Jack's musings on human nature, science, higher education, cooking, photography, and life...

As I explained in my  first blog entry  several months ago, my assignment in Dubai helped me realize I was not ready for retirement and after considerable deliberation I decided to take a role as VP of Strategic Innovation at  Campus Management .  I’ve spent the last seven months as the proverbial “jack of all trades” at Campus Management injecting myself wherever we thought I could add value and improve our operations.  I’d categorize my role as an internal management consultant.  I helped my peers across the company scale and improve their functions.  This gave me exposure to many aspects of our business ranging from marketing to sales, implementation to ongoing support, and development to cloud operations. I’ve had the opportunity to interact with individual contributors on the front line up through the Board of Directors. I’ve visited long standing customers and have helped acquire and implement new members of our customer family.  It’s been fascinating to say the least. W

This entry is an epilog to my previous blog posts about our recent trip to Ireland , and the inspiration received at the Lindsey Stirling concert we attended in August.   We returned home after a wonderful vacation in Ireland. The story begins upon our arrival back in the U.S. First things first.  I'm sorry for delving into the technical details of international travel and customs, but it's necessary context to understand the story. Dublin is one of the few locations abroad where you clear U.S. customs at your departure airport vs. when you arrive in the U.S.  It's an interesting concept.  You exit Ireland and enter the U.S. in the Dublin airport.  There's a separate area of the Dublin airport that's technically U.S. soil.  Wild! Next thing to explain.  Typically, all checked baggage on international flights is routed through U.S. customs when you enter the U.S. from abroad.  Even if you are connecting to another U.S. airport, the bags go throug