nothing makes a lame establishment like "employment" sounds more exciting and culturally diverse like makeshift ebonics.
so this is week 2 of the new job. i am now a government employee. life is grand! although, one of my many computer trainings (not to mention common sense) would lead me to believe that my computer activity is heavily monitored. so someone is probably sitting in a bunker somewhere reading this as i type it... in which case: sorry. and thanks again for the job!
behold my fancy acronyms: i work for the HSO office, we're a part of DOL/DPW. and although when that sentence occurred to me, i had intended to translate, but i dont really feel like it. you can google it, but it's not that interesting. suffice it to say that i work at the off post housing office, or "Housing Services". it is my job to assist soldiers in finding a house to rent in the community. i also serve as a mediator between property managers and soldiers and make sure everyone acts in accordance with the Kansas Landlord and Tennant Laws. occasionally i jump on a government website and process someone coming to post or leaving. basically - my job duties are the same as my last job, minus about 75% of my work load. oh yea, and i'm making about $10,000 more a year. money is great, but really, my biggest relief is not having to be associated with the former company. i'm not going to lie, the bosses were pretty miffed when i turned in my notice. they took it as a personal insult that i would abandon the company. and i did not make it much of a secret that i was miserable there, so i'm not sure why they're surprised.... but anyway, i've heard some shady things since i left but mostly i dont care. shortly after announcing my plans to leave, i began to feel a weight lifting off of me that i had not fully realized had been there. i am no longer dreading work, i am not stressed about life. and if being around me wasnt obvious enough, a sure fire symbol of my new outlook on life is that my face, for the first time in about 5 years, is clearing up. that's right - the pepperoni pizza chin is on the way out!!! i wear makeup and fix my hair every day and i dress up in the nicest clothes that i own (that i can fit into) - and not because i'm told to look nice to suck up to a big cheese, but because i WANT to. in fact, i have been told a number of times that there is no dress code down here, i can wear jeans if i want to, but i dont. well, i take that back, i have worked in the barracks a couple of days cleaning and i wore jeans, and i will be cleaning out the storage closet tomorrow so i'll wear jeans. but otherwise, i'm pretty much a big fancy pants.
so being a government employee means training days and potential business training trips to exotic locations such as "Georgia" and "Fort whatever...". i also have a retirement plan and all that good jazz. i had never really thought of making a "career" out of a government job, but i'd be a fool not to. the same benefits to a military career apply, but with less guns. 20 years = cushy retirement. and once you're in the GS system, you are in for life. when we go to another duty station, i will have priority placement for a job at or close to my current paygrade, regardless of qualifications, because i'm already here. so that's pretty handy.
plus, my coworkers are really nice, which makes all the difference in the world!
so yea, life is good.
in other news: we continue to prepare for the upcoming deployment and are keeping extremely busy with that.
i also got to see cameron last weekend at the airshow out at Whiteman. mom and dad came up and it was about a 2 hr drive for the 4 of us to go down to see him. we spent Saturday together and my aunt and uncle and one of my cousins (who hadn't seen for a good 10-12 years) and his new wife came. against my better financial judgement, i'm using the Special Occasion Excuse to go to wichita this next weekend also to see him again at the McConnell air show. fiesta at mom and dad's saturday at 7. i took a few pictures of our time together saturday and will obviously take more this weekend, but the computer at home is dead and i'm not big on laptops so i havent been online much to post anything.
hope all is well with everyone else!
