February Newsletter and New Hampshire

In February, we've seen a little bit of pick up in our class schedules. Both Megan and I have had to do alot lately on our senior projects. Megan's group is mostly into the testing phase of their components, then making sure everything connects up together and still functions like it should. My group is still setting up individual components on our project, but we hope to have it all set up by Spring break. Last week, we both prepared and gave presentations with our respective groups on the status of our projects. On top of this, we've had a bit of increase in homework as well as a few midterms, but nothing as grueling as in past semesters.

On Valentine's day eve, I went out shopping with Kathleen (Megan's sister) to find a gift for Megan that she's been requesting for some time now, but we couldn't find it. So instead we went a bought several bags of Necco conversation hearts, which I sorted through to extract all of the white ones for Megan. Those are her favorites. Then I thought I'd go and check Circuit City's going out of business sale again to see if the Canon Rebels had gone down in price anymore. Much to my delight (and a little bit later, Megan's delight) I was able to purchase the last one which was the display model of the Rebel XS (next to newest release). Because it was the display model, it was pretty well reduced, and we had a very happy Valentine's indeed.

The next day we went up to the mountains outside of Sierra Vista with Becca and Nick's family to try and find some snow to slide down. Unfortunately, any snow was not accessible by car, even though you could clearly see that up on the mountain there was plenty to go around. We still hiked around and had a very enjoyable time. And we got to take some pictures with Megan's new camera.

Last month also saw an engineering job fair and the industrial affiliates workshop in the College of Optical Sciences. The industrial affiliates workshop is where all of the different companies that financially support the optics college come to present to the students what they've been doing, the students present to the companies what they've been doing, and all gather together for mutual schmoozing at various events. I interviewed with a few companies and talked to a few companies that I interviewed with in October. Insight Technology in New Hampshire invited me to fly down for a second round of interviews (the invitation came a few weeks before industrial affiliates, but I'll talk more about that trip in a little bit). Two other companies besides Insight seemed promising, but no word yet on any invitations to second round interviews with them.

Megan and I had our first OB/GYN appointment last week. We got to see our baby in an ultrasound, and she even turned to look at us when the doctor snapped the picture (we refer to the baby as "she" but really don't know anything yet. "She" just feels right and sounds much better than "it".) Megan is progressing super well and feeling much better (most of the time). She's even starting to show a little. Mostly, her abdomen has just firmed up nicely as the baby makes more room for herself and pushes Megan's abs out. Megan is starting playing with the big bag of maternity clothes that Becca lent her, and her mom took her shopping last week to buy some other pregnant ware. Megan says that with the ultrasound picture in hand and her expanding belly, it's starting to feel alot more real for her now. She even can identify times when the baby might be moving inside her, and she thinks she knows where her legs and arms are.

So as I mentioned, I'm on my way home from New Hampshire right now. Insight booked me a flight, a rental car, and a two-night stay in a Marriott. I can't help but feel pretty important and special to them with how much they were willing to wine and dine me.

I flew all day Sunday, and due to bad weather in Chicago, I didn't arrive in Manchester until 1:30 am Monday morning. Technically the hotel was only about a five minute drive from the airport, but since it was such a nice night, I thought I'd miss the only turn I had to make and drive through Manchester for a little while before doubling back and finding my way to the Marriott. I woke up a few hours later to a healthy snow fall covering everything! It continued to snow all day long, and I realized why an ice scraper / snow brush was included in my rental car.

Insight was only a few minutes away from the hotel, but it was such a blast driving in the snow for the first time that again I thought I'd miss my turn with the snow obscured street sign and continue the snow sight seeing! It was much easier than turning around right away anyhow. Eventually, I made it to my interview and I spent the day interviewing with 7 people who would be either my direct boss or my superior in one way or another. I was escorted around by my potential manager through all of the labs, clean rooms, and manufacturing shops on the three different properties as he took me from interview to interview. This lasted until about 4pm. Then in the evening, he took me out to a very nice local Italian restaurant with girlfriend and we chatted about the company, U of A, New Hampshire, Arizona, his family, and how much fun my growing family would have in New Hampshire.

Throughout the evening, his verbiage seemed to change from "If you end up with us at Insight..." and "If an offer comes through for employment with us..." to "When you and your wife are here with us in New Hampshire..." and "When that offer letter comes..." So I thought I'd dare and ask how confident he was that there would be an offer letter. He was a little taken aback and said matter-of-factly "Oh! 100% confident! I'm the one who'll be making the offer, as you'd be working in my group. I'm the one who opened the position, and I hope to fill it with you!" He then went on to tell me how impressed my initial interviewer in October had been with me out of the twenty other college kids that signed up for interviews that day. He said that that interviewer had even asked a few of my professors if they'd recommend me. Then he said that he'd gotten immediate feedback from my several interviewers, that they were all very impressed, that my supposedly "toughest" interviewer was me my strongest recommendation, and that one of them had even said, "Hire him. Hire him now." He said that my offer would be a little high, but that I was an investment and that they expected me to learn quickly and fulfill a need as an Optical Manufacturing Engineer in his group. He said to expect an offer in the mail within a few weeks. When I got back to the hotel room, I kind of jumped up and down and couldn't stop smiling. I feel a little bit intimidated and that they have high expectations for me, but I'm sumamente excited with how the trip went and the opportunities that lie ahead for Megan and I.

Con Amor,
Megan and Matthias

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The snowy mountains next to Denver


The scarf I crocheted during the long delays in Chicago. Notice how it was strangely flaring right here in this picture. At this point I pulled out all of my work and started again.

In the rental car, there was a snow brush and a snow scraper. "That's odd," I thought. "What would that be for?"

"Oh."

Insight Technology in the snow.

After a few hours, we went back to the car to travel to another property, and there were icicles on the bumper!

Now a few more pictures of snowy New Hampshire.