Assprof, Part VI: The offer, or you spend 10 months I get two days?

The scene. It's late February 2008. It's ten months since application deadline and two months since interview. Do I need to tell you I had - again - given up hope? Ms J has already got her postdoc offer in Norway and I am prepared for another year of postdoc-ing. I had been in dr Schwiiz, Austria and picked up the Goose in Sweden to spend a week in Norway with my parents, grandparents, a couple of cousins and my aunt and her husband.  We have just started dinner at my grandparent's place, so it's late afternoon - close to six.

My Swedish cell phone rings in my pocket but I reject the call without really checking the display. I hear my French cell phone yell in the hall a minute later. I check the display of my Swedish one. Aw shit, it's from The Uni. They're probably just going to tell the interviewees who didn't make it that they didn't make it. My Swedish cell rings again and this time I excuse myself and say I'll probably have to answer it. In the freezing hall of the 1947 house of my grandparents I get a job offer. Tired as I am after all the travelling I cannot seem to be really excited. The Trønder and the Goose will probably follow Ms J to her postdoc in Norway anyway, so what is the point for me to accept this position in Sweden when I'm going to be all alone still?

This is Tuesday afternoon. The head of school asks me to decide by Thursday evening since she will go on a work trip to the US on Friday morning and be away for a week. And we really want to hire someone ASAP. Not sure where the logic comes from. I tell her I have to go back to family obligations but promise to get back to her the next day. [Cannot really think straight either]. No problem, I even get her cell phone number in case I'm out of internetz.

I return confused to the dinner and start telling the story. Everyone seems to think it's great news, I'm the only one hesitating.