Closing Time

One of my the signature college songs was, "Closing Time" by Semisonic. That song popped into my head as I pondered how to write this entry.

Today, after a ridiculous goose chase called outprocessing, and a number of farewell dinners and hugs from colleagues, we are ready to go. It has been a learning experience. I've made good friends.

"Open all the doors and let you out into the world"

A Wild Ride

Kelly: The last month has been a blur. My grandfather died. Matt spent the last month working in the States while I've been here in Germany. I was offered a job with the Army Public Health Command. I submitted my resignation to my current position with 30 days notice, and it took 10 days to figure out that yes, indeed, I did sign a one-year contract. HR was fighting it because most "normal" contracts require two years of service. I was a wreck. I couldn't imagine staying for another year without Matt and with two caustic co-workers. So when it ws finally confirmed that I could leave without penalty, I had to scramble to get the movers lined up. Unfortunately, I had to wait for offiical orders before I could schedule anything and of course, HR was unresponsive. Thanks to the efforts of an amazing executive assistant, I was able to get my orders and schedule everything. Thanks also to the support of an amazing friend who I will miss dearly. Still, I was holding my breath. Life here feels so uncontrollable. I feel as if logic and order don't always prevail. Rules change. People change. Ugh. With this as the background, I was trying to organize our goods for the first packing and moving that took place last Friday. To top that off, I got food poisoning last weekend and had upset stomach for 5 days before relenting and visiting the doctor. I am usually anti-conventional medicine, but thank goodness for antibiotics! I'm finally feeling better. I have been surprised by the response to my resignation. One "colleague" took over several of my duties already, slamming my work to my boss. Another "colleague" stuck her name on my door. Remember...I'm not leaving for three more weeks. Meanwhile, a stoic Major cried when she found out and other colleagues were similarly dismayed. How interesting. This work experience has been such an education.

That was going on on this side of the ocean, and Matt was dealing with his own set of issues. His boss is on leave, so he is covering for her while trying to do his job which he hadn't fully grasped yet and hadn't caught up on the work that was there prior to taking the position. So, work is busy. He's sleeping on the floor at a friend's house 1 hour from work. He's also trying to buy a house in Frederick. He sifted through/discovered information on general contracting, permitting, sub-contracting, historic preservation, city laws, city taxes, mortgages, construction loans, and more. Finally, his number crunching concluded that it was feasible. He worked with a contractor to get the numbers down, thanks to my parents volunteering to paint and help out :) We're still submitting all of the numbers to the bank, but it appears that all will go through by the end of the month. So, Matt's next challenge was finding a place for us to live. After seeing many scary, small, cold, dark, and moldy apartments, our realtor found us a sublet...furnished...over a tattoo parlor! Done!

We are so excited. So so so excited. Matt arrived back in Germany yesterday. We'll spend the remaineder of our time here closing accounts, organizing, cleaning, running around among bases to outprocess before hopping our plane to return home at the end of the month. Hello, Frederick!