Ellen Walaski:  

Greetings all from Dixie..... 30 years wow so much has happened....Short version,not really Education after East 5 college/universities 3 degrees one to be 1977-1979 Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. I picked a school 90 miles from home then my father was transferred to St.Joesph, Missouri. The week after I started school my parents moved 1200 miles away. It took me two years to find my parents and then I transferred 1979-1981 Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville, Mo... 150 miles from home and 10 times less expensive. B.S. Biology/Pre-Osteopathic Medicine '81 Accepted at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine for the class of '86. President Reagan cut education loan money,no money no med school. Military had few female slots at this time and many more male slots. Wrote Senator and Representative and because of this there is now more female slots. '82-83 Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, MO, no money for med school but plenty of money for grad school. M.S.-Industrial Hygiene (OSHA) Industrial Safety deals with those workplace hazards that you see i.e. trip hazards...Industrial hygiene deals with hazards you cannot see. Airborne hazards, toxic chemicals, noise etc. Work- 1981-1982 Substitute Teacher St,Joseph school district- Jr and Sr only, science and math 1983-1984 Substitute Teacher - see above 9/84-7/85 United State Navy-Naval Medical Clinic-Preventive Medicine/Occupational Health Clinic at the Marine Corps Education and Development Command(MCDEC)- Industrial Hygienist 7/85-9/88 American Newspaper Publishers Assn- Industrial Hygiene Consultant Reston,Va (outside of DC) It was the '80's and I was sent all over the country on an expense account, yes an expense account. That was the only way to travel, with someone else paying the bills. Developed some expensive tastes in hotels, food, drink, and clothes. The newspapers still had money then and we would bill them for all the expenses associated with our services, they never questioned anything. We all had corporate American Express Cards and were told that we could charge what ever we needed. Lets see 24,single, travel, expense account what could be better. All good things come to an end and so did this.. 9/88-4/90 Radian Corp. Research Triangle Park, NC Industrial Hygiene Staff Scientist. Stationed up in Rochester, NY. Working for Kodak. Kodiak had possibly contaminated the ground water with chemicals. Kodak paid for my apartment, for a rental car, for an airplane ticket home once a month and this was the best thing...an extra $900 was wired into my account each month. The work was interesting and we had fun. The company I worked for then Radian was a consulting firm full of engineers and science geeks and boy could we party. We had company sanctioned parties called Wisers and when you joined the firm you had to throw a Wiser for your home office. One party fueled by Tequila consisted of a pile of limes on one side of a desk, a pile of salt and rows and rows of Tequila shots. That ended when the government required companies that did business with the government to have alcohol/drug policies. In May of '89 while in Rochester I received a phone call from someone I had worked with 5 years prior. Being in a very toxic abusive relationship at that time I of course told the nice stable caring man, thanks but no thanks. In September of '89 I left Rochester and moved back t...Expand for more