{"id":363,"date":"2011-11-09T22:43:01","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T22:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=363"},"modified":"2011-11-09T22:43:01","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T22:43:01","slug":"disorientation-and-desolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2011\/11\/09\/disorientation-and-desolation\/","title":{"rendered":"Disorientation and Desolation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011.11.09.a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-405\" title=\"2011.11.09.a\" src=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011.11.09.a-100x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011.11.09.b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-406\" title=\"2011.11.09.b\" src=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011.11.09.b-100x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a>This is the story of my mind-numbing trip aboard buses, planes, and cars across 3 time zones and 5 interviews in 6 days. Possible? Yes. Insane? Absolutely. It began last Wednesday after work with a mad dash to South Station to catch my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boltbus.com\/\">bus<\/a> down to New York, which due to rush hour traffic, got me late to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.columbiaeye.org\/\">Columbia<\/a> pre-interview <a href=\"http:\/\/menupages.com\/restaurants\/primola\/\">dinner<\/a>. The interview itself on Thursday lasted an epic 11 hours (thanks to my last name), which of course made me late for my next <a href=\"http:\/\/www.parlorsteakhouse.com\/\">dinner<\/a> with the <a href=\"http:\/\/weillcornelleye.org\/\">Cornell<\/a> faculty. By the time I finished my third NYC interview at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyee.edu\/\">NYEE<\/a>, I was completely drained, although thankful to still have some time to spend with family before flying out to Chicago. Arriving early in the Windy City on Sunday, I revisited the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cloud_Gate\">bean<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.millenniumpark.org\/\">Millenium Park<\/a> and had a table for one at nearby <a href=\"http:\/\/www.parkgrillchicago.com\/\">Park Grill<\/a> for lunch. I spent the afternoon reading at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chipublib.org\/branch\/details\/library\/harold-washington\/\">Harold Washington Library<\/a>, supposedly the largest circulating library in the world, before the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uic.edu\/com\/eye\/index.shtml\">UIC<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.customhouse.cc\/\">dinner<\/a>. I took off for San Francisco right after my interview there, which gave me a chance to check out my friend&#8217;s fancy new house as well as my first taste of <a href=\"http:\/\/zantespizza.com\/\">Indian pizza<\/a> before my <a href=\"http:\/\/ucsfeye.net\/\">UCSF<\/a> interview on Tuesday. From there, I took the red-eye flight home, arriving bright and early to rendevous with my wife to pick up my luggage, groceries, and rental car for the 3-hour move up to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.va.gov\/directory\/guide\/facility.asp?id=136\">Togus<\/a> VA medical center in Maine. After orientation (ID badge, house keys, parking permit, computer login, etc.), I settled into my new home for the next 7 weeks amidst the cold, bleak landscape. This is probably my first time living alone in such a large house in the middle of nowhere, reminding me of such horror films as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0081505\/\">The Shining<\/a> (big house, isolation, cold winter) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0384806\/\">The Amityville Horror<\/a> (scary house, winter, flies). So if you start seeing some &#8220;all work and no play makes Glenn a dull boy&#8221; emails in your inbox, you may want to call and check up on me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the story of my mind-numbing trip aboard buses, planes, and cars across 3 time zones and 5 interviews in 6 days. Possible? Yes. Insane? Absolutely. It began last Wednesday after work with a mad dash to South Station &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2011\/11\/09\/disorientation-and-desolation\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}