Of Boomerangs & stuff

Ever hear of the boomerang effect? Yes? excellent, then you will follow this.

It seems to me that the boomerang here is the Hawaii job. Andrew threw the Hawaii job back at em in Spring of 2012, by Spring of 2013 that boomerang came right back to Andrew with another job in Hawaii. The boomerang definitely walked its sorry self the mile or so from Straub hospital to Queens and then tapped someone with the big guns on the shoulder to be thrown back to Andrew Rich in Palo Alto, California.

Andrew takes Hawaii.... in style! 

 Actually, Andrew was alerted to this particular new job posting even earlier than Spring, it was February of this year. Andrew was mildly interested, but also knew that the hospital was quite a bit bigger than his current site at Lucille Packard Children's hospital. There would also be many more employees to manage over and perhaps even more departments of which to cover as well. However, Andrew took the leap and applied after I gave him the "AOK" to do so. Let me tell you though, dear reader, Andrew was applying all over the map at this point in time-- Nevada, Michigan, Utah, little towns in California of which I had never heard. I was pretty much game for anything, but partially because I did not know how serious he was about any of the places or the positions themselves. You see, Andrew can have a bit of a boyish wanderlust about him (and I LOVE that about him!) Still, I figured all of these would pique his interest for a millisecond and then he would move on. When Hawaii was in the queue again, I thought a little bit more of the same, that he would be interested in this for a day or two and move on.

Shave Ice Hawaiian style after interviewing

The process to the road of interviewing IN Hawaii took TWO months! Andrew applied, spoke to a screener on the phone, had a formal phone interview, submitted an updated portfolio, blah, blah... you get the gist... finally (after a lapse which we have chalked up to their moving on "Hawaii time"), he is asked to come to Hawaii to meet the Sodexo team at Queens, as well as to undergo formal interviewing with the COO of the hospital and other head honchos there whose offical job titles I have certainly forgotten by now.

I hid in Andrew's suitcase and secretly joined for the trip, just along for the ride-that's me!

All went well, and after the inteviewing portion of the trip, we got to play with friends who live on the Island for part of the year! We then stayed at a great resort. I went out stand up paddle-boarding, Andrew applauded me from the shore, camera in hand and then went to Spam Jam in Waikiki (though we ate NO spam).  The following day we were on our way home (after a very brief stop at the swap meet where Andrew and I lost each other and don't make me tell that story! It is still so maddening)

THIS is our friend's backyard on the North Shore of Oahu.... Seriously.

We return to California late Sunday night.
The next few days go something like this:
We tiptoe around conversations at home and over text during the day,  trying not to say too much of anything about the Hawaii position when all we want to know and all either of us EVER thinks about is "Did you get the job or not?!"
We almost could not take it anymore, until...
Andrew rode his bike home from work on Thursday and stood over me where I was writing an email. I could tell that he wanted my undivided attention, so I looked up and he said
"I GOT IT!" He was grinning ear to ear. We knew what that meant (that we are moving to Hawaii) and we began the happy dance and all that jazz.....come on, we all know you do that too...