enfinblue's Bluey (credit to Fifi for the nickname!) Diaryland Diary

"I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart." -Vinc3nt V@n Gogh

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

foreign policy should be conducted by b0n vivants, non?

I am so ill today. My cold has worsened markedly. The run with C. last night was a bad idea. (I had thought that it might burn the cold out of my system.)

Don't you hate the way one always becomes sick exactly on holiday or on the weekend, when one seems to have given the body permission to finally fall apart?

SO I feel miserable today. And my am I disappointed that I will not be going to the Gl3nn G0uld exhibition today at the Mus3um of Civ!lisation. I had been planning to go as some guy in North Car0lina has programmed an electronic piano to play the G0ldberg variations with exactly the phrasing used by G0uld, and the piano will be playing at the Musee today.

I know that that sounds a bit hokey but the piano is programmed to the millisecond. Many musicians studied every part of the recreated performance. I'm enchanted by the idea.

But the idea of feeling miserable, tired and phlegmy in a crowded museum makes me tired in and of itself. I don't think I will venture much beyond my living room or my neighbourhood coffee shop today.

Which reminds me, I need to go downstairs to pick up my Saturday paper.

So unfortunately my For3ign Service interview has been scheduled for October 19. That was to be my vacation week, so I will have to delay for at least another week. Shucks. And I'm sure that I will not get the job but I do at least want to give it a good try. I'm rather shocked that they want to interview me again.

Anyhow. I contacted my former boss in the department on Thursday and he responded rapidly with a "Yes, of course, put me down as a reference!" It's good to have friends. But I need first to pass the dreaded panel interview and gain enough points in the simulation negotiation exercise with the other candidates before he will even be contacted. This means being in the top 30 or so out of the 400 whom they will interview. Tricky. I have a feeling that the competition will be stiff in the Ottawa region.

But oh well. There is nothing to lose by throwing my hat in the ring. Apparently I really impressed my panel in the interview I did with my department a month ago. So perhaps I am starting to get better at these stupid interviews.

I really bungled the For3ign Service interview the last time. I don't think I wrote about this but after I left the rooom I could hear them laughing. I mean, perhaps they were laughing about something else, but I had been pretty nervous and had been babbling quite ridiculously at one point.

The thing was though that in my afternoon session--the group simulation--I was excellent. I know that I was excellent. I was the only one who actually had a plan that set out steps and linked policy to evidence (or evidence collection). In the end, the entire group selected my policy option, and I was mediating between the others. I am good at this sort of thing, without being aggressive. The problem of course is that I might meet up with a more capable group this time around. And in addition the group exercise score will not matter if the personal interview portion is weak.

SO I'm not likely to become a diplomat.

(Frankly all of the diplomats whom I know are massively less emotional people than I am. Do you think that this might be saying something?????)

The bigger question, anyhow, is why I would want to be a diplomat. The best answers are that I like to work intensely and to feel useful and productive, and that I like to solve problems. I also possess endurance and deep caring.

Whatever will be, will be. I'll find the best job for me eventually.

I've lost my train of thought. I should go and read something. Perhaps I'll come back later, should I remember the urgent thing that I was hoping to talk about.

I also need to go and buy a little plant. My friend N is leaving our division at work to go to another and we both laughed hysterically yesterday at her new cubicle. It's really a half cubicle, shared with a co-op student. She's excited about her new work but we were both more than a little bit chagrined about her new work space. So I'm going to buy her a cute little cactus or something and leave it on her new desk before she moves in on Monday. :)

OH! OH! I knew that there was something else! I've been accepted as a trainee to tutor children who are wards of the Childr3n's A!d Soci3ty. I need to go through screening and all but eventually I'll get to help a kid who lives in a group home. I'm really, really looking forward to it.

(And don't worry--even if I get into the FS I'll be in Ottawa through full French training and at least two to three additional first years before posting, so I won't be running off on any kid.)

That's it. Sniffle. Cough. I'm going to run downstairs to get my paper. OK, shuffle downstairs to get my paper.

11:20 a.m. - 2007-09-29

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next

other diaries:

stepfordtart
ohell
awittykitty
annanotbob
manfromvenus
smartypants
fifidellabon
hungryghost
hissandtell