What’s been happening:

In the last 10 years, I started working my way south by earning an MS in Polymer Chemistry from UNC. Then I spent a few years as an Analytical Chemist at Reichhold learning Rheology (think about how Silly Putty behaves). After that I spent a year making glucose monitoring sensors at Becton Dickinson Technologies. Then a spate of interviews, one of which was turned into a vacation driving up the California coast, into Oregon, then to Crater Lake and (briefly) through Yosemite. I ended up taking a Chemist position near Columbia, SC, at Invista, working on the next generation of StainMaster chemistry. In the mean time, I managed to fall in love with a UNC grad student who has not only been willing to put up with a long distance relationship for the last year and a half, but is insane enough to propose marriage to me (once we can be living in the same zip code).