibly want, I haven’t used much of what I have. So I decided to pack up a bunch of it and bring to Erbil.

This meant taping up packages of lentils, pasta and rice, then gathering enough tea, Stevia, Crystal Light and hot chocolate for a month here. Also cooking oil (we’re OK with shipping liquids) and three soft drinks. I hit my weight limit or I would have brought more. I’m still seriously ahead of the game on the A&W. I brought two of those and a Dr Pepper. I can’t remember the last time I had a Dr Pepper.

It probably seems silly to have brought everything, but I hate wasting food and have no idea what I’ll do with what’s left after this tour. I was over the weight limit, though, and had to yank out a few things, like the raincoat.

Going back, who knows? There is a rumor there will be a carpet guy coming and I’m still working on the ACE Hardware mugs.

I should have room, though. On top of all the food, it seemed like every toiletry item I brought was going to run out, so I had to bring replacements. I thought about only taking the full ones but since I go home and basically turn right around and go on a three-week R&R, I figured I should just go ahead and unload.

So now I am settling in again. There’s an off-chance this might not be my last trip here, but I’m playing it like it is. Hoping the Kurdagonia T-shirts are available at some point, looking forward to seeing more carpets and there’s another textile vendor I want to check out if I can.

Not sure if I’ll have the opportunity to go off-campus, but I’m hopeful, not that I need anything. I have my staples and the veggie guy comes here, so there’s nothing I really need.

Now I’ve hit up the book and DVD library and am watching “Heartbreak Ridge,” an older Clint Eastwood one. I’ve got “Breaking Bad” in the queue again but might opt for something new.

I’ll have to check to see if the masseuse will be around this month, but if not, they have amazing massage chairs in the library room. Kind of hoping for a haircut before I head out on R&R.

Speaking of, I got the information on my Peace Corps reunion. We’re renting this place: https://www.vrbo.com/4754456ha. I might not leave.

Dog days in Baghdad

On Saturday, we had a K-9 appreciation day here on the compound. It was so much fun. They had about a dozen dogs out there and oh man, there were so many people who came just to play.

I went dog to dog and got to know all of them. Bud, one whom I’d met the week before, wasn’t there, but there was an aptly named Diva, as well as a Goldie. By the end, I knew all the dogs’ names, but not a one of the handlers’. Poor guys. They’re the invisible beings on the other ends of the leashes. Sometimes they produce treats that you can offer to their better halves, but in general, they are mounds of DNA who wear beige cargo pants with pockets than can hold a rubber ball on a rope. (We do have some dog handlers who are female, but none attended this event.)

Diva was a doll and knew it. My favorite was a humble (and chunky) black Lab named Panda. We’d also met before, and, even though she was on the clock, her DNA-on-the-other-end-of-the-leash let me play with her a bit then, so on Saturday, I was basically I was rolling on the ground with her. She loved it. She’s like 12 times the size of Batgirl, but it was the same theory: Rub my tummy. Scratch my ears. Rub my butt. Throw the ball. I’d toss the rubber-ball-on-a-rope in the air and most of the time she’d catch it, but sometimes she’d miss and ricochet off her nose, then bounce wildly on the pavement, causing her to jerk DNA-on-a-leash’s shoulder as she lunged for the wayward ball. But here DNA, and all the other DNAs, appreciated us. They’re with their pup partners 24/7, so they appreciated getting more people to work with them and wear them out a bit. I’m sure he was kidding, but DNA told me I was welcome to check her out over the weekend to give him a break.

He’d been on the other end of leashes for 16 years, and he rated Panda in his top 5. They can adopt the dogs after the dogs retire, which, for my department, is age 7. I asked DNA about his No. 1 dog and his voice trailed off as he said, “He saved my life.”

One of the DNAs was the first handler of his dog. It might have been Chanteuse. Anyway, he said the first handler is the one who has the first rights to adopt when it’s time to retire them. That seems fair. Another handler – John, who wasn’t on the end of a leash on Saturday, so I got his name – had told me previously that he hadn’t adopted any of his dogs, explaining that he was “attached, but not too attached” to them. By the tone in his voice, it seemed like he tried to keep a slight distance in case something happened to them. He said he’d lost dogs before. I can’t imagine how horrific that would be.

There’s a movie out called “Rex” about a Marine and her bomb dog partner. It’s based on a true story, but who knows what that means, you know? But both Rex and Rex’s DNA-on-a-leash got hit with a bomb, and both lived but sustained injuries and PTSD. The movie is about DNA trying to have Rex ruled adoptable so that she can keep him. That’s what John’s comment made me think about.

