An Interesting Turn of Events

I didn’t feel settled my first week in Southampton – I unpacked, but I didn’t really relax. Maybe that’s because I knew I was about to go away, and maybe it’s because I had a lot that I wanted to get done. I wanted to fill out my on-line profiles for Peace Corps, usajobs and USAID, and I thought each of those would take at least day to do. I’d been waiting until I got a block of time. Well, I did the Peace Corps one but it took until after my Virginia/Chicago trip to get into usajobs, and I am still not done with USAID – more forms to fill out, including some that have to be faxed in!

I envisioned myself settling into a rhythm of sending out resumes, reading, writing, exercise, healthy eating and catching up with friends and I was almost getting there when I had an interview that led to a job! I took a week to think, not think, overthink, feel, etc. and then accepted the offer – I’ll be going away again, with Peace Corps Response. I’ve set up www.themanilaenvelopeplease.blogspot.com for that but am mentioning it here as it relates to Part III, being back. All of a sudden I’m a short-termer. If I didn’t feel there were enough hours in the day before, I certainly feel that way now! I don’t have to send out resumes, but I have wanted to streamline my resume, so now I can take time to do that. I joined Linked In at the urging of some friends who are ahead of me with new technology, and I have yet to fill out a complete profile, so now I can work on that. I have another non-profit class in Chicago in May, and since my attempts to take another class in March and then again in April were foiled by cancellations, I designed an independent study to complete my certificate, and now I will work on that. Plus I want to write more here, and continue to read, write, exercise, eat healthy and catch up with friends. Lots to do! I would like to turn 27 Months Without Baseball into a book; a friend is editing it but in the meantime I can contact agents and publishers. And I signed up for Bike the Drive - something to train for!

When I got here I wrestled with how much to integrate into the community. If I were going to live here, or even stay for any length of time, I would want to participate in things, attend interesting events and try to meet people and make friends. In my walks or rides to town I’ve tried to get a sense of the demographics – seems that the year-round population is people working on other people’s houses or retirees. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I went to a Blood Drive last week (you never know where you might meet people) and I was turned down due to my trip to Cambodia. I had heard from Peace Corps that they wanted to interview me and felt good about that, only to feel really dejected after the Blood Drive rejection. I think I had steeled myself for job rejection but not for that – my first attempt at community integration resulting in failure!

I expect to come back here after I am back from the Philippines – I’ll get to experience Southampton mid-winter next time, not late winter (and now I know spring comes late here) so I’ll have another chance to go through the same debate of how involved to get vs. keeping to myself to concentrate on the job hunt and my other solitary pursuits. Maybe I will have different reactions then, and maybe I will continue to write about it.

Before I end I must talk about Chet Yastrzemski – he’s a local gardener here; the caretaker introduced me one day. The Yastrzemskis were potato farmers and used to throw potatoes around. They all say that Carl wasn’t the best baseball player in the family. A cool bit of East End history!