5 days I was never paid for (subject), but paid for (object): DAY 2

 2018, "i have the terminal degree in my field"

 

8:30 picked up at hotel by DM and partner-wife, "Do you know KB, she's fantastic?"

9:00 meeting with DM (head of art dept), he is wearing a black beret

10:30 meeting with BS (math & science), three water damaged ceiling tiles

11:30 meeting with MM (provost/vp/academic affairs)

12:30 on-campus lunch with search committee, saddest cafeteria ever

14:00 meeting with RT (information technology) "Oh, I'm going to use that now: Solution-oriented."

15:00 RM (visual resources curator) "There isn't much to do here, I fly to Portland on weekends" 

16:00 BREAK, I was never going to die in a place with wall-to-wall low-pile, institutional carpeting

16:30 job talk presentation (room C417) Kevin Brophy: DEEPFAKE (Kevin Brophy is Deep+Fake)

18:00 senior student critiques (west campus)

19:30 dinner at one of only two vegan fine dining places in town, is a repurposed gas station

20:30 has beer, reads search committee members tarot (only two men stayed *side-eye*)

21:30 has beers, talked about druqs, v pro-druqs (dear god, why? we could be making a living wage rn)

22:30 driven back to hotel by DM

23:00 shower, cringe, panic attack, free HBO, am dead-tired, can't sleep, free HBO

3:00 feels like throwing up, hates everything, will die if lives in this city with these ppl! (oh, that's why)

 

8:00 picked up at hotel by DM

8:30 meeting with NC (diversity & inclusion) 

9:10 meeting with VC (art history) literally knows nothing about art after 1968, *visibly disturbed*

10:00 meeting with RR (sculpture) "our student's don't know what sad girl theory is, but they could"

10:45 MM (benefits service manager) omg? 10k moving budget? I don't own anything, lol, I'm garbage

11:30 meeting with JP (drawing/painting) "you'll get used to it. this isn't florida, it's the south-south"

12:30 BREAK

13:00 lunch with DM, cringe, beret again, cringe, chill art spot, but I can't eat alone w this dude, seems intimate, seems like he's talking about in "40 years when you retire" *laughs in face* "if i live that long" (facepalm)

15:00 dropped off at hotel by DM "there is one other candidate other than you, we meet next week"

16:00 taxi to airport

17:30 flight memphis to tampa

22:30 mom with iced coffee in hand, "i bombed!!!" ...and I'm trading in my return ticket to Spain to stay here instead of going back to that haunted mansion...and I'm visiting HE in toronto in 2 weeks when I can't stand staying in your guest room any longer...and then I'm going to use the returned ticket credit to plan a friend-mantic May vacay with HE before my PNW residency in the most problematic city I will likely ever visit in this lifetime (hearts forever mom)

Notes: I received a 1 paragraph email from DM a week and a half later stating that they were going with the other candidate; an animator in his late 50s with an MFA from CalArts, 2 kids and a spouse.