Don't Hang Up Your Dancing Slippers

It has almost been a year since my last post. Don't want to rush into anything. :)

Things that have happened in the last year-ish:

Over the summer I took Cal B and Engineering Economy while I worked full time. TBE had a project that I spent a lot of time working on during the entire summer. Didn't get enough sleep all summer. lol. People from Lockheed were flying in from Houston all the time and I made a lot of new friends. CPK (the hardware we were building) flew on STS 126 in November. I was so excited that hardware I worked on for so long was now in space.

I went home to surprise my mom after summer finals. She didn't know I was coming so I made plans with a friend to get her out to dinner where I was planning on meeting them. Long story short I missed my flight and ended up coming in like 3 hours later that I thought. Our friends kept her there that long and my best friend picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at dinner. My mom started crying as soon as I put my arms around her neck. :) The break was nice. I spent a weekend at home, got to see my friends. I was happy.

In the fall I took Physics 2 & lab, Cal C, Statics, and Differential Equations. I also worked about 16 hours a week. I ended up getting sick in the middle of the semester, had surgery and had to drop most of my hours at work. I finished Physics and the lab in addition to Statics. I incompleted DE and Cal C and am finishing them up this semester. I'm rather happy to have that behind me.

One of the most awesome things to happen to me (quite possibly ever) was to get a personal invite from one of the crew on STS 126 to watch their launch. My sophomore year of high school Heide randomly emailed me and told me that she had heard I wanted to become an astronaut. She had graduated from the same high school I was going to and became somewhat of a mentor. We've continued talking ever since and finally got a chance to meet up when I was in Houston to fly on the Vomit Comet a few years ago. The entire trip was pretty awesome. I got to watch the night launch from the causeway and had an invite to a pre-launch party (I didn't get to go, but the invite was awesome!). I couldn't imagine anything more amazing than that day.

This semester I'm working full time in addition to taking Numerical Methods and Circuits. I'm also finishing up the two incompletes so my hours are up to thirteen. Thirteen hours of engineering classes and a forty hour job. Crazy? Probably. :)

Another pretty awesome thing is I got an internship working with a zero-g group near by. I get to work alongside some pretty amazing people. I'm really looking forward to working more with them as time goes by.

I hope to get back into this blog. I've started a few others but never stick with this one. Maybe now I'm back at work this term it'll stay updated. That tends to happen. :)

Hope everyone is doing well. I miss everyone terribly.

Peace, Love, and waffles,
-m

Two in one week! Get excited! :-D

The whole blogging this is picking up, again. Mainly because I'm still rather bored at work.

Work is going well. I still have my hopes up for going to Houston to "help" with Heide's mission's part. Cause, you know, I would rather live delusionally and be happy. :-) Anyway, around TBE I've had a few things to do. Mainly status. But it gets me away from my desk. Otherwise I just hang out in people's offices. Fred and Jimmy tend to see a lot of me. As well as the guys on the floor. :-) I haven't seen much of Kimberly. She came over to see me twice. The second time I wasn't here so she left a note. It made me smile. :-) We are going to lunch on Monday. I'm excited. :-)

Grades came out and I did well in everything except for Calculus (which I'm taking again this summer). Did I already say this in another post? Eh. I'm thrilled, so I don't mind writing about it again. :-)

Pete had his 6 month vet appt yesterday. He is super healthy and is up to date on all his shots. No more tapeworm and roundworms. This made his mom very happy! :-) Yay for having a healthy, happy puppy! I'll post pictures up here sometime so you all can see how much he's grown. (Okay, maybe not that much... but looking at his pictures from when we first got him to now, he looks a lot bigger to me.)

Melissa and I had lunch today. We went to a fast food Mexican restaurant here. It was pretty good. She enjoyed her meal and I thought mine was tasty. We talked that it might be the replacement for Q'doba. Which brings me to my next stream of thought...

I think I've been doing well with moving on. A few things the past few days have happened and I was rather indifferent. I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made. Which is good seeing the new possibilities that are presenting themselves. :-)

My fish who lives on my desk at work has officially been named. His name is Zvezda. Zvezda (which is Russian for star) was the name of the third module added to Station. It's the home for two astronauts/cosmonauts and has some, if not most, of ECLSS (which is their environmental and life support control system). I think I went to camp too much...

Anyway, it's Friday and I'm counting down the hours until I get to go home. Hope everyone who is finishing up finals does really well! And everyone who had no finals to take, we are all jealous.

Peace, Love, and that fun flip floppy jump my heart does,
-m

I'm back.

