Interview Glitches

Joel had 2 job interviews this past week, and both of them took on a life of their own.

Albuquerque, New Mexico: 

On his way to Albuquerque he had a layover in Dallas.  His plane was supposed to be coming from DC, but there was a huge storm, so it delayed the plane almost 5 hours.  His plane took off after midnight Central Time (1am our time).  He didn't get to his hotel until after 2 in the morning, and he had a 7:30am breakfast interview followed by a packed schedule of interviews with a late formal dinner.  He had worked a half day before heading to the airport as well, so he was exhausted.  I told him he could just show them how awesome he is at functioning after a long call weekend.  :)

Even though he had a really long day he talked to me on the phone for almost a half hour straight about how much he really loved Albuquerque.  I was shocked.  Normally I get about 2 sentences out of him on the phone, and that's about it.  He loved the city.  He loved the doctors.  He was happy with the job.  I think he was just really pleasantly surprised by the entire experience. 

He felt really good about everything.  The chief of the department is out of town for the next couple of weeks, so he won't be hearing back from them whether or not he gets a second interview until close to the end of the month.  He did say though that if they decide to bring him out for a second interview that they will have a contract in hand ready to make an offer.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma:

48 hours later we were on a plane headed to Oklahoma.  The chief of the department asked me to come along as well, because he said he only made one move without his wife's approval and it didn't go over well, so now he wants to make sure the wife is happy as well.  He's a very smart man!

We got in to the hotel Sunday evening and just ordered dinner from the hotel in an effort to rest and be ready for the interview in the morning.  This was the interview that Joel had most looked forward to, and he really wanted it to go well.  Half way through the night Joel woke up with food poisoning.  He spent the majority of the night vomiting in the bathroom.  At about 4:30/5am I was seriously concerned he would have to completely cancel the interview.  He was scheduled to have a 7:30 breakfast interview, and he couldn't even leave the bathroom.  Gratefully, the vomiting stopped around 5 and he could at least lay down for a little while.  He looked like death, but he was able to at least meet the chief downstairs.  He didn't eat anything, but they did go to the hospital to try to do interviews.  It was definitely pep talk time!  I just told him to take it one interview at a time, and not focus on how incredibly long the day was going to be - baby steps!  When I got to the hospital at 10, the lady I was with took one look at him and asked if he wanted an IV.  He gave her an enthusiastic YES!  They hooked him up, and it helped.  This will definitely be his most memorable interview if nothing else.  The poor guy made it through all the interviews but ended up canceling the dinner, because he still wasn't eating anything, and he was barely functioning by the end of it.  I was really worried that the whole thing had put a major damper on his experience.  He went straight to bed at about 5pm.

Gratefully, he woke up the next morning feeling 100 times better, and he was back to being the correct color again.  He gave his presentation and had more interviews.  At the very end of the day, Dr. Meyer, the chief of the department, called me in as well and asked me if I wanted to come back for the second interview.  Their hiring committee meets this coming Monday and then we should hear a final decision, but even after all the food poisoning trauma it looks like Joel will most likely be offered a second interview and a possible contract.  It's hard to believe it, but things somehow worked out.

Taking out the whole food poisoning part, he had a wonderful experience.  Everyone is so lovely and kind.  They are like a big family and they are also very family oriented.  It's also a really great job.  It's almost exactly what he wants to do, so it's a great fit.  The department head would also be a really great boss.  He's the most down to earth guy and just a really great person.  He also was a concert pianist and owns a Steinway, so we chatted pianos and music for a while.

Joel has two more interviews in the next 2 weeks, and he also had a phone interview with Rochester, New York yesterday.  They have expressed interest in bringing him out for an interview in the next 3-5 weeks, but unless that timeline ends up moving up a bit it may be too late.  Right now it's really between Albuquerque and Oklahoma unless something unforeseen occurs.  

Fraternal Twins

Since my husband was out of town for most of last week I got quite a bit of sewing done in the evenings after the kiddos went to bed.  A "Hallelujah" for the baby finally going to sleep at a reasonable hour!

I'm tackling my scrap bin one block at a time, and it's starting to pay off.  These two quilt tops are entirely made of scraps. 

Baby Boy Scrappiness:

Baby Girl Scrappiness:

2 down.  2 more to go.  I'll probably complete these two first, because Baby Henry was already born last week, and the baby girl is due this week!  

Scrappy Overflow

I've been trying to organize things around here, and that includes my fabric.  It's embarrassing just how big my scrap bin is.  I'm serious.  At the rate we're going I'm going to need a separate U-Haul just for my fabric.

March is my month to be in charge of the requested blocks for do.Good Stitches, so my scrap bin became my inspiration.  I chose the ultimate scrappy blocks.  It's the Stacks & Stacks Quilt Block, and yes, it's stacks of scraps.

There are no stipulations except the background blocks do need to be white, so that there's some visual rest for the eyes.

A New Method

For our February blocks for do.Good Stitches we were asked to make a pink and red heart.  The hearts are paper pieced together, but then they are reverse appliqued.  I've never even heard of this before, so I was intrigued.  It was kind of fun to try a new method.  We used these templates with most of this tutorial.  The only difference is we top stitched it together at the end.

