The countdown continues……

To the day of the great escape from Shopping Mall USA. The day I have dreamed about, longed for, thought would never come, schemed and lobbied for, and despaired about-may actually finally be going to happen.

While its not taking me back to Asia-it is taking away from Shopping Mall and out of the USA. That, of course, is assuming all goes well and nothing comes along to dash it at the last second. Things are on track-but I’ve learned from hard experience not to get too excited about something happening until it actually happens. There are still a couple of things that could go wrong-but so far things are tracking very well. But I will be really convinced when I get off the plane.

The S.O. and I have been in the throes of packing up for a move to Germany. There I will take a new job-having been unceremoniously shunted out of my old one by the deranged contract strategy of the worst agency in the Federal Government;  led by the worst excuse for an acquisition professional, or a leader/CEO that can exist in the United States Army today. Yesterday I drove to a port near the eastern seaboard, for the purpose of dropping off my vehicle to begin the long trek to Deutschland-where hopefully it will arrive dry, and with no more scratches or dents than it went in. We previously sent off a small box of things by express to Germany, and have been busy cramming what would normally take a couple of months into about 3.5 weeks. The necessity of my loss of  job situation and the requirements of the job in Germany have made this a short fuzed move to say the least. So we have both been busy getting all the various and sundry details attended to ( made all the more difficult by the S.O. choosing now to have a fender bender with the car). The main packout starts on Monday and by Thursday we will be cleaning up the house and turning over the keys to our real estate agent. ( Hopefully it will rent reasonably quickly-if not, it will have to go on the market).

I should be clear about one point. I have nothing but praise for my company, who in my opinion is one of the last bastions of humanity left in the defense contracting business today. It was not they who created this problem, but the worst agency’s doing. The company did every thing humanly possible to help me, and keep me in their employ. However they were stymied at every turn, by stupid decision making by the people who worshipped gold. They are a great company and have nothing but praise and respect from yours truly-and I would gladly work there again. ( Provided it was overseas).

Why Germany you might ask? Well a bunch of reasons. This summer I was in the running for a position back in my beloved Tokyo. Went through all the hoops, made the short list, and was selected as an “alternate”-meaning I would only get the position if the first guy got run over a bus or something. With the loss of our contract, I was resigned to being in Shopping Mall- figuring that meant I had really only two alternatives. Change companies or move to another task/ location with my current company. While I was in Romania, I was fairly optimistic that I would be able to remain with my current company, keep my seniority, and not have to take a pay cut. The plan seemed to be comprehensive and had some good options if things went totally down hill. Or so we thought. Then over time-with me over in Bucharest- they all dropped off the vine one by one. ( I remain convinced there is skulduggery at work inside the office that oversees these contracts, especially on a couple where we clearly had the best solution).  So that left option two.

Option two was going to be to change companies. Except for one  little problem. The company that won the contract we were working under-unilaterally decided not to fill any Shopping Mall positions. Only they did not bother to inform any of us down here. Which left me and my co-worker waiting for offers that were never going to come. So much  for “first right of refusal”. 

This is where fate , or the Grace of God-however you choose to characterize it- stepped in. (I prefer to think of it as God watching out for fools and drunks, and I qualify on both counts) I was lucky enough to get a call asking me if I was still interested in a position overseas, and that “there could possibly be a position in Germany” that would match my current experience. I said yes. And so after some ups and downs and having to jump through some hoops, we are now getting ready to move to Der Bundes Republik Deutschland. The S.O. is excited although she won’t admit it-but between complaining about how lazy American packers and movers are-she has been sneaking peeks at her German travel books and asking lots of questions of people on that side of the Atlantic.

I’m excited too-but also cautiously wary. I keep wondering if this was the right choice to make. I think so-but of course you never know for sure till much later down the pike.   There are pro’s and cons to this course of action, and financially, what with the Euro being what it is, is probably not the safest option I could have taken. Some belt tightening is going to be on the menu to be sure. At least for awhile. No champagne and caviar-the cheap pilsner will have to do. At least I had a choice,( a lot of folks don’t get that)  and there is another thing I keep reminding myself of.

You see, I had a couple other opportunities over the past three years-that for a variety of reasons were not the right fit, or  the timing/salary/job description/etc etc etc were not right. I turned them down. I don’t really regret those decisions-I think they may have been the correct ones at the time-but then again, they might not have been and I may have really screwed the pooch by not taking the opportunities when they were offered. So this time, with the added incentive of staring at the precipice-I decided that if they wanted me, and the pieces came together-I was going to say yes. Etc, etc, etc’s be damned. The saying that kept going through my mind as this transpired was, ” You regret the things you didn’t do, a heck of a lot more than the things you did.” And I’m not getting any younger. So I decided to take the chance-and hope for the best. Whether its the right path or not……well time will have to tell. And as it turned out, it was a good thing I did, given the way everything else transpired here in Shopping Mall.

And at least its a decision, a path decided on-with now just steps in a row to execute. That’s a relief in and of itself. Now its just getting through the move, getting on the plane, and getting on with it. Compared to the anxiety I have felt over the last several months-that’s something to celebrate in and of itself.

And while it may not be Asia-well, it may yet get me back there. I prefer to think of it as circling the globe,  working my way back to the promised land the long way. And given the current state of politics and everything else here-it may be a good thing for my sanity too.

So the countdown to liberation day continues. I week and counting. Posting may be intermittent as we close down Internet, phones etc, but wish us luck. Ich bin sehr glucklich! (Totemo ureshii desu! in Nihongo).