This last week involved two out-of-state interview trips: activity that is extremely exhausting! There’s just so little left of me that my blog-life is suffering tremendously. I apologize.

I appreciate it immensely that you keep checking back to see if there’s another new posting here. Yes, eventually, there always is.

The trip to Kentfield, California, last Friday seemed to unfold quite positively. I have a good feeling about the College of Marin and the possibilities of taking on a position there. Of course, with any job-search activity, the word to the wise is: expect the unexpected. Rarely does the process go entirely smoothly. I anxiously await news from the south.

I must mention: there was a glitch in the travel on Friday. My plan was to fly to San Francisco, take a shuttle up to Kentfield (north of the city, across the Golden Gate Bridge), then do the reverse process following the afternoon of interviewing. It all seemed so easy. (Well, it was to be a long day of travel and stress, but other than that…) The fly in the ointment turned out to be the shuttle service: an outfit called Marin Door to Door. They have a good, and confidence-inspiring, website and telephone-message system. When I called to book the reservation, the person on the phone seemed quite competent, knowledgeable, and accommodating. They called me the night before to confirm my ride from campus to the airport in the evening. (I had been instructed to call them upon my arrival at the airport for pickup.)

Ah, but when I did arrive at SFO, things started to totally unravel. They had typed in the wrong flight number for my flight, and although they had recorded the correct arrival time, they chose to believe their erroneous information regarding flight number and insisted that they weren’t expecting me until two hours later. When I patiently explained that the error was on their part, that I had indeed arrived exactly when I said I would, the gentleman (HA!) became quite agitated. This started a series of several contentious phone calls that lasted until I was finally picked up, almost exactly two hours later than I had requested. The process involved us shouting at each other over the phone at one point, including the flat-out admonition to me that I should be more careful about giving them the correct information when making a reservation!

The experience also involved a driver from the airport to campus that spoke no English. None. Consequently, I had very little confidence that I was going to end up in the right city, much less the specific campus I had requested. He was able to punch the college’s address into his GPS device (I think), but quickly got lost. Somehow, within minutes of us heading north on the freeway, we were off onto surface streets, turned around, and headed south toward San Jose. I know the way to San Jose, and it’s not in the direction of Kentfield! But could I communicate this to my driver? No way. All he could say was, “sorry, no Englais.”

Somehow, we made it. However, the entire scenario was repeated coming home as well, and involved, at this juncture, another company representative hanging up on me as I was calling to inquire about the status of my ride during my evening commute.

Next time: I’ll rent a car.