Wonder-Kid, Chicken Boy

It's a yearly ritual of mine, or so it would seem. Coming to Auburn to recruit, you ask? Well yes, but no, that's a given. Every year, I run into Chik-Fil-A Guy. Many years ago (four?), I interviewed the creme-del-a creme of Auburn Software Engineering. This kid had a 4.0 GPA, was an Eagle Scout, had all other kinds of leadership, and was talked highly of by faculty. And best of all, he wasn't a pompous ass. My interview with this kid lasted about five minutes, after which I told him he was going to Houston, and I wanted to give him the rest of our time to interview me. He said, "Well, I do have a few questions", and flipped to the second sheet of his notepad; it was covered, every line, with questions for me!

So I passed my interview and the wonder-kid came to Houston and was offered a job with UTC. UTC has traditionally had high standards for our new hires, and this was the first candidate that I knew, without a doubt, would get an offer. For some reason, I really wanted this kid to come work for us, I guess he was someone I thought I would like to work with. He had interned at Chik-Fil-A (gotta program those chicken fryers you know) and had family near Atlanta, so even though it was a long shot, he seemed torn up about whether to accept our offer or that of the chicken people. He could have been stringing us along, acting like he was interested in us while secretly knowing he was destined for chicken, but this kid didn't strike me as being that way. After some time he informed UTC that he would not be taking the offer. He was a breast man, a chicken breast man, and our offers of riches via Texas Tea just wasn't enough.

I've interviewed a lot of people over the years. There are no doubt people that I interviewed, that we ended up hiring, who I wouldn't know if they walked into me. For some reason though, the ordeal of Chicken Boy kind of seared his image into my brain, just like Chik-fil-A sears the juices into their tasty, tasty breasts. And like clock work, every year at recruiting, I come across the Wonder Kid, Chicken Boy. As I was parking on Tuesday, I looked up and what did I see, not five feet from my car, than a flock of three chicken people, with one being, you guessed it, the Wonder Kid! I just kind of laughed. This is strange, weird, bizarre, aligning of the planets kind of thing, but seriously, every year, the Wonder Kid is there. I'm sure he doesn't remember me; I, after all, don't really remember the people I interview and subsequently spurned on campus, so that just kind of makes it all the more funny. Had I not parked at that moment, the streak would have ended, because I saw no Chicken People the rest of the time. Did fate intervene? Was it coincidence that I had eaten Chik-fil-A that very afternoon?!?! Who knows. Weird stuff.

What does this have to do with running? Nothing. Deep moral story? Nope. Philosophical comment, as this blog is found of, coming any moment? Nope. Just the story of the Wonder Kid, the man they called Chicken Boy.

So with that out for all of posterity to remember, a quick run down. A little bit of exercise yesterday, a good bit of walking today, and lots of stretching and sticking of my foot into the hotel ice bucket. All in all I think the foot is healing, but it is slow business. I'll run Saturday morning, and perhaps Tuesday, then that might just be it.

Other than recruiting and doing stuff for my main job, I brought several things to pass the time. I have my personal laptop (for fantasy football) and I purchased five magazines to read. Runner's World (of course), the Economist (excellent news/economy/politics magazine, but certainly not light reading), and three personal finance kind of magazines. I also brought along my unfinished Michael Chabon novel and a GRE study guide. What? Scandal! GRE study guide? Well yes. I've talked about maybe possibly one-day soon going back, so after looking at UofH's web site, it's pretty clear I'd have to take the GRE. It's been a while since the noodle had to do school work, so I thought I'd get a study guide just to see how hard it would be. I haven't started it yet, but I might get to it this weekend.

The part of me that might like to teach one day is making strange waves while being back at my college campus with a GRE book in tow. We'll see where this goes, but for now, it literally goes to Skipperville for a few days before returning. I might want to get on that GRE guide though, because if my real job depends on my recruiting success, I might be fired. Right now, we've only got two or three people to talk to next week! Last year was our best year ever, but this year, the famine is upon us.

Later. I'm going to go wee some sweet tea now; way too much at the BBQ place today!