Childless: Day 4 and 5

Well this week I skipped all my exercise because of the respiratory crud that's got me a little knocked down. And frankly by the end of the day, I'm too tired to do anything really exciting. Too bad, I had imagined that this week I'd get back to the 8pm summer running I used to do. Didn't pan out. Too tired over nothing.

Observations:

Night of Day 3:
Worked until 6:00pm, which is about an hour later than usual. Joked with my co-workers on the fact that there's nothing pressing me to leave by 5. Except grocery shopping, which I did, at a nice, slow pace, knowing I had no place really pressing to be once I was done. Discovered where they moved the canned chicken because I had time to get to the bottom of it. Picked up some stuff not on the list because I'd always thought it'd be neat to have them on hand in the house if I could ever remember to pick them up. Found the frozen "all-natural" section. WOW, now THAT is a cool section! Pryed my eyes open to finish knocking out some DVR'd Oprahs. Anna didn't want to talk to me on the phone, which is actually fine by me! It means she's happy out there.

Day 4:
Holy crap, is it Thursday already? We drive all the way back out to Austin tomorrow to get Anna already? What to do on my final night at the house? Too tired. Made dinner, watched DVR'd Office marathon (we have them taped back as far as December!!). Told the cat what I've been thinking the past few weeks: you're great except for the fact that you don't cuddle. CUDDLE, DAMN YOU!! Paul found green beans in our garden and brought in a bowl full! So now, in addition to all the tomoatoes we don't know what to do with, he have ACTUAL FREAKING GREEN BEANS, PEOPLE. The kind that look like they do in the store: like FOR REAL. Time is a double-edged sword: slow down so I can take in all the free mom time, but speed up because I miss Anna!

Day 5:
Why did I wake up at 6:19am? Oh yes, because Paul's alarm went off and that was it for me. My last chance to sleep in. I am at work by 8:30. This is 45 minutes sooner than when Anna's here. By 9:15 I think it's snack time, but no. It's only 9:15. This is screwy. On the way to work, I checked the mail, which I hadn't actually done since Day 2. So I guess some things don't change afterall.

Tonight we're going to grab dinner and head West to bring Anna home tomorrow. We will need the weekend to undo all of the no-doubt-spoilings that have occured over the week. Her summer camps start Monday.

Here we go!

Childless, the first 36 hours

This week Anna is staying at my mom's in Austin. We left her there Monday night. She was all excited and then when it came time for Paul and I to go she started to back peddle. I told her it was OK if she wanted to come home with us but told her all she'd miss out on so she decided to stay.

Observations:

Day 1:
On the ride home Paul and I realized we had an hour long conversation with complete sentences that made sense. The only interruptions were phone calls and text messages. Also I could not even figure out what music I even wanted to listen to now that I had a choice. When we got home I was a little too sad to go into Anna's room.

Day 2: I caught some crud Anna had so I stayed home sick from work. Had sudden concern I had to be somewhere and get out of bed. It was only 9:30am. Watched DVR'd Oprah shows all day. Thought I had to go somewhere or do something by 5. But realized I did not. Actually read the mail. The day seemed slow and steady. Went to a late showing of Pirates 4 with Paul.

Day 3: Slept till 7:30. quiet morning getting ready for work. Began to realize that even though Anna is a good kid with good behavior, she still brings an innate and inevitable amount of noise and rush to the house. This is a kid requirement. I'm starting to think I should start tuning out noise like Facebook and Twitter. I should slow down more often and read the mail. Should not run the TV in the morning. I never had the TV on before she was born. Realizing I can work as late as I want today but instead will go home, change my clothes, and go grocery shopping slowly and at a time while the world is still awake. Question: if I had no kid, what would make me come home from work at a reasonable hour? What did I do before Anna came and I have to pick her up by 5:30?

Interesting.

Last Week of Preschool-3

I'm not sure "thrilled" can even express enough how I feel about Anna's current school year coming to an end. Her teacher, Ms. A., wasn't as bad as we'd fear she'd be, but by that standard I mean Anna didn't end the year dumber than when she started.

