The adventure in Washington is now in the can. Whew. What a crazy couple of days.
The interviews went mostly well, I think, save one. I spent an incredible amount of money. Incredible. Seriously mind-boggling.
Let me start by saying a little bit about Dulles International Airport. That place is a little bit strange. It sort of resembles what you might think the Martian Interplanetary Spaceport might look like when we finally get around to colonizing that shit. Maybe that's what they were going for. Anyway, there's this main terminal building, and then three or four independent gate buildings, which are not accessible to the main terminal building except with these crazy lookin'
space-cars. These things were very strange. They drove around on the tarmac, dodging planes, trying to get us to the main terminal building after we had de-planed. Totally bonkers.
Anyway, I got in on Tuesday, and had my first interview on Wednesday. That went ok. I ran into someone I knew from SD from awhile back, who coincidentally still looks after my ex-cat. We had a nice creole dinner. Mmm-mmm. Round 1: expensive. The next day I had dinner at the Brickskeller with a buddy from KS who just happens to be into philosophy. He was looking for a job, too. Luckily I got out of that place without having six beers, but it was dicey there, for a minute. I had some numbered beer from Russia. Apparently one of the last remnants of the Stalinist regime is identifying all the beer by number. (That's probably false. Whatever.) "You get a
number SIX!!" Anyway, I liked the number six ok, so that was fine by me. Round two: moderate.
Couple more interviews the next day, and I'm headed to the first
smoker. The smokers, it seems to me, were the least enjoyable part of the whole thing. It's stressful, you know. You try to get in a little face-time with your interviewers, lest some
other candidate get more face time. Grr. That stuff makes me nervous. Then you're stalking someone who's clearly in a conversation, not wanting to be rude and interrupt, but also not wanting to give up lest you not get to talk to them. Ugh. It's a pain in the ass. Luckily I got to talk to a nice guy from one of the schooles, so that was cool. Before the smoker I went to a really nice dinner with some buddies from SD. REALLY nice. A little too nice, in my opinion. But whatever. Good gossip. A little discussion of Iron Maiden and Devo, so that was nice. Round 3: expensivo.
Couple more interviews the next day, and another smoker, and another trip to the Brickskeller. This time only one beer. Round 4: moderate.
The interesting thing about that night was that apparently some dude attempted to celebrate the New Year. It was odd for a couple of reasons. First, it wasn't the new year. Second, he did it with fire. Third, he did it with fire in the hotel room. (This seems to be the only logical explanation for the course of events that transpired late Friday evening.) At 4:30 in the morning, I'm half-asleep and hear sirens, but I don't do anything about it because, you know, I'm half-asleep. Anyway, finally the hotel fire alarm comes on and says: "Ladies and Gentleman, there is a fire in the hotel." Hmm. No instructions, just a little friendly FYI. Do I stay? Do I go? Figure it's better to go than to stay, so I throw some shoes and pants on and whatnot, and head down the stairs with about a thousand other groggy philosophers, many of whom were in their underwear. MANY of whom. A little TOO many, in my view, but anyway, that's neither here nor there. Two hours later (you read right), the hotel is completely soaked (although my room is ok), and we're being hearded up the stairs to our room. The place is gross. Smokey smell, mixed with chemicals from whatever it was that was burning. Super-gross.
So I was done with my interviews, and decided to take a day off. Went to Air and Space. But then I hooked up with some good buddies from a previous University and some friends from KS, who apparently know each other totally independently of me. Weird! Anyway, I had two beers with dinner. Then we go to this guys house, and have two more beers. Then we go out to a bar, another beer. Then we go out to another bar, this time bourbon and a gin and tonic. Then we go out to another bar to sing karaoke. WOOHOO! That was good fun. Singin' and dancin'.
Funny part about it was that I had to catch a 4am shuttle to take me back to the Space-Port. So I just ended up staying up all night. That was fun. I hadn't done that in a dang long time.
And that's my trip to DC in a nutshell. Let's hope I get a job. That'll
really be fun.
