Fuck you Atlanta

My trip down to North Carolina was way too easy, and the trip back more than made up for it by being a fucking disaster. Apparently a few raindrops in Atlanta causes the entire airline system to shut down. The downside of a good deal on airfare is that I didn't get a direct flight from North Carolina to Chicago. I had to fly to Atlanta for a layover, and that's where it all went to hell.

My 6:40 flight to Atlanta didn't leave until about 9:45. My connecting flight was delayed as well, so I still technically had enough time to land in Atlanta and make my flight to Chicago. That is until I spent an hour and a half sitting on the tarmac waiting to pull in to the gate in Atlanta. When I finally got to the terminal there was one flight left that was going to O'Hare that night, and the guy at the counter basically told me I was fucked for trying to get on it.

Once again, fuck the city of Atlanta, and an extra-special "Fuck You" to the Atlanta airport and its employees. Supposedly they had booked every hotel room in the greater Atlanta area, and told us that because it was a weather related problem and not a problem with the airline itself, they had no obligation to do anything but bend us over and fuck us. And so like refugees, there were about 200 of us who slept on the floor and various benches of the airport until the ticket counters reopened in the morning.

Luckily I was able to get onto a 7:00 flight in the morning instead of waiting for the 4:00 PM flight that they put me on the night before. They bumped me up to 1st class, which is the least they could have done, and because I could I had a gin and tonic at 7:30 in the morning.

Time to Go to Work

I started Thursday morning in North Carolina with a complimentary breakfast at a restaurant next to the hotel. I was expecting bagels and muffins and such, but I got my first taste of culture shock going from North to South. Apparently biscuits are served in some form for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I went to the high school around 10 to meet with the principal, not sure if it was a second interview or just a meet and greet. After talking to her for about 2 minutes it was clear that I already had the job, and that I was just there to take a tour and seal the deal.

I am going to be teaching World History to 9th graders, and it sounds like they've got a lot of programs in place really focusing on the transition from middle school to high school. All of the freshman classes are in the same hallway, and that little part of the school is the "Freshman Academy". There's another new World History teacher, and a teacher who taught World History last year is now teaching a study skills class for the freshman, and has offered to help us by sharing her lesson plans.

The principal told me that new teachers in the department start off with World History, and that the upper level classes like US History and Government were usually taught by people that had been there a bit longer. From what I've seen they don't have any psychology classes, but I know they've got some more specialized AP classes like Earth Science, so they obviously have started expanding into AP. I'll figure out for certain once I'm actually in the system, but if they don't teach AP Psych yet I'll start nagging at them to let me start the curriculum.

As far as extra-curricular activities go, the one thing I've talked to the principal about is a student literary magazine. It sounds like there's an English teacher that wants to start one, so I'm trying to get on board. I think there's a few teachers from Michigan at the school, and I know of at least one who's been nagging the principal to let him start a hockey team. As much as I love hockey I don't really know anything about it, but I'd see if he'd teach me on the job as an assistant coach or something.

A Long Strange Trip

I was going to blog while on the road but I ended up being without internet access from the time I left Wednesday morning until I got back Saturday morning. For future reference, when asking a hotel if they have internet access be specific about high-speed or wireless access. After I got settled in my room I called the front desk and asked about the internet, to which they replied "There's a phone jack in the room." And since I haven't used dial-up or any sort of ISP for almost 5 years now, I had no way to use ye olde internet while in North Carolina. So, I'm just going to change the posting day for this blog back to last Thursday, just to break things up a bit.

The trip down to North Carolina was easy, which unfortunately meant that everything went wrong on the trip home. I drove down to Chicago on Tuesday because it was like $150 cheaper to fly out of O'Hare than out of GR. I stayed with The Captain since he was gracious enough to drive me to the airport the next morning, and we came to the realization that the suburbs of Chicago were a Bizarro form of Holland. In Holland we vowed to never again go to the IHOP for fear of being stabbed (or at least made to feel disgusted of humanity) by one of the patrons there. So while in Holland, Denny's is the only viable option for late night coffee. There is no Denny's in The Captain's particular neck of the woods, but there are two in different directions on the highway. We finally decided after a history of bad service and creepy clientele that the closer Denny's is now dead to us, but there's an IHOP in town that has yet to scare us.