I'm back mainly because I'm at work again and I don't know what to do with all my "spare" time right now. It's like I feel as if I need to be in the library or something. School is starting again in a few weeks, so that'll keep me busy, eventually. And things should pick up some at work.

Speaking of work... I started back at TBE on Thursday, about 14 hours after my last final finished. I've worked two days already and am getting back into the swing of things. There are a *lot* of changes that have happened and are happening so it's taking a little getting used to. But I've jumped back into some of the Manufacturing stuff I used to do (even though Kimberly isn't there for awhile) and helped out where I can. I went over today and set up my office to be more "Megan". I think I'm liking it over there more than the last semester by this time. I just need to bring over books and stuff to keep me busy for when I'm bored.

School ended well. Grades aren't out, yet, but I'm pretty sure I did okay in the class I don't know the grade for, yet. I will be taking Calculus B again this summer (mainly because my professor this semester was a dick) and should get a really good grade as well as taking Engineering Economy (which makes me excited because it's a 300-level course as well as finally in Tech Hall (and we know I don't mind being over there. :-) ) I'm on my way to becoming an engineer!).

I'm going to start playing hockey hopefully pretty soon. I got my skates and my stick and random gear the other day and headed out to the rink with Virginia this afternoon to try out the new skates. I didn't fall at all (and it was my first time on hockey skates!) and was able to do some of the same things from figure skating with the hockey skates. I was excited!

Pete is doing well. He's asleep on my bed right now. :-) He's been loving the fact that someone is almost always home now. It means more playtime, more time outside and more time to nap on our beds. He's a pretty happy puppy (that is tapeworm free! :-D).

I'm pretty homesick right now. I think it just dawned on me that I'm not coming home this summer. I knew I wasn't but I don't think I realised I wasn't. Every time I see something on Facebook or something about Twins' games or Grand Ol' Day or the U my stomach does a little flip flop thing. I'm going to try to come home sometime before Thanksgiving; I just don't know when I will be able to. Until then, though, all my Minnesota friends know that I miss you tons and can't wait to spend time with you as soon as I can make it up there!

Peace, Love, and Sunsets,
-m

In the past 72 hours, I have:

• Gone hiking
• ..........(this time I did the Sinks Trail on Monte Sano... my goal is to do them all, eventually)
• Made cookies
• ..........(not Christmas cookies, just break and bakes... the good cookies will come when I'm home! :) )
• Organised my entire closet
• ..........(I bought rubbermaids and took everything out of my closet to sort)
• Realised how blessed I am
• ..........(I have some really amazing people in my life right now... and I can't express how much they mean!)
• Worked on moving on
• ..........(I found an Easter Egg Adam gave me last year in my backpack... not long after, Pete found the same one... I got over it... and threw it away.)
• Realised how much I've grown
• ..........(mainly from my conversations with Melissa and my mom)
• Decided to run a Marathon
• ..........(I will be training this year to run the Rocket City Marathon in December... I'm not concerned about time... I would just like to finish! :) )
• Tried Greek food
• ..........(I've had Greek before, but I was willing to try something very new)
• Thought about the things I no longer have that I miss
• ..........(this was probably the hardest out of all... I came across a card Alice and Jack sent me while I was at Camp one year... I started realising how much I miss what I no longer have... some are gone forever... some seem like they want to be... either way, I wish things didn't change so often)

So I guess you could say it has been a productive past three days. I'm looking forward to that plane ride home much more than words can express. While talking to my mom last night, I got even more excited. It seems like this time (as opposed to Thanksgiving) I realise I'm going home. Maybe it's because my work term is also ending. Anyway, Saturday can't come soon enough...

Hope everyone is doing well and that power outtages and snow aren't slowing you down! :) And PS, Thanks Tracy for the call the other day. I finally listened to my voicemail on my way to work this morning. It made me smile. :) Love to all!

Peace, Love and Making the Most of Things,

-m

Oh Weekends...

Thank God this week is done. I have five more days left at TBE for this work term and it seems that the lower that number gets, the more I have to do and the more stress I have. Maybe next week will be a little easier? I do know that next semester people are not going to want to do something and they'll say "well, I'll just give it to Megan". Heh. Ooops. Anyhoo. The big projects I was working on have all been turned in and have, for the most part, have had reviews. Seems like I did the right thing on them. Eh.

I was going to go jogging yesterday after work. Instead I let the puppy out, ran to Dicks and Target and then settled on making pizza for dinner and went to bed at 8:30. I didn't actually fall asleep till later and didn't sleep through the night (there will be a post after this one sort of related) due to dreams (both mine and the puppy's) and some other stuff.

