OK, where to begin...

I can see from my last post that my blog left off where the rest of my life did -- March 31. I began April by starting a 23-day, 6-interview road-show trying to get some poor sucker to hire me. In order, I went to the following:

1. Western Illinois U., Macomb*
   
2. Case Western Reserve U, Cleveland*
3. Wayne State U., Detroit
4. George Mason U., Fairfax VA
5. U. of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (you figure out where it is)
6. Xavier U., Cincinnati*

The "*" means that Tina and Ellie-bean came with me. We were at CWRU on Easter weekend when Cleveland got 2 feet of snow and the Tribe had to go play their games in Milwaukee.

As I'd expected, the job market was generally in my favor, as I got offers from 5 of those 6. At the end of the day we (yes, we) chose Xavier U. It has several things going for it, in no particular order:

1. Cool "X" motif in the name
   
2. Very bright students
   
3. Great hoops program
4. Fantastic alumni relations so I can get lots of cool research opportunities
   
5. Cincinnati is our kind of city -- right size, good location, very middle-America. It's actually very much a white-collar, service-economy sort of city, so it's very different from blue-collar , industrial Cleveland where I grew up. Plus the sun shines a lot more, which isn't hard because the sun almost never shines in Cleveland.
6. Jesuit foundation will challenge me to not be so self-centered and make me more service-oriented
   

All in all, we're very pleased with the outcome. XU worked quickly to match the market's timing, as I had some other very attractive offers that had short deadlines.

And the best part is how God made in clear that He was the one that opened the door to get me there. A couple of weeks before the deadline on the offer I was considering, XU had two profs resign to go move nearer their families. So they were eager to hire, which suited me just fine, of course. (I love when people are eager to hire.) Tina and I had been driving ourselves and each other nuts trying to micro-manage all our options and contingencies and what-ifs and then just said, forget this -- we'll let God decide where to put us. And right then is when I got a voicemail from the person at XU who does the hiring. Not a coincidence.