Progress

With the countdown getting scary, I'm starting to work my lists and wrap up my life. Here's how that's going. 


Packing
So, the plan to use the box recycling place hit some hitches: the visa debit card didn't work, and when I re-placed my order I never got any sort of confirmation. So now I've gone and re-re-placed my order. Actually looks promising, this time? But, since I needed to use my own card, I went the paypal route, which I'm not generally a fan of as it means endless spam. 


Also I'm a week behind ... sortof. I also scheduled my "Drink my Wine" party, and turned it into a girls' night. Honestly, most of the previously scheduled girls' nights have ended up being 3 or 4 people, total. Mine ... looks bigger, so far. Like, 10 people bigger. Everyone get's their own bottle of wine! Or something.


I also checked out Ikea, so I could see what my shelving collection is selling for now, to get a better sense of what to ask when I attempt to sell. ... The entire line has been discontinued. Also, apparently it is all solid pine. So in addition to looking nice and being mid-range expensive, it apparently is decent quality. So now I don't really want to sell it. Or at least not the big bookshelves. So my current thought is to disassemble the three and the table I want to keep, at a minimum, and put them in storage. Yay?


So my current plan is to leave everything as-is until my party, then start packing that weekend. Yes, okay, that Wednesday I leave for Greece (woohoo!), but I want to put the stuff I'm keeping into storage, except probably a few dishes, July 16th or 17th. So ... packing.


Shipping
I suppose that also means I need to firm up my shipping plans. I intend to pack the majority of what I want to bring to Germany and ship it (SLOW ship it!) in advance. I need to find out if a traditional trunk (well. The current version of a traditional trunk, which has wheels) is shippable via UPS or USPS or whether it'd have to go into a box, in which case not much point to have the trunk ... well. Except when it comes to getting the shipped items to my new residence. Then it'd be really, really handy to be able to unbox and roll. Hm. Thoughts.


Augh
I suppose I also need to get on buying my health insurance, setting up my car-custody (for insurance) and reserving my storage space!


Weight
I'm not doing as well as I'd hoped but frankly, between people visiting me, me visiting them, (possibly) herniating a disc in my back debilitating me for 2 weeks, and, of course, general laziness as I fall out of the groove, I'm really not doing too badly. I haven't gained anything, and in the 6 or so weeks my body has done some re-distributing of weight so I actually look pretty okay. It is impossible that I'll reach my initial goal-weight before I leave for Germany. I may, maybe-possibly, lose another 10 by then, but with 2 weeks in Greece in the middle, I rather doubt it. Still. 


I went clothes shopping the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and was quite pleasantly surprised to be back in clothes that are carried in the store now, instead of only online. Even better: I can squeeze into some clothes the next size down, even if I wouldn't yet leave the house in them. That means, to me, that soon (SO SOON) I may be buying that size. That was kindof the reason I went shopping when I did: I don't intend to be in these clothes for long, so 30% off everything, including clearance, makes purchases reasonable even knowing that.


All that, however, obscures the fact: I am officially 3 full sizes smaller than I was this time last year!! Jeans that I couldn't wear last year are now too big! And I can no longer buy anything from Womens Plus - I'm back into Women's proportion-wise, if still at big sizes. Super exciting!


What's Next
I have started my application for the Peace Corps. It sounds like I want to get that completely squared away by the time I leave for Greece. That can be done. And then when I get back I'll need to start my GM application. 


My sister asked me how serious I am about the Peace Corps. It's hard to say, honestly, but I was thinking last night: this is my life. I want it to be a good one, and an interesting one. I want people to talk about me and how neat I am or what I've done is. Sure, going to school in Germany is a start. I want to find myself interesting, and for that to happen, I need to do things that make me think "wow, that's really cool". That would happen with a stint in the Peace Corps. It would also probably happen with GMs ECLP program - it sounds like the projects are fast, intense and informative.


So I guess my ideal would be to do the GE thing for 2 years and then do the Peace Corps? Glad I worked that out!

Looking forward

One of the big questions for next year is ... what comes next? What do I do, once I've quit my job, gone to school in Germany for a year and have two MBAs (one from the US and one from Germany). 


As a general goal, I want to do something that matters ... something that I can see matters. I'm sure going on vacation matters, but to quote an old co-worker: no one has ever died because they couldn't check-in to a timeshare.The very thought is ludicrous (and I'm sure, by typing this, someone is going to get murdered for this exact reason in the near future. I will be flummoxed.).


Thinking of "things that matter", I mentally gravitate to NGOs - especially as it's one of the areas of concentration available to me. On the other, I have heard truly appalling things about the (non-existent) level of professionalism in the world of non-profits, and I'm not really sure I want to deal with that.


I've been in a massive company for 9 years. I am curious about smaller companies, but, again, the rumors of the unprofessionalism abound. Sure, that is likely a mixed bag across industries, and will vary by the tone set in each company. Still, it's something to be aware of, along with my low tolerance for bad behavior.


This morning, my LinkedIn email from my alma mater included a link to GE's ECLP - Experienced Commercial Leadership Program. It's a competitive program lasting 2 years, with 3 rotations (generally geographically and always functionally diverse) where 100 associates are given the chance to learn and to shine in GE's corporation. There don't seem to be a lot of reviews of the program online. The company in general gets rave reviews online, generally, with the caveat that entry level is underpaid (I know! It's shocking!!) and that career progression can be frustrating so maybe don't plan to stay in the longterm. At least that's what I'm seeing. Also, if you want to succeed plan on looong hours. Which, again, shocker. So, at a guess, many of the reviews are by younger workers, particularly the negative ones. You can pretty much expect anything flagged as from an Analyst as negative. By the time you get to Senior Analyst, Manager or Director, however, things are brighter and, let's be frank: I'm not starting at the Analyst level. 


For once, I'm seeing this potential opportunity well in advance of application deadlines - applications go in October, decisions are made in November, program starts mid-July. Which ... would be perfect, actually, if I don't want to take any vacation after school. 


So ... that's a thought