I'm sitting in Darcy's aunt's and uncle's comfy apartment in downtown Ottawa. I just got caught up on my Yahoo emails as I hadn't checked them in days due to all my travelling. I left for Spokane on August 24 and had a hellish flight that was ten hours late arriving in Spokane. To make a long story short the delays were due to human errors and weather. I left Fort Lauderdale at 9:00 pm EST and arrived in Spokane the following day at 1:00 pm EST. I had drafted a letter to America West on the plane outlining the problems with the flights and vowing not to fly their airline again.
My brief stay in Spokane was nice as I walked around Riverfront Park the first day. My time living there seems ages ago now! I went to the public library there and ran into an old colleague that I had worked with at Gonzaga University. I spent two nights at the Rodeway Inn in downtown and then the remaining time at my Grandmother's new place called the Waterford on the South hill. My Mom and StepDad arrived on August 27 and I stayed with my StepDad Rick in a unit at the Waterford. Very posh place - my Grandmother is paying $3,000 a month for her two bedroom place. But she can afford it and deserves it. She seemed in good spirits and looked better compared to last year. It was tough driving by 1411 (the old house) and not pulling up the driveway. I was fortunate to have spent much time there with my grandparents while I lived in Spokane from 1994 to 1998.
I went to Coeur d'Alene (CDA)three times (once by myself, once with my cousin, and once with my Mom and Stepdad. My cousin Eric is driving now and drove us out to CDA - he's grown up now! I also saw my two aunts so I had a great time. They will likely come to the wedding next summer. I left Spokane early on the 31st and returned home that evening only to turn around and fly out the next morning with Darcy to Ottawa.
The sobering news though was that she finally got a reply from our contact at the UAE University Library. The search committee has selected two individuals for the two reference positions. We're both in shock not so much that we weren't selected but in how it was done. The lady told us in our informal phone interview in July that formal telephone interviews weren't going to be held until September. So somehow people were selected during that time frame! If Darcy hadn't emailed the lady in August about Saskatchewan job thing then we'd likely still be anxiously waiting for a response fromt the search committee. We are obviously disappointed with not even getting an interview. This changes our plans dramatically with settling down somewhere. We're stuck in south Florida for at least another year with no job prospects in sight.
But the good news is that we can finally start making wedding plans! We can take charge of our lives in that regard. Read our wedding blog for updates. What I've seen so far of Ottawa is fantastic. The downtown core is very sophisticated with shops, and restaurants and all the government buildings. There are many places for rent that seems to be cheaper than in Florida! The drawback is jobs are scarce - surprise! Last bit of news is that Hurricane Frances is approaching the east coast of south-central Florida. It is a powerful storm the size of Texas and near a category 4 in strength! We're closely following it and nervous about how much damage it will inflict. My fingers are getting tired so I will sign off...
posted by Michael at 1:59 AM
