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[cornerofmadness]

My usual interview luck prevailed. Snowed all the way to Marietta (Ohio guys, not GA) but I was thrilled to find out that the hotel they put me in was right on the Ohio river front and was, in fact, a historic riverboat hotel. The chandelier in the Lafayette was a ship’s wheel and there was a lot of nice antique furniture around. My room was in the Hoag addition which dated to 1937. Small room but nice and it overlooked the river. Mostly I just chilled out, watched TV and thought about anything but the coming day so I wouldn’t get nervous. I did remember to go out and look at the total lunar eclipse. Beautiful, especially looking at it standing in the riverfront parking lot. Later learned I could also see it from my room so I’d peer out at commercial break and just relax in the beauty of nature. After looking through the tourist info, I regret NOT going to Marietta in the years I’ve lived here (it’s only about an hour and forty minutes away, not much further than Columbus really). All sorts of antique shops, Fenton glass and other things.

I did get a halfway decent night’s sleep but snowplows woke me at 5 AM. Grr. I was pretty calm considering. For those of you who’ve never done an academic interview, it’s not like your normal job interview. They usually make you meet for separate interview/bull sessions with most of the department and other faculty AND administration. Take a job interview and make it thirteen hours long. That was my interview yesterday. I have to confess I think it went well. Breakfast was a little stiff because well who’s awake at 7:30 AM? I did like everyone I met. The staff seemed to get along and better yet couldn’t stop praising the administration something that is rare as hen’s teeth, let me tell you. The undergrad research IS ambitious but what they expect of me is less so, thankfully. The labs are great. It would be a very interesting place to work. They even sent me off for lunch with the students all by myself. No one has ever done that before. Students yes, but usually faculty goes along. The students got to rate me both personally (lunch) and professionally (lecture). I enjoyed being with the students. They weren’t all med-school wannabes. In fact pre-med isn’t a priority. Becoming research PhD’s is. Neat perspective.

Upsides? – Cadavers. I would get to do TWO different cadaver labs. One for sports medicine and one for physician assistants. So I’d be getting decent students. It looks likes nice place to work. The pay is nearly 10K more than I make here (well six grand if you count my overtime money) but the cost of living isn’t TOO much more. Marietta is a post-Revolutionary war town with stuff to do and Parkersburg WV (a city of about 100,000) is only 12-15 miles away.

Downside – cadaver lab, well it’s not a huge downside but there is a lot of work required for such a thing. In fact I’ll be an 11 month contract instead of the usual 9 since I’ll have to work all summer too. In other words I’ll be working a lot harder here than anywhere else I might look. Not that I’m afraid of work, mind you. The thing that is probably the biggest downside is I might be locked into teaching nothing more than anatomy and physiology (which was my concern at a community college) which would bore me. Granted that IS my primary focus no matter where I am but I might not have time to do anything else. Maybe I could get my new parasitology in since they don’t have that. The other downside which is always the way at small private colleges, money. Huge chunks of the budget go to the cadavers leaving not much for anything but still, there isn’t too much down here.

I think my lectures went well. Interesting that a talk about studying Asian medicine was attended by a least a half dozen of the many Chinese students that are at the college on the exchange program. They took me to dinner after that. Everyone at the school likes to cook (they have cook offs) and two of them saw the Star Trek quote on my website and asked if I wanted some Gah for dinner. That kicked off a geekfest.

The one problem that arose? It started snowing during my lecture and never stopped until after midnight so I had to cancel my classes and stay another night. Glad I did. It looked like a snocone machine barfed all over my area of the world. And I got to run to the gourmet pasta shop right across the street from the hotel. Vinto Rosso, lemon pepper and curry pasta are now waiting for me to decide on the proper complimentary sauces to put on them. Got home to find Roy had been picking fights (he stayed out since I didn’t expect to be gone so long. He’s very happy to be inside with me today. Also mjules called to tell me to watch the eclipse. Thanks! I did manage to see her wearing her veil.

If you had any stories/important posts you want me to see point the way.