I Never Liked Texas Anyway

For any of you following our job-hunt saga, and for those of you staying far away from it :) , we avoided a close call of moving to Texas.  phew.  They decided to go with someone else, someone who apparently has flight experience in this particular aircraft.  Makes sense.  Well, it's logical other than the fact that Mark's interview and subsequent phone conversations with the Chief Pilot were primarily centered around our lack-of-Texasness.  Mark dropped the bomb that I was a native New-Yorker (though we all know Lake Placid minds-well be in Nova Scotia) despite my specific prepping of him not too.  Mark's first words to me after that interview: "I think you're a liability to me in this job."  The Chief Pilot then followed up with a phone call asking what I do for work, etc.  Apparently being a stay-at-home mom, one-hour-a-month social worker, did not trump my risk-factors of infiltrating the Lone Star state with yankee hysteria.
In the end, I learned that Texas never liked me either.
The day after confirmation that this Texas rejection was mutual, seven, count 'em, seven, Asian business people came from Tokyo to Seattle to interview Mark for a Japanese airline.  I still chuckle just thinking about Mark sitting in a room with seven Asian businessmen who came across the Pacific to interview him.  just him.  NINE hours later he was free to call me to relay the details of the day: five men crammed into the simulator with him, a personality test with question #600 "do you ever feel like hurting yourself" and his response "yes, two hours into this test I do!" and the general kindness and cultural curiosity that infused the day.  He was called two hours after the interview with an offer for a Captain position with ANA.  He was called two days later with an itinerary for the next morning's flight to Tokyo.  You can now find him somewhere over the Pacific, headed to a medical exam that only 50% of Americans pass, of which he must pass to secure this position.  We'll see how well his 24-hr diet of oatmeal and apples serves him.  Maybe he should have tried fish and rice.  hmmm....