Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

DATELINE: American Airlines flights home from Oklahoma City through Chicago to Indy, 1 February 2007

I have been to the West, I have been to the East. I have been to the South, I have been to the North.

Now I finally head home, with just enough brain cells functioning amidst all this low-pressure gloom.

Sunday I had headed out to San Diego, writing next week’s column across the long flights. The one from Dallas to San Diego was especially bad: middle seat in last row and not even a window! So I lost myself in the column, where I compare Bush to Truman (sort of a “Bring it on” versus “Give ’em hell”).

Sunday night was cocktail hour and dinner with the large defense contractor unit’s senior personnel. Steve and I were brought in to kick off their strategic planning off-site, having done work for them in the past. We ran the first three hours of the first morning session on Monday.

Following that lunch I was cleared for a bit, whereupon I got a good workout. Then Steve and I spent two hours interviewing a local senior exec for employment at Enterra. HR is everything for a start-up, Steve likes to say, and it sure does eat up time. I am not Mr. Manage People, but Steve patiently brings me along, and I start--albeit slowly--to grow in the role. Why? The more I work for Enterra, the more proprietary it is to me. I own a chunk of this baby, so there ain’t no Man to bitch about, just my own sense of duty to contend with daily.

After the long interview (always worth the up-front effort), Steve and I attend another long cocktail-dinner combo, leaving the scene with more serious leads for future collaboration than we dreamed possible going in, so a tremendous sense of success with the day’s effort.

Up very early on Tuesday for the jaunt to Atlanta and then the skip back to Huntsville and then the cab to the motel just in time to do Hewitt’s show. Then out to dinner with my host from the Redstone Arsenal (a significant unit that focuses on the future of missiles, and let me tell you, these guys got a lot of interesting new things brewing).

Wednesday saw me attend the strategy off-site of the unit, the Army Missile Research, Development & Experiment Center (AMRDEC--if I recall the acronym correctly). I went 90 and 15 Q&A (surprisingly good given the heavy tech background of the people), and got the treat of listening to George Singley follow me. He’s a quasi-legend in the field, one of those guys everyone respects for his many years of innovation and sound judgments.

Then I fly outta Huntsville back to Dallas, eat some Tex-Mex, and then catch another flight to Oklahoma City, getting in too late for proposed dinner with Dean of OKC University’s biz school. But I do work out.

Today I get up and do a couple of conference calls right off the bat, then work out again, then gear up and drive to the biz school for my luncheon address at a “terrorism and American business conference” (the other speakers were FBI, who promised to give me some good book ideas for budding agent son). I spoke 60 and then participated in a panel with an FBI agent and the head of the OKC National Memorial, MC’d by the dean. Nice audience and great Q&A.

Then I drive to the OKC Memorial, snap some shots, and duck into the museum briefly. Then I am forced to hop in my car for an interview with a mainland/Taiwan Chinese international news service outta DC. The lady journalist knew my books quite well, and claimed they were widely read among elites in both places, thus the interview. That was nice to hear, but I would have given her the interview without the buttering up. I went about 40 with her over the phone.

Then to the airport for the rides home, making it 8 flights this week, every time zone, and three different hotels and two rentals. By the time I made it to the airport, I could feel my well-traveled brain beginning to melt. I started misplacing things like crazy (lost two receipts, which I NEVER DO!) and so on.

My final coup is to leave my glasses case on the seat on the last flight.

At the airport I had several conversations with Jenn over the phone as we plot travel into June, with some of the clustering getting amazingly complex. I feel like every fifth sentence I say to Jenn is, “Do you think I can get there by then?”

I am looking at DC, MN, DC, WI, DC, CA, Italy, TN, DC, WI and maybe--just maybe--a whole new continent for me. All that between now and the end of March, assuming Steve doesn’t add too many extra surprises.

I am so looking forward to my own bed tonight … and the game on Sunday!