Back to Saturday and Panda: They did a demonstration and before it, her DNA-on-a-leach joked that he hoped she didn’t embarrass him. Well, they had 10 boxes set up, and the first DNA ran his dog down the line. When she got to about box No. 6, she stopped so short her hind legs popped up, and then she sat down at the box and refused to budge. She looked at DNA as if to say, “Hey, buddy, I win the game. Give me the treat!” And DNA produced a ball from his cargo pants, as the narrator explained that the dogs are rewarded with toys, not treats.

Goldie then ran the drill, to the same effect, although he’s a bit heavier (not Panda-like) and his hind legs stayed on the ground. Diva then sailed through, and even though DNA tried to coax her away from it, she just sat there like, “Hey, give me some love.” DNA produced the rubber ball and she jumped for joy – right into his arms.

Well, Panda just darted  (such that it was) and acted like a featherbrained ditz, only not so graceful. It wasn’t even obvious she was sniffing the boxes, she was just kind of lumbering excitedly along. She completely overran the guilty box and the audience gasped. She showed no reaction as she blew past it, then past the last four boxes. She then, still lumber-bouncing along, then circled back down the other side past four boxes, reaching No. 6 from the other direction. There, she was so frantic she pawed it, and then looked at DNA and said, OK, I’m done. TOY! Here we thought she’d lost the game, but she’d figured it out right off but made sure there was nothing else nefarious!

DNA-on-the-other-end-of-the-leash told me later that Panda was very methodical and thorough, and that’s why they’d made such good partners.

I miss dogs. We normally can’t play with any we see; they’re usually working, but sometimes I get lucky and get to scratch some ears or a tummy. The guy leading the demonstration said we have mostly Belgium malamutes, Labs and German shepherds, but in the past we’ve had some terriers and other smaller dogs. A Jack Russell probably, but not a Chihuahua. I just can’t imagine Batgirl or Rally earning their keep like that. 

I can’t keep up and you can’t make me care

No real progress on the assignment search. I have a job and that’ll continue; it’s just nailing down the assignment. Again, I have lots of time so I’m not sweating it but it’s just becoming more and more of a time suck.

For various reasons, three of the four from last update are not available, and I’ve mentally nixed the last one but it’s technically still in the running. And, because it’s just that complicated, three more contenders are in the picture.

A: Not a nice place, but the job I’d like at the grade level I’d like. Two years and, time zone-wise, not too far away. Due to hardship and other differentials, it would pay the most, I think, but it would also pretty much require a car.

B: A is at an “at-grade” assignment that goes all over an area for two years, like what I do now but over an entire area. Would necessitate living out of a suitcase for two years.

C: A higher-up position in an office that’s not my favorite but in a really nice location. It’s three years. Would probably also need a car.

A, despite not being the most attractive location, would probably be good for me. The thing is, no one’s contacted me about it yet. The date listed that they need someone is sooner, not later, so that might be it but who knows. I’m not wasting gray matter trying to figure it out. They get in touch with me or they don’t; no skin off my nose.

B is one I’d put in for when this whole crap started but I hadn’t heard so I thought they were ignoring me since I’m not available until so late. I’d banished it from my mind and then all of a sudden I got an email from someone about it. I replied that I was interested so we’ll see where it goes, if at all. Although I don’t like the idea of eating meals out for the next two years, I do like the idea of collecting Marriott points and frequent flyer miles. We’ll see if they want to talk.

Of those three, C is the only one for which I’ve already interviewed, and, being the red-tape inducing employer I have, I’d be expected to interview with two more people before committing, and so would anyone else who applies. I feel like I’d have a good opportunity to get promoted in the next three years if I was in that job. The downside to it is, there aren’t other people in my same position, which makes going on vacation hard. In that job, there has to be someone covering every working day.

Actually, that’s a beauty of B: you can go on vacation between assignments and don’t have to worry about your emails piling up.

I’m very much trying not to think about all this, but it pops up all the time because people ask or I get emails about it. Last week, my career advisor person sent a form letter to people who are yet unassigned to get a move on or be threatened with being assigned to DC. I don’t want that – housing is too expensive and I don’t want NoVa to get its state income tax claws in me – and since I’m not available until late, it’s OK that I’m still looking. I have a couple months before it gets serious.

