"Well, if you were with us, you'd have Mrs. Everett, the department secretary, bringing you tins of cookies almost daily and most likely an offer to fix you up with some member of her seemingly endless family. Before I was matched, she was determined that I would meet a niece of hers, but that didn't happen." He wondered idly if the niece had been matched in the lottery in whatever town she lived in, and if she had, if she were happy.
"I'll loan you a machete and some paint. That should liven things up a bit," he said. "On the whole, I guess we're pretty lucky. Most of us get along well, even when it comes to publishing. I have an article coming out next month in a botanical journal. Make sure you catch it. Fascinating reading, really." He grinned and shrugged. "But you know well how it goes--publish or perish. I'm angling for tenure, so papers on a fairly regular basis. Are you planning on staying here in Seattle?"