How did I get here?

It's sometimes interesting to look back at one's life and realize the key moments that lead to current aspects of your life. Some things seem so logical, like my doing chemistry, I'd actually wanted to be a "scientist" since I was in grade 6 (yes I was a geek back then, what you thought I was cool at some point? HA!) But at that age my idea of a scientist was pretty much the cartoonish image of a guy mixing things in test tubes while wearing a lab coat...and now I'm a chemist. Ok, so the synthetic chemists will argue that I'm not really a chemist because I don't "make chemicals". Yeah, maybe it's true that most analytical chemists don't make chemicals, actually a large number of us make careers of figuring out what chemicals the synthetic chemists have managed to poison us and our environment with ;)

So obviously chemistry was something that I was going to end up doing, and I suppose the same could be said about my passion for bicycling. Many or my clearest childhood memories are associated with a bike or Big Wheel. But there are other parts of my life that required a catalyst to get me to the point I am now. One such aspect of my life is my interest in some of the performing arts. And I don't mean the standard rock concert and other musical acts, I mean theater, dance performances, musicals, orchestras, those kind of things. Since just after my 19th birthday I have been going to more and more 'cultural events' (for the lack of a better term). In fact I'm pretty certain that I have been to more musicals than rock concerts. And no, I'm not gay, I'm certain that there are gay men who have gone to more rock concerts and less musicals than I have. Anyway my three dates in three days are all with women, and so what if I wear pink, it's the new black....and I seem to have slipped off topic...back to the musicals.

The only reason that I have actually been to all these musicals and other events was due to a chance encounter. The day after my 19th birthday I happened to be in Montreal, by chance I meet up with a friend and we decided that what better was there to do on an afternoon then head to the bar and drink beer. Well the place was just packed, we were seated with an older couple, probably mid-30's or older. The guy was just a slob, quite overweight, unshaven, he kind of had that puffy slob-like face that you only see in movies. Well he was a lot of fun, my friend and I had fun shooting the shit with this big guy for an hour or so. When it came time for him to leave he finally told us what he was in town for, he was the producer of West Side Story (which was wrapping up it's run in Montreal the next day). So for being good company he offered us tickets to the show that night, which we declined, since we were meeting other friends, and already quite drunk. We did however get tickets for the matinee the following morning. So the next afternoon there we were, the middle of row H in Place des Arts! I was seeing my first musical and the only reason was because I was out drinking the night before. Talk about a change of gears.

Well, I absolutely loved seeing West Side Story, but then again how can you go wrong with the Romeo and Juliet story...oh right, Romeo Must Die kind of fucked it up. Just the same since that first musical I've gained an appreciation for the arts and have seen many different performances, though I still need to see an opera. I just find it interesting how I discovered this interest and I wonder what other unexpected joys I will find through unusual routes in the future?