Polerand

Several weeks ago I had an interview in Madison, Wisconsin.

 No fake. (That’s right, “No fake” — you got a problem with it?)

They flew me out there, paid for me to stay in the Hilton Monona Terrace and flew me back the next day after the interview.

The hotel was beautiful and the bed was luxurious. I also had a wonderful view of the state capitol, which was very striking lit up at night. I had an excellent meal from the restaurant downstairs, as well, though it wasn’t as excellent as they thought it was judging by the price (nor was their $4 Aquafina anything to brag about). After I settled in and paid for my one day’s worth of Internet connectivity ($10?!), I decided to explore.

I walked around Madison for about an hour and a half to two hours taking pictures and just checking things out. It was such an odd layout compared to Oklahoma City. OKC is snapped to a grid, whereas Madison is not. It also felt very compact compared to OKC (afterall, OKC is the “7th largest city in terms of geographic area”). Very pretty, however, and pleasant weather while I was there.

The only problem was, I had the vague notion that the thought police were going to tackle me if I even so much as looked at the grass as stepping stones. So I kept to the sidewalks as much as possible.

After the interview, I had to wait for a cab in the lobby (and they apparently forgot that the person who calls the cabs, since that’s only one designated person, was not there and I waited for an hour or so). I took the time to look around and a thing of note was The Pop-Up Book of Phobias – quite entertaining.

I got home at 11 or so that night after having to fly north to Minneapolis before I could fly south to OKC — the difficulties of regional airports.

Of note: In front of one of the government buildings not far from the hotel were golden poles near a building. The entire building had a 1920s feel — very shiny, metallic, art deco, sort of. Anyhow, on each pole was the word “Forward”, which happens to be the Wisconsin state motto. However, it looked more like installation instructions and I was tempted to try and sneak a glimpse of the side facing the wall to see if it said “Reverse”.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Future, Trips, Employment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.