Anna thrived DESPITE the crappy clasroom structure that lacked any kind of discipline, real curriculum, and parent communication. It was disorganized, cluttered, chaotic at times, and had kids who made me stare at their parents wondering "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG HERE?!"

Moral of the year: the world is full of messy people. This is where they start.

I can no longer recommend this school to anyone who may be considering sending their child there. Her teacher, Ms. A was one thing, though, and that was on the kids' level. The drawbacks: she sucked at any kind of parent communication, didn't like responsibility of being a staff member, and lacked discipline techniques.

Friday marks Anna's last day. Amen to that. Next week she goes to stay with my mom in Austin for a week (nobody comment on this to have to make me actually think this through and change my mind, please). When she gets back, she gets four weeks of morning camps that range from learning about animals to learning about chemistry. Afternoons will be alternated with me, Paul, her current school, and TJ. That's June. In July she starts a full-time camp at the school next door to hers that looks totally fun. This may seem like a lot of change all at once but we'll see what she's made of. Plus one of her friends, Emma, is going to be on the same schedule, same camp, so she'll have a little friend there along with her.

Bring on summer!

My Jon Bon Jovi story

Last week we got a last minute invite to see Jon Bon Jovi live here in concert in Houston at the Toyota Center. Paul works closely with a coach year round at one of the local high schools who had coached one of Bon Jovi's football teams in the past and so knew him personally. He got Paul and I free tickets, just about 5 rows back, which was pretty neat. I'm not really a Bon Jovi music fan but still the tickets were free and well, it IS Bon Jovi.

Coach also got us and a handful of others back-stage passes to meet Bon Jovi in person before the start of the concert. That was pretty neat, especially since I'd never gotten to do the "back stage" thing before...and this was BON JOVI, American icon. When he first came out to meet us he did seem tired (or high, I thought...NAHHHH...) and wondered out loud later how he found the energy to perform when he seemed so wiped out.

ANYWAY, because I was just coming off of NASA-loving Seth Green and LeVar Burton, I asked Bon Jovi what I thought was a benign enough question, which was if he'd ever had the chance to tour NASA during any of his Houston visits. It wasn't too far fetched, especially since I knew he was on the President's council for investigating what children's community programs were working and what wasn't in the cities he was touring in. He'd met with mayor Parker the day before over this. When I asked my question, he just GLARED at me long and hard like I was CUH-RAZY and I should know better (who let the geek in? I'm THE Bon Jovi, you little freak!). It was a long enough pause that I thought for a second, OMG, did I ask a politically incorrect question? WHAT IF HE'S ONE OF THOSE SPACE PROGRAM HATERS?! Yes. I was apparently uncoool. But at least he followed up with the fact that he doesn't get to tour much while on tour, going to so many places so quickly and yadda-yadda-yadda...and I was like "Oh, right, sure, um, of course" and I did NOT say "Well Bono and Aerosmith did it..." which would be bad because this was Bon Jovi's concert and I was backstage before it and well, you know.

And that is my Bon Jovi story. Later I learned that he'd done some PR affair where he did meet some of the STS-132 shuttle crew or something so I'm sure he's not a NASA hater. I just need to remember the next time I'm in the presence of a major rock star to maybe just keep my mouth shut and ask him to just sign my boobs.

The Forgotten Birthday photos

I use my iPhone so much to take pictures these days because it's quicker and easier to post than the "old" camera and its sim card. With the iphone I can just post it anywhere at anytime and with this sim card...well, gotta find the camera, eject the card, pull out the laptop, find the photos I want, transfer, wait...wait...wait...configure the blog layout, then success!

So I forgot about these until I saw the camera laying there today and decided to take a look at what was on the card. Sweet birthday photos from Anna's 4th birthday in March on the overnight camping trip to Brazos Bend. Lovely!

Anna in action

This morning I was ironing my pants.

Anna points to my thigh and says, "Mommy, what's wrong with your BUTT?"

Me: "huh?"

Anna, pointing: "What are all those BUMPS?!"

Me: "That's cellulite. You'll get it when you're older."

Several notes to self here.


**************************************
On the ride to school this morning, Beat It came on the radio.

Anna: Momma, is that MICHAEL JACKSON?!

Me: What?!

