New Windows

Just a quick blog post, one of those so I can look back and remember how life was in mid-2012. My apartment is having the windows replaced so I am staying with friends. We are all looking for jobs in their apartment, very European with high ceilings and white walls, no future, and a currency that is on the verge of collapse. Weirdly romantic. I told them stories of dropping out of college and having no money and doing part-time construction work, and they asked if it was horrible and I don't remember it that way, but it must have been difficult at the time. We are all panicking, but they don't seem to understand why I am enjoying the panic so much. Because I've noticed that the memories are very different than the reality, and the memories are all that you will have at some point, and I'm already enjoying these.

Jobless (Again)

So, it's all over. No internship at NATO. No security clearance. Note that it wasn't exactly declined; the Department of Defence merely stated that they were "unable or unwilling" to adjudicate the matter and sent the application to another department, playing games with it until NATO had to fill the position already and retracted their offer. So, it was pretty much the dating equivalent of taking me out to dinner and then never calling me again despite assurances that they really had a good time, then never responding to texts so that I can't ask what the deal was. Which is kind of a chickenshit thing to do, in my opinion.

I don't exactly get a lot of sympathy from my non-American friends. "So you got f***ed by the US Government, huh? Big deal, my country gets f***ed by the US Government every day." Europeans just don't understand these things. Or maybe they understand and I really don't....

So this was the beginning and the end of my career in government. It was real, and it was fun, but it wasn't real fun, as they say. I am considering narrowing my career options and making myself permanently unemployable by the feds by registering as a member of the Communist Party in Oregon. Kind of the equivalent of throwing pennies in the trash.

The worst part of this is that now I have no idea what I'm doing, career-wise. So if anybody has any hot tips you know where to find me. I'm a little disappointed in myself that "military waterboy with a master's degree" was the best plan I had.