Journal…Of Sorts…

Made it back to Tokyo on Thursday night. Nick and Christy have been here since Sunday with Sharron, so it was fun to hook up with all of them when I got here. Since it was Thanksgiving, we went out for Sushi. Nothing better for Thanksgiving dinner! ;-)

I’ve got several topics today, so I’ll break them out into categories.

First Class

After the initial flight from Tokyo to Atlanta, both Sharron and I had accumulated enough frequent flyer miles with Delta to be upgraded into their Silver Medallion Elite program. This means lots of bonus miles when you fly, but more importantly, it means that you’re also eligible for upgrades into first class automatically. So, of all my flights over the last 3 weeks, I’ve been upgraded 5 times. First class is awesome! Both ways on my Puerto Rico trip were first class and that is certainly the way to travel on a longer domestic flight. Since we’re only silver members, we’re not eligible for international upgrades. :-(

About the only thing that’s spoiled it was on our flight from Hartford to Atlanta. There was this fat middle eastern guy sitting behind us and he was acting pretty strange. After he took his “medicine” he got even weirder. He locked himself into the bathroom and then the flight attendant informed us he was in there smoking. How weird! Even stranger, when they opened the door he came out in his underpants. The flight attendants couldn’t get him to do what they wanted him to, so we ended up making an unscheduled landing near DC where the police came on to our plane an escorted him off. Other than that, first class has been great. :-)

Jobbed

After returning from Puerto Rico, I was 100% confinced that the job in Hartford was the one for me. On Tuesday afternoon I called them and accepted the offer. Woo Hoo! I know some of you will be disappointed that we’re not moving to where you are, but hey, we’ll be closer than Tokyo right? :-) The job in Hartford is with The Travelers Companies. They sell insurance worldwide, both business, specialy business and personal lines. For instance, they’re the company that insures Fear Factor. Pretty cool right? My job will be IT Project Management. It sounds kinda vague, but it’s supposed to. I’ll be in charge of whatever projects need doing. Since it’s through Cameron-Brooks, the company is specifically hiring me to groom me for upper managment. One of Travelers goals is to increase market share by 100% over the next 10 years, so I can see why they’d need leadership. It certainly sounds like fun and a great place to start a new career!

House

While I was interviewing with Travelers, Sharron was out with a real estate agent looking at houses. We’d found a few nice ones the previous day, but nothing that was a “Yes”. Monday, she found such a place. That’s what I went to see when I was back in Hartford before heading to Puerto Rico. We made an offer on the house and it’s been accepted. Of course, until closing, nothing is certain, but we’re on the path to owning the place now. We just received the inspectors report and though there are a few bumps in the road we didn’t expect, it’s nothing money can’t fix. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on what we decide, but I think it’s looking very positive. Hooray!

Having never been to Hartford, CT, I really didn’t know what to expect.  Both Sharron and I were pleasantly surprised and we had a great time exploring the area.  Saturday night we went out to eat at a restaurant called the USS Chowder Pot IV.  Since we were in New England, we of course had chowder, and we both order a lobster dish.  Wow, the food there was excellent, and really, not a bad price.  The next day we spent in the area with a real estate agent.  We figured that if we were going to really evaluate the area that we’d better see what the houses are like.  We found a few we really liked, but we definitely had to change our mindset from new houses to older houses.  The other areas we’d been considering had houses that were built very recently.  The oldest house we saw in Hartford was built in 1830.  Wow!

That evening, I met with a bunch of other potentials for dinner with some people already working for the company.  It was a nice dinner and I learned a lot more about the culture.  The most important thing I learned was that the 10 candidates were not competing against each other for the same job(s), but that they could hire all of us if they wanted to.  Nice.  The next morning was interviews, but it really wasn’t a traditional interview or what I was expecting.  I met with three people separately and while they did ask me a few questions, they didn’t really want me answering too many, but asking them.  They were all very curious about what I thought of the area, the company and if they could better explain what the company does or what I’d be doing.  It was the most relaxed interviewing I could think of.  After interviewing, they took us on a tour of a different faciliy in the area, fed us lunch, and then took us to the airport.  It was a great trip.

Now the pay off.  This morning I got a call from them with a job offer.  I know how I want to respond, but I’ve already scheduled another follow-up interview, so I have to wait until after that.  Who knows, it might change my mind.  What I’m hoping it will do is to solidify my thoughts about the Hartford company.  The most exciting thing about this second interview is that it wasn’t one of the companies that said yes, but only a maybe.  What else is exciting is that the position will have travel to Puerto Rico.  In fact, I’m being interviewed in Puerto Rico.  I leave Sunday!

Sharron left for Japan this morning.  Nick and Christy are flying in on Sunday to tour the area.  I hate that I’m stuck here and not able to help Sharron with the touring.  The hardest thing about all this is that we both have to go back to Japan.  We’re SO close to leaving that what ever time we have left there will seem like an eternity.