Three days. One foot near the ring fingernail, one...here.

At one point, I think I might be packing up the car and heading East. Then, well, I'm not. A rough rundown:

Thursday:
4:00 EDT - I receive an email from my dad, alerting me to an opening that needs to be filled ASAP. Number two job. A big step up in level. Probably a decrease in pay, and maybe a significant one. I ponder whether it's worth it, and I decide it is.

11:59 EDT - Half-asleep, I email the number one radio guy, attaching a resume, and emphasizing my qualifications, and name-dropping a few people he knows who will have nice things to say about me. I write that I can be there Monday.

Friday:
4:38 EDT - I get a callback, from the outgoing guy. He's leaving on good terms, and he's helping with the callback process. He tells me the details (less money - doesn't even cover his rent, he says, more work, but it is a huge step up, I think) and confirms that I'm interested. I am. "I wouldn't go too far from your phone. You'll probably be hearing from number one soon."

5:01 EDT - I call my dad. Give him the update. Quietly, of course, and out of the way of coworkers.

5:06 EDT - I do some on-the-sly research, and determine that I would be able to cover rent. I'd be dealing with another roommate, though. Rooms were definitely available.

I don't hear anything the rest of the day.

Saturday:
10:40 EDT - I call a former colleague of mine, currently broadcasting in the league I'd be headed to. "Dude, I emailed [number one] to let him know that you're really good and that he should hire you." We talk about what the league and the opportunity have to offer, and I'm happy with the possibility.

10:44 EDT - Still on the phone... "Dude, he just wrote back. ... ... ... Oh, crap. Sorry dude. They're hiring somebody else. Somebody local. Crap. Sorry dude."

Sunday:
12:04 EDT - While doing laundry, I get a call from number one. A pleasant conversation, eight or ten minutes in length. He says that I'm a strong candidate, and that a lot of people said really good things about me, but that they wanted the guy who could start immediately. I don't mention the fact that, yes, I also wrote that I could do the same. It was nice to get a callback, I guess.

Nothing gained, nothing lost, just another story from a life lived with an ear to the ground and an eye on the future. Strange, strange life. There's one more possibility left, an exciting one, but it's looking like a summer on the ring-fingernail.

Check that. I gained a "friend," or at least a "connection." This means a once-monthly email his way, just to check in...who you know, right? Can't hurt to have someone else on your side, even if it's only through a ten-minute phone conversation.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Kitchen tip!

Last night, I was chopping onions. Staff cookout, or something. I washed my hands. I sniffed my hands. They still stunk.

"Hey, let me show you how to get the onion smell off of your hands," a co-worker says. "This looks odd, but it works." She grips the faucet, and rubs her hands up and down it a few times.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

I do it, and it works. Incredible. People do win on RedHotHalos.

- - - - - - - - - -

[Warning: It's the middle of May, 2006, and I'm about to write about Northwestern's 2007-08 men's basketball team. I'm very sick. The WIDiRVoFOW will follow.]

I'm pretty excited with the way Northwestern basketball is headed. It's not really that important, but, over the weekend, Bill Carmody got his second commitment from a highly-rated, and local, junior prospect.

This is important for several reasons:
- He's local.
- He's highly-rated.
- He's got a sort-of cool, sort-of ridiculous nickname. (Juice)
- Not only is he local, he's from Chicago.
- Not only is he from Chicago, he's from the Public League.
- He's also not-white. We'll have two not-whites next year, and three the following season. I think that's a good thing.

Before an analysis of the 2007-08 roster, a rundown of the 06-07 roster:

Seniors:
6-5 F Tim Doyle
6-8 F Bernard Cote
6-10 C Vince Scott

Juniors:
6-2 G Justin Okrzesik [Rice transfer, sat out last season]

Sophomores:
6-4 G Craig Moore
6-4 G/F Sterling williams
6-6 F Jean-Marc Melchoir

Freshmen:
6-8 F Drew Coble
6-6 G/F Jeff Ryan
6-8 F Nikola Baran
6-3 G Jeremy Nash

That's not a very good team. However, the final four players listed represent the best recruiting class NU has had since Esch signed. Or, anyway, at least since Jitim's class. (Jitim, McCants, lots of warm bodies who never made it.)

Take away the seniors, and the following season the roster includes:
6-6 G/F Mike Capocci
5-10 G Michael "Juice" Thompson

[For the record, Ryan is ranked as the 14th-best prospect in Illinois by chicagohoops.com. Thompson is ranked 13th, and Capocci ninth. Jitim was apparently ranked 14th.]

That roster is just interesting, in a dorky, uninteresting way.

What's more exciting is that there are scholarship offers out for more players similar to Capocci, Coble, or Ryan. Lanky shooter types, including a pair of Top 100 high school teammates from Valparaiso, who have NU high on their lists.

I think Carmody's really building momentum for the program, and I can see some really good things happening for the Moore-Williams senior class. (Yes, now I'm looking forward to 2008-09.)

The makings are there for a team that's difficult to score against (tall guards at the top of the zone) and that can score the ball (lots of shooters) and that can run a bit (Nash and Thompson, particularly).

I'll go shoot myself now.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I stayed with the Cubs today. Enjoyed the bogus out-on-appeal of Giles at the plate. Thought Hill threw a pretty nice game. Questioned if Dusty gave him the quick hook. (First-guessing.) Got a bit upset when Williamson allowed a run-scoring hit. Cursed when he uncorked a run-scoring wild pitch. Cursed louder when he allowed a second one. Threw something and turned off the TV when Novoa allowed the three-run homer.

They suck. They don't take pitches. They don't work the count. They can't hit. The bullpen sucks. I'm really happy that I haven't seen much of them lately. I saw the first four innings of the blowout losses to Milwaukee two weeks ago. I saw an inning's worth of last Tuesday's game at San Francisco before falling asleep. I haven't seen them win for a long time, but nobody else has either, I guess.

- - - - - - - -
WIDiRVoFOW

This Week's Reason: He has a gigantic [appropriate?] inferiority complex, and it frequently puts me in difficult and uncomfortable situations.

Supporting Assertion: He'll often say things like, "I don't know why you're the number two guy - you're much better than me," or "I'm just happy they haven't fired me yet, considering that you're so good."

Supporting Evidence:
On Thursday afternoon, we were at a meeting at the radio station. Somebody I hadn't yet met stopped by. Meeting ends, R/DS and newcomer have to talk a few things over. I finish talking with a radio station employee that I had previously met and who had some questions for me, then join R/DS, who is finishing up with the person I hadn't met.

As they're finishing, I interject.
Me: "Hi. I'll be the R/DS' gopher this year."
Employee: "I'm the sales manager here."
Me: "Good to meet you."
Employee: "Good to meet you, too."
R/DS: "Yeah, he's my number two guy even though he's better than me. He'll probably take over for me by the end of June."

All: [Stare awkwardly at shoes.]
R/DS and Me: [Leave.]

[Note: This is not made up.]