Day...whatever

Okay, okay, so I promised to be more diligent in updating this, and now I've missed a few days. But I had a good excuse - I was away! Here's the scoop:

Sunday - Didn't really do a lot on Sunday. Hung out with the kids, did some housework, got my suitcase around for my trip. Left for Harrisburg about a quarter till three for a 5:00 flight. Called my Aunt Karen on the way, figuring that I could stop in and say hi to her and my Grandparents (up visiting from Florida) on the way. While I was there, she offered to drive me to the airport, and I figured that would be easier and maybe safer than parking at the airport, I took her up on the offer. She dropped me off, I had no problem with lines or security, and got to the gate about 20 minutes before boarding. The flight was uneventful, although taking a jet is so much smoother and quieter. Unfortunately I guess the Dash-8 turboprops will be the norm until the Harrisburg-Boston route gets busier. The flight was about 90% full, and I had a nice conversation with a Harriburg area woman who was flying to Boston for a week for a convention.
Landed a little early at about 6:30, and forgot that the car rentals are not AT the airport in Boston. Had to wait around for a shuttle bus and then take a bit of a ride before picking up my rental car (I went with a Malibu - it had New Mexico plates on it, and 17000 miles). Got through the Sumner tunnel and on to I93. Didn't take me long to realize how much I DON'T miss the Boston area traffic. It only took about 25 minutes to drive to my hotel from the airport. I called Brian just as I was getting off my exit (I had asked him to meet me at the hotel, and was worried I might have kept him waiting), to find that he was about 5 minutes behind me. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. I parked at the hotel, checked in, took my luggage to my room, and got back down to the lobby just as he and Robin were getting there. We went to a Chili's about 5 miles away, and had a nice two hour chat catching up eating way too much over a couple of beers. It was near 10 until they dropped me back of at the hotel, and I called home and then pretty much went straight to bed.

Monday - Got up in plenty of time to check out the hotel's free breakfast buffet. They had it all - eggs, bacon, sausage, a belgian waffle maker...I ended up having oatmeal because I didn't want to be belching through all my interviews. Didn't have any trouble finding the Raytheon building (The bright red Raytheon sign shined in my hotel window all night - it was literally right across the street), and got started with my interviews right on time. I interviewed with the Systems Engineering department in the morning - a different department than what I worked at when I was there before - so I was less familiar with the people doing the interviews. But they all said that my reputation preceded me, and the whole process was a little strange because I already knew the project/acronyms and even still knew ( or am good friends with) a lot of the people in the higher level positions. I finished up with the interviews for that position at noon, and met a group of old friends for lunch. I was thinking maybe there would be a larger group, but it was just the right size to be able to talk to and catch up with everyone who was there, without feeling like I was repeating myself or neglecting anyone. After lunch I got started with the 'interviews' for the software engineering department, which is where I was working when I left five years ago. I put 'interviews' in quotations, because it really felt like more than a formality. But I did the best that I could and at least tried to ask a few intelligent questions. That process finished up around 3, and since my flight didn't leave until 7, Roberto agreed to escort me around the facility to see who I might run in to. I got to see a lot of old faces, and had some longer chats with some people. I didn't get to see everyone that I wanted to, so to any of you who might be following this, sorry I missed you! Finally dropped off my visitor badge at about 5:40 and headed back to the airport. I found a little-used bathroom at the airport and changed out of my suit, and still had about 40 minutes before my plane boarded, so I took advantage of the 'Legal Seafood' restaurant near my gate and had a nice big bowl of their famous clam chowder. The plane took almost no time to board (I think there were 6 of us on the plane - the stewardess asked that we all sit towards the back to help with the weight balance), and we got going nearly a half-hour early. Still, Aunt Karen was on the ball picking me up, and pulled in right as I walked out to the curb. Visited with her and my grandparents for a few minutes, mostly talking about my interviews, before heading back up the road. So much had happened since the day before that I could hardly believe it had only been a day since I left!

Tuesday - Another lazy day for me winding down from my trip. Stacie spent most of the day at a home and school meeting (she's the president), and Malin spent the day at Mam-Maw's working on some crafts to enter in the fair. So I played with the boys all day, and spent a little bit of time preparing for my evening - first soccer practice of the year. I agreed to be the head coach for Gavin's team this year, and since I've never coached before wanted to make sure I was prepared for being in charge of 13 four and five year olds for an hour. In the end, I though things went pretty well, and I'm actually looking forward to the next practice! Headed to Mam-Maw's to pick up Malin after practice and visited there for a bit, so it was a bit of a late night for the kids. Then I had a whole bunch of chores to catch up on, and wanted to make sure I blogged a bit, and now here it is past midnight, and I'm still messing around on the computer. Oh well, I guess that gets you up to date, but again, I'm too tired for pictures. Maybe tomorrow...