She said it's Beat It. Apparently the Bad Influence kid in her class loves MJ. I guess he can't be all that bad. Except couldn't he at least picked "Ebony and Ivory?"

She asked for another MJ song but I told her Daddy has tons. Not mama!

In other news...

Back to the real world, happy to be here.

Incidentally I Started up Spin class again this morning after 3 weeks off the bike. I think I'm drained today now for it. And I am still around 12lbs heavier than I was this time last year. Who knew all that exercise would make me add 4 lbs. to where I Started out trying to lose. Oh well, it's so insane I'm beyond comprehending those kind of numbers.

Of course first thing before spin class the buzz on the news station and a text from my mom was that Osama bin Laden was killed. And that's the extent of any of that discussion for the day. Strangely, it was not of much talk around any water cooler or anything else for that matter. My personal thoughts: yay I guess but I'm not sure it will have much, if any, impact on stopping the massive terrorist cells over in places that hate us. These days they're probably younger, bigger, and more bad ass anyway than the old fogie Bin Laden was. I think it's part of the world we live in. But hopefully this will bring some closure to the 9/11 families at the very least. I'm not sure. I frankly just don't know.

In matters I do have a better (somewhat) understanding of...last week I kept getting reports from Paul that Anna's afternoons at school were not good reports from her teacher, and that the evenings weren't much better. Complete with knock-down, drag-out fights with Paul and then apologies. But it's like she was pushing buttons on authority and I was sure that when I got home to have a talk with her about how it's better to be a good person, yadda yadda yadda, that she'd recover and move on. So we had a good little discussion. Or so I thought.

Our take on part of this is that there are a few holy terrors in her class who are FLAT OUT AWFUL in terms of behavior. We've seen first hand the effects it has had on the otherwise good kids in the class. They see this little jerk getting away with murder and the best behaved kids pull that same crap right in front of my eyes. Both Paul and I have told them if they keep it up we're telling their parents! Anna's teacher does very little to actively squash the madness from this one particular brat who instigates fights and chases and overall poor behavior from others in the class. And Anna is I think picking up on the fact that this brat gets away with it and so it's time for her to test the water.

The thing is she gets her little butt into trouble at home for this, and at school the teacher tells us of the latest crap she's pulled and does little more I'm sure during the day to check Anna on it at school. So once home, the fun stuff and activities get taken away for that. Last week she lost some privileges with Paul. Tonight she lost going over to TJ's house to play while I was teaching (instead she did time at the clinic with daddy). She totally hated losing out on the fun, pitched a sad, sad fit, promised to behave tomorrow and it seemed to hit home but I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes at school.

The thing is we've thought about confronting the teacher on this, particularly letting on that we feel like half of this is a result of the fact that it's apparent to Anna the classroom is in chaos with this other kid in there, and that if he can do it, she can do it too. But instead, there are just 4 weeks left in this class and we've decided to use this as some kind of learning lesson for Anna (and us). Call us naive, fine. But we're using this short remaining period to try to teach Anna that just because the kids in her classroom act like that, doesn't mean she can too. We're using it as a way to teach her not to follow, and that it's not acceptable to act like a little brat. In the real world, you don't jump off that bridge because the village idiot did. OK she's only 4 but she's impressionable all the way around. She gets it.

We'll see if she implements it :)

KSC Day 3: The Scrub

Last night I hung out in the press building waiting to ride the buses to the launch pad to watch the shuttle RSS retraction.





Waiting with Abe Benrubi to go to the RSS retraction.



This means CLOSEST EVER TO THE SHUTTLE ON THE PAD. it was supposed to happen at 7 but then a stream of fabulous lightening storms came through so it was pushed back and back all the way till midnight.


What a beautiful shot with just my iPhone. You should have SEEN the lightening that followed.



They ended up pushing the RSS retraction back till
Midnight so I had to bail because it would have meant getting back to my hotel room at around 2am. If I hadn't had interviews the next morning I'd have done it easy, but work called so I and my PAO buddy headed home in the crazy-ass storms.

The next morning of interviews went really well! They were mostly written stories and only 3 or so had the cameras in my face. One was a live streaming interview to 1.2 million viewers. But this particular show was very laid back and silly and short so it was pretty easy.

