Thursday, December 24, 2009

On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas…

The Russes gave to me…

A new job.

I have been trying to find a job since this summer. I have applied and interviewed for a lot of engineering jobs and consulting jobs. By the end of November, I had gone through the final rounds and been turned away from every engineering and consulting job I had tried for.

I had one final round interview left with McKinsey & Co, for a management consulting job. It was the job I was least suited for in terms of my educational background. It was the one I was least likely to get, but it was also the one I wanted the most. Two days before my final round interview I tore my disc in my back again, and I was completely debilitated. I couldn’t stand or sit at all. I could barely move even when I was laying down. I had to cancel my interview.

The next week was Thanksgiving, so I had that much time to recover. My interview was rescheduled for December 1st. I convinced my spine doctor to squeeze me in for a steroid injection the day before Thanksgiving. The injections reduce the inflammation and take away a lot of the pain. I also got a new prescription for OxyContin. So the day of my interview came and I was still in pain but functional. I took all of my narcotics and hopped on the three hour train ride to the interview.  At that point I was feeling a lot like George on Seinfeld when he interviewed with “MacKenzie”, the part where he was panicked, not when he was feeling cool, calm, and collected.

 

The interview consisted of three one hour slots, where I had to work through a consulting case on the spot, doing the calculations in my head and coming up with ideas on the fly. I practiced some with Emily beforehand, and she said that it gave her nightmares. The interviews went pretty well but not stellar. I got stuck in one part and had to ask the interviewer for help. After the interview I was sitting at the train station trying to figure out what my game plan would be at this point. It looked like I wasn’t going to be able to get any of the jobs I had tried for.

I was incredibly relieved and overjoyed (but not as much as Emily was) when they called me at the train station to let me know that they were going to give me an offer. In hind site Emily and I feel like me re-injuring my back may have been a little divine intervention. Maybe that was what needed to happen to get me lined up with the right people, to make this happen. Or maybe I needed to be on OxyContin to perform my best ;-). Either way we are very happy and feel very blessed.

This job will be in Stamford, Connecticut, and won’t start until this summer. I am writing up my thesis at MIT over the next month or so, and plan on taking a little time off to relax and to let my back recover before I start with McKinsey. We will be sad to leave all of the wonderful friends we have made here in Boston, but we are excited about the what lies in store for us ahead.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

On The Eleventh Day Of Christmas…

The Russes gave to me…

A few more days of summer.

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

On The Tenth Day Of Christmas…

The Russes gave to me…

Two brothers and two sisters.

Having four kids that were four and under all at home, was often more than we could handle. Luckily they do a great job of taking care of each other.

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They welcomed Alex (Chubby at the time) in to the fold well before he was even born.

10th day-510th day-910th day-11 Alex was 6 or 7 weeks old before Zack finally let us take off his “Baby Alex’s Big Brother” bracelet the nurse gave him at the hospital.

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The first time Lila got to hold Alex she said, “He is way better than a doll.” Lila’s birthday was last month. At the time all of the kids had a really bad cough while they were recovering from the H1N1 flu. Today out of the blue she told us, “I love Alex so much that on my birthday, when I made my wish, I wanted to wish that I could fly. But I wished that Alex’s cough would get better instead, because I didn’t want him to die. I can just make my wish to fly next year.”

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Monday, December 21, 2009

On The Ninth Day Of Christmas…

The Russes gave to me…

A bag of weed.

A few weeks ago Emily and I had a chance to stay in a Hilton for the night (more on that in another post). That night Emily asked me to get her scriptures for her. Being lazy, rather than get her scriptures for her out of the suitcase, I leaned over and opened up the bedside table to pull out the Gideons Bible. I was just about to toss it to her when Emily asked, “What is that inside of it?”

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I opened it up to find the previous tenant's stash of weed.

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Emily claims it was the first time she had ever seen pot before, but I am not sure I believe her. When I suggested we just leave it there and tell the front desk when we check out, Emily quickly suggested another idea. I wonder where she learned the best place to get rid of drugs is down the toilet.

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Sunday, December 20, 2009

On the Eighth Day Of Christmas...

The Russes gave to me...

A boy, just like his daddy!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

On The Seventh Day Of Christmas…

The Russes gave to me…

A mean set of Halloween jack-o-lanterns.

This was the first year where the kids actually did a lot of the work themselves. Here are the girls in there pumpkin carving outfits.

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Abby with her game face on.

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We would like to pass along the best Halloween tip of the year. Try carving a candle-friendly hatch on the back of your pumpkin. It makes putting the candles in and lighting them much easier, and the big thing for us was that it made them way easier to clean out.

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I followed tradition and used an official Homestarrunner.com template. This year I chose to go with the venerable Senor Cardgage, who made his debut in sbemail #92 “Kind of Cool”.

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Here is the whole family from left to right: Abby, Emily, Zack, Johnny, Lila. Notice Lila got creative/overzealous and added on some ears, and a few random holes in the back for good measure.

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