The first iPhone post

So I bit the bullet and got a new toy yesterday, so we'll see how this works out. I'm blogging from my fancy new iPhone 4s, which does all sorts of amazing things I don't know about yet (I'm assured). One thing it does have going for it that my previous droid did not is world wide portability. With an unlock-able sim card, I can take this baby anywhere I go and have access to the local network (even my phone number is still active with Verizon).

Plus, I now have instagram, which lets me to take pictures that look way cooler than my abilities would usually allow.

Scooter Weather

I'm now entering my third spring season in D.C. and I still haven't gotten used to the amazingness that is a real change in the seasons. Seattle is a beautiful place to live, and the summers there are indeed tough to beat, but the transition from one season to the next is gradual and anticlimactic. Kinda rainy to more rainy to really rainy back to not so rainy. And the cycle begins again. And while we have true seasons where I grew up, on the dry side of the mountains in the Pacific Northwest, there are very few deciduous trees to burst back to life and the arid climate tempers down some of the greenness. But here in the swampy mid-Atlantic, spring seems to happy so suddenly. One day everything is dead and brown, and seriously, a week or two of sunny days and suddenly there is grass, and flowers, and leaves, and blossoms. Everywhere!

Here you can see the progression from brown trees, to slightly green grass, to full blown blossoms. I've been able to get out on the bike a few times, as well as out on Bella, my trusty Vespa. I can't believe I've been a scooter owner for over two years, but she now has over 700 miles and a freshly renewed DC registration. I'm hoping that wherever the foreign service decides to send me, I'll be able to take Bella with me, though the thought of scooting through a chaotic African market or a packed Asian city makes me more than a bit nervous. I don't think I have those skills, (a topic discussed humorously in this article by former FSO Dave Seminara titled "10 tips to avoid breaking your neck or your budget on a moped"). So in the mean time I'll just enjoy the spring weather here in DC and get as many scooting/biking days in while I can.

photo a day

While reading this blog I came across a simple but brilliant idea being facilitated by this blog. Take a photo each day using simple themes as inspiration, and then post the photos on your own website, twitter, pinterest, etc. To fill up some space and give me something to think about besides my impending future, I thought I'd give it try, starting today.

And get the creative juices flowing, I used a few of my past photos for the first four days in March. 

                                            1. Up                                                                               2. Fruit

                                          4. Bedside                                                            3. My Neighborhood 

The themes for the rest of the Month are:

Blogging in the Foreign Service

My early years as a Peace Corps blogger - circa 2006

While I haven't started A-100* quite yet, I might now officially consider myself a "Foreign Service Blogger." Having already been a "Peace Corps Blogger," I'm well aware of some of the dos and don'ts of putting things out there for the world to see as an official representative of the United States. But, with the FS**, the stakes are much bigger and my representation much more official. That black passport does more than just get you into the short line at airport customs, it means that you are a representative of the United States in your official AND personal interactions with the outside world.

So I've been thinking about what this will mean as I transition my writing from a civilian considering and pursuing life in the FS to actually living and walking the life everyday. There are hundreds of FS bloggers out there right now, and I've been incredibly thankful for their candid accounts of life as FSOs. I hope that by continuing to write about the ups, downs, and mundanes, I can pay it forward just a little. In this vain, I've created a list on the right of the FS blogs that I follow in my google reader, each offering their own perspective on life as an FSO or FS family member. Also, recognizing that there are many many things which will need to go unsaid here, I'll link to an article written by one of the more active FS bloggers about how to continue writing a blog that is interesting and entertaining without putting your job/life/U.S. policy in jeopardy.

So in the coming weeks, as I receive all my paperwork and get my head wrapped around the next steps, I'll fill in some of the blanks of what happens next. I'll also be transitioning out of the job that I've had and very much enjoyed for the past 2.5 years, so I'm sure there will be reflections to be had there. All of that aside, it's also spring, so there will be Cherry Blossoms to enjoy and other outdoor activities to be experience, hopefully with some accompanying photos to share. Peace!


*A-100 - The course officially known as the "Orientation for Foreign Service Officers" is the 6-week class all new foreign service officers take.
** FS or FSO - Foreign Service or Foreign Service Officer. While I always attempt to refrain from going overboard on the acronyms, spelling out foreign service is just getting annoying and so from here on out I will almost always use FS or FSO.