Travel so far. First, I am slipping through a small window of fair weather for this trip as shut down the airport level bad weather is right behind me. The bus ride to St. Louis went well, peaceful, and I don’t mind riding with people and playing “who’s the serial killer” game. The plane flight was fantastic. I sat next to David Baker, the head of the western Division of American Water, which is the largest private water utility in the US! What a great connection and I hope I made a good impression. Annnnnd they’re based in St. Louis. This seems like a career potentially right up my alley, where most of their corporate leaders are business minded people who have law degrees, but science backgrounds. What luck, I think I’ll save that for later.
So I get into Philly, and it seems like there is a vicious fight at every terminal. And the Euro exchange rate absolutely sucks right now. Thievin’ Europeans, I will exact my vengeance on your “union” when I arrive!
It gets even luckier though. The plane to Dublin has me sitting next to Paul, a young PhD synthetic organic chemist for Bristol Meyers Squibb who is designing a new drug right outside of Dublin. He shared his grad experiences with me, told me what he would do today, and then after hearing my situation etc helped me chart another viable route to a career. And he recommends the materials inorganic field that I am interested in as the best choice because he sees it as the only field where America will maintain a competitive advantage. Maybe I’ll tour BMS’s facilities while I’m in Dublin.
Well I’m almost there and I haven’t slept at all. I mean, why sleep when The Devil Wears Prada is on with no sound? But really, I am glad that I am getting to witness the sunrise. Seeing the first pale blue is exciting not only because it’s beautiful but because it is illuminating the edge of the cloud deck, upon which rests a warmly glowing sliver of moon.
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