Single Parenthood

Last Wednesday I flew out to DC with baby for the weekend. While there I interviewed with an accounting firm and I drove down to Raleigh to visit a dear friend. On our flight back to SLC (while sitting in a window seat) baby vomited two bottles worth of smelly curdled milk all over me. I felt so bad for the two Ukrainian dudes next to me that had to get up and let us out so we could clean up (as much as possible) and then had to sit next to us all stinky for the rest of the flight.

I assumed last week's trip was the last of playing single dad for a while and it would have been had my wife not gone to the ER last night with major abdominal cramping. One ectopic pregnancy/removed fallopian tube later and I'm back to single parenting while she continues to recover at the hospital. I like baby, I really do, but I'm starting to think we're seeing too much of each other.

Final Tour Update

November 9-13 - Interview in McLean, VA and a weekend trip to Raleigh, NC to see a good friend. Baby will be accompanying me again. That should be interesting.

November 14-15 - Interview in New York City. My flight from SLC on Monday leaves 12 hours after my flight from DC gets in on Sunday.

The Last Few Trips

Highlights from the last few trips:

Palo Alto - Dinner with some great friends at The Cheesecake Factory where our burgers were not cooked in the proper manner resulting in a free meal and a $15 gift card for future use.

Irvine - An interview with a great accounting firm that ended 25 minutes before my flight was to leave. Luckily the John Wayne airport was very close to the office and I was at the airport, through security, and in my seat in 15 minutes.

McLean - Dinner at The Capital Grille Thursday night before my Friday interview. I had the bone-in Delmonico steak which was perfect. Also, the firm I interviewed with does not require receipts for expense reimbursement; instead they gave me an envelope of cash upon my departure which more than covered my expenses.

Tour Update

I am adding the following dates to the schedule:

Tuesday, October 18 - San Francisco/Palo Alto, CA

Monday, October 24 - Irvine, CA

Friday, November 4 - McLean, VA/Washington DC

Hopefully more to come.

You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three

As I interview with various firms this season, I would like to share my experiences here, but I will be somewhat vague in identifying the firm. I will instead refer to each firm as DPME, an acronym formed by combining letters from a few firm names.

Thursday morning baby and I were kidnapped from our warm beds by the airport shuttle man at 4:30 in the morning. Of course baby woke up the second I got him out of his crib and stayed awake the entire ride up to the airport and the 1.5 hours we waited for our flight, which was fun. Luckily I got him to fall asleep as we took off, and he stayed sleeping for most of the flight. But as he is wont to do, baby pooed a big poo about an hour before landing. By then he had woken up and was playing in the area beneath the seat in front of me and between my ankles. My legs created a chimney, piping airborne poop particles which proceeded to perforate my proboscis and pervade the proximity. (The on-board movie was Mr. Popper's Penguins). I was then faced with the dilemma: Is it more of a bother to the two gentlemen next to me to let me out to change him, or to sit two feet from a fresh, steaming, reeking pile of poo? As I pondered that imponderable, the seat belt sign came back on. Decision made.

So Thursday was quite busy as I sherpa-ed baby through the shuttle/airport/airplane/airport/rental car shuttle/rental car along with my backpack, carry-on, baby's diaper bag, stroller, and car seat. At least I checked the car seat. While I managed to feed and change baby throughout the day, I didn't get a chance to eat anything until dinner that night. When I got to the dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with two professionals and three other candidates, they were eating appetizers. Now I know that when you're interviewing, the meals aren't about the food, but are about opportunities to get to know the professionals and ask questions and not make a fool of yourself and such, but it's The Cheesecake Factory - How can it not be about the food? So I sat there politely taking appropriately small portions of the appetizers and bread while holding back horrible urges to bend the menu into a funnel and down everything on the table in one breath.

I was lucky enough to have great family and friends in the area that were willing to watch baby during my dinner Thursday night and during my interview on Friday. Unfortunately I was late to the breakfast portion of my interview on Friday due, in equal parts, to the Ritz-Carlton's clock being 10 minutes slow (a ploy I'm sure so that hurried patrons are more likely to use bellhops or other guest assistance), VA traffic lights lasting forever, and getting stuck in the elevator at the office (and then getting off at the wrong DPME floor and being trapped in that awkward elevator room with the glass doors that you can't get through without a swipe card).

There were some great parts of the trip though:

- Since I had the baby with me, I didn't have time for the eternal debate as to whether I should go to bed early the night before the interview, or stay up and watch trashy shows on HBO.

- The bathtub at the Ritz-Carlton was huge and the bathrobe was soft and comfortable.

- I visited the Wegmans in Fairfax, VA and it was awesome. I know it's just a grocery store, but there's something wonderful in familiarity. For Mormons it's like traveling to a city/state you've never been to and walking into a church building on a Sunday. It's a small piece of home wherever you go. That's Wegmans.

- The closet light at the Ritz-Carlton turns on when you open the door. That's convenience. (Unlike the mini-bar which automatically bills you for items upon their removal from the electrical sensors underneath.)

- Seeing family Thursday night when I dropped off/picked up baby.

- Dinner Friday night with some dear friends at the Sweetwater Tavern.

So that was trip #1. I'm supposed to do a few more before this recruiting season is over and we haven't yet decided if baby will be joining me on any others.

Fall 2011 Tour Update

As I mentioned here, we (like ESPN's College GameDay) are "coming to your city."

Our trip to Seattle was awesome and we have confirmed a trip to San Antonio on October 27-30 to see the BYU/TCU game at the "neutral" site of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Additionally, baby and I are going on a fathers and sons business trip to Washington, DC this weekend. Thanks to some generous friends and family in the area, baby will have excellent supervision while I interview with an accounting firm in McLean, VA. We'll leave on Thursday and come back on Saturday just as the BYU game is starting. It's a pretty quick turnaround for us this week, so unfortunately we will not be able to see everyone in the area we'd like to.

As luck would have it, I will be interviewing in DC at least once more this fall (and once in NYC to boot). As those trips are planned, I'll update the tour schedule.