Anyway... got to O'Hare Wednesday morning with no difficulty because we were leaving before traffic. Once at the airport I made it through security and to my terminal in about 10 minutes, no hassle. So, I had plenty of time to start my column for The Newsletter and play Gameboy. The plane boarded and departed more or less on time, and I had plenty of time to leisurely make my connecting flight in Cincinnati.

I arrived in North Carolina without incident, and made my way to the Enterprise rental counter. I got a free upgrade (who doesn't?) from a Kia Rio to a Pontiac Sunfire. While that's not really that exciting, I was really pleased by the fact that they did not charge me the additional $40 fee for not being 25 years old.

And so, behind the wheel of my Pontiac Sunfire (I still hate Pontiacs), I made my way towards my hotel. Driving through North Carolina I actually forgot once or twice that I wasn't in Michigan. Aside from the addition of a few Waffle Houses and the lack of meager, the scenery looked like it could be any city in Michigan.

I spent most of Wednesday afternoon and into the evening just driving around, getting a feel for the area. Traffic does not exist down there. I was on the highway at 5:30, and it was nothing. In my travels I found all the staples of fast food, a new Target and Best Buy that were opening at the end of the month, and almost all of the other hallmarks of civilization. Unfortunately I had grown accustomed to the drought in Michigan, and was completely unprepared for the torrential downpour that came Wednesday night. I'm far enough inland that I won't ever be directly affected by hurricanes, but I sure caught one hell of a thunderstorm.

Time to Pack my Carpetbag

It's go time.

This week will come the deciding factor on where exactly I place my foot as I take that next step.

Wednesday morning I'm flying down to North Carolina to meet with the principal who wants to hire me. After a phone interview a few weeks ago, I called her last week to see where things stood. She said I was one of the top choices, but that the position was offered to someone else.

But that wasn't the end of the story.

Another teacher in the department was moving up to a curriculum coordinator position, and so this left a second vacancy for the same classes I had originally interviewed for. The principal told me she'd call me in a few days.

She called this morning.

She asked if I was still interested in the position, and that she wanted me to go down there this week. And so I'll most likely have a job in North Carolina by the end of the week.

But that's still not the end of the story.

Last week I also got a call from a principal at a school I had applied at in Illinois. He scheduled a phone interview for this afternoon, which went really well. The guy I interviewed with was the department chair, and a real straightforward and down to Earth guy. He said he wants this position nailed down ASAP, and that his goal was to call me tomorrow. As I said, I think things went well, so I may have a job offer in Illinois by the end of the week.

By the end of the month, I'll be a resident of either North Carolina or Illinois.

God Save the Queen

"It is through terrorism that the people that have committed this terrible act express their values... They are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cow us ... but they should know they will not succeed... We will show by our spirit and dignity and by our quiet but true strength that there is in the British people that our values will long outlast theirs. This is a very sad day for the British people, but we will hold true to the British way of life... We will not allow violence to change our societies or our values nor will we allow it to stop the work of this summit... We will continue our deliberations in the interest of a better world.”
~ Prime Minister Tony Blair

Didn't see that coming...

A few days ago The Last Angry Man said in reference to the "impending retirement" of Chief Justice Rehnquist:

There are only nine of these people at any one time, surely it is not beyond our abilities to pay moderate attention to two of them simultaneously.

Apparently it is beyond our abilities.

The retirement of Justice O'Connor, a spring chicken at only 75 years old, came seemingly out of left field. Given her swing-vote jurisprudence, I wonder if the same list of nominees to succeed Chief Justice Rehnquist will be used to nominate a successor to Justice O'Connor's place on the bench.

I wholeheartedly hope that the Senate and general public will agree with President Bush that "The nation also deserves a dignified process of confirmation in the United States Senate, characterized by fair treatment, a fair hearing and a fair vote."

But we all know it won't happen. The Senate is a very ugly, very childish place right now, and the entire nomination process will be turned into a partisan circus.