Time to Say Good-Bye

I have been at my new position for seven months and I am about to pack my bags and move on, hopefully to something better.

Last month a federal agency in my home town (West Coast) flew me out there to interview for a job. They offered it to me a few weeks later. It's not with the same agency, but positions are very difficult to get in my home town and that is where husband and I want to go next so that is what we are doing, except that I am going first and he is coming two months later to join me. Not idea but could be a lot worse.

I will miss DC. I will miss the PMF friends that I have made. I will miss the walkability of my neighborhood in Georgetown. I may even miss the bureaucracy that is my agency. What I won't miss: g-boys and girls who are so passionate about their cause that they treat people like shit on their race to the top of the agency or the Hill. Am I just a public administrator who wants to work in an agency where people are nice to each other? Maybe so. Could be worse. I am not sure if I will miss more than I won't miss. It might be a wash.

Regardless the lesson to be learned here is about how to depart and frankly I still have some learning to do. I told the boss as soon as I got something in writing, about 6 weeks before my expected departure date. Then I told him again today that this move was going to happen because I found out that my security clearance went through, the last remaining hold up. He told me he was going to keep it a secret until I knew for sure but it turns out he told at least one person. I feel really dissapointed that he told someone because now I am getting paranoid that everyone knows and I don't like putting on the front that I will be around for the next phase of this or that project.

He wants me to stay for another two weeks to coordinate our part of a big event on the National Mall. Sounds kind of fun. We will see how it goes.

Good Fun on this Website for Government Workers

I was stumbling around Google looking for info on whether I would lose my annual leave and sick leave it I jumped ship and switched to another federal agency. I not only got the information I was looking for from "Bureaupat" but also got to play a great government trivia game and donate clean water to someone in Africa. Not sure I can verify that last part but it still felt good. Check it out at http://ohmygov.com/pages/realunreal.aspx

BTW

It is a terrible tragedy that thousands of Haitians were killed this week in the huge earthquake there. I am impressed by how easy the powers that be made it for us to donate money to relief efforts using our mobile phones and promptly went to my phone and texted 90999. I noticed that many other online retailers were offering a portion of the proceeds from a sale to that cause also and gladly participated.