In 1977, I fucked twenty men. In 1978, I fucked only one and it was a one-night stand.
I went back to Washington in disgrace. In the eyes of my employer, the Department of State, I was an alcoholic. My excessive alcohol abuse caused "additional problems" according to the brief against me. Translated, that meant I spent every weekend drunk and lying on my back with a man on top of me.
I am career oriented and I was determined to redeem myself. The only way I knew how to overcome my alcohol abuse and "additional problems" was to be a paragon of efficiency, hard work, and intelligence. No more booze and no more sex was my rule.
In Washington, I was given a boring, bean-counting job, that I pledged to make the most of. I had counseling sessions weekly with a State Department psychologist. On Friday nights, as required, I attended an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting. I got up in front of a room full of strangers and proclaimed, "My name is Becky and I'm an alcoholic." I told the story of my descent to alcoholism and alluded to the trouble it had caused me. I didn't really believe my own story, but I would do whatever necessary to keep my job and repair my damaged reputation and ego. Between counseling and AA sessions, I worked myself to exhaustion in my job, earning the admiration and support of my boss and co-workers.
Purgatory ended after six months. At my weekly counseling session the psychologist said he had recommended that I be returned to regular duty and reassigned abroad again. I was elated -- and my elation was only slightly dampened when I was given my assignment. It was a FUBAR post in Africa.
There are two or three Embassies in Africa that have the reputation of being punishment posts -- awful, unimportant places to which assignments seem reserved for employees who have really, really screwed up. FUBAR in State Department slang means: "fucked up beyond all redemption." That was my next assignment. I was out of purgatory, but still on parole.