Amen, holla, and damn skippy.
Not that this relates to or helps Billy, but what’s up with the overrated, “highly esteemed”
Italian joints around here? Never had good food at Maria’s and they aren’t exactly friendly to newcomers. Like much of Rockford’s longstanding culture, you have to be in the club.
I got the job! Woo!
So it looks like I’ll be packing myself to Illinois come June or July.
Thanks to you all, I have a more realistic picture of what to expect when I get there. It’ll be fun to have a new city to call home! And if I find it lacking, I’ll do my best to make it cooler. 
Congrats! That’s excellent news!
I already feel it getting cooler. 
Welcome!
Congrats. Give tenacious j and I a holler sometime neighbor.
Awesome news! Maybe we’ll have to have a Rockford Dopefest at some point.
I didn’t know you were in the neighborhood. I’d go to a Dopefest there.
Mainly because I’ve been looking for an excuse to get some bread from the world’s greatest bakery, Great Harvest Bread. There used to be one in Madison, but it closed, and Rockford is now the closest. But it just seemed a little overkill to drive a 120 round trip for a couple loaves of bread.
Note that Rockford College has had some notoriously lopsided wins lately against Trinity Bible College. Nothing like watching a 105-0 squeaker on a Saturday afternoon.
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I’ve been wondering what the OP thinks of his new home.
I had an interview in Freeport a couple years ago. Didn’t get the job, although the interviewer said I was competing for it with 11 other people. I did visit Rockford while I was up there, and much of the city is a total dump. Freeport’s not in very good shape either, although it at least seems safe.
Although I liked the interviewer and got a positive impression of the company, I’m glad I didn’t get that job.
Me too. Come back, Billy-ohhhhh…
He’s probably too busy touring Fermi Labs. They do a great job of making subatomic stuff understandable.
Maybe he’s been down in the Tevatron (“big acceleration tube thing”) for weeks…
Yo, Jimbo – you can drive south west instead of southeast and get what my kids call “Nun Bread”:
https://www.sinsinawa.org/bakery/index.cfm