The (Very) Busy Bee

If I ever become successful enough to have a personal assistant or secretary to make my schedule, that would eliminate one of the major personal stresses of my life. I love filling up my calendar with appointments and activities, but sometimes- usually- things come up and then I'm suddenly thrown into a panic of indecisiveness and event rearranging. It's like lining up a perfect row of bottles when out of nowhere- BAM!!- someone throws something and knocks one over. My once empty calendar is now riddled with scribbles and cross-outs. But, besides its ugliness, it is at least still one thing- full.
This week, for example, I've got two PCV house visitors coming in. One of them, my good friend Helen, lives all the up in Tete province so I haven't seen her in over a year. We had planned a short trip to visit our host families in Namaacha but then Curve Ball #1: My empregada invited me to a party at her house over the weekend. Not just any party, but a Lobolo, which is a Mozambican engagement party. I've never attended one, and have been wanting to because I think it'd be such a cool cultural experience. The fact that Helen has also never been to one meant that we of course would have to rearrange our Namaacha trip to be able to attend the Lobolo. (By the way, this is probably the 4th time in a row I've bailed on my Namaacha family. They probably don't even believe me anymore when I say I'm coming to visit.)
All's well until one day before Helen arrives and two days before Namaacha. Boom. Curve Ball #2, and it's a good one. My APCD calls and she wants to know if I'll be around on Thursday to meet Ambassador Goosby, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. Basically in charge of all PEPFAR money and straight up appointed by Obama. He's visiting Mozambique and stopping by, of all places, the health center in Chicumbane. Of course I want to meet him, even if it means digging through the bottom of my wardrobe to find the professional work clothes that have been in hiding since Training.
So as I'm mentally running through new potential slots for a short Namaacha trip, I'm also informed of Curve Ball #3: The new country director of the Elizabeth Glasier Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) is requesting a meeting with all PCV's paired with EGPAF funded organizations That would be me. And that would be Thursday, the same day. So suddenly my schedule is looking twice as full, with visitors, meetings, appointments, Namaacha trips, and parties all colliding in the same time frame. (Not to mention, I just got back from a trip to Maputo for REDES bank errands and a meeting at the Embassy last Friday, helped out at the CACHES World AIDS Day community festival Saturday, am leaving for Taiwan on the 21st, AND am working on a 20-page REDES 2012 grant proposal of $99,999US to be turned in by the end of January.)
I think I'm losing my mind, but here's a secret:

I like it!!!