An array of thoughts today.
So I signed up for the Austin Half Marathon over President’s Day weekend. Buzz talked me into it. (Or rather, she talked me out of attempting to do the full marathon!) In any case, I’m set to do another 13.1 miles.
When I got my hair cut a couple weeks ago, the girl styled it curly. You know, put some goop in, blew it dry, put some more goop in, and voila–curly hair. It looked good, and I liked it enough that I decided to try it myself. So I did, this morning. I showered. Combed my hair. Put the same goop she used in it. Blew it dry. Put some more goop in.
And now, those of you who tell me I should do more with my hair get to hear this: it’s not that I don’t want to do cool things with my hair. It’s just that I am a miserable failure at doing it! I did the same things the hair girl did, and yet when she was done it looked great, and when I was done, it just looked frizzy and unkempt. Sigh. So I picked up the brush and straightened it all out. I will try again sometime, but no guarantees on the level of success.
Last night I went with Debbie to check out the Saturn dealership’s stock of Vues. She wants to buy one, but has specific wants as far as features and packages go. The salesman there was most unhelpful, so we left without test driving, and without Debbie getting a straight answer on whether they had what she wanted. Instead, we went next door to the Nissan dealership, where I test drove an Xterra. Woohoo! The credit union is offering auto loans at 4% right now, which seems so good that it makes me want to go out and buy a car this weekend instead of waiting until April, as is dictated by my “master plan.” The Xterra was nice. It rode more smoothly than I had expected, though it felt very large. But I suppose any of the vehicles I’m considering will feel large after driving my little Sentra for six and a half years. Anyway, the Xterra is on the long list of possibilities; others under consideration include the Toyota Rav4 or Highlander, Jeep Liberty, Mazda Tribute, Ford Escape or Explorer, Honda CR-V or Pilot. I plan to test drive them all over the next month or two, but the list can probably be reduced realistically to the Rav4, Xterra, Liberty, or Tribute/Escape. I plan to buy in late March or April. I will miss my little Sentra, but the idea of getting a new car is exciting.
I have been annoyed with work lately, lacking motivation/inspiration, disappointed that no one seems to care about what I’m doing, and tired of being subject to the whims of politics. But sometimes all you need is a fresh perspective. I was halfheartedly venting my frustrations over the phone to a friend last night when he jumped in to say that NASA is the only part of the government that is in the business of looking forward, of being visionary, of looking beyond ourselves.
And I realized he was right.
I may not be crazy about my day-to-day job, but I am still passionate about the space program, and about exploration. And that’s pretty cool.
