What have I been doing?

Been busier than ever, which is what I asked for so that I forget about sitting by the phone waiting for the astronaut selection office to call me back to be one of the final 50 they call back for the second round of interviews. They've already called back 3 week's worth of the 5 weeks of interviewees. There are only the last two weeks in April to be called, which will happen sometime in March. My thoughts are these: I really want to be in the final week, which is what I've said from the beginning. This means a long wait for the call back. I think I did great on my first interview round and totally warrant a call back!!! But who knows what they're thinking, and I know that if I don't get a call back it would sting for a few days but wouldn't be devastating or anything. Fortunately I'm pretty self-confident these days in my capabilities as a professional and a mom so I still know I'm pretty bad ass and if I'm not called back it's because I just don't fit the current profile of hat they're looking for. So I would feel a loss but would bounce back shortly and keep pressing forward in my regular job. BUT DANG I REALLY WANT A SHOT AT THE NEXT ROUND! Two people (of us 10) in my first interview round have been called back. They are awesome women and think they both deserve to be in the next round too! So go them! I've also learned that some people actually get interviewed year after year, it's almost normal to them. So even if this is all I get this year, I'm still optimistic for the next round!


In the meantime, in the last few weeks I've traveled to NASA HQ to give a presentation on ISS Science
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT70DZIIvyU&feature=youtube_gdata_player


The next week I went to Phoenix for more ISS science talk, including one specific to neuroscience, which challenged me a bit to get creative on since I don't normally single out a discipline. But it worked!
I made it home just in time to chaperone Anna's school field trip to the zoo the next day (I was fighting a sinus infection and bed bugs, yes BED BUGS, in Phoenix) but had fun on that cold field trip!




Rebecca and me: The chaperones




She was so excited about the bus ride!! First time on a school bus!!




















They're wearing matching pants, LOL!!
















That Thursday rolled right into Friday: Field Day at her school. This was Paul's area!! He was able to spend all morning cheering on Anna and et friends through sack races and egg carries and stuff, and then he volunteered all afternoon for the older kids. That's totally his area!

I don't have pictures of that but he was having fun :)







Friday rolled right into birthday party Saturday....



The next week was all about a special film crew from a certain network here at NASA to interview a few of us about being moms. It was me, a few flight directors, and a few astronauts, but I'm not sure I'm supposed to share much until it airs in May so for now, it was fun and covered a few days at work!




Headquarters actions, budgets, astronaut training, Flight Readiness Review presentation. new packages, oh man the week was swamped. It was as if all challenging things about my career was thrown at me in a span of about 10 business days. On top of it was a really cute class song presentation nana and I attended last week too, all about the animals at the zoo they saw last week :)












That Thursday rolled into Friday, where half a day's work got done on more HQ actions and the rodeo:




The sinus infection is improving after a few weeks, and tonight is the They Might Be Giants convert at the House of Blues (just me and Paul!).
And we've once again signed up for the MS150 and once again are woefully behind in training. So tomorrow morning will be our first sorry training ride, likely in the rain.
I've lost progress in exercising these past few weeks but it's back on this week!
I've asked to keep busy, and so it worked. Next week is spring break; Anna wants to go to the NASA camp and I will be buckling down harder at work to finish catching up and get ahead while everyone else is out! :)
Whew!