My sit-com life

30 weeks down
23 weeks left
So many pounds gained. (Oof. Let’s not talk about it. Leave was awesome, and calorically filled. Gotta get back on the wagon. Also, note to self: when J comes back for REAL this spring and we still have 6 months until the wedding, I can’t just jump off the diet cliff because he’s home. If I do, my wedding dress isn’t going to fit. )
10 ½ months until the wedding.

I’m a bit of a bad tv junky. Well, let me qualify “bad.” Because it’s probably not *your* version of bad. I’m not a reality show watcher. I am proud to say I have never seen more than half of one episode of Jersey Shore (and that was by accident.) I do not watch Lifetime Television for Women. And I can’t imagine being the Real Housewife of Anywhere. No, my weakness is re-runs of late 90’s and early 2000’s sit-coms. Friends, and Seinfeld, and Everybody Loves Raymond…yeah, I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve seen just about every episode of all of them about a half dozen times each. And no matter how many times I watch, they all usually still get me to laugh, at least once.

One of the things that I have always thought was funny in these sorts of 22-minute story-arcs is that the story formula always goes a little something like this: Everything’s happy and fine and normal: BAM! Life changing event commencing immediately is introduced from-thin-air as the conflict: Commercial break: People freak out and have hysterical and hilarious potential solutions to said from-thin-air conflict: Commercial break: Magically, everything works out in the end and the solution is so easy and obvious and everyone lives happily ever after until next week when something equally crazy happens again. Ah yes, reliable patterned sitcom shenanigans. Love it.

I’ve always sorta thought that there was no way that these huge life-changing events could possibly blind-side people like that and so dramatically change everything in an instant (at least on a weekly basis.) Totally unrealistic. That’s just tv. That’s not real life.

Silly, silly me. (We’ll call THIS post “be careful what you wish for…”)

After months of hoping and praying (not very patiently, I might add), applying for jobs, wanting a new scene, a new focus, a new mission, I have indeed *finally* at long last been granted just that.

I have been offered (and officially accepted, no less) a new job back in Washington DC, the place I know, the place I love, the place I left to come to graduate school, and most importantly, the only place on the greater East Coast (where J and I would very much like to stay and settle after marriage) where J might actually get to be stationed post his deployment. Look at that, the two of us having a shot at living in the same city. What a novel, novel idea.

I am over the moon excited about this turn of events. And oh, by the way, it’s effective immediately. Yeah. Accept new job. Quit current job. Tie up loose ends at work. Tie up loose ends with friends. Say goodbye to kids. Find a new apartment. Sell current apartment. Move all earthly belongings. In 25 days. Less than one month. Dum, dum, DUMMMM… Insert commercial break here.

Of course, J is very happy about all this as well. This was one of our “best case scenarios” as we went about the future planning (we did quite a bit of this while he was home.) He and I went to DC together for this job interview, and definitely did the “what if” planning. But somehow after such a long long stretch of not hearing anything back from anyone and being so disappointed by the lack of response of folks, I think we were afraid to really hope (at least I was. J is endless in his support and assumes that everything I put my mind to is eventually going to happen. Isn’t that adorable?)

In terms of the job itself…(if I can put aside the crazy details of immediate logistics) well, this is all very exciting. I will be working for a very prestigious organization doing a job that is much better suited to my talents and interests than the one I’m currently doing. The small staff of my peers is comprised of folks my age.. at the same place in life that I am (my boss is a military wife, by the way.) Young and hip and really bright and so fun. I actually *enjoyed* interviewing with them because I saw myself loving being their colleague. How cool is that? When you add the fact that they appreciated me and my degree (something I don’t get here) and are paying me accordingly (something I definitely don’t get here), this was a no-brainer. Add to that job security, chances for promotion, great new job skills, and paid international travel? Um, yes please.

Now we just have to make this happen. Insert commercial break #2 here.

Don’t get me wrong. Parts of this are going to be really really hard for me. I’m going to miss the people here. I have made some incredible friends. I love my students. And I like the pace of life here, the ease of getting around, the gourmet grocery store within walking distance of my apartment. This town has been very kind to me for the last almost six years.

But DC…the city I’ve been trying to conceal my love affair with all the time I’ve been here... Well friends, our love is too strong to deny. She calls me back, and I follow powerlessly like a love-sick teen-aged girl follows Justin Bieber. Now all we have to do is get J there post-deployment.

And so a new adventure at a new job in a new city begins. Just like that. 3-2-1 go. There’s not enough time to panic or to think about how crazy all this is which is probably a really good thing (besides, we’ve only got 22 minutes to resolve this conflict!) For the next three and a half crazy weeks, I’ll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make all of this work. But I know that it will. It has to. This installment of the show ends in 22 minutes. The from-thin-air conflict always magically resolves itself in the end, and this will too. But don’t worry, there will be a new one to come along soon, I’m sure. Because that’s how life works.

So tune in tomorrow, friends—same Bat time, same Bat channel, to catch the next installment of my sit-com life. I just hope that, like I still do with Friends, I can keep on laughing.