Update--- Fail! Westmont turned me down. They decided to go with someone more molecular instead of ecological. Its nice of them to take me and my family through a roller coaster ride and then decide afterwards what field of study they want... Perhaps I would advise departments to actually sit down and meet beforehand to decide those things. Whatever, we will wait and see what else occurs. Nothing else until next week...

Time to post... Recovering from my Univ of Pacific interview. It went well but I arrived home sick- too much stress... Pretty much better than I could have imagined. The faculty there are awesome, laid back, congenial, fun even. About half are going to a hockey game today in a luxury box at the new Stockton stadium. I think what really made it were the masters students, I really enjoyed interacting with them and just realizing that having interactions with masters students is much different than undergraduates and something I would enjoy tremendously. Beyond that, they are breaking ground on a new BIOLOGY building this summer and have money and administrative interest in restoring the calaveras river that runs through campus. The chance to help create an arboretum like here at Davis. I was a bit sketched about Stockton, but after being driven around I found tons of nice places to live. It really is improving I think primarily being driven by bay area folks moving there where they can afford housing. They rebuilt downtown entirely and it looks pretty sweet. They said they would let me know around March 8th or 9th. CRAZY TIMES! Westmont said they would let me know this week or next. Mt St Mary's said probably this week or next. So it is all coming down soon!

Grr.... So I just had a nice long blog and then the browser crashed so it is gone. Pissed.
Synopsis-
I am sore and tired- yesterday's happenings:
9:30am Arrive at church service
11:00am Go home with Lucas
12:00pm Rachel comes home from church meeting, I return to church and setup for bball league
1:00pm First game, due to injury I referee.
2:00pm Second game, I play due to shortage of players
3:00pm Third game, I do scoreboard and mock people with Brett Anderson (the highlight)
4:00pm Fourth game, My own team's game- I play on my stacked team and yet we lose (I blame Chris Lin)
5:00pm, Fifth game, another cancellation- I ref again (by this point I am exhausted)
6:15pm I go home to shower and eat
6:35pm Return to church for youth group
9:15pm Drop a high schooler off at home
9:30pm Get home

I added it up- worth 2520 Jesus points...

I have my Univ of the Pacific interview this Thursday and Friday. I am excited! I expect it to be a bit more rigorous than the others since it has a graduate program. Did I mention I get an brand new lab with this job! That I get to design! So awesome...

Jake

Interview update. Yesterday I was down at Mt St Mary's in LA for my interview. It was a fun trip. I got there the night before and hung out with my brother. We had our traditional cigar on his patio while catching up on life when his neighbor started whining about the smoke. She was pretty annoying about it. We asked if we could finish the cigar because we were nearly done with them- but she just kept whining. Then she closed the sliding glass door and was whining THROUGH THE DOOR! It was so dumb. Eventually we went to my hotel and were so sad to find out that it was HUGE. I had a full kitchen, dining room, front room, two beds, and a balcony. We were bummed because should have been hanging out there. Anyway, next day was the interview. Met with the university president, search committee, took a tour, taught a lecture, and gave a research talk. Went out to a nice dinner with a couple of the faculty and got a ride to the airport. Coincidentally, my brother was flying out of LAX at the same time (he was going to Santa Cruz). So we met there and then found out that both of our flights were delayed. His only 30 min, mine 2 HOURS!!! I was mad. So I relaxed with a beer until my brother left and then sat in the airport working on my laptop for my next interview (Univ of Pacific on Thursday). I didn't end up getting to bed until 2am. I was so tired I nearly went to bed with my tie on. Anyway, the interview went well I thought. The school is beautiful and has an amazing view of both the ocean on one side, and downtown LA on the other. Room for research, a fun young faculty, although no housing support. They said they would tell me in a couple weeks- its happening fast... So this week will be hectic preparing for the next interview and chugging along on the dissertation. Tough decisions coming soon...

Jake

Furiously preparing a lecture for Mt St Mary's... But wanted to give the update that I got a call from Seattle Pacific Univ- they want me to come up for an interview! Early March perhaps. So awesome... Back to work!

More on the job search... So Friday I got a call from Mt St Mary's inviting me down for an interview. Feb 16th. Same drill, teach a class, give a research talk, meet all the faculty and big wigs. Today I had a phone interview with University of the Pacific (Stockton). Don't think I mentioned that in the blog that I got that. Anyway, it went well I thought. I feel good about getting an interview there as well if for no other reason than that I am so close that I am a "cheap date". So they don't have to pay for a flight, hotel... Pacific is not in So Cal, but looks like a great place. I would have masters students there. They are building a new Bio building, so I would get to design my own lab from scratch! So awesome. I am pretty psyched about the possibility of Pacific. We'll see...