Gringo In Peru

The three month curse is up, so I’m announcing the big news.

We’re pregnant!

That’s right. We’ve known since the day after Christmas that “Baby V Face” (my pet name for the gender-yet-to-be-determined baby) is on his or her way.

Due date is September 2nd.

Vanessa and her mom told everyone and anyone they could when we found out. I’ve been much more apprehensive about it. Only my family and a few friends know. Now the whole world (theoretically) knows.

We weren’t planning to start a family just yet. Vanessa had gone off birth control and a doctor put her on a fairly strict diet. This was done to get her ready to eventually get pregnant.

Vanessa and her friends even went as far as trying to track her cycle, so we knew when sex was “safe”. This plan lasted about three months before conception.

While my niece was entering the world, we were celebrating our birthdays a little too hard and making a baby of our own.

Because of this baby news, we are planning to arrive stateside in May. Vanessa’s school is letting her work until parent-teacher conferences in mid-May, which is nice.

In a perfect world, we would have stayed her until early August for the money. Here in Peru, employers hand out bonuses in July (for Peruvian independence day) and December (Christmas). For most, it means a double paycheck.  V will in her third trimester by then. She can’t fly and we’ll miss our money.

This week V did pick up her visa. All we really have to do is buy the plane ticket.

The job hunt continues. I’ve applied to a handful of jobs over this internet thing. I wonder if I’m hurting my chances by listing my address as Peru. I explain my situation in the cover letter, if employers take the time to read it. If I use my permanent U.S. address (my parents house), that’s lying. Every on-line application I fill out includes a section where you have to verify if the information on your resume is true. Since I’m not currently in Moorhead, MN if I can’t really say that’s my address now can I?

Almost all of the jobs I’ve applied for are in the sphere of “corporate communications” and call for social media know-how. Because of this I’ve even signed up for Twitter. You can follow me at andrewgraning. I don’t have a real inner desire to “tweet”. But I’ve got facebook, why not join Twitter nation? If you have any Twitter tips or tricks let me know.

These jobs also ask for knowledge of software I’ve never heard of. I’m willing to learn. The question is: where, when and how? I’m hoping is somebody will take a chance on a former TV producer who can write and is completely trainable. My story is not unique in this economy though and stories like this don’t give me much hope.

So what have we learned kids? My boys can swim. We’re moving to a new continent, neither one of us has jobs. We’ve got no home of our own.

Wow.

It’s going to be a big year.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.