I'm Shipping Up to Boston

And just like that we're back from a 10-day trip home.

At first, only big AC was supposed to go, after the yearly Vegas trip (which he actually missed last year, but this year, I didn't mind him going because we are both so homesick and burnt out).  But he and a friend reminded me that with Kid B on the way, there may not be a chance to go home for a very long time (DEAR GOD NO).  So we got tickets, big AC headed to Vegas on a Thursday, and little AC and I headed to LAX that Saturday night (big AC met us at his sister's the next day).

The main goal of this trip was to empty our storage unit, which we'd had since 2003!  It was bittersweet but needed to be done; 95% of maternity/newborn/baby items were in there.  And through the whole process, we saw signs that this move is cursed and something (someone?) doesn't want us here: our flight to SFO was canceled due to weather, and thus we had to fly into OAK and be bussed to SFO; big AC barely made it by 8:30 the first morning to get the quantity of our stuff assessed for an estimate; and, despite the 1-3PM window we were given, for once the movers were on time and showed up at exactly 1PM, when we were still taping up boxes.  This meant that my mom shipped a large USPS flat-rate box, and we FedEx'd one 40-lb box and one flat 29-lb box with artwork--all of which could have gone with the movers if we'd had even 1 hour before they got there.  (Don't ask me what happened. I honestly couldn't explain our time lapse!)

Highlights:

• Taking two nephews (brothers) to dinner at Panda Express and having non-stop (though hardly serious) conversation.
• Seeing my very good friends for dinner our first night in SF, and meeting baby Cody.  
• Hanging out in Hayes Valley, and stumbling on Off the Grid before hitting La Boulange and Timbuk2.
• Eating at Darby Dan's (an AWESOME sandwich shop in SSF) and In-n-Out.  
• Watching little AC play SO MUCH with her cousins.
• Getting a chance to catch up with my sisters-in-law.
• This will sound mean, but watching big AC make 2 of 6 siblings from one family miserable: one by scaring his 2.5-year-old niece to tears by simply pointing at her, and the other by horsing around with his 9-year-old nephew and pretending to stuff him in the cat tower...on his birthday...only for everyone, including his parents, to learn that he's allergic to cats!
• Watching big AC hold and feed his second-newest niece without being asked.
• Hearing 2 of my nephews say "please take me with you! Don't go!" :(

Despite having shipped the last of our stuff , this does not mean we are moved to Boston permanently.  Not by any means.  Especially since the day after we came back, I got an email from Stanford, telling me that the last job for which I applied (and phone-interviewed) had its description changed, in case I wanted to apply again...

Oh, and the last sign that we don't belong here?  Our flight back was scheduled to leave LAX at 11:30PM. It left at 12:30AM, after the crew decided to save time and SHUTTLE everyone across the tarmac to meet the plane after it refueled since it had arrived late!

California Dreamin'

Watching the Red Hot Chili Peppers' latest video reminded me of a dream I recently had.  I was trying to sneak in a few more minutes of sleep when this dream started...

I was sitting in a lifeguard chair-type loveseat (same height and style) with Anthony Kiedis and some other chick.  I was wearing my new maternity bathing suit (SEXY, I KNOW) and Anthony was singing while we watched the waves, which were soooo close and big that I almost got dizzy following a surfer in the middle of one.

...and then I was woken up by big AC with some totally unimportant question as he left for work.  Sigh.

Speaking of California, we are coming home for a very quick visit!  Big AC is joining the annual Vegas trip in mid-July, and we will then meet him in L.A. for a couple of days before heading to the Bay Area for just a few days to figure out the best way to get baby and baby-related stuff to the Bay State from our storage unit.  At first, I told him to go by himself, but he and a fellow non-native (and also pregnant) friend reminded me that it may be a very long while before I can go home again before Kid B is born.  It will be an interesting trip for sure...more than anything, I hope I get a chance to see close friends *points at CBC and LAM* :)

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!

