The last couple of months have been difficult to say the least – it’s very hard to live your life when you don’t know what is going to happen next. Will my family move back to the US permanently or will we try to go back to life in Egypt in the autumn? If we stay, should I start looking for someplace of my own to live? Where? Which of course leads to the question of whether or not I should look for a job.
My husband is looking for jobs of course, but he’s been working in a fairly specialized field for a long time and the jobs at his level are few and far between. I have the opposite problem: I have a master’s degree in my field but next to no practical working experience since I’ve been a full time wife and mother for the last decade. Entry level would likely be all I could qualify for, which is fine, only even then I probably don’t look so good on paper next to a shiny new college graduate. Knowing how the game is played going in makes reading job ads a fairly depressing exercise in what is very much an employers’ market. I know that I could learn to do all that an employer might require, but getting the chance to prove myself is the trick.
Here’s the cover letter I’d like to write:
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing in response to your ad for ____________________. As you can see on my resume (attached) I have a bachelor’s degree (with honors) and a Master’s in Library Science. Shortly after graduation, I worked for two years in corporate libraries doing online research and organizing their specialized collections before I moved abroad.
I did not work in a library setting in my decade abroad, but nonetheless I honed many valuable skills. As a full time mother and wife, I became a champion multi-tasker. I can do laundry, dishes, cook dinner, and help with homework simultaneously while also chatting online with friends across the world. Time management is another area of strength: I can not only keep my own schedule but those of two active children in my head. I can take care of a family of four including housework, homework, eleven hours of tennis lessons per week, two nights of soccer practice plus two Saturday soccer games (fall only), and still find time for two evenings of yoga classes.
Food management is also a talent: I can make a tasty and nutritious dinner in half an hour from assorted and seemingly unrelated ingredients lurking in my refrigerator and pantry. Need last minute snacks for a class / soccer team? No problem, I’ve got you covered whether you require healthy / fun / convenient / vegan / allergy friendly food.
I also possess incredible attention to detail. Nothing escapes my notice: stains, leftovers, homework / chores left undone, dust bunnies. Need something found? Just ask me. I know where everything in my house is at any given moment. Need confirmation? Just ask my husband or children.
Some might call all of the above talents micromanaging. I just call it efficiency.
As a mother I have honed and expanded my interests in science and health matters: I can now diagnose and treat a variety of illnesses and identify those which require more specialized attention. I have also gained considerable skill in psychological counseling and support. Note: I am not licensed to practice either of these skills outside the bounds of my own family or the sideline of a tennis court / soccer field.
In my time abroad I have traveled extensively which has taught me to appreciate other cultures. Traveling has also allowed me to learn how to navigate airports, bargain in souks, and communicate by way of charades and smiles. I have been to over ten countries and have paid for the tickets and related expenses by making and selling quilts. In addition to quilting, I am also moderately talented in costume design. If ever you require a handmade Tudor-style velvet hat, I have a pattern.
In addition to my many domestic talents, I have also written and published four novels both digitally and in print as well maintaining a website, an active blog, and an alter ego for the last four years. In short, yes, I can type and have good computer and communication skills.
On second thought, nevermind. I withdraw my application for your position. I see now that I am over-qualified. Thank you for your consideration and best of luck in finding the right applicant to suit your needs.
I’ve had this song in my head for a few weeks now – I think chorus is somewhat inspiring for my current circumstances.
I get knocked down
But I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
When I looked up the rest of the lyrics, I found it strangely fitting for the way I spent my Saturday night – on a neighborhood roaming cocktail party which ended with karaoke!
Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away
He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the better times
“Oh Danny Boy
Danny Boy
Danny Boy…”
I’m happy to say that I didn’t actually get knocked down on Saturday night, though there were some others who didn’t look so steady on their feet by the end of the night! And I sang my first karaoke song – Wham! “Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)”. Thank goodness there isn’t a video of that scary and not very musical moment!
I had certain plans and goals for the year, none of which has worked out so far and given that nearly 1/4 of the year is gone already, I don’t have much optimism for getting back on track. The Egyptian Revolution overthrew more than just a government – it also disrupted many people’s plans.
