Lighter Fare

I was recounting these stories to a friend last night who told me I should post them to the blog. I suppose I haven't because this is a public blog and they're about my own MLA mishaps, but they're nothing I wouldn't share with potential employers, so here goes:  

I call this entry How NOT to Impress People at MLA, in Three Parts:

First. I had four interviews on the first full day. It was pretty hectic, particularly for the first day. My last one was at 8:00 at night in a different hotel than the one at which I was staying. I had about two hours to grab dinner between interviews, so I did. I came back from dinner, talked a bit to my husband on the phone, and then got a little panicky about time. So I quickly changed back into my spiffy suit, grabbed my materials, and hailed a cab. 

I got to the hotel with quite a bit of time to spare and was sitting in the lobby reviewing my notes when I realized that I hadn't put my suit jacket back on. You heard me. In my rush to get to the hotel, I put on my suit pants (happily), the sleeveless green sweater shell I was wearing under the suit coat, and my winter coat (which was on top of my suit jacket on the chair). I don't know how I missed it, I suppose because the winter coat was on top, but I did. I was sitting there in a sleeveless green sweater shell and my winter coat. 

I didn't really have enough time to go back to my hotel and get my suit jacket -- or if I did, it was barely enough time, and that seemed more stressful than my current predicament. So I stayed and when it was time for my interview I called up to the room, headed up, knocked on the door, and introduced myself. I then said, "Before we begin, I have to say that in my rush to get here on time I completely forgot to put on my suit coat. Not sure how that happened, but I'm wearing a sleeveless sweater shell under my jacket, so I'm just going to keep my jacket on." To their credit, the two people interviewing me first asked if I wanted them to turn up the air conditioning so I wouldn't be too hot, and then offered to wear their jackets too so that I wouldn't feel out of place. These were, if it's not already obvious, really fantastic people.

Part Two:  I had been wearing knee high stockings under my suit for the past three days and they were cutting canyons into my calves, in that soft part right below the knee. Killing me! So during the two hour break before one interview, I rolled them down. and I mean rolled, literally, so there was this big thick roll of black nylon stocking around my ankle. Walking over to the hotel where the interview was I asked Kelly to remind me to roll my stockings back up. Of course we both forgot. 

I was suddenly reminded when, during the interview, I put one ankle up on my knee in order to better take notes (don't worry, i was in pants) and realized I had this massive nylon roll around my ankle. I'm not sure if the committee members saw it, but I did. So I -- smoothly I'm sure -- put my foot back down. I decided if anybody called me on it I was going to tell them that it's all the rage in New Hampshire. 

Part the third:

I was staying at the Fairmont and had an interview at the Fairmont, but I wasn't sure what room it was in. I went to the lobby phone, told the operator the last name, and she connected me to the room. I asked one of the committee members for the room number and then, once she gave it to me, asked, "And you're in the Fairmont, right?"

Umm, of COURSE they were in the Fairmont. I was calling from the freaking lobby! Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.