The Three "P"s of A-100 Readiness. Pack Out, Patience, and Parties.

So this weekend I have blocked out some time to inventory my belongings by room, decide whether I'll want them in Oakwood, and ready them for their eventual final destination. This process is made more difficult by the fact that I've no idea where I will be going, and only a sliver of an idea as to get there. I have however been told that cataloguing my things and sorting them by room is a gainful way to spend my time until I know more, so I oblige.

Speaking of knowing more, we've come to the second P -- Patience. I have elsewhere opined that joining the FS, being itself a 2 year affair, is not unlike your first assignment. Instead of diplomacy, however, I practiced answering certain questions in new and unique ways, filling out forms to the best of my ability, and waiting patiently for information that may or may not arrive. That's useful practice, that.

I'm convinced that, between there are two poles of personal investment where waiting is concerned. At one end, blithely waiting for vital information like salary information, pack out details, wardrobe, and travel arrangements can make you seem patient and sagacious, but it can also leave you unprepared to act when the moment you've been waiting for arrives too late. Conversely, aggressively wheedling information out of registrars, travel officials, et al can prepare you at the risk of wearing out your welcome before it has even arrived. The politics start now, then, and the battleground is this box of CD cases and "Masters of the Universe" action figures.

As to the third P, it is both bitter and sweet. We are fast approaching the point at which everything is the "last" of its ilk. Today was the last "first snow" I'll see in Colorado for awhile, and I enjoyed it. We are fast approaching the last day I can have a mohawk, the last time I can grab two slices from Joey's NY pizza over lunch, and the last time I walk into work at Apple. Other lasts? Well, the last time I read the A-100 board with any sense of trepidation has long passed, and that's something I did every day for a while there. I'm no doubt coming up on the last day I could wear jeans to work as well, which feels kind of like growing up and kind of like terrible. Ah bother, I am prone to nostalgia to a fault, so I'll not dwell on lasts but rather on firsts.

See, the first and last picture of the last first snow I've posted is right here!