In case you didn't hear, DC was buried in snow for awhile:
We've shoveled and shoveled and SHOVELED and had cabin fever and forced vacations from work because no one could get nowhere in our fair city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency, and the Metro was shut down, and it's finally about melted, and now we twitch and get pretty anxious at any mere mention of more snow.
I used to love snow. I grew up in the mountains, in New Mexico. I sledded, skied, made elaborate snowmen, participated in epic snowball battles, and hovered by the radio in my long johns hoping, hoping, hoping for a school closure. But northern New Mexico knew how to deal. Everyone had 4WD and shovels or snowblowers, and everyone knew how to drive in the stuff. We had a Datsun 510 station wagon that wasn't 4WD, wasn't even front wheel drive, and that thing never got stuck. We drove it everywhere.
DC does not know how to deal. The city doesn't have enough snowplows. Or a real plan for disposing of 55 inches of snow falling in 4 days. People don't have shovels. I have seen people using dustpans and CD jewel cases to try to dig out their cars. No one knows how to drive in the stuff, so you get things like this:
The guy is stuck pointing vaguely the wrong way on a one-way street, and protruding into the street. Idiot.
Tons of snow with a newly walking Energizer battery toddler is a whole different ballgame. We did take her outside as much as possible and let her play in it. But her feet got cold and she didn't like the snow hitting her face, and it was hard for her to walk, and she's just too little to sled or build snowmen, or any of the good stuff. So, back indoors we went, trying to make her run around the basement playroom as much as possible. We tried. Sigh. Thankfully, we did get some breaks by going over to friends' houses, hiking in the streets because half the sidewalks weren't shoveled, the Olive strapped to my back. I don't know how my friends in northerly climes do it. I guess they're more prepared for the snow, the weather, and it is a short time that they're too little to like it. But man, am I ready for warmer weather like I have never been ready before.
Finally back at work, embarassingly relieved at turning over the toddler to someone else for the day, and being suddenly offered a surprising opportunity from a friend and former colleague who is now in a high political place. A six-month detail, so I wouldn't have to quit my current job. A lot of responsibility. A lot of diversity. Potential for many new connections. Hobnobbing with Congresspeople and high level politicals at my agency. Potential for lots of things. I almost said no, because there could be one day of travel (a day flight to New York) once a week. But Seth said yes, we could handle it. He and the Olive could handle it.
I've had to say no to even applying for or considering a number of job opportunities since getting pregnant. Mostly, the hours were too unreliable, and I wasn't a swinging single anymore who could get home from work at nine, have a dinner of popcorn, an apple and a beer, and do it all again the next day. I needed the certainty of my current job, where I knew what to expect, where it was the same old, same old, with certain hours, where I could walk out the door at five, always. And I wished I didn't have to say no, because an ambitious part of me hungered for something new, for my career trajectory to rise, to change. But the Olive is now always and first. Always.
But this opportunity, this one. Busy, but manageable. I wouldn't have to leave her overnight (which I can't do yet. Just can't.) I sat in my office one day last week, and realized how very bored I was. Yes, I can do this job standing on my head, I have lots of time to take care of personal business, get in a workout at the office gym....but I'm just bored. And it would probably be healthy for me to spend less time obsessively compulsively checking Facebook and e-mail and Twitter, and waiting for something exciting to happen or for it to be five o'clock.
And my friend had especially selected me. Me. He knows a lot of people, after seven years on the Hill. He could have called up a lot of folks. But he called me. He wants me. He thinks I can do what needs to be done. I am awed and flattered that he sees me that way, and think that the work I have done has been noticed more than I thought.
So I said yes, and started the political wheels moving, and told my bosses what was up. And now I'm waiting, and hoping this is the right thing. And trying to get all of my "necessary" internet shopping done before the new thing starts. Next stop: Zappo's, because new shoes are always required for the first day, just like school.
Congratulations!
Posted by: maggie may | Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 07:18 PM