Wednesday, October 27, 2010

It Depends

I finally got a chance to attend a Foreign Service Spouse Orientation today, since I missed the one they had during Mitch's training due to life/kids/temporary-ish insanity.  First of all, I thought I was fairly dressed up.  And I would have been if I'd been in Seattle.   Nice jeans instead of sweatpants, cute red shoes, black shirt, stylish little jacket.  I was the only one in jeans, and most spouses were wearing suits.  Ugh. I sat in the back.  I felt like it was my first day in a new school and I was wearing headgear and last year's gauchos.

The orientation was from 8am to 4:15, so Mitch was nice enough to stay home and see the kids off to school so I could get there on time.  There was plenty of valuable information and a question answering session.  Most of the answers started with, "It depends."  So, basically, any question you might have about the Foreign Service can be answered that way, and it's a good thing I figured that out, because at 11am my cell phone started angrily vibrating in my pocket.  It was the elementary school calling to tell me that Grace was in the nurse's office with stomach pain.  I rushed to the school to get her, and she said she felt much better by the time we got home.  She said that she was worried about me being gone all day, and her tummy started hurting because she didn't think I'd be available to her.  Ironically, one of the parts of the orientation that I missed dealt with kids in transition and starting new schools.  

In other news, Mitch is headed to Nigeria in a few weeks for his first TDY (temporary duty).  What awesome gift will he bring me back for my birthday next month?  "It depends."  Of course.

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