Sweaty palms

There is nothing like the sigh of relief that follows stressful moments in life. It's almost like you've lost 10 lbs without even trying.

On Wednesday, I traveled up to Oak Brook for my interview with the travel company that could hold my future in the palms of their hands. To say that I was intimidated seeing the gorgeous office buildings would be a serious understatement. However, once I got into the actual office and saw that the workers (who were doing a presentation on European Villas and saying things like, "Okay, so then after we had this fantastic breakfast, we were taken on a tour of....") were completely normal. I interviewed with two ladies who asked me quite a lot of questions, some of which threw me for a loop. We discussed my former jobs, my former travels, and thankfully one of the ladies had been an English teacher in Japan for seven years. And had visited Okinawa. They demonstrated what my job would entail (it's entry-level so nothing too hard-hitting) and then talked about the opportunities for internal promotion. It's an amazing company and offers unbelievable 5-star trips. It's completely baffling to think about how much money I spent on four months of travel and how much people will drop for 5-10 day trips.

Anyways, there is nothing that I would do differently about my interview. I was happy that I bought the expensive suit! After my interview, I headed just 10 minutes away to Regan and Kent's new condo to see Baby Alex. I spent the night at their place, ate some yummy food, caught up with Regan, and took a great walk on the park district trail right next to their home. It was a nice visit and, of course, you can't beat the free entertainment of five-month-old babies...especially ones who are discovering new sounds!



The really exciting thing for me right now is that I am wearing a sweatshirt! And I can see pumpkins at the farmer's stand outside my window. Plus, Mom has started bringing out all the autumn decorations. I haven't had the chance to enjoy fall since 2004. I definitely intend on hitting some orchards and pumpkin patches and corn mazes... and I'm going to drink warm apple cider and eat caramel apples (sans peanuts)... and I'm going to crunch my way through piles of leaves. Oh, the glory of it all! (Let me know if you want to join me on any of these excursions!)