Small victories

It's the middle of crazy season.  Snow days, sick kids and recruiting (faculty and grad students) they make for a crazy mix.  There aren't enough hours in the day, add in vacation planning (summer already), summer camp scouting (again already?), and birthday party planning.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm going to make it through the week.  But then again, there are the small victories....

I like to scout out people that would make great colleagues (awesome science and nice personalities) at conferences and hope that I can build consensus to find a home for them in my department.  I did this 3 years ago and got to the offer phase, then my RU lost out to another school due to reasons well beyond my control.  Last year's attempt did not get off the ground.  But this year, I found a great candidate, hosted the seminar and navigated the awkward stealth candidate politics.  The faculty all like this candidate and they can't agree on liking much, so this is no small task.  Out of a large number of candidates interviewed, mine was the only one to get a clear nod of support.  I was flying sky high after the meeting.  Now to get the candidate to come... Again, largely beyond my control.  But, I hopeful that some other efforts in this regard will pay off.

Oh, and took part of the afternoon the same day to attend a school event for kiddo #1.  He was sooo glad I was there as opposed to sometimes, when he seems not to care either way.  Hooray for the good days every now and again.  We need them (and massive amounts of caffeine) to make it through.