The Update!

Okay - first off, thank you all so much for your good thoughts - both TD and I credit the blogosphere with a nice chunk of how well it went during his campus visit! (wink, wink...)

And that brings me to the true update: when I arrived at the hotel last night to meet up with him after his day-long campus visit, he looked all grinny and slightly high - like he'd just gotten asked to the prom! The visit went (and I quote TD here): "Better than I ever thought it could."


!!!!!

Everyone loved him and he loved everyone - they have a new Dean who's pouring money into this department (literally, inundating these people with money). The department had taken a hit in the last couple of years - in TD's field, professors move around a lot and 4-5 profs in the last couple of years have left to go elsewhere because of issues with "resources" - however, they have a new Dean just this year who's all about hiring great new folks - they actually have 7-8 tenure lines that they can fill with anyone they want (i.e., any subfield). SO, TD would be in on the ground floor with a department that's on its way toward getting back on top (the Uni itself is one of the best state schools in the country, but this department has gone through a bit of a transitional period lately). They are hiring great people this year - TD would be their first junior offer and they already have 4 senior offers out. So, his jobtalk went awesome and he had a fabulous 3-hour dinner with the senior "Big Cheese Grand Poobah" in his subfield (who would be a fantastic mentor for TD) and when this lovely, bombastic, rotund Frenchman finally took him back to the hotel, and before TD could get out of the car, the "BCGP" said, "TD, I'm going to talk my colleagues on the hiring committee into offering you the job" - that's code for "expect a call from us next week." BCGP is also on the hiring committee...

So, TD has told me that he would be surprised if he didn't hear from them by Wednesday - basically, whenever the committee can get together and meet!


AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!


And so TD would broker a very awesome deal ($$$$$, low teaching load, perks) and we'll almost certainly have this whole thing settled by Christmas!

Oh. My. God.

We're both looking at each other like, "what do we talk about now??"

Hee, hee...

I will keep everyone updated on the status of the actual offer when it's forthcoming (notice my total confidence)!



YAY!