Since I am not in my own home at the moment, I have not been doing much cooking / baking and so I am not on track for keeping up with my new recipe / new dessert resolution. I have revisited some old family favorites which are new to my children and have been well received, but it doesn’t count toward my goal since I myself am not trying anything new.
(I have been watching my friend when she cooks though and have been storing away some ideas for later.)
I haven’t been walking for exercise or anything else. I actually own a car now and use it far more than my feet to get around. In fact, I haven’t even done yoga since the end of January and I’m missing it. I did buy a yoga mat but it’s hard to get motivated to do a workout on my own.
(The bike path near the river is an attractive alternative though)
Time management? Yet another fail. First we evacuated our home, then I spent several weeks homeschooling. The children are back in school now but I still can’t seem to find a rhythm. I waste all day hanging around, running errands, or simply killing time until the children come home again and get next to nothing done. If nothing else changes, this must. Not feeling productive is very depressing to me.
(As things continue to settle down, I should have many fewer errands / excuses to get out of my work)
All of my books are up and available digitally on several different websites, but it is time for me to get busy and get the last three proofed and formatted for print. They aren’t going to format themselves – I just need to sit down and do it.
I am sincerely going to try and have at least two of the three books ready to go by the end of April. That’s a reasonable goal, right? I’m timid to make too grandiose a plan given how things have been going lately. I don’t want to tempt fate.
Maybe making those books available will get me in the mood to get back to my current WIP? Can’t hurt to try.
I had a love/hate relationship to the weather in Cairo. On the one hand it was nice to know that depending on the season it was either going to be sunny and hot or sunny and cool because it sure made getting dressed in the morning easy. Who needs weathermen with monotony like that? Even sandstorms were fairly predictable in certain seasons. I had gotten fairly decent at predicting when a sandstorm might occur based on barometric pressure and the color of the sky.
In short, the weather in Egypt was pretty boring. Generally speaking, I prefer a real and discernible change in seasons.
Be careful what what you wish for!
The weather in America is much more variety and volatile. Having been born in the Middle East, my children have grown up in a region with next to no weather except for extreme temperatures and the occasional rain shower so real rain storms and snow are novelties. I don’t think either of them will grow up to chase storms however – they don’t even like the average thunderstorm.
We had a lines of storms pass through yesterday afternoon that included some sizable hail. I feared for the sunroof and windshield of my car, but of course I ran out with my camera as soon as it had tapered off!
It started out pea sized and just kept getting bigger. The shower probably lasted less than ten minutes but when it was done, the entire yard was sprinkled with “pretty” white balls.
The build-up looked particularly striking in the hammock.
I put my keys there for a little perspective. I sure wouldn’t have wanted to be out walking around with hail that size falling!
I also heard warnings about the possibility of tornadoes in the area (which I am glad my children did not hear). I’m both glad that the house where I’m staying is solidly built and has a basement but also thinking a little boring and monotonous weather isn’t always such a bad thing, even if it does involve the occasional sandstorm!
By the way, it was sunny again an hour later, then thundering again at night, and now it’s cold and there may be some snow. This is more variety than I need, thanks!!
There are a lot of things you need to do when you move to a new place, however temporarily.
I didn’t have to deal with things like renting and utilities since I’m taking advantage of a generous offer of a friend by living in her house. Even enrolling the children in school was easier than I expected. But I did have to buy a car which means I can’t fly entirely under the radar.
The title for my car came in the mail yesterday which meant that I had to go to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
I hate government offices. I haven’t really ever had a terrible experience in one – unless you count the time I had to have all of my husband’s letters of employment authenticated for his first job in the United Arab Emirates and that wasn’t the fault of the officials I had to see, it was more the sheer number of hoops I had to jump through in order to get every single signature verified from the local notary to the clerk of court, to the Secretary of State (of TWO different States), to the US Secretary of State (Madeline Albright at the time) to the UAE Embassy (but I digress).
In short, I know that however prepared I think I am for the transaction, there will be some crucial item I overlooked.