More Possibilities

The last two weeks have been a bit of a job search whirlwind.  Joel interviewed at Cleveland Clinic.  He walked away pretty sure he's not getting a second interview, but he doesn't officially hear back for another couple of weeks.  The program director was hard to read, but some of the things he said made it sound like there are other candidates in the front running.

Joel had a phone interview with Oklahoma City (Oklahoma), Columbia (Missouri), and South Bend (Indiana- think Notre Dame).  All of the interviews were positive experiences.  Columbia and South Bend are extremely small programs, so they're very different than what Joel's used to at a large hospital.  We're still waiting to hear back from those two to fix an interview date.  Oklahoma City got back to him this week, and they are flying him out for an interview the beginning of March.

The most random occurrence occurred this week with Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Joel originally applied to their program back in August, followed up, and never heard anything from them.  They posted a job a couple months later, so Joel reapplied, and they never responded back except to tell him to officially apply on their website.  When Joel followed up later, he got a terse response saying they were already interviewing.  We completely took them off the list and then two days ago Joel gets an email from them asking him to fly to Albuquerque for an interview.  They even skipped the phone interview, and now he's scheduled to fly out there the end of this month.  The whole thing is so bizarre, but hey, it's an interview, so I'm not complaining.

Oklahoma City is expanding and hiring 3 more physicians, and Albuquerque is hiring 2 physicians, so that raises the likelihood of Joel getting offered a job.  We'll see how it goes.  We're excited he's finally getting interviews.  The locations are really random, but I suppose that's the way it works. 

Reflected Houses

Module 10's homework dealt with photographing reflections.  Water and glass are the two mediums that first come to mind.  I thought about finding a reflecting pool downtown, but it's the middle of winter.  Most of the fountains don't have water in them right now.  I could of found a pond, but I didn't feel like hauling all my children to a pond and then trying to keep them away from the water, in freezing temperatures, while I'm trying to take pictures.  It's a little too complicated right now, so I turned to glass.  In fact, I skipped the traveling all together and used my front door.  It's a much more convenient subject for practicing. 

At first I just played a little bit with Aperture: low for only focusing on the reflection itself and then high, so that almost the door itself would also be in focus.  The reflection loses some of its sharpness when you try to keep the door focused, but I like looking at the difference.

Here's the whole door view:

Silver Linings

The job hunt continues to be long and painful.  We thought for sure we'd have a pretty good idea of where we would be going, or at least a really good idea of our options by this point in the process.  Sadly, we're back to square one again.  It's one of those things where you thought you were running a half marathon, but all of a sudden you find out it's a full marathon. 

Joel found out on Monday that Hershey decided to hire someone else.  They are trying to build a youth program and the final candidate was a Med/Peds Oncologist.  This tailors perfectly for what they want, so we couldn't exactly be upset with their choice.  Joel wasn't a bad candidate.  They just chose to go in a different direction.  Nonetheless, Joel was crushed.  I don't think it would have been quite so bad except he had waited 3 months to hear back from them, and we had started to get our hopes up.  In the mean time, a lot of the other options fell apart, so it felt like everything was riding on Hershey.  For example, Wake Forest was supposed to be a sure bet on getting an interview.  He had been in contact with the division chief for almost 6 months, had waited patiently while they approved the new position, and had been led to believe the job posting was just a formality.  They kept telling him they were interested, and then at the last minute they decided not to even fly him out for an interview.  It was really disheartening.  Also, the other fellow he works with was offered a job here at Nationwide Children's and at Michigan.  It looks like he's going to take the job here.

Joel also heard back from Atlanta and Albuquerque on the same day as Hershey informing him they had already chosen their interview candidates.  Yep- Monday was rough.  Des Moines followed that up with a "No" as well.  I've lost track of the number of places he's applied to at this point. 

All of this bad news probably would have completely sent Joel over the edge except for 2 pieces of positive news: 

1. Joel had a phone interview with Cleveland Clinic, and it went well.  They've scheduled a first interview with him for this coming week.  Wahoo! There's new hope on the job front.
2. Oklahoma City contacted him, and he has a phone interview with them this evening.  I can't say I've ever particularly had a desire to live in Oklahoma (no offense if you love it there), but quite frankly, I'm relieved he has another lead for a job.

We haven't quite hit the panic mode yet, but we are well aware that it's getting late in the job hunt season.  Fingers crossed and lots of prayers that one of these 2 options works out.  It will be interesting to see where we're meant to be when all is said and done.

Baby Steps for Baby Hearts

I was trying to figure out the last thing I had sewn, and I realized I had gone two months without touching my sewing machine.  I guess a crying baby who wants to be held doesn't lend itself to sewing very well. 

I have a block I need to piece together for do.Good Stitches, and a friend who's having a baby, so I knew I needed to dust off the sewing machine again.   Little by little I started working on a baby girl quilt.  A few minutes here and there didn't feel like much, but I kept telling myself eventually there would be progress.  It took me almost 2 weeks to get the blocks sewn together, but now I'm finally ready to piece the quilt together.

I love hearts, so I made 9 of these.  The only difference is I made my borders slightly bigger at 2.5 inches.

 It'll probably take me another two weeks to get it all pieced together, but one day it will be a quilt.  And since it's snowing outside, you're stuck with these lovely block-on-carpet pictures.