And there’s plenty to do in the meantime. The weather is fantastic, at least today.  We had some serious could-hardly-walk wind, followed by a massive rainstorm on Thursday. I got home before the sky unleashed, then ran across to the gym to swim. Even though it’s just across the street, I arrived drenched but since I was jumping into a pool anyway it didn’t matter. I could see the lightning and torrential downpours but I was perfectly content to swim laps and work my shoulder.

We also got a first-run movie! Disney has some kind of deal with veterans, and they send a cast member to posts with the movie. The cast member, and I think a State courier, show the movie multiple times in a short time span. They do it as a goodwill thing for the troops, which is cool. We had, I think, six different showing including one outdoors on the side of a building. It seems like a cool gig, at least if you like the movie. Disney did it before with the last Star Wars movie. I think we also had a Mission Impossible one somehow, but I don’t know if that was Disney or another studio.

I’m not really a comic movie buff but it was fun, and I wasn’t doing anything else at 11 a.m. that day. Since I haven’t seen any of the other Marvel things, I was a bit lost when they were anywhere but Earth, but it was a nice way to spend an afternoon.

What’s in Play

Even though I am now leaving Baghdad earlier than planned, I’m not leaving anytime soon. As I understand it, I can leave between Sept. 21-30. By all but historical and Biblical accounts, that’s pretty much a long way off. There is no rush for me to find my next assignment.

And that is one of the silly things (I was going to say “the silly thing” but reconsidered) about my job. Every few years, I have to apply to another job, except it’s not a job, it’s an assignment. No matter what happens (God bless tenure), I have a paycheck, even if no one wants me. The saying goes something like, “You have a job; you have to find an assignment.”

Finding an assignment is basically finding a job. There are lists of assignments that are due to come out, list of ones that are open now and then there’s word of mouth about assignments that might be coming out. There also seem to be some one-off heads-ups about others; I’m not sure if those wind up on some official list later or not.

My position, basically the bottom on the totem pole, has a bunch of openings. Unfortunately, the way it shakes down is that the ones that are at my paygrade are mostly in DC. Well, being on the bottom of the totem pole, even if it’s the higher portion of that bottom level, doesn’t afford me the ability to both live and eat in DC. I like visiting DC, particular when I am getting per diem, but those jobs don’t allow for that and I’d prefer not to. Plus, seeing as how I’d either have to live in Virginia or Maryland and thus give up my Florida residency, I just don’t want to go there. Literally.

Most of the jobs at my level are in DC. The few that aren’t require a language that I don’t have. In many cases, jobs have time to learn the language built in, but these particular ones don’t What’s happened is that all those jobs have been spoken for; the main list I’m looking at came out in September and what’s left is what doesn’t appeal to most people and what has had people sign up but bail out.

I really don’t want another job not at my level. The base pay is the same and the “differentials” vary according to site, not position, so in some cases, the lower-graded jobs wind up taking home more, but it’s a lot harder to look ready for the next-higher level when you’re not even working at your current level. And since I got promoted my first year in Istanbul and this job is also a “downstretch,” technically by the time I leave here I’ll have already been at a lower level for three years.

I realize it makes no sense to normal people, but those who work for my employer understand it, but it boils down to there are not a lot of jobs out there at the moment for my pay grade. There are jobs popping up all the time and I’m content to wait, but I’m being pressured to lock something in.

Since I’m not hot for DC, I found four alternatives and, geeklily enough, hammered out the facts. For me, the job is more important that the location, so I left those out:

Posts currently available

A

·         05 DCM OMS position

·         Winter –TED December

·         Zero differential

·         No language time built in, but FAST language course available 11/4-12/20

·         Three years

·         OK’d cruise

·         Post gets rave reviews

B

·         06 POL position

·         Summer – September 2019 TED

·         15 percent differential

·         Language-designated 2/2 Spanish

·         Area of the world I haven’t visited

·         Three years

·         Interviewing tonight

C

·         06 P/E position

·         Summer – August, but is vacant now due to coverage switch

·         25 percent differential

·         No language

·         Not a position I’d look at otherwise; incumbent said it’s 80 percent travel arranging

·         Three years

·         I know hiring person and will interview tomorrow.

·         Same bureau as a previous tour

·         Post gets rave reviews

D

·         04 HRO position

·         Summer – August/Sept 2019

·         Has been officially ceded to EL but is still showing on NOW list. (

·         Would require curtailing for 7/8 HRO course

·         30 percent differential

·         No language

·         Desired skill; would provide training

·         Two years

Of course, as soon as the figurative ink dried (does anyone use ink anymore?), option D got yanked. (The “ceded” part; apparently there are no takebacks.) And option A, the only one at my grade, was also ruled out of play.

