The two-body problem-part 6-A potential solution presents itself

Even though I was determined to not let this consume me, it did. Once you actually do something it becomes part of your life, whether you want it to or not. I received a confirmation email within minutes of hitting send. This was a good sign that they were serious about hiring, and it indicated that they were planning to choose interviewees in one month. A quick response like that makes the wheels in your head turn.

That, and they requested letters from my references within an hour of my submission. I found this out quite by accident later in the day when I talked to one of these references and he said "So you decided for sure to apply for that job?", and I said, "Yes, how did you know, I just sent my CV today?", "Today? Really? Wow your CV must rock because they already asked for a letter".

That was fast. Really fast. So fast that logically it could only mean one of three possibilities.
1. I was the only applicant (which I knew wasn't true)
2. The search chair was really efficient (which turns out to be true, but this was overly efficient by academic standards)
3.They also felt that I was exactly what they had written that they wanted (which was the one that gets in your head, because you don't want to believe it, but a little part of you feels really proud, and it turns your hypothetical to a possible)

Suddenly this went from just sending in a CV to something highly interesting. There was buzz among friends and colleagues about the job, about others they had known who applied. Academics can be as gossipy as teenage girls sometimes.

A week or so later, the buzz died down and we all returned to real life, and I once again almost forgot all about the whole thing. The one month window passed and I figured that was that. Then I got a call asking if I was still interested. 3 weeks later I was there, interviewing, and falling in love with the school, the town, the department and the people. I made friends with other faculty within minutes, the grad students were super smart, the town was nice. I was treated with respect and it was really great. It was almost too good to be true. I came back exhilarated, but figuring that there was no way that this was happening. No one is that lucky. There were a couple of small ticks in the negative column, most notably a higher teaching load, but overall it was great.

4 days later, I had the job, and I was in shock.

Once the shock wore off, we started the long process of negotiations and decision making.