Working Girl

This has definitely been the most interesting person I've worked for in a long time, to say the least.  These have appeared in my inbox over the past 3-4 months:

"Tell [colleague] to tell them to go fuck themselves."

"Oh good f*** lord.  Okay call me at home."

"Looks like I'm speaking at 9am.  Fuuuuuuuuck."

(Obviously, as someone who has to watch her language due to the constant presence of a preschooler, I'm loving all these f-bombs, even if they are only over email.)

I had the chance to go into the office a few weeks ago, as we couldn't let a pre-paid hotel room go to waste.  My biggest fear was hiding the baby bump, so I'm sure I looked oddly layered, because it wasn't that cold out.  But cold enough, and it worked.  There had been a chance I could join the boss on meetings at embassies, but it wasn't confirmed till late afternoon the first day I was there.  My only option was to run into the Gap across the street and pick up a blazer, scarf, and--only because of an awesome sale--a trench coat.  Now, I normally don't support the Gap companies because of their awful labor practices, but I forgot what cute clothes they have...

So the next day I walked from the hotel to the first embassy.  I was nervous, and almost got lost as the entrance is around the corner.  Well, my boss and two colleagues arrived with someone we were to meet with, so they got to go in the secret entrance.  Meanwhile, I did not know this, and neither did the receptionist.  She kept telling me I was the first one to arrive.  I kept checking and finally, after I waited for 40 minutes, I was escorted to the meeting with apologies and "I have no idea how they got in!"  By this point, I did not want to interrupt--it was a videoconference, on top of that!--so I texted my boss and went to the office.  He was upset they didn't let me up to the meeting room and was nice enough to apologize.

The next meeting went better; my favorite part was having to turn in our cell phones to guarantee confidentiality.  They went into a little locker and my boss got a key to retrieve them at the end.  And it was kind of cool to see that the meeting kicked off with some gossip from a retreat that my boss attended but the embassy folks couldn't attend.  Afterwards, I headed back to the office with a colleague. A good-looking one with an Aussie accent.  Nice.  ;)

Sounds like they want to renew my contract, but I'm sure that might change once I reveal I will need to take a month or so off for Kid B...as crazy as this job is at times, the flexibility is great, and I love having contact with the international community.  Stay tuned!