Best interview yet

I'm really happy with the way my campus visit went.  Proud, even.  Despite my enormous fears of sounding like an ill-informed fool who would bring shame and ignominy upon the heads of all who considered hiring him, I think I had a great visit pretty much all the way through.  My job talk went great – way better than I even expected! – and earned me good feedback; I made it through an exhaustive series of interviews over the course of several days; and I felt like I actually made friends among the faculty, especially at the candidate dinner.  It all felt very collegial and pleasant.  I want the job so much that it's hard to remember that I have to chill out and forget that the university exists for a while.  A short-list candidate still only has 1:3 odds.

Naturally, being the person I am, I'm also replaying a few moments of the process where I wish I had answered a few things more promptly, or where I wonder if they understood exactly what I meant when discussing some things of heightened political sensitivity.  I felt like I was on the same wavelength with everyone in the moment, but now my grad-school-honed self-doubt and second-guessing skills have come into play.  But one way or another, what's done is done, and I need to focus on the present and the very near future right now.  That by itself is a lot on my plate.