Maria Fly

I am MariaFly, that most feared creature in civil service . . . . . the proverbial fly on the wall who reads and writes a little and is eligible for retirement. I may retire at any time because I have reached MRA (Minimum Retirement Age) and have been in civil service for over 25 years. My mortgage and car is paid for; I have no dependents . . other than an incontinent dog. (Well, I do have a sister but she is retired and collecting a small pension along with free health benefits. She was vested after 5 years. That's why the city is broke and now discontinuing this windfall for current city workers.)

I work for the VA -- a favorite whipping boy of Congressmen, media and veterans. I work for the benefits side of VA. VBA: (Veterans Benefits Administration). There is also VHA , the hospital side of VA. A lot of the bad press is justified; it does take years to get benefits. But the reasons behind this are many and varied . . . the laws that VA operates under, the culture of government, budget & FTE allocations, and the veterans who are not all innocent bystanders. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I will probably skip from here and there and back again since my government journal of the past 25 years is spotty. Yes, I was going to write a book. But I no longer have the patience for it. There are too many books to read; too many YouTubes of kittens and baby goats, too many trees to tend and too many films in my Netflix queue.

This is the Adventures of one Worker Bee in the Great Flypaper of Government Service.