Paradise Found and Hearts Beat

Monday was a white knuckle ride. Tuesday was calming. Today spiked again but it’s evening out again. These two people, above, are very dear to me – my son Quanah and his wife, Erin.

Life has been rough for them the past four years.  Death, leaving jobs, a cross-country move, the economy bottoming out and few secure jobs for him these past four years. A job for her, two more moves, departure from another job, layoff. . .  well, there you are and the beats goes on.  But, Monday, this past Monday, the world turned.


Late in April, Q applied for a job at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Time went by and he didn’t hear anything.  In the meantime, his friend and mentor teacher, Meg,  from his Bishop Luer High School days (in Fort Wayne, IN) called him.  A position was opening there again and would he consider applying for it?  No promises, of course, but if he was interested, to apply.  So, after talking with Erin, they both agreed that it was a good idea.  They knew Fort Wayne.  They liked it.  It definitely fit their comfort zone.  After that, things suddenly started moving fast.

No sooner was a first interview accomplished with the Fort Wayne Diocese and the prospect of a second one looming than Cathedral (the forgotten about, too much time had passed, Cathedral) came a calling.  Monday the 11th Q found himself on a Skype interview with him on one side of the monitor and eight people from Cathedral and the Indianapolis diocese on the other.  One hour later, Q decided he had liked what he heard.  Cathedral would be a good place to land.  They told him they would be making a decision by the middle of this week so he went into his second interview with Meg and the principal at Bishop Luer (Mary) on Monday wondering if he might actually have to make a choice.

But! Before Monday’s interview with them happened, Cathedral came a callin’ again.  Surprise.  This time it would be a Skype interview with the principal at Cathedral.  Okay.  One hour later his gut was telling him he has a really good shot at a job offer.  It seemed that Indiana liked him. 

After the Monday interview with Meg and Marie, Quanah checked his voice mail and discovered that while he was interviewing with Bishop Luer High School, Cathedral called offering him the job!  Holy Hannah!!  He’d had a few scenarios in his mind but that one wasn’t part of the band playing in there. What to do?  He knew he had to deal with it within a couple of hours.  And – he was on his own.  Erin wasn’t there to talk to.  So . . . . he called US.  We gave sage advise and he went off and did whatever it was he did.

Upshot

The offer was too good to refuse and he accepted Cathedral.  Then he called Marie and said, “Marie, you will never guess what happened”.

“Let me guess”, she said, “Cathedral made you an offer”.

Quanah was flummoxed, “How did you know about Cathedral”?

Turns out Cathedral called Bishop Luer that morning not knowing anything about the upcoming interview.  The principal was simply making final calls before making a decision.  So – all during the interview, Meg and Marie knew that something might be in the wind for Quanah and he was clueless.

It turns out that Marie was in a really quandary.  Deciding between Quanah and the other candidate wasn’t going to be easy.  She said, “So, is this you calling to tell me that you are going to make my job easier?”  (Laughter)

“Yes,” he said, “I accepted the job at Cathedral.”

This turned out to be a total win/win all the way around.  Cathedral gets a terrific teacher in our son and Fort Wayne gets a priest/teacher for their students.  It was a perfect storm of Roses and Chocolate.  Happy, happy, happy.

So, on July 13th Don flies to Oregon. On the 14th they load the truck. On the 15th they start the drive across country.  In the meantime, Q and Erin will be apartment hunting online.  After Q is settled in, Erin will follow later rather than leave her summer job.  Don will help him settle in and then stay for a while and do some genealogical research since he was born in Indianapolis. Like I said, Indiana must really like Quanah. 

So now I have to get used to having three time zones between us again.  Time juggling is always annoying but the alternative of no job makes the three hour time difference just fine. Let the new adventures of Quanah and Erin begin again. Stay tuned.