Holding Pattern

In five days I leave for D.C. I haven't started packing yet, still trying to recover from the marathon of filling out pre-employment forms. One that makes me chuckle is the I-9; is the Department of Homeland Security going to send ICE to raid the HR offices at State and make sure all the Foreign Service Officers can legally work in the U.S.? The medical clearance paperwork was pretty time-consuming, too, but we did find out that we're all negative for syphillis, which was a relief.