Ombudsman, unemployment and Zoe

Unless you all want to read about grocery shopping or rearranging furniture, I don't have much to write about . . .

I'm taking an ombudsman training class starting tonight and continuing for the next four nights. For those that aren't familiar with the ombudsman role in Navy life, they are usually a spouse of a sailor at a particular command. The ombudsman's job is to be a communication point between the command and the families. From what I hear the position is more involved when you're the ombudsman for a ship or on sea duty. When you're at a shore duty command it's pretty easy for the sailor to get information to the sailor's family - after all, they're usually home for supper. When the sailor is deployed ombudsmen can supply information about benefits, resources and other topics for people. Even if the ombudsmen don't know the information first hand, they have the training to know where to find out the answers. That's what I'm interested in - the information. I'm okay sacrificing a few nights to obtain it.

I'm sort of unemployed at the moment. I wrapped up my part of the project last week. At that time I reached a point where in order for me to continue to work on the project I would have to be granted access to some of the company's secure programs. My supervisor is in the process of seeing if I can be granted access to those programs. It might work, it might not. I'm waiting to hear how it turns out. I'm hoping that I will be granted access, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took a while. Things don't always move swiftly when it comes to big companies. If I don't get access, then I guess I'm really unemployed and will have to do some job hunting again. For joy.

I realized last night that as long as Zac and I have been together (literally together, as in our time in Oklahoma or here in Hawaii) Zac has never seen me work outside of the home. (Again, literally outside. I've been working from my couch.) It seems strange to me that he's never seen me get up in the morning, get ready for work, leave for 8.5 hours, and come home again, tired from a 40 hour work week, because that's who I consider myself to be - a full-time, office worker. These last 18 months in Hawaii (and four months in Oklahoma) are the anomaly, not the norm. I do think he will be in for a bit of a shock if/when I do get a full-time job outside the home and suddenly I only have two weeks of vacation to take a year. All that flexibility that he and I both enjoy will be out the window.

Lastly, it looks like Zoe will be arriving on Friday. I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly and we'll be able to pick her up directly after her arrival. Then I'm hoping that she gets along with Toivo. Lots and lots of hoping.