The more I interviewed, the more fluent I became so I do see that these things get easier with practice. One chick who interviewed me asked me how I felt about Obama canceling the shuttle program. When I informed her that the Bush administration canceled it she argued for a second and then realized I must be right, frantically picked up her blackberry and said, "oh no! I just sent a story out for publishing that says Obama canceled the shuttle program!" Holy cow. If a reporter from the Miami Herold can't get that right, can you imagine the amount of misinformation that must be circulating out there about everything in the media? OMG.





My interview sign up sheet. NASA PAO was too busy to get my last name right!




I was outside for a camera interview when the AstroVan came past the entrance to the press site on the way to the launch pad with the STS-134 crew. We waited till they would go completely past before we started out interview but it had disappeared behind stuff and we never saw it come out. As we were pressed for time we just did the interview. When I got back inside, relieved all interviews were over, I ran into a friend who told me the launch was scrubbed. She had been talking to me as if I knew or something and then I realized how ironic it was that the scrub happened during my interview right in the middle of the press site and I was just learning it from her! The AstroVan had turned around in the LCC parking lot right across the street from us, which is why we hadn't seen it go by during the interview.

Bummed? Yes, but not completely. I got a first hand look a the zoo that was the press site on a launch scrub. All interviews (mine were done) changed from standard Pre-launch stuff to GIVE US THE WORD ON THE APU FAILURE. The energy was chaotic! I got to see the start of the scrub press conference that you see on TV live, in its little auditorium, but then it was too crowded for me so I bailed back to the news room.

Overall impressions: I was really well taken care if while there. I got access to all the employee break rooms and offices, including the food and drinks for the astronauts, (who, by the way, were very impressed with the amount of pizza I could put down). People were very respectful to me and just appreciated me being there, even though I was the one Geeking out. And the reporters were as cliche as you can imagine. Being in the news room for those few days was so fantastic! Very full of energy. Such an exciting thing for me to be a part of.

The scrub meant new free time. I returned the spider habitat to the scientists. In the meantime the Tweetup attendees had started a spoof Twitter account for the spider: @space_spider. We had a good laugh over it and I showed the scientists how to use Twitter to follow it.




A golden orb spider. Her sisters will be sent to space station as part of the CSI-05 experiment.



After that there was extra time so my good friend who was out there showed me how to legally get as close as possible to the space shuttle on the launch pad. When I got there I realized it trumped RSS retraction and everything had turned out the way it was supposed to. I have seen launches but I have never seen a fully stacked shuttle on the launch pad even remotely up close. The beach was right on the side of me. The breeze was cool and the air was clear and I could have sat there all day. Thanks for bringing me out there! That topped all else on this trip!!! This picture does no justice to the real life visual.








I topped of the evening with dinner with a couple of PAO friends (these are the NASA press representative). They were both exhausted from the day's events. And starving. They're so busy they don't eat real food all day. I got back to the hotel and passed out. Now I'm about to pack up, go buy some souvenirs, and head to the airport for home!

Out of all the travels I've done for work, nothing beat this one. Even without the launch. Ready for some hugs from home!

KSC Day 2

Today was my Tweetup presentation. I think it went pretty well. Good thing I'm not afraid of public speaking! This was aired on NASA TV and after it was over Paul texted me that it looked great (he played it at the clinic) So I trust him. He did say that some of his clients giggled when I said the contractor's name SpaceX. I had never thought about it before but say it out loud. Sheesh.

There were some good questions and of course the indirect one about whether people have had sex in space (worded differently). I said whatever happens in space stays in space unless it's peer reviewed, and that one got a good laugh :)

The scientists out here at KSC gave me some flight-like hardware I was able to pass around for show and tell. One was a habitat with a live spider like those that are launching tomorrow! It was a big hit! I'm hoping I can keep it alive :) Currently it's going around KSC with me in my back pack.

My interview with LeVar Burton went really well (Reading Rainbow and Star Trek). He is filming a new e-program for kids about science. Still in production. He was really excited about the spider and focused our interview on that. It was easy and fun! I talked to him a bit about the alpha magnetic spectrometer and bs loved it! He said in his Star Trek voice, "the alpha magnetic spectrometer is offline!" I told him never say that! So he changed it to "online" :) Then he patiently signed every copy of the Velveteen Rabbit I could find from Books A Million last night for my co-workers' kids. :) Super Nice guy!

