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.