So that leaves B and C. Quite honestly, if I had seen the full list at the beginning, not just the leftovers, I wouldn’t have looked at either. It’s not the cities themselves, it’s that B requires language and C just doesn’t scream my name, plus I’ve lived and traveled that part of the world heavily. But C pays the most because of the differential.

Since I spelled out the options there, I’ve had both interviews and both are heavily recruiting me. For B, Spanish is the stumbling block; it’s not just one of those things that’s nice to have when you take taxis or grocery-shop; the person in the position right now used language, especially written, in her work on a daily basis. And I don’t have it. I could start tomorrow and work at it, but if Peace Corps taught me nothing about myself, it’s that I am not a good language learner. It scares me.

The other job doesn’t sound interesting, but I know the people there and they like me and were trying to come up with a different position. Both those jobs are open because the person penciled in have lined up a different job in Foreign Service. The B one is trying to find someone who speaks Spanish. If they can’t, there’s paperwork they can go through to try to exempt the recruit to get in with out it, but it’s not a slam-dunk.

What happened for the C one is that of the two admin positions, the big-league person changed sports altogether, C simply called up the next person down to fill the spot. The position that’s open is, in a way, the AAA spot. Since they found out I’m available, they’ve offered to ask the call-up if she’d prefer to stick to her original minor-league team, so to speak, or stay in the majors. Since the paperwork has already been done, it’s her call, not the coach’s, although the league gets a say. I’ve said if that big-league jobs comes open I’d take it, but right now I don’t know if it is.

If it is, it’s an easy decision because the job is “at-grade,” plus it’s in the 25 percent differential city and they’ve OK’d me to basically take off January to take my cruise. But, like option D, it might be too little, too late.

Going to be drinking a lot of root beer in the coming months

The cafeteria in my Hundred-Acre Sandbox has a phenomenal amount of options. With some restrictions, it’s all-you-can-eat-and-take, and wise advice given to me early on was to never leave without something. As safe as it feels here, it’s possible something hits the fan and we wind up hunkered down for a bit, so it’s a good idea to pack out a couple of Magnum bars here and there, right?

Most times I leave, I slip a thing of yogurt, a pack of those Crystal Light water enhancers, chocolate chip cookies, stevia packets or soft drinks into my pockets or bag. When I return to America, y’all might want to remind me that this would not be a welcome behavior in convenience stores.

Occasionally, the supply, wherever that comes from, runs short. People hoard things that are coveted, like soda water. (Yeech!) When I arrived, there was a selection of soft drinks, but they didn’t have root beer. Suddenly, root beer appeared and I started doing the five-finger thing two cans at a time (we do have a drinks-from-the-cooler limit, and I abide by it) at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Getting root beer before it ran out became an obsession, but all of a sudden, I realized that I had an entire shelf of A&W root beer. This is not in itself a bad thing, of course, but the thing that didn’t happen was running out of root beer. Apparently the maybe six weeks I was here with no root beer was unusual, not the presence of it.

It wasn’t until I had an entire shelf full of root beer that I realized that I was pretty much set, even if the root beer disappeared as quickly as it appeared. I drink one a week – it’s my reward on the weekend – and essentially, there’s a tour’s worth of it there. I’ve told people that if everything really does hit the fan, come to my place with vanilla ice cream.

   

With all the root beer I need to last through my May 2020 tour, I thought I was set. Well, yesterday I got a call that’s forcing me to start drinking root beer.

The DC office called and, due to shifting priorities of the administration, my job’s being eliminated. Yes, it’s not just journalism! As of this summer, my position and two similar ones are among a bunch more being eliminated. Normally, the tours are 12 months but I’d extended to 19, so basically what’s happened is the extension is being taken away.

People seem to think I should be up on a rooftop somewhere, but this is what happens in this job so I’m rolling with it. Since normally we know our new posts about a year out, I’m a behind the curve but there’s nothing I can do about it so there’s no point in worrying about it.

No matter what happens, I have a job; it’s an assignment I need to find. Right now, the pickins are really, really slim, but something will come up. I’m going to try to not think about it for a couple weeks anyway. There are some other work deadlines I should focus on because they come due earlier anyway.

Besides that, I have some root beer I need to get working on.