I was asked to escort Seth Green and his friends for a bit today. I got to drive them in my car! Hahaha. One of his friends just seemed so familiar every time we talked. I started to wonder if I recognized him from Tv or something. Maybe scrubs? When I got back We looked him up. It's Jerry from the TV show ER. (Abaraham Bendubi). I had no idea! I had asked him if he works at KSC :) haha.

Anyway now I've had a few hours of downtime before we go out to the launch pad to see the RSS retraction. That will likely run late and so I'm gonna be trashed my the time I get to my hotel room :)

Tomorrow morning I have open press interviews from 10-12 and then it's launch in the afternoon!








LeVar Burton





Tweetup tent.







Spider hardware.


I'm learning so much and having so much fun, it's freakish.

KSC Day 1

Obvious





Vehicle Assembly Building where they mate the orbiter to its orange external tank and solid rocket boosters. It's so tall it rains in there from its own clouds.









Well gave it my best shot.






Countdown!




Endeavour on the launch pad.





Seth Green and his wife Clare are visiting for the Tweetup.





Seth Green.










NASA Press room at KSC.






Unexpected brush fires across the river behind the press site!






Seth's tweet about meeting me. He and his wife and I just ran into each other at the Tweetup site, and zero other people around. So we were able to exchange some words on space station, tours, and stuff. His idea to take the pictures. He thought it was cool to meet me (NASA!) and I thought the same about him! He loves NASA. He's having fun on their visit!

Tomorrow I meet LeVar Burton. He is doing a Reading Rainbow 2.0 and would like to interview me for it. Cool, yes?

Today I got to go inside of the Orbiter Processing Facility, where Atlantis is being prepped for launch in June. It dawned on me I was staring at the last orbiter that will ever be processed there. The only other time I'd visited was as a student, and Columbia was in there. Also visited the VAB today and I was tagging along with the Public Affairs and Outreach (PAO) folks so I got to watch them interview some of the vehicle leads. One was Jerry Cook, director of the Space Shuttle Main Engines. He recognized me from my FRR presentation last week and was happy to meet me! He said that was the best part of FRR and at dinner that night, it was the highlight of the managers' table talk. It's so cool to be recognized for my work. So very cool.

Will post more pictures soon. Tomorrow's my Tweetup speech. Time to cram!

Crawfish Time, take 9

I'm at the airport right now. When I was in line for security I watched this little boy cry, scream, and reach for his daddy as his daddy got in line. He apparently did NOT want his daddy to leave. His scene broke my heart a little at a time when I always miss Paul and Anna the most: at the airport. Tonight I left Paul and Anna home and Anna was a little resistant to let me go, (that's healthy) but certainly no carrying on. Just lots of promises of phone calls and return hugs and goodies. I usually drop her off at school and then catch a midday flight, and tonight I realized the routine of that makes it a little easier on both of us instead of me actually pulling out of the driveway. But when I saw that scene at the airport, I was grateful for Anna's independence. Because that kind of thing...would kill me or piss me off.

Anyway, crawfish! It was our ninth year of the Easter weekend crawfish boil. Lots of people, food, and jokes. I am detoxing from the cupcakes and cake. This time we had a slip n slide for the kids and water balloons for the adults. What, no one would have been drunk enough to stand for witnessing the reverse! Note to self: next time find biodegradable water balloons for easier clean up :)


































We were missing a good bit of family members this year but we still had a good time. They even made it out to Kemah with Anna.

My God that kid partied hard ALL Weekend, starting with Friday morning (off from school). She even admitted a few times she was tired. My child, tired?! She was also off Monday so we used that as a recovery day of TV and healthy food in our PJ's.

What another great Easter weekend! Life is good!

STS-134

This is it, this must be it!

