Sheryl operates on a different plane that you and I. In college she majored in jewelry design, preparing herself for a peripatetic future rich with adventure. Unlike her elders, Sheryl was determined to step lightly, live modestly and have a blast. The ditty “Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think” was, once upon a time, her mantra. But as she mellowed into her twenties, breaking rules, bottles of wine and hearts, things changed. Blame the fact that she gravitated to bookstores where she’d display her jewelry at first on a blanket and then, as sales accrued, on a picnic table. In between the waves of idle customers, Sheryl wandered inside to “borrow” this book or that. At first she favored the art and alternative lifestyle aisles. But something about physics of all things, hooked her, catching her in its spell. Hostile to science and math as a student, Sheryl now devours textbooks on string theory and the multiverse (coined by William James back in 1895 — what a guy!)  Customers want to hear about the flow of creativity as evidenced in her minute silver charms and earrings. Instead, Sheryl, shifts the conversation, not so artfully, towards the possibility of numerous universes held together in the twelfth dimension. If she’d only come back to earth, she’d notice that her income is are on a definite downward trend, which is a problem as she’s counting on what is now a side business to get her through grad school in theoretical physics.