Takin' a Break

One of the great things about working for The Man is that they occasionally pay you to go places and do things you might have actually paid for yourself. I'm currently sitting on the fifth floor (I think) of the Chicago Convention Center at McCormick Place with a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. The Man, being the generous guy that he is, has paid for me to come out here and learn a thing or two about analytical chemistry and, specifically, chromatography. Sounds pretty boring and I'm sure that to most, it is. But Pittcon is the analytical event of the year. All the vendors on the exposition floor are eager to sell you on their latest and greatest (usually with the aid of some candy or swag). Every 30 minutes or so I chuckle to myself about how similar my experience is to the episode of The Office where they go to the paper trade show.

There are some interesting things afoot in the land of liquid chromatography so the first half of the day hasn't been too incredibly boring. I even chided a Waters rep for not offering a particular product. He told me I couldn't possibly use it for my intended purpose. I promptly informed him to the contrary and that I'd be using a competitor's product, to boot.

The unfortunate part about being here, however, is that I couldn't bring my bike. Even if I could have, my location in River North (just outside the Loop -- the middle of the city) would have prohibited me from riding it. I feel somewhat less guilty after having done a great endurance/tempo ride of 3 hours on Saturday. The feeling of complete exhaustion was a bit unfamiliar but not unwelcome. I can't wait to start pounding it up some of the climbs (I included my two favorites -- Washington Ave and Coppermine) when the weather begins to cooperate.

P.S. Ask the Ninja about plugging bad numbers/starting conditions into differential equations, it's quite a funny story.