Paul and I went to a shuttle launch when I was pregnant with Anna. The launch was for a fellow NEEMO 6 aquanaut, Nick Patrick. Then, when Anna was 15 months old Paul, Anna, and I went to a launch for Ken Ham, the husband of a friend of mine. In May last year (2010) we went back to another launch for Ken Ham. These were the trips with best memories for me. Seriously fun to share this with them.

But.

This week I’m going out to the STS-134 launch without the family, and on official travel for work. My job? To speak at the NASA Tweetup on Thursday (a group of Twitter folks who won NASA’s lotto to come out and view a shuttle launch, and hear from awesome speakers like me), and to cover press interviews on Friday morning (launch day). On Friday, I show up at the NASA press site at KSC and there’s a 2 hour window open for people who want to interview me regarding the use of the space station for scientific research. Um, so. Cool. As long as I don’t say anything dumb ;) Remember, I’m semi-new at this press thing. Cameras. People with lots of experience asking questions.

Am I geeked? On so many levels.

For ONE: the fact that I get to go out TO WORK LAUNCH EVENTS just blows my mind. When I was a hardware engineer I worked regularly on payloads that launched to the space station, but it was actually unheard of for work to pay for you to attend launch hardware events and the launch itself. I’d have loved to have traveled on official business to see how KSC handled my hardware as it prepped for launch.

AND getting to WORK THE LAUNCH EVENTS is WAY COOLER to me than just going out on vacation to experience the launch for the sake of a launch, because, DUDE, I actually get to CONTRIBUTE to launch events!

Also, I will get to tag along with one super cool PAO (NASA press expert) who has agreed to take me along to any cool thing she gets to cover. Hello? Exciting much?

This has all fallen into place. I hate asking for special tours or KSC requests when I go out there, even at the expense of my own geek out. I hate exploiting the folks who work there (doesn’t EVERYONE want tours?). I hate asking for favors. And those of my friends who do seem to pull off the favors for some reason seem to forget to invite me… But this time it seems like I finally get to come out to my very own week of launch fun J I AM SO EXCITED!

Paul will be a single dad from tonight on through Saturday (or Sunday in the event of a launch slip). And I TOTALLY APPRECIATE HIS SUPPORT. This is the coolest thing ever.

Honestly, with all of the cool stuff I get to see and do this week, I think the launch going off on time would just be the icing on the cake. And this time I get to watch it from the press site, which I understand is the coolest location of all.

It seems I can’t write a paragraph without using the word “cool”.

This flight is special for a few reasons:

-It’s carrying the coolest space station experimental payload so far (in my opinion). This is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). Once it’s attached to the outside of the space station, it’s going to scan cosmic rays for evidence of antimatter, dark matter, and the molecules that could add up to a new form of matter completely (strangelets). It will also provide oodles of info regarding radiation in the space environment. Evidence of antimatter could help prove the Big Bang theory (according to the theory, there should be in existence equal parts matter and antimatter). Dark matter is the elusive stuff that makes up 95% of the mass of our universe (well, when combined with dark energy), but we can’t even actually SEE it or FIND it out there. What we see is stars, which is VISIBLE matter, and that makes up only 5% of the mass of the universe. A stangelet is a theoretical new matter that we could prove exists, if the AMS finds the right types of quarks that have only been caught experimentally. Essentially, the data from this investigation could potentially answer so many questions about the origin and structure of our universe.

-Rep Gabrielle Giffords, recovering from her gunshot wound to the head, is expected to be there to support her husband Mark Kelly’s launch on the shuttle as commander (won’t likely meet her or anything but it’s still cool).

- President Obama and his family are expected to be there (not like I’ll meet them or anything, but still cool even if the traffic and security weren’t bad enough on launch day! ;) )

I don’t know, high profile, but the coolest to me is that AMS payload, led by Dr. Ting, who I introduced in my last blog entry about FRR.

Anyway, I’m geeked out. With only one shuttle launch left after this one, I finally get to just indulge without asking too much, and even contribute. And I even get a little extra added stress to make me feel worthy: cramming my brain full of the info I need to put together for my speech and for my press interviews.

