My New Years Eve was spent on the couch, feverish, with chills, and feeling generally like crap. Ahhh, holiday illnesses. Christmas with bronchitis, NYE with the flu. I love it! At least I think I was up at midnight, as I heard a lot of noisemakers/cheering/what I hope was fireworks at some point during my fitful sleeping.

On a better note, I got the job I interviewed for last week. Pending a Secret security clearance, I will be the Investigative Assistant in the DS Fraud Unit here in Santo Domingo. The title is a lot more glamorous than the job seems, though. A more realistic title is Report-Writing Desk Jockey. But hey, I WAS an English major, so it’s right up my alley. Arrest reports heading to Main State will now be Pulitzer-worthy.

But now begins the long and arduous task of finding a nanny. Our housekeeper is only here three days a week, and while she’s good with Son, I don’t want someone who keeps an eye on him while cleaning. We’re looking for a full-time, here-every-day person who’s primary focus will be Son. I’m trying to set up a few interviews this week, and hopefully we’ll have someone soon-ish (pending the RSO screening process – if you’ve never hired @ post, the RSO will launch an extensive background check on any Domestic you care to hire. We only ran a credit/criminal check on the housekeeper, but we plan on a full vetting for the nanny).

Now on to the 2010 in review stuff:

Around this time last year, I was enjoying my last 72 hours of no responsibilities at Oakwood Falls Church, as I was starting Spanish language training at FSI on Jan. 4. What a difference a year makes. I had several semesters of Spanish in college, a ten-year gap, then FSI. Now I’m using Spanish every day, and going to be in a job where I will attend meetings all in Spanish, translate and synthesize reports in all Spanish, and basically be surrounded by Spanish (for pay, however – so it’s better this way).

Our year involved a lot of language training, a lot of agonizing over what to bring to the Dominican Republic, a lot of agonizing over whether we made the right choice, a lot of goodbyes, a lot of meeting new people, etc. We made it here in August, and it’s been pretty good.

Yeah, I’ve been homesick. We are struggling with a 3-year-old who doesn’t really like to sleep. We haven’t really had any “us time” due to the non-sleeping toddler and lack of childcare. But 2010 was a good year all-in-all.

We’re looking forward to 2011 (wow, I can’t believe I am typing that) being even better.

A Happy and Prosperous 2011 to all my good readers!