Little Victories

So many things today.

It was sunny in Naples. So lovely. I sat in the sun and edited the paper with Eve. Tracey came to talk to Eve and, because she is the living symbol of her company (evil, short-sighted, narrow-minded trollops)  and not because I personally dislike her, I had to take a seat to avoid saying something that would make all the members of her company involuntarily lose bowel control.

I sat and drank my cappuccino quietly and ate my chocolate croissant.

An old Italian man was cleaning the pavement with ammonia. It smelled foul.

I never called Sjors. Never wrote. He was in my heart; on my lips all day. I wondered how he was. What he was doing. There was nothing I could do to help him. Margaret said, "you think you can help him with a phone call? Hardly! Years of psychotherapy wouldn't help him." Which was funny and made me feel better.

I didn't wait around to feel bad or wonder how he was. There was too much to do.

Yesterday, I met with the group of O6s and presented my methodology. I aimed the pitch at JD, the boss of my boss. JD had never heard this before but he believed it - and he liked it. Today, I sent him the entire paper and offered to come to his office to discuss. He accepted. We talked for 45 minutes about the method, and about SAMP. I told him the truth: if the contract is cancelled, then SAMP is cancelled because I can't afford the time and effort to do that AND my job, as well. I asked him to re-evaluate the contract cancellation. He said that he would.

We have to know by tomorrow because the movers will come for Eve's things on Friday.

Before I left the office today, my boss pulled me aside. He showed me the slides he was putting together: he and JD will speak with the Admiral tomorrow afternoon to re-evaluate the contract cancellation.

So, of all the improbable things: the plan worked. Write a killer academic paper. Give them something to talk about. Let them see the value of this program. God, I hope they can see it. I hope they will let us keep the program and keep putting it into place.

On Saturday, we travel to Cameroon to execute the program. This trip has been cancelled twice by the Command. I had not expected that they would say "yes" this time. It shocked the shit out of me. Now, I'm scrambling for a visa and glad that I ironed out at least some of my Africa pants.

Bless you for being a forward thinker, JD.

Thank god Wednesday is over. One way or the other, Sjors made it through his hearing. He would not love me one iota less or more if I had written him back as he asked. He does not love me. The man I loved is dead.