the shuttle launches today, which makes work a little more exciting somehow. my branch chief walked by this morning as becca and i were pouring our coffee and asked, as if it were an afterthought, if we wanted to watch the launch from the mission control viewing room. well of course we did! the viewing room is where all the vips (center director, a few astronauts, etc) watch from, and you have to have an invitation to be able to go in during launch. so we get to go watch with the vips, instead of from the dinky conference room next door where we usually watch from. should be cool. 🙂
so i was chatting with the guy cutting my hair yesterday, and he asked if i worked in the area, and so of course i said “yes, i’m an engineer, i work at the space center.” he thought it was so cool, and it made me start thinking about my job.
i’ve been working here long enough that the coolness factor of my job wore off a long time ago. i come in every day, i sit at my desk, i work at my computer, i deal with bureaucratic crap just like anybody else. yeah, some of my coworkers are astronauts, but they just seem like normal people to me now that i know some of them. when i first started co-oping, i remember being starry-eyed, just amazed at the fact that i was working for nasa! and yet these days, all i think about is how something else might be better. {sigh}
i always forget that i do have a pretty cool job. i mean, i work for nasa. we send people into space. pretty damn cool.
anyway. other updates from yesterday:
- i got a haircut and am still unsure of whether i like it or not.
- birthday lunch for katie was fun even though i got caught in the rain on the way in.
- becca bought a house this weekend; she closes at the end of the month. i still can’t figure out what she’s going to do with a house, but i guess apache will like the backyard…
- i went shopping and bought shoes that match my shiny silver skirt, and some neat pinstripe pants. also a pair of black dressy shoes, and a cardigan. also some new candles.
- my polaroid camera has arrived and i have decided to take pictures of the people who visit my apartment, but i’m unsure of what to do with the pictures. perhaps a funny bulletin board of them or something. really, i just like the randomness of the camera.
- the braves lost. grr. all day i’m going to be nervous. and tonight we’re going out to dinner for curt’s birthday, so i’m going to have to keep one eye/ear on the conversation and my other eye/ear on the tv in the corner of the restaurant.
(10:48 a.m.)
there’s a good article here in the houston chronicle online today about one of the astronauts (not one flying today). my favorite line? when encouraging his stepson to become an officer in the military, the astronaut’s stepdad said “Because when the enlisted guys are drinking beer, the officers are drinking scotch.”
