The Job Search, and Other Stuff

Haven't blogged in a while. My trip back to Lousiville for an interview with the Presbyterian Foundation was a whirlwind. Awoke early and got the the Burbank airport at 6:30 a.m. for an 8:00 a.m. flight. Got to Louisville, through Dallas, late afternoon. Had lunch at the DFW airport at Chili's, one of John's habits when connecting through DFW. Ate dinner with John D'Elia, the Regional VP and traveling companion, then tried to sleep. Watched some of the Giants-Cubs on WGN, Giants lost. Read. Journaled. Prayed. Got to sleep after midnight. Awoke at 6:00 a.m., which was 3:00 a.m. body time. (I hate flying east for only a day!) Drove with John across the Ohio River to the Foundation HQ in Jeffersonville, IN.

Had numerous interviews all morning. I had anticipated 3-4, but I met probably about a dozen people that morning. Nice folks. Had lunch with John and Mark, the President, at the stadium of the Lousiville AAA baseball team. Nothing too inspiring, but no disasterous slips of the tongue or heretical statements on my end. I felt good about the interviews.

The picture at left is looking north from my hotel room, a very nice Marriott. In the distance, you can see the Ohio River, and one of the many bridges spanning the river. On the left of the picture, you can see the rounded top of the PCUSA national headquarters. You can barely make out the PCUSA sumbol on the front of the building. Unfortunately, I was not able to tour the building, as we had no extra time on Friday.

On the picture at left, you can see one of Louisville's historic downtown churches, with the majestic spire reaching into the heavens. You can also see the red brick style so prominent in older areas of many American cities. This area by the river was an industrial area, that has been transformed into a tourist and shopping and dining area. The Fourth Street Mall is an open air mall, where the street is blocked off to allow only pedestrians, for about three blocks.

John and I returned the rental car to the airport, then boarded a plane for the return journey. At DFW, had dinner at TGIFriday's, another of John's habits, evidently. (Chili's going east, TGIFriday's going west.) He was very generous and upgraded our seats for first class for the DFW to Burbank leg. I could get used to that!

Arrived home around 11:00 p.m. (2:00 a.m. Louisville time.) I had been up about 20 hours, and I was exhausted. Travel is tiring, especially with that quick turnaround. And I had a small cold before we left, which blossomed into a full blown cold, complete with fever and coughing, by the time I got home. Still, the next day I dutifully woke up early, and refereed or mentored five soccer games. Then I crashed!

I spend the next week sick, and spent a lot of time in bed, reading or sleeping or watching DVD's. I confess, sometimes I look forward to getting sick so I can splurge my time on these guilty pleasures.

I met with John the next Friday, a week after the interviews. We met at Peet's coffee on Lake in Pasadena. He had delivered some bad news to me there earlier in the job search process. And this was to be more bad news. The Foundation had decided not to offer me the position. The rationale, as John explained it, was that my lack of development experience was the key issue. It had been the key issue all along. So actually getting an interview in Louisville was due to either my own giftedness and powers of persuasion, or on Johns persistence. I have a hunch that it was the latter. After sticking his neck out for me, I just hope that I did not let John down by flubbing the interview. I felt good about it at the time, but I was not in the best of physical nor mental shape, with my dad passing away the previous weekend.

So, the job search is back to square one.