Some time in October:

A lot has happened since we've been here that has made me sort of sit back and think.

It's not an easy thing to do; to uproot oneself from the only home one has know for the last fifteen years and hop across the planet to a third-world country where, at best, one will be a housewife enmeshed in the incestuous social fabric of the Foreign Service. And finding morale to be, to put it lightly, poor, upon arrival, makes it even more challenging.

And yet Christopher and I have been quite cheerfully settling in to our new life. Perhaps it is our sunny outlook, or perhaps we are touched by the hand of a deity (I gotta go with Ganesha here), but things have fallen into place more auspiciously than either of us could have anticipated.

I have a job. Before I left the house this evening, I was prepared to tell you all about it. Now some red-tape issues have crept up, as I am, apparently, the very first spouse in Chennai to propose to work outside of the consulate. Suffice it to say, for now, that I have been offered the opportunity to work for a company whose business plan I admire greatly, doing work that I both love and am exceptionally good at, making an extremely acceptable salary, working a schedule that is amenable to my desires, and that has the potential to be a very transportable career.

More to come as things develop. Sorry.

Some time in November:

OK. Many of you have already heard the finer points of how this all happened but, suffice it to say here, that I no longer have this dream job. I am not really at liberty to discuss the details, but there were some concerns expressed by the powers that be and I am not allowed to accept it. Bah. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

I shall overcome!