Baghdad or bust

It's been a while since I've posted. Like magic, all of the free time and boredom I enjoyed before Christmas evaporated as soon as January arrived. Suddenly, there were school applications to fill out and everyone's perspective of their workload changed once we dropped on this side of 2007. Now that January is over and people have their sights set on Easter, things are starting to calm down and I'd been looking forward to February all month--yearning for a little time to blog or eat lunch--but I screwed up my relaxation schedule by taking a new job.

I wasn't looking for it. Basically it jumped me and I gave in. I can't say much about it here, but it seems like it should be interesting. It pays more, which is always nice, but it promises to be a whole hell of a lot more work too. Now I'm staring down a 6:00 AM alarm and a metro commute and wondering what I've gotten myself into. They seemed really impressed during my interview. It was flattering at the time, but now I'm worried. How great do they actually think I am? Because I'm not all that. I mean, I'm not bad but I have no delusions of grandeur. But what if they're really impressed with complete crap? What if my not-as-crappy-as-others qualities rocket me to the top of the bureaucratic food chain too fast for the development of my actual skill set? Things seem to be going down the toilet pretty fast around here and everyone's scrambling to deflect blame and throw any nearby object/money/innocent passerby at the problem. What if someone spots me? "Holy cow! Look at her work that Outlook Calendar! We need quick thinkers and nimble fingers like yours in Iraq, darlin'. Strap on some kevlar, we're going to Baghdad!"

Paranoid? Somewhat. Irrational? Let's hold off judgment until mid-summer, shall we? Regardless, I'll just have to accept the risk. As the great political philosopher Biggie Smalls once put it: Mo' money, mo' problems.