just finished talking
on the phone to a very interesting company – for the third time. Yes, they’re
moving slowly, but I have no qualms against that – I’ve interviewed at
a place that invited me in before I even talked to a technical person,
and all that got me was nowhere. I’m not rushing myself to find something
new – "duh," you say, looking at the past two years or so of my utter failures
– but I think this may be it. It’s always a plus when an engineering manager
is describing a project to you, and he says, "We were looking at this project
for you when you get in here" [emphasis mine]. Not "if", but "when".
While I’m plotting my most important career move yet, my wife and the
Little One are back in Pittsburgh, visiting just about everyone in the
Tri-State Area. Suddenly high-school friends we haven’t even sent Christmas
cards to in seven years are crawling out of the woodwork, interested in
one word: "baby". It amazes me that we’ve been in San Diego since 1994,
but we still have far more friends in Pittsburgh than we do in California.
Most of the people we hund out with in high school still live in the area
– shoot, one even works for the high school now. And my wife still has
a half-dozen good friends in college (I was too busy getting good grades
in college to have any real friends. Look where that got me.)
It might seem horrible to be away from your wife and newborn son for
two weeks, but I'm surviving. I have to admit, though, that I'm a lot more
bored than I thought I would be. Of course, most of that is because I still
have to go to work. But I've been keeping myself occupied, reading a good
book ("The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning), watching much too much
of "General Hospital", pulling the Playstation out of retirement, and going
over to a friend's house to watch football. I even went bumming around
thrift stores last Saturday morning because I was so bored.
But it's already halfway over -- that is, if my wife ever decides to
come home. She is absolutely having a blast, and I don't think she wants
to leave (a lot of people there probably share her sentiments, too). It's
no problem at all to stay -- it was a free ticket from Frequent Flyer miles,
and you can make changes to free tickets for free, while tickets you actually
pay for cost $50 or $75 to change. Go figure.
My wife sent an e-mail to our friends out here, trying to absolve
herself of some responsibilities she had been signed up for at our church
(and personally, I think it serves them right for trying to get the mother
or a two-month-old to be in charge of something). I'm not sure exactly
what she said -- I didn't get a chance to read it myself -- but now she
has them all worried that we're going to pick up and leave San Diego --
not that their worries would be unfounded. They called me last night, frantic,
wondering what we were up to -- of course, I didn't tell them anything,
because nothing of substance is happening yet. But they seemed resigned
to us leaving, telling us that they care about us and they'll keep in touch.
Like I said, I think this may be it.