Because my instinct was to put it off, I gathered my title, all my sales papers, all my car insurance papers, my most recent Target bill (as proof of address), and my passport and went to the BMV. I am lucky in that the office is a small one located in a strip mall next to a Kmart. There was only one person in front of me when I went in and I got to the counter in less than three minutes.
I should have known it was too easy though. In spite of all the papers I had with me (none of which they asked to see) I did not have the one thing that I required: my social security card. Fortunately, I do have it with me, so I went home to get it.
The second clerk I dealt with did not remark upon my out of state license as the first clerk did for which I was glad. Sure, I’m living in Ohio at the moment and it wouldn’t be a big deal to get an Ohio license, but I am not sure I am quite ready to settle in that much. I like my MN license because it is easy to renew when I am visiting my father in the summer (that office is even tinier – I renewed last year in the back room of the local Radio Shack!) and I am also still hoping that being in Ohio is a temporary state of affairs. I’d like to think my family could reunite in Egypt in the fall so for now I’m just going to keep my head down and my options open.
I’m glad to have this chore out of the way too because though it is officially spring, the weather is supposed to turn nasty later today and then cold again. The bumble bee I saw yesterday better find his hive and hunker down again for a few days…
My daughter has been asking to go bowling since we arrived back in the US, but Saturday was such a lovely day – clear blue skies and nearly 60F – that I wanted to do something outside. My friend had told me about a bicycle trail that starts a few blocks from her house and runs along the Miami River. Since she happens to have enough bicycles in the correct sizes for us, that is what we decided to do.
(click any image to enlarge)
I haven’t actually been on anything other than an exercise bike since college so it took me a few minutes to get back in the swing. It was a scary moment when I forgot that the brakes were on the handlebars and not the pedal!!
As you can see by the debris on both sides of the trail, the river was pretty high fairly recently. The city has a series of levees and damns to guard against flooding.
This is pretty much as much as I saw of my son for most of the ride. He was doing his best impression of Elliot from ET, jacket flapping behind him, as I did more of a Mary Poppins thing on my city cruiser bike. He was having a blast riding up ahead and then coming back to tell us what was coming next. I didn’t mind – I am always looking for ways for him to spend some of his excess energy!
As beautiful as the trail was in winter, I can’t wait to see it when the trees leaf out again.
We were enjoying ourselves so much that we rode past the first park we came to and ended up in the next neighboring city. I estimate that we rode about 16 miles round trip – though my son easily added a few miles to his own ride with all the back and forth! Coming back wasn’t quite as much fun as going because we were riding into the wind but I was motivated to get back – I had worked up quite an appetite by then!
When we came inside, I had a tall glass of water and a rest. The children? They stayed outside to play some more and did a few more laps around the block on their bikes. Oh, to be young again…
There are plenty of ways in which I am very, very different than she was. My mother would never have moved out of the country – she was very impressed when I moved from Louisiana to Ohio after college on my own, but incredibly distressed when I moved overseas. She never understood my love of travel, particularly to the sort of places I like to go – she thought my trekking trip to Thailand last January was insane. Her health wasn’t good in the last few years of her life, but she once told me that there was more than enough to see in America to fulfill all of her travel wishes.
I love to listen to people speak English with different accents, particularly Irish and Scottish, where my mother had some sort of irrational dislike of English accents. I love many different international cuisines, especially Thai and sushi. My mother’s favorite food was mainstream American. I once bought her a Cracker Barrel gift certificate for Christmas which was very well received as were gift boxes from Omaha Steaks and Hickory Farms. (It’s much harder to ship sushi!)
The older I get however, the more I can see some of the similarities. The face I see in the mirror is still my own, but my hair is darkening and beginning to frost itself in the same way my mother’s hair did. I have my mother’s hands and I learned much of my snarky, sarcastic sense of humor from her.
There is one significant and striking way in which I am becoming my mother however. My mother hated to go out after she got home from work, and particularly after dark. If I ever told her I needed to go back to school for some special event or to the store for some school supply, she would do her best to either arrange alternate transportation for me or to convince me I could wait til the weekend for new pens / glue / paper. God forbid I should want to run an errand if it was both evening and raining.
