Life Lately / 1.6.26

I didn’t mean to disappear from my blog for the last 1.5 months, but you all know the story by now — life happens, etc etc etc! A couple quick updates since last time first:

• After adding towel racks and finding a bench for under the window where the tub used to be, our primary bathroom reno is officially complete and we’re quite happy with the result!
• Charlotte wrapped up her fall soccer season on a high by scoring her first-ever goal in the last game of the season. Very exciting.
• Emma had a great region band concert, and is looking forward to region orchestra in a couple weeks. She also made the 8th grade basketball A team this year and has been enjoying that.
• The government shutdown finally ended in early November, and thankfully the administration didn’t try to pull anything crazy and I received the pay I was owed for all those ridiculous weeks of shutdown.

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But now I’ve buried the lede, because the biggest news is that my last day at NASA was December 5, and I officially retired on December 26 after more than 27 years of federal service. This was a decision I’d been mulling since June, but one that I didn’t fully make until early November. NASA has been a huge part of my identity for 3 decades of my life and it is bittersweet to leave, but I am also feeling very confident and secure in my decision to move on.

I considered a lot of options for my post-NASA career. Back in July, I interviewed for a full-time job in the quilting industry before ultimately deciding it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. I thought long and hard about trying to make a go as a full-time quilt pattern designer and tech editor. I’ve also considered teaching, in many different forms, and not just quilting.

But ultimately, after several phone interviews and an on-site visit in mid-October, I accepted a job with a non-government aerospace company and will be starting later this month. I’m feeling everything — excitement and curiosity, but also anxiety and trepidation — which I think is pretty normal for someone making a big shift!

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So what have I been doing with my last month as a “temporarily retired” aerospace engineer?? I certainly haven’t been idle, that’s for sure. Kid activities and the holidays have obviously been the big things, but I’ve been able to tackle some creative projects too. I learned how to use the laser cutter in the makerspace at my local library, and look forward to making more trinkets — and quilt templates of course. I also finished another years-old quilt UFO and will share pics of that one soon.

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Jose and I both came down with the same pesky cold for Christmas, but other than that the holiday was good. We kicked off our break with a trip to Chicken N Pickle which was fun, and an outing to the Texans-Raiders game, which they won!

Jose’s mom joined us for a few days. We took a trip downtown to see the holiday lights at Daikin Park (aka the Astros’ stadium) and had a nice Christmas Day. On the 26th, my MIL went home to Corpus Christi while the four of us flew out to Seattle for a week with my sister and her family. We anticipated it would be cold, dark, and rainy and it was definitely the first two things — but happily we lucked out and had several days of mostly sunny weather.

We enjoyed a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island and back, played mini golf, and went ice skating. (I cannot remember the last time I went ice skating but it was definitely pre-kids, so I was thrilled that I remembered how to stay upright at all. Ha!) We also enjoyed hanging out with my brother-in-law’s family several times, including a very fun New Years Eve celebration. I’m pretty sure we did a countdown every hour starting with the Eastern time zone, so by the time midnight arrived in Seattle we were on our 4th countdown with 9 kids ranging from 13 down to 4 years old. (Alas, the 10th kid was a 2 year old and he was fast asleep by about 8:00.)

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With the holidays now behind us, I’ll be making a quick solo trip to Charlotte to spend a few days with my parents after my mom has her second knee replacement surgery, and hoping to squeeze in a few more creative projects before I am once again gainfully employed. Towards the end of the month I’ll head to Long Beach for a week for onboarding with the new company. Wish me luck!