En Route

Thanks to the wisdom of my mom and several other influences, my head is filled with old adages that, when aptly applied, really can make life easier. Sayings like "a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush", or "a stitch in time saves nine". The one that has been lingering in my mind for the past couple of weeks is "don't count your chickens, before your eggs hatch". This seems to apply mostly to matters of finance, but in my case, it applies to my employment visa.

I've spent the past several weeks jumping through hoops, waiting, and jumping through more hoops. Apparently volunteering (out of the blue) to go work in India doesn't necessarily mean an easy transition. There are a lot of moving parts and hand-offs that, from my perspective, could go awry and grind the process to a screeching halt. At some point, I was certain they were sending me to a remote village in China to teach German and finance to a group of 6 year olds, in hopes of building brand recognition for UBS.

Keeping the old chicken adage in mind, I've refrained from fully committing to being excited about the fact that I will be boarding a flight in three days and embarking on a journey that will surely impact Hillary and me in ways we have yet to even contemplate.

As I was leaving my farewell celebration Friday evening (full of calamari and potato skins), I received a message from a 1-800 number. I hit play, expecting to delete it after listening for 2 seconds, but I quickly realized who it was from. It was an automated message from FedEx providing a tracking number and a delivery date for...you guessed...my passport and visa!!

If you are thinking there are still a few things that could go wrong, you should stop reading now, go wash your mouth out with soap (since you can't wash your brain out), then start thinking about happy things like puppies or kittens.

If that doesn't put you in the right frame of mind, there isn't much I can do for you.

The bottom line is my paperwork is en route, and in a few days, I will be en route, too. Stay tuned, for the next installment of our big adventure.