Interview #1

Well, campus interview #1 is over. I'm at the Quad Cities airport waiting for my flight. I still think I should have driven. But I thought I was choosing the lesser of two evils at the time. Normally I won't disclose locations, but I want to with this one, because it was my alma mater, Western Illinois University. So I'm not going to talk about the interview at all. But I will tell you about my trip.

So I left Thursday morning, amid horrendous weather reports all over, except in Kansas City. Those didn't happen until later. I left a little late but I still had plenty of time. But about 2/3 of the way there I realize that I forgot my medications. And there are no exits on I-29 right around that point, so I was pretty much screwed. I didn't have time to go back. Bah. So I figure I'll just have to go by Hy-Vee to get the stuff once I got to Macomb. Except I didn't end up having time to get to Hy-Vee until last night, so that was bad news. But anyway, at the time I didn't know that. I also didn't know that my flight had been delayed by an hour, so I actually would have had time to turn around. Bah.

So I'm sitting in the airport with an hour and a half to kill, and I was cranky because I was going to have about five minutes to catch my connection in Memphis, and I hate that. And the wireless in KCI sucks, or it sucks with Macs, because I couldn't get to anything online to save my life. But I was able to eat a bagel and have a cherry coke, so it wasn't all bad.

Then we get on the plane and in the air. Holy turbulence. I think we must have flown right in to a tornado or three. I don't always get airsick. I get airsick at random times. And this was one of them. So the bumpies were awful. And the lady in front of me got a can of tomato juice. Who drinks tomato juice on a plane??? Someone who wants me to vomit, that's who. But since I can't vomit, I guess I was safe. But extremely nauseous. And then as we were landing, the lady next to me pulls out the vomit bag and uses it. Twice. Ughhh. And since we were landing, she couldn't very well get up to remove it or have the stewardess come over for it. And it took us about 10 minutes to get to the gate once we landed. Ughhh. My only hope was that my next flight was delayed. And it wasn't.

I had five minutes to get from the A concourse to the end of the D concourse in the Memphis airport. I passed some great BBQ and an Elvis store. Dammit. And I had to pee. But I got to the gate just in time and was one of the final boarders. And I was sitting by the window in the exit row. I've never sat in the exit row, because I'm short, so I don't need to. But in these modern times you can't pick your own seats anymore, unless you pay $25 to do so. I was thirsty and I had to pee. But too bad, since I was so late, we started taking off too soon for me to use the restroom. And it was so bumpy that they didn't start beverage service for a while. Sigh. So i just said a little prayer that my luggage had made it on time, plugged in my ipod and rested my eyes.

Thankfully my luggage made it OK, although my brand new wonderful suitcase now has a run in the fabric and is scuffed and nasty. My host was really nice and was an extrovert, so that made the next hour and a half trip to Macomb easier. And then we got to the point where you can see Higgins and Thompson in the distance and it was a sight for sore eyes. Higgins Hall, Hell Yeah! Yes, I live in the past. I don't care.

I got to see the campus and take a look at the new residence hall, which was nice. I got to go up in the old Thompson cafeteria, which was cool and creepy at the same time. I didn't get to go to Higgins, which makes me sad, but that's OK. Heck, I may be the Complex Director there next year. And if I don't end up there, it's not locked down, so really, I could just bop over for a visit next time I'm home for vacation if I really need to. I got to go to a couple of restaurants that I haven't been to before and saw some blast from the past folks. I had pancakes this morning. And then started getting sick on the drive. But I went to Hy-Vee last night and stocked up on my essential meds, as well as some travel sickness medication that assures me it doesn't cause as much drowsiness as Dramamine. This is important, because I plan on driving to St. Joe tonight from KCI. Hopefully. I may end up crashing with Tyler at the Jacksons' in Platte City. So I took the pills, but I'm still queasy. And my flight leaves soon. But at least it isn't snowing like it was supposed to be. It's just windy again. Yay.

I'm so tired. I hurt so bad. I'm getting too old for this, I'm not kidding you. Job searching is also especially horrific for introverts with Fibromyalgia. I leave Monday night for another interview. I have a presentation for it on Tuesday morning, that I still don't know what I'm going to do on. I'll be working all day tomorrow, and will be running around like a chicken with my head cut off on Monday. And add on a phone interview Monday afternoon too. Hooray. And the school that I desperately want to call me hasn't, and they really should have last week. Mmm.

So that's that. I have to weigh in tonight, so there will be a post on that blog tonight or tomorrow, but it'll be short. I want to do a blog about the "elitist Obama" crap going on, as well as a blog about a show I watched last night about race. I doubt I do that tonight, but I will try tomorrow. OK, I'm gonna get some water and find my gate. I may get lost in this huge airport. :)