Off to gather my stuff. My plane takes off at 7:20pm tonight. When I’m on the plane, I’ll write up a blog entry about the Easter crawfish boil weekend, complete with photos J

Day 2 of the MS150 was just as great as the first. The morning was full of long dreadful hills that actually didn't even seem to phase us this year. We just powered up and I can tell you that it didn't seem to take much effort from me this year. Praise spin class. And also this year on an after thought, I brought my iPod with half marathon music and hooked it into a speaker on my camel back. Having music was so awesome and I believe that also made a difference.

It's 3 days later and I never did get sore muscles. My butt hurt but by the end of Monday it was fine. I have, however, since developed a sinus infection. I'm out at KSC for work and while here some of the scientists really insisted I go to the KSC clinic for some meds, which was a good idea, because once I get back to Houston there will be no time for doc visits. So I'm now on a ZPac.

Monday night I got into KSC pretty late. The mission: present some ISS research accomplishments at the STS-134 Flight Readiness Review (FRR), meet with KSC scientists, and present at a research planning meeting with our international partners.

An FRR is a huge, highly visible meeting where all NASA big wigs converge to discuss the upcoming launch (April 29), issues that may be constraints, and plans, etc. At the end of the day the big wigs vote on "go" or "no go" for launch, then it makes all the press and the news and usually we can all get excited about moving forward with the launch. This time, NASA headquarters and space station (ISS) program managers asked our office to give a brief highlight of ISS accomplishments. Unusual. My boss, Julie put together some charts last week, which I gave for review on her behalf last week, and was told to whittle down. Then it turned out Julie couldn't travel so I got the distinction of reworking the charts and presenting them at FRR. Because of the ms150 I reworked the charts but hadn't really studied the details of the experiments sufficiently. One part was about capillary flow experiments. The other part was showcasing the huge experiment that was being launched on STS-134 next week: the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). This thing was developed by a Nobel Laureate and is going to search the skies for dark matter, antimatter, and evidence of strangelets once it gets to ISS. Don't know what these are? Why do you think I was stressed out for not having studied?! Finding these particles will basically answer so many questions regarding the nature of our universe. Perhaps the most important research on ISS.

When I got to my hotel Monday night I crammed together a script full of the technical info to go along with my charts, even though I never read from scripts. Now was the time to do so since I also had the challenge of a 5 minute time limit. Organized, succinct wow factors were in order. The script turned out great.

Tuesday morning FRR came and I watched the big wigs stream in. I dont mind public speaking at all. But this time i felt a little under prepared for the material. The usual astronauts, ISS program managers, center directors sat down. 250 people. But two threw me completely: in the audience was Nobel Laureate Samuel Ting (AMS lead), and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Um. I am supposed to present AMS charts to the Nobel Laureate lead on his own experiment? And by the way, don't look like an idiot in front of your chief of chiefs, Bolden.

I immediately started to panic. I fought off the urge to puke on the suits next to me. I AM JUST A HARDWARE ENGINEER! went through my Mind, though that hasn't been true for 2 years. I texted my friends and mom who all sent tips on how to calm down. I texted Julie: what the heck am I doing here?! Her response was that I could totally do this but it might be cool to ask Ting if he wanted to present my charts. I thought she was nuts but I asked him and Ting agreed and so not only was half the pressure removed from me, but now I got to surprise the audience with Ting himself.

By the way, my friend C happened to have traveled to present at FRR as well. This was such good fortune: someone I've grown up with at NASA for 10 years now; our kids play together; his wife my best friend; fellow hurricane refugees. I can't believe he was there too. Serendipitous for sure. It really helped to have a familiar face among the weirdness.

I stepped out onto the balcony of the building and took a good look at the shuttle on the launch pad in the distance. Within that shuttle was the AMS payload. I wondered what that must feel like to Dr Ting. And I went back inside.

When my turn came, my capillary flow script went well (not my best but it passed). There were tons of head nods, including from Bolden and his deputy Lori Garver. The transition to Ting was great, (who gets to introduce a Nobel Laureate in physics to all of the important NASA people?) and Ting was really great. Incidentally when he met C, he said, "you look very young!" I think Ting was as surprised by the big wigs in that room as I was.

In the end I introduced myself to Bolden. When he saw me heading his way after my talk, his face lit up, welcoming. When I stuck out my hand, he instead gave me a hug. He said that people needed to hear more about the research on ISS like that. He thanked me. I told him i thought he was doing a good job leading us.

