News Up the Wazoo

So I'm a bit under the weather, with a slight fever and accompanying headache, but I won't let that dispel the good news I recently received. But before all that...

Graduation: What a disappointment. Well, the ceremony was a disaster anyway. The speaker, who was the CEO of Lenovo (the company that acquired IBM's notebook computer division), was uninteresting, uninspiring, and long-winded. I didn't actually time it, but I think he yammered on for about half-an-hour, regularly extending his speech with the phrase, "And that reminds me of another story..." Some of my friends disagreed, but I think if they had been at graduation last year, they would have realized how much better it could have been.

And then, there was the weather. The ceremony took place outside in the field of Lehigh's athletic stadium. Around the time that I walked onto the stage to receive my degree, the sky began spitting rain, despite a forecast that only called for a 20% chance of precipitation. Not too long after my friend and I sat down, the rain increased in intensity and, just in case Mother Nature hadn't already expressed its disdain for us, changed to freezing rain. I know it was freezing rain, because I could see bits of ice land on my robe as we sat there. Shortly after this nonsense started, my friend and I quickly agreed to retreat from the stadium, back to the tents for each department's after-graduation reception. As my friend and I shivered in there, I talked to some other friends of mine who retreated to the same tent and also got interviewed by a local TV crew on the topic of concerns over the job market for a new college graduate, a piece I imagine they do every year (I just looked up the video online and I'm in there for about a second, talking about how Career Services got me about 3 interviews, although I think it was actually more like 5; my friend Rich got several seconds of airtime, http://wfmz.com/view/?id=269392).

My roommate followed suit, and we went to lunch at around 1 pm. His family was incredibly nice and generous, I got to see one of my previous roommates, and lunch was delicious. The only downside was, it made me late for the international relations after-graduation get-together. By the time I got there, only two professors remained. Contrary to my expectations, my honors thesis adviser (the same guy I TA'ed for last year) did show up but was long gone when I was arrived. But it was good talking to the professors I did see, and I'm going to try and send an occasional update to the IR department; they definitely pestered me enough about that.

Since then, I've been traveling a bit, seeing friends and spending time with my girlfriend. Then, at the beginning of last week, after another e-mail harassing my employer, HPTi, they got back to me with a surprise revelation: they wanted me in Dover, NJ working in their "defense research and engineering" division. I had two problems with that: 1) It was not in DC, the area I had told all my friends I would be moving to in August. 2) That division sounded a little too much like "weapon systems" to me, and I want a job where I can sleep at night with what I'm doing. I quickly called HPTi with my concerns, and I was reassured that they would see what they could do and get back to me by the end of the week. Well, that didn't happen, but I was with my girlfriend until Tuesday and vowed to hold off on dealing with this situation until I got back. When I did back, I postponed for another couple of days, before finally calling HPTi on Thursday. I got the answering machine but, within 10 minutes or so, heard back that everything had been resolved: I'll be working with the "secured software solutions" division for clients like the IRS and FBI, and that will put me in the DC-metro area. Hooray, success!

And then, today, I received equally great news: my girlfriend got her job in the DC area, so in a few months, we'll be a lot closer to each other and see each other much more frequently. It was the job she really wanted, and I couldn't be more psyched for her. The timing of this was especially nice, because we'll be heading off to Vermont for about a week on Sunday. A friend of mine has a cabin up there, and he was kind enough to invite us. Presumably, whatever illness I have now will be gone by then. And in that vein, I should be off to bed soon to keep doing my part to get well. Good night!