Swiety Mikolaj, CLO, and other stuff

Sorry for no new posts...It's been a VERY hectic week and I'm just able to pull a couple of minutes between bringing Toby home and putting him down for a nap to blog a bit...

St. Nick (Swiet Mikolaj in Polish) came to visit yesterday as it's his name day and he brings presents on that day in Poland (and Germany and the Ukraine and probably more places, but those are the only ones that I can say for certain). So he came the day before Toby's birthday and now there are some fantastic toys strewn all over the living room.

There was a party at the ambassador's on Wednesday where someone came to me and asked me if I was going to apply for the CLO job (Dylan must be hearing this more than me, because that was actually the first time I was approached but he has mentioned a couple of times...then again I am NEVER at the embassy and he's there everyday). I told her no. She asked why, telling me that I'd be so good at it, and I said, "Honestly, because they didn't choose me the first time". I felt pretty proud of myself, other than the fact that she actually got me into a discussion right there about how angry I still am 6 months later, because I didn't feel the need to beat around the bush. I was flat out honest with her. Usually I'm too nice.

Now the bad thing, she did get me to vent for probably 15 minutes about how I am so angry that I'm hearing how I'd be great for the job (well, hell yeah I did this job before IN THIS LOCATION!) when they didn't PICK ME THE FIRST TIME. Then I was given lame excuses about how they don't hire people who are not yet at post. Then why the hell did you interview me? To make it seem like you were doing the right thing? It's a screwed up system and it pretty much soured me for quite some time on the idea of working in an embassy and particularly THIS embassy.

She did go on and on about how newcomers need that good CLO and I could be that person (this is something they do to appeal to you as CLO, when you're good at it you're someone who really likes helping people and so they tell you that people need you to appeal to your sympathy). That used to work for me, and I used to aspire to things like keeping a security clearance and helping people. But, and this is something else you can search in my blog, no one helped me the first time I moved here and no one helped me the second time. I have never seen the inside of my sponsor's house. I don't feel like I make a difference because if I did then people would be helping people here and they're still not. Now, I do have the couple of people who are like, I go to church with you maybe you can help me find things or learn things, but for everyone else I feel like the embassy wanted you to be on your own. Sucks for you, but My Give a Damn's Busted. (I really hope y'all can access that link because I can't since I'm outside the US).

Sorry, that's my venting for today. I'll try to get past this CLO thing, but it may take a while. Toby's preschool teacher told me that I should just demand a higher salary and take the job, which is a good idea, but I don't think I want them to win...silly I know.

No scrapbooking this week. I'm really busy and most of the time I scrap Lain's challenges, but this week I couldn't do her challenge. It was to use all one manufacturer and I just don't have enough to make a layout from one manufacturer. My stuff is eclectic!