Wow.

At lunch C and I reflected on how far we've come in the past 10 years. Started out as fellow engineers and there we both were, all grown up, in suits. I was glad to have a personal friend there to share the event. We bought NASA souvenirs for our kids while we were there, which I know is strange since we work at JSC :)

The remainder of my trip was easy in comparison! In between all of this, here were some interesting occurrences:

-I met a lady on my parking shuttle in Houston, who showed up right next to me again in check in at the hotel in cocoa beach. Completely strange timing, if you knew the logistics of travel between Houston and cocoa beach.
-My first night there I was hit on my a drunk disgusting fool in the hotel bar (I was just there for food!!) and then the Starbucks girl at the airport on the way home thought the picture of Anna on my badge was my "cute granddaughter!" WTH?
-I got to use my NASA badge to go through the Employee Priority security line in Orlando. Heard that rumor, turned out to be true. Turns out Starbucks also gives you a 10% discount. Who knew?
-My congestion turned into a sinus infection, and the KSC clinic is wayyyyyy more laid back than JSC! I got meds :)
-I got to eat the rock shrimp at dixie crossings finally.
-A couple who held the door for me at McDonalds ran into me at walgreens 15 minutes later. Freaky.
-Got some cool KSC tours.
-NASA tweeted about mine and C's FRR presentations.

Thankful for no ms150 soreness in this whole 48 hour trip. I'm on the plane headed home with a space shuttle kite and freeze dried ice cream for Anna.

MS150 all done!

Things went so well, dare I say it was almost like a little vacation? Ha! Ok we did have to sleep on mats on the ground with big ass Austin spiders (no lie one was on my sleeping bag the second I got in it, then one was in Paul's!) Oh well, this year we rode with Team Wells Fargo, the nicest bunch of people! For $65 each, we got jerseys ($70 value alone), all food, luggage transport, sweet team start, and sleep in a big tent and free massage! So great! Not a single muscle cramp this year, and I even powered up those hills as if they were nothing. I remember a few previous years when those we too tough! This being our 6th year there was only one previous year we'd made such good time without pain. We must have done good training then too :) The MS150 is much more fun when you've trained AND the weather cooperates. We had a tail wind today! And yes, lots of hills.

So this mama fought off some little invader right before the ride and kept it down. My respiratory system is a little tight but fine otherwise. Now back to Houston in time for a plane to Kennedy Space Center tomorrow, where I will give a little briefing to about 250 Space agency big wigs, returning on wednesday night after a couple more meetings. On Thursday I have some interview about technology on the space station. Friday Anna's off school and the family starts rolling in for the big Easter weekend crawfish boil (our 9th annual). Anna's also off Monday and on the following Tuesday or Wed I go back out to Kennedy for press interviews, a speech at the NASA Tweetup, and the STS-134 launch.

I am going to need a vacation when April is over.

By the way, thanks to those of you who donated to ms and Paul for the MS150 ride! 83 cents of every dollar you gave goes straight towards MS research and the cause. So the MS society does an awful lot to accommodate 13,000 riders yearly for 17 cents and sponsorship. Nice!!!

To me for next MS150

Dear me,
The next time you do this don't forget the power of spin class training. Not only did it build your aerobic base but apparently as the scale kept sneaking up on you, it seems to have been because of muscle gain. What a great ride today! Totally full of energy despite whatever bug you're fighting! Made it to lunch by 9:45am and to LaGrange by 3:30. Hills? What hills?
Oh and because you have muscles you have to feed them, and what's been working has been Advocare Rehydrate. A constant stream in the Camelback, with another bottle plus a bottle of water on the bike. And one Cliff Blok per hour. For once you wizened up and didn't eat all the free
Cookies pretzels, and goodies at every rest stop, which worked because it kept the blood routed to your muscles instead of going to your stomach for digestion. Your rule: only eat when your stomach is hungry. Way to rock it out today!!!

I'm writing this down because you'll forget it all next time. Be sure no matter how lazy you get, don't skip spin class. It seems to have paid off afterall.

Total calories burned today after 9 hours in the ride: 4850. That's work!