Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Arkansas Trip, part 2

So, we made it to the airport just fine.  Nathan walked with me through check-in and said good-bye to me at security (again, cause he's awesome). I made it through security with only a few hassles and found my gate pretty easily.  Milwaukee airport is fairly small and pretty easy to navigate.  I had a couple of hours to kill before take-off so I got a snack and sat down.  That's when it hit me.  I had to fly on four different flights in a two day time period.  Did I mention I hate flying?  I, then, mentally curled into the fetal position.  I'm one of the fliers that white-knuckles whatever she's holding at the smallest turbulence.  And then there's landing.  I envy those people who can sit and read calmly during landing.  I can't read during car trips or flights anyways because I'll start feeling sick, but landing is the worst for me, even the slightest descent will cause me to get incredibly dizzy and light-headed.  So basically, from the time we start landing till the time we hit the ground I'm concentrating on not getting sick and holding onto the armrests for dear life anytime we drop suddenly.  I, of course, do all of this as discretely as possible if someone is sitting next to me.  Hate flying.

But, I passed the time before the first flight watching netflix on my phone.  (I love modern technology) And, by the time we were boarding I had accepted my fate.  Then, there was the size of the plane:  tiny.  It was on of those with only one main isle and only four columns of seats.  Three out of the four flights I had were on planes that size, so that was new.  Overall, the flights were very smooth, which put me at ease.  This was good, so that when I got to Little Rock, the person from the lab that was picking me up would not be met with a frazzled looking person with crazy hair and a crazy look in her eye, but a calm, well-put together possible future employee! (after ducking into a bathroom to make sure this was the case, of course)  Everybody that I met over those two days were very nice.  The same person that picked me up, drove me around Little Rock to show me the area before dropping me off at my hotel.  It, honestly, made me miss living in the south.  Scenery-wise it looked similar to northern Mississippi.  This, naturally, only served to make me more excited, and fuel my internet apartment searches in the hopes that we would be moving to the area.

I was dropped off at my hotel around 5:30 pm that evening.  The interview would be around 10:30 the next morning so I had all evening to chill in the room.  There were two huge bonuses to this:

Backyard Burger!! How I missed you!!!

ZOMG Cable!!
Backyard Burger is a wonderful place that I have only ever been able to find in the south, and it was within walking distance of my hotel.  My night involved getting a burger from there, bringing it back to my hotel and watching HGTV until I was tired enough to go to sleep...and it was AWESOME.

Then came the morning of the interview.  I woke up super early so I could get ready, and soon enough it was time to go.  I'm not gonna go too much into detail about the interview other than to say it was an all-day thing and I left feeling fairly confident.  Which is the best it gets for me when it comes to interviews.  I constantly second-guess myself about those things, so feeling confident at all is a good thing.  After a very productive day, they dropped me back off at the airport for flying fiascos: round two.

Me, all dressed up and ready to go for the interview.  Not pictured:  the suit jacket because it was too warm inside the room.  Yes, I DO know how to look professional, thankyouverymuch.
Sidenote to the above picture:  Never say you'll never wear something again, just because it's part of a bridesmaid outfit.  The pearls I'm wearing in the picture, I got from my fabulous friend Ashleigh when I was one of her bridesmaids.  And I'm pretty sure I've worn them to almost every interview I've had.  What can I say?  She has style.

The flights home went largely like the first with one exception:  the Detroit airport can shove it!  I arrived thinking I had an hour and twenty minutes between flights.... except I forgot about the little thing called TIME ZONES.  I had twenty minutes.  To get from one end of the airport all the way to the opposite end.  That airport is HUUUUUGE!! Ridiculously so.  I made it, but barely.  This was also the point where exhaustion began to set in.  Four airplanes and an all day interview in two days can take it out of you.  That last flight was the longest hour of my life.  Nathan picked me up at Milwaukee and drove me back home, where I then passed out, satisfied that, at the very least, I had just had an epic adventure.  (my definition of epic may be a little lame.)  

So, what happened you may ask?  After waiting almost two very very long weeks, I did finally hear back.  Unfortunately, I did not get the job.  I was disappointed, but I can honestly say this is the quickest I've bounced back from a job rejection.  I had a great experience, got to be in a forensics environment again, and got some valuable interview practice.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Arkansas Trip, part 1

So, I know what you're saying.  "Wierd.  She posted some random letter in which she addresses her own immune system as though it can answer and then says nothing for over a month.  Obviously, she's lost her mind."  And while, that may be the case, it's not the reason for the extended silence.  The reason for that would be the Arkansas trip and my attempt at getting the job of my dreams.  It was a situation that ended up dragging on and on for a while and will likely end up in a two part post.

So, the 2nd week of October (wow, that seems like an eternity ago), I got a phone call from a crime lab down in Arkansas for a phone interview.  At this point, I was intrigued but not too hyped considering, I've had plenty of phone interviews that came to nothing.  I scheduled it for the next morning, and let me say, that I have never had a phone interview go that well before.  It was one of those things were it seems like everything just clicked.  At the end of the phone interview, I was asked if it would be possible for me to fly down for a face-to-face interview.  I have not been that excited in a long time!  I was so excited that despite the fact that it was then, still only 10:30 in the morning (early for those of us who work 2nds :P ), I woke Nathan up to tell him the news, then made him get up out of bed and stay awake with me because I was obviously too hyper at this point be awake by myself and would end up talking to myself or the cats until he woke up again.  He's a trooper.

After being advised to keep the momentum going (thanks Mom), I scheduled things fairly quickly, and ended up only having to wait roughly two weeks to go down there.  Also, there's no way I could have scheduled things that quickly without all the help I got from family.  You guys are amazing.  During the two weeks I had to wait, I told myself I wasn't going to think about it and was only going to tell the people that needed to know.  No point in reading too much into it, or getting too excited......

That lasted all of a couple days.

To be fair, the not telling too many people thing lasted longer than that.  But within a couple of days I had already thoroughly explored craigslist for possible future apartments/houses and was thinking about how we would pull off a move at the last minute if we had to.  I COULDN'T HELP IT!!!!  I was too excited at the idea of finally getting a forensics job and being settled!  I tried to resist but couldn't.  And since I felt guilty about it, I decided I'd just yell at Nathan for "jinxing it" any time he talked about getting the job.

Honestly, sometimes I don't know how he puts up with me...

The not telling anybody except my family thing lasted until the weekend before I left.  Then, I kinda told Marci and Phil...then Dani....then Jess....then anybody else who asked.  Whoops.  I'm pretty impressed I lasted that long.  I am horrible at keeping my own secrets.  Keeping a secret for someone else is no problem.  Myself?  Totally not possible.

Then, finally, after two weeks of waiting, and fighting with my body about whether or not it was going to get sick (refer to previous post), it was time to go!  Sunday morning, we woke up at 6:30 in the morning and Nathan drove me to the Milwaukee airport and dropped me off, despite having to work 3-12 that day.  In case you're wondering, yes, he did rack up tons of bonus points for being amazing during this whole thing.  I had forgotten what it was like to be up that early.  And despite being a nervous wreck (I haaaaate flying, and this was the first time I was flying by myself....wow that makes me sound like I'm 10), I was very eager to experience the whole thing.  I was determined to enjoy myself and take in the whole experience, no matter the outcome.  And since this is beginning to turn into a novel, I'll stop the first part here.  It seems an appropriate spot.  Also, it's 2 am, and sleep will be necessary soon. :)