Heading Home

(I wrote this yesterday while waiting for my delayed flight, and writhing in agony at the incessant coverage of the O.J. Simpson burglary case. I mean really - who gives a crap? Why does this require round-the-clock coverage? It's not like there aren't a few wars going on and a civil rights controversy in Louisiana and I'm pretty sure I could stub my toe if I tried. All of these things would be far more worthy of our collective attention. Makes me endlessly grateful that we don't have cable anymore - NPR seems to have a broader body of things to talk about, and they're my primary news source these days.)

I’ve been out of town for a couple of days on a business trip, and am sitting in the airport waiting to hop on my plane home (as soon as it arrives). It was a good trip, very productive, got to meet some colleagues I’ve worked with extensively over the phone, and I’m glad I came. But it will be nice to sleep in my own bed again, snuggling up to my furnace of a husband. (We refer to it as his “Latin Heat”.)

I’ve been thinking the last week or two about work-y things, and I am pondering a change at the moment. The weird thing is that I’m not unhappy at my job, I think I’m pretty good at it, I really love the people I work with, and I know that they’ve been pretty good to me. True, the occasional long hours suck, but when my back went out, when Special K’s mom was so sick, when we went to Italy, all of those things – they were awesome and accommodating and kind and all those good things. A friend of mine is starting a job at a Christian humanitarian relief organization, and she sent me a job description that I frankly think is a little out of my league, but it’s for their Eurasia programs, specifically in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Well, it just so happens that I’ve spent a good amount of time in two out of three of those regions! (Who ever thought my time in Yemen might be so handy…?) I really like what the organization does and think it would be great to work for, but I’m feeling conflicted. There would also be some international travel required, which could be awesome for me, but will also mean that Special K and I need to discuss what we’re both cool with. For some reason, the number “20%” keeps hanging around in my head – which would involve about 10 – 12 weeks of travel per year, so a few weeks every few months, give or take. I think I could do that, but we’ve got to think about whether or not we could do that.

Of course, it does no harm to apply, there’s nothing to say that I’ll even get an interview, much less an offer. But the other thing is that after several months of massive financial stress, I’m feeling as though K and I are able to make some progress now (VERY happy about that), and I have some kind of paranoia about jeopardizing our tenuous situation by switching jobs, especially one for which I suspect I might not totally be qualified.

So yeah – there it is – I don’t think it will hurt to apply and see what happens, but the thought of leaving my job now leaves me with odd feelings of guilt and possibly misplaced loyalty. Dunno. Any advice or input from anyone would be very much appreciated!

On a completely different note, I bought a book when I got here and the man ringing me up made a mistake, charging me $1,889.45 for a $14.95 book. When that came up on the register, I raised my eyebrows slightly and the woman behind me said “wow – that better be a really good book…”

It's very good so far, but still not $1900 good.