Video Killed the Radio Star

I have been having some bizarre dreams lately.  Cool dreams, just bizarre.

It all started with Eddie Vedder.  (I think I saw Pearl Jam Twenty on the coffee table, and realized I should renew it since I wasn't going to finish it as quickly as I'd hoped.) I dreamt that a friend of mine invited me to a friend's house, and it turned out to be Eddie Vedder's apartment, near my mom's house!  I was so shy, and Eddie was really cool, but I kept walking around just trying to see the cool guitars and not break anything.

Next was Billie Joe Armstrong.  We were spooling yellow embroidery floss or yarn onto plastic flat spools.  He had bleached hair.  We were at my mom's.

Finally, I dreamt that I was at John Krasinski's studio/loft in New York, and we were hanging out while he was mixing drinks and I was checking out his wife's glasswork.  In my dream, Emily Blunt was into glassblowing!

I think my favorite dream out of those three is the Billie Joe Armstrong one.

Work It

It's only been a month and a half since I started my new gig, and I'm wondering what I got myself into.

First of all, after my trip there for the "interview" (it was basically just to meet everyone; they'd interviewed two other people to fulfill the HR requirement), I tweeted something about working from home.  A few weeks later, I got a vague email from my friend (the one who hooked me up with the job), asking for a good time to call me.  It turns out HR must have done a search and found my account, because they threw up some type of warning, so I was warned not only to avoid social media (or at least make my posts as private as possible), but that the university also screens everyone's email!! Anything that goes through their servers!!  And apparently the dept. I work for had been audited for something before so they are under particular scrutiny.

So it's been very hectic since my start.  The job was "sold" to me as doing scheduling whenever I wanted.  NOT TRUE.  I feel like I'm checking email early in the morning till the evening.  I'm in charge of calendaring as well as booking/researching travel options, the latter which are very nerve-wracking.  For example, the director is to go to the Persian gulf next month, with three cities involved, but I've had to research different departure dates, return dates, extra cities, etc.  That has been such a clusterfuck of a project, that the Persian gulf is no longer on my bucket list.

I went down for a day and a half this past week to see the center in action.  I keep getting warned that the director is just like a toddler:  "GIMME GIMME NO I WANT IT THIS WAY NOW!"  (He's only 42.  But still.) Which explains the ludicrous requests for researching bizarre flight options.  And the fact that he asked whether my availability 24/7 would be any possibility at all.  (Um, NO.  I'm only supposed to be 60% time!!)  Though I must admit that being back in the international cooperation arena feels nice.  I'm privy to funny anecdotes regarding foreign diplomats, and former US officials.  Plus I get to hear cool accents and talk to staff at the UN missions.  (Though when I called the Aussies, the staffer and I started talking at the same time and he said, "whoa! I think we've got a bad connection...I totally just heard another person talking on the line..."  IT WAS ME.)

My friend asked a few weeks ago to get some options for a CA trip, but I neglected to forward them, so by last week the prices had gone up.  OOPS.  Director had to use miles to book the trip on his own.  I should have known better, but I didn't ask about hotels until yesterday.  Turns out his preferred hotel, just minutes from The Farm, is sold out for some event, so the one that my contact booked him in is about 15 minutes away.  I put the confirmation number on his calendar, and was going to email and explain, along with other updates.  But I thought, it's the weekend, I'll do it Sunday night.  Well, I just noticed I had some new mail on my Gmail (which I'd been using till my office address was set up), and there were 3 messages saying how annoyed he was, that's not his first choice, we shouldn't be booking on short notice, he'll stay in SF instead, blah blah blah...all totally valid.

Juggling all this so far has been pretty hectic.  My big chunks of time are M/W/F mornings when little AC is at school; otherwise, I feel bad because she's even started asking "Mama, are you done?"

Stay tuned.  Not sure how much longer I'll last.  I've only done scheduling once before, and it was only for a year, 25% time.  I wanna do what I'm good at!!  :(