Swallowing the Sun, Containing the Crazy

 

When the sun is shining and it’s not too cold out (read: under 65), I like to close my eyes and face the sun. I feel like a sunflower. I feel like I’m swallowing the sunshine. Standing there, wherever I am, and just soaking it in, the essence of sunshine, it feels as though a thirst has been slaked. Seriously it satisfies me in a way few other things can.

Aside from picking the warm parts of recent days to swallow the sun, I work on either ignoring or containing my spinning gyroscope of craziness. That is, my brain and it’s refusal to focus, settle, relax or stop popping neurons. To be honest, it’s exhausting sometimes. On the other hand, if we’re being honest… I bring it on myself. *sigh*

It’s T minus 8 days until I leave for Sri Lanka. For the most part the trip isn’t causing too much stress, although there are a few factors making my brainwaves spike. One of those is the fact that FlyDubai, with whom I’ve booked a flight from Istanbul to Colombo via Dubai, as well as a return flight following the same path in reverse, has decided to change and then cancel my return flight. I cannot get an agent to answer their customer service line – yes, it’s in Dubai, so I use Skype credit to call - or my e-mails. While I’ve made an effort to not panic since I can discuss it at their desk in Istanbul when I check in for the first flight over, it’s still niggling in the back of my skull. Today, thankfully, a second stressor was relieved: getting malaria pills. My insurance won’t cover it unless, and I’m absolutely serious, I’m diagnosed with malaria. Fortunately, an alternative option in the form of a fellow traveler from another country worked out, so I will not be out the $350 it would have cost me.

Anyway, packing goes well and preparation in general is on schedule!

Last week I dashed up to DC to apartment hunt and, with the help of my good friend Sarah, whose couch is the most comfy in the world, and my cousins Rick and Ellen, I’ve narrowed down the areas I’d most like to live in. Upon my return from Sri Lanka, and after a few days of R&R with the folks in Durham, I’ll return and hunt and find a place, call the movers to pick up my stuff, and hopefully be moved in and settled by July 2, when the NOAA job begins.

The NOAA job, being a government job, comes with a thousand and one decisions to make and thus two thousand and one forms to fill out prior to that first day. Three dozen health insurance options, vision and dental plans, life insurance, TSP, and on and on.

Life is good. Life is crazy. My mental processes are screaming along at warp speed around a racecar track, never finding the finish line.

G’night.

Passover Update

 

My stomach is full, I’m appreciating my freedom and life seems pretty danged good at the moment.

The club-shaped, lopsided bandage weighing down the ring finger of my left hand may indicate differently, but that is a mere kitchen accident that will heal quickly. Hopefully. Besides the slice of finger-pad now missing from that finger, though, life is good!

I’ve officially accepted a job position with NOAA, working as a project manager for the Systems Branch of their Office of Satellite Operations in Suitland, MD. I’ll begin working in July, meaning that a move up to the DC region is imminent.

Before all that, though, comes a brief scratch to my travel itch: I’ll be heading to Sri Lanka, via Istanbul, in the beginning of May. Five weeks there with my Israeli friend Beny and Finnish friend Jutta will be followed by a short week in Turkey, then I’ll get home June 15th, just in time to hug the parents, pack my things and move to DC.

Prior to leaving for Sri Lanka, I will take my last PRAXIS test. The first three, competency tests in reading, writing and arithmetic, I took back in early March. I scored quite well on the math and reading sections and will find out my writing score in a few days. At the end of April, I will take a pedagogy test for grades five through nine, and so I’m studying diligently for that. Once all these (hopefully passing) scores are in, I’ll be able to apply for the DoDDS program.

Tonight was the first night of Pesach, or Passover. My maternal grandmother flew in from Miami and my brother and sister-in-law drove up from Atlanta. It was a grand feast and felt very much like tradition, although I missed last year’s seder. The past few days have been packed full of cooking, planning and reacting to slicing my finger.

Mid-March saw me in Colorado Springs, CO, visiting my good friends Joe, Jeff and Eric, and then in Duluth, MN, visiting family. It was a really nice trip, getting me out and about and making me consider myself in new ways, as well as reconnecting me with much-loved individuals.

Ongoing activities to keep me busy include volunteer teaching English in an ESL for adults class in Durham once a week; helping my parents with odd jobs around the house; gardening in the folk’s veggie and herb gardens; keeping to a decent workout routine daily; studying for the PRAXIS test; planning for Sri Lanka; and all the other minor matters that take up time and energy.

Life is good and the month of April promises to be one of routines, nice weather, anticipation and planning.

Hag sameach, and may we all remember that freedom isn’t something to take for granted.