Saturday, December 03, 2005

Feeling Much Better

I completely skipped mentioning Monday evening's ride out to the lighthouse in Randaberg with Lise's brother. I rode to his place at about 3pm and we had a night ride through a series of rural roads. I was a little paranoid about ice, but he was on a mountain bike and hadn't recently crashed. He rode like a maniac. The rural roads were well-lit by streetlights. As we approached the northernmost tip, it grew colder and colder as we were surrounded by the sea. We could see Kvitsøy off in the distance. It is home to a series of impossibly large shortwave radio antennas. I will hunt down some photos at some point. On our return to his apartment, I flatted- my first in Norway. Fortunately I had a supply of spares- the first tube had a bad valve core. I ended up riding about three hours that night- mostly in the dark. My headlight battery was dead by the time I arrive home.

I stayed off the bike the rest of the week while I was sick. Thursday we toured a health club. It is nothing like Lifetime Fitness. They have limited hours- they usually open at 10am- so no 6am predawn workouts. There were only two or three people using the club when we toured at 11am. It was quite compact, although it was spotless and smelled nothing like a gym. Back in the US, we quit our memberships in the spring. I never went to the gym in the summers when I could bike, and we knew we were moving. Oddly, I feel more strange about not having a gym membership than not owning a car. An off-season female body builder gave us a sales pitch and tour- in English. Apparently she was from "up north" and even Lise had a bit of difficulty understanding her dialect. Anyway, we now have a week's free trial membership. I am thinking we will check it out today. At least I had to foresight to bring a set of workout clothes.

Later we drove to where I rode the other day, beyond Sviland. It really was out in the middle of nowhere. Distances are deceiving around here. The round trip was probably no further then my old route to work and back- which was 40 miles. That route had a straight 10 mile stretch that distorted the perception of distance. Around here, no road is straight, and no road is flat. There are no long sightlines, like seeing downtown off in the distance and gradually riding toward it. Rather it is like riding through one scene of a movie and into another- into a completely different little self-contained world. Rides tend to have discrete segments that each have their own beginnings, middles, and ends. There is so much diversity to the geography in such a concentrated area. It makes for interesting riding. Lise was amazed that I rode out that far- but again, it really wasn't that far. Of course in a sprawling US city, you can ride for miles and miles and still be in the city.

Thursday I also heard back from my interview a few weeks ago. I am not receiving a second interview. I am not surprised, given that they are recruiting internationally and I have no direct experience in that type of work. In hindsight, I am more surprised that I received an interview in the first place. It is nice to know, however, since I have another interview scheduled on Monday with a software company. Ultimately, it probably more closely fits my interests and aptitudes more than the other position, despite the vagueness of the job posting (written largely in consulting double-speak). It will be easier to give this interview my full energy and attention knowing it is the only thing I have going at the moment. I view rejection as an expected part of the process. In a strange way, it is exciting to not know what I will be doing for a living. If I were an engineer, I would already have a job, but I would still be an engineer. As a generalist, I could be anything. My job will be the convergence of my past experience, education, and the random nature of the hiring process. In short, fate will have a hand in determining what I will do. The only problem with this is that fate will also have a hand in determining WHEN I will have a job. But I cannot say that I am bored yet.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love your upbeat attitude and positve framing of your "search for employment" which when I read your blogs about it, is more of an adventure to write about, like George Plimpton and his various endeavours and reporting on the experience. He did one some years ago on becoming an NFL quarterback. He was given the opportunity to tryout and quarterback for a set of downs as I recall for the Detroit Lions. Perhaps you could write a book about your experience. You definitely have the venue for it and the undoubtful writing skills to do so. LA