As a child, I didn’t understand her aversion to going out again at all. Now? Once the sun goes down I have no interest in being out and about. Funny thing is that I often have fun once I am out – it’s just a hurdle to convince me to leave my house. I may like to travel but I’m a homebody at heart.
I’ve also noticed that just lately my taste for exotic cuisine is on the wane and I’ve developed a real craving for old favorites from my childhood. Chinese Hotdish, anyone?
My regular Friday post will be delayed due to excessive revelry on Thursday night. Oi-vey. I was up till very late and then had to get up early to get the kids to school. I really ought to know better, but it was so much fun.
For all those celebrating the day, Happy St. Patrick’s day! I admit that there have been many times in the past years when the holiday passed me by totally unnoticed – the average Egyptian doesn’t celebrate it and the children wore uniforms to school (I also wouldn’t think that it is a holiday that the Brits would encourage!). This year I remembered and I encouraged the children to wear something green to avoid any of the pinching I remember from my own childhood (are children even allowed to do that anymore??)
My friend spotted the scarf on this statue as we drove the children to school this morning – a decoration that was not present yesterday. I asked her to stop on our way back to the house so I could snap a picture. When we were closer we could see that in addition to the green on the scarf, there was also orange. My friend commented that wearing orange on St. Patrick’s day was a way for the Scottish to insult the Irish. I had never heard that so of course I looked it up when we got back to the house.
The Scottish may indeed wear orange to thumb their noses at the Irish, but apparently the root of wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day goes back to religion (as so many things do).
From Courier Press, 3/17/09:
According to this increasingly popular tradition, Protestants wear orange and green attire is left to Catholics. Thus, the color you wear is actually dependent on your religious affiliation. While this color tradition is not well known, it has deep roots in Irish history.
Protestant Irish have been known as “orange” ever since 1690, when William of Orange (William III), the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, defeated King James II, a Roman Catholic, in the Battle of the Boyne near Dublin. King William’s victory would ensure Protestant dominance on the island and has been a source of tension ever since.
Although the “Orange” in William’s name actually referred to a province in southern France, the color reference stuck. This is why orange now appears in the Irish flag — to symbolize the Protestant minority in Ireland.
Thus, “Orange Protestants” have been around for quite a while, but wearing the color on St. Patrick’s is a relatively new phenomenon. The first group take part in the tradition appears to have been the Orange Institution, a Protestant fraternal organization more commonly known as the Orange Order. Some members of the order wore orange in various parades on St. Patrick’s Day as a mark of defiance.
I am a wee bit Irish and I was raised Catholic so I suppose I am entitled to wear green, however this whole issue got me to thinking about my ancestry. My great-grandmother was Irish Protestant – a fact I was not actually aware of until about ten years ago when I asked my mother what part of Ireland she was from. Finding out that little fact actually explained a lot about my fun-loving great-grandmother! It also explained a lot about the tension that existed between my great-grandmother and my grandfather and grandmother – my Protestant grandfather converted to Catholicism to marry my German Catholic grandmother. I had a little religious conflict going on under my very nose and didn’t even know it. As a result of that union, my family was Catholic from that point on (lapsed in my case).
It does make me wonder if there is any intended significance to the multicolored scarf the statue was wrapped in. Is it meant as some sort of symbol of Irish Catholics and Protestants together? It seems a bit of a coincidental color pairing and occasion to be totally random. The only more appropriate color would be to swap the gold for white – then it would be the colors of the Irish flag.
Of course it is entirely possible I’m reading too much into this as well!
I write books for fun so why is it so hard to write my own bio? I am an American currently living in Cairo, Egypt. Aside from writing, I'm a married mom of two under ten, a decent (if reluctant) cook, an encyclopedia of random scientific / medical facts, a wine lover (but not a snob!), and a Capricorn. I love to travel, spend time with good friends, and laugh at life's surprises. View of life - definitely half full.
