And now from Texas...

So, the day after...  LONG day flying here to Wichita Falls, Texas...  American Airlines, or at least the sub-contractor decided to pull the plane that was scheduled to be used for the Champaign/Dallas flight to go to Charlotte...  And so my 7:20 am flight became 10ish, then cancelled.  Moved over to the 3 pm flight and DID make that one.  Got to sit around DFW until the 8:50 flight from there to Wichita Falls, and thankfully that one was not cancelled, being the last flight for the day and all...  Though, even if it were, it would have just been a situation of rent a car and drive the 2 hours or so...  Getting to DFW was the big part....  So got to the hotel a bit after 10 pm...  MSU booked me in a REALLY nice hotel (Homewood Suites) who also for reasons unknown upgraded me to a "King Suite"...  Nice, but just me in the room, so kind of wasted on this old ex-GI.  Still, nicely done and a thanks there...

Walked over to Campus to scout it out and be sure I knew where I had to be at 8 am for my day of interviews...  LONG day where I met a LOT of people.  I am absolutely terrible with names, so it will be quite a long time before I get that...  Assuming it is relevant of course.  But overall the interviews I thought went quite well...  By the end of the day I was actually having a hard time speaking, and started to stutter a bit...  Never happened to me before, so that was disconcerting.  But then I've never spoken that much in any given day...  Ever.  I'm usually fairly quiet, preferring to observe and learn before speaking.  All of the people I did meet were quite nice, engaging and frankly seemed happy to see me there.  A bit surprised that I DID come during the pandemic and all and that I am a fairly simple man who just takes things in stride and does not complain...  My wife was far more stressed about this portion than I.  For my part, I just had to be myself and present that while selling them on the idea that I was the right person for the job and could help them along the way I have at UIUC.  I firmly believe that I can do this job and will see if I get an offer.

Whether or not I get the offer though, I am taking this as an absolute win.  I made it to the final cut on another VERY senior level position and they were willing to fly me down there to talk to me about it.  This is awesome...  Sure, actually getting the job and you know succeeding at it would be better, but...

So, sitting in the Airport jotting down some thoughts as I wait to board and fly back home...  But overall this has been an absolutely positive experience for me and I look forward to whatever happens next.