I was planning on going hiking today. I asked Claire if she wanted to go with me and she told me as long as it wasn't as long as last time's. Yeah. I was wanting one a few hours longer. I seem to be able (or want to) push myself harder than she does. So I originally signed online right now to check trails to determine where I wanted to go. It's misting outside and rather foggy, but I'm still going to head up there, probably without Claire or Pete. I'm taking a pack with water and granola bars so Kimberly won't get all.... Kimberly, again.

There's a show at the planetarium that Melissa is helping with this evening so I think I'm going to head up there sometime. I haven't seen her since Pete and Fergie played together which didn't give us much time to chat. We're also having lunch at Papa Gyro's on Monday. I'm totally looking forward to it! :)

Anyhoo, I'm going to go get ready to head up to Monte Sano. Hope every is having a good weekend. Midwesterners: please don't freeze! And Southerners: go out and do something outside! It's super warm for December!

Peace, Love y Bill el Scientifico.
-m

K^2 is my hero.

I was pretty stressed out yesterday. I felt as if everything was coming at me at once.

My work report was due today; I knew it was due and I had been working on it. But I was worried about it not being just right.

Geof had told me before he left for Florida that he wanted me to think through some ideas for photography procedures for projects we are working on. I thought it was a "hey, brainstorm some ideas and we'll discuss them when I get back". Yeah. I got back to my desk from helping out in Manufacturing yesterday and got a text from him giving me a heads up that Mike, our big boss from Houston would be calling. My little red light on my phone was flashing and I already had an email. Turns out Mike wanted the ideas for a meeting Thursday. I sent him an email back with what I had come to the conclusion of after talking to people around here and then we discussed the ideas over the phone. After hanging up with him it took me about 3-4 hours before I could stop shaking. I had to get away from the office so I took the information home and worked on the powerpoint for a few hours.

I got my evaluation yesterday as well. I did pretty well. Overall I think my boss was happy with me being at TBE.

Before Geof left last week, he sent a presentation that I needed to work on. It is due by Friday for a Program Review next week. He told me to get all this information that I needed from and I quote "Kimberly, procurement, etc". You don't give someone who doesn't know what they're doing an "etc". I've sat in maaaaybe one of these via telecon and haven't had any exposure to gathering the information. Anyway, I worked on that for a few hours yesterday as well and I'm still no where close to being done.

After sitting in Kimberly's office this morning I think she knew I was getting frustrated. She called IT to see if she could get some help for me with software issues I was having. Turns out I ended up retyping everything again but I am grateful for what she had done to help. She also sent me earned value for the project that is being reviewed and I told her I wasn't so confident I could do the review; it's a pretty big thing. She told me I could do it, that I wasn't alone in this and if I needed anything she would help me get it. I felt a little better and told her while leaving she was my hero. She smiled.



So here I sit.
I went over to UAH and turned in my Co-op work report.
I've sent the photo requirement powerpoint off to Mike. He can now do what he wants with it.
And I'm working on the Program Review.
I'm slowly checking things off my list. And it kinda feels good.



I know I will be going jogging or hiking or something as soon as I can get home today. It might be too dark to hike, but I will for sure be doing something. It has warmed up here enough to be able to hang out outside. We'll see, though.

I hope everyone else is having a less hectic day.

Peace, Love and the Launch of Atlantis Tomorrow.
-m

Hey, Where You Goin'?

Have I mentioned how much I love Sara? Yup. Just in case I haven't (at least lately), I do. :) I'm going to try to see her when she comes to Memphis. :D I've been listening to Misfits and Spiritual Appliances over and over and over and over. Songs that didn't have much meaning when I was 8 suddenly mean a lot more, now.

Anyway. Its getting really chilly here. I'm glad we got our hike in this past weekend (we hiked for 3.5ish hours going about 10ish miles. I was ecstatic!) though I'm sure I'll probably go again this coming weekend. As long as its not snowing, which is pretty safe to assume. :)

Pete is becoming seriously attached to me. If he hasn't been in my arms this evening, he's been sitting at my feet or under my desk chair. I don't know what's up with him...

Hmm. Work is stressful. Okay, I can disappear if I need to but its everyone else who is stressed. People are complaining about each other. Some people are getting confused. People are just getting frustrated from all sides. Its hard because I like (mostly) everyone and when someone says something about one person I feel badly. *sigh* 9 more days. :(

I have Pete's and my plane tickets. I'm excited. He went to the vet this past weekend and is completely healthy and caught up on shots. He's finally on his heartworm meds as well. I'm thrilled.

I still really want to go to Africa. Random thought, I know. But I haven't been doing as much service and it's kind of bumming me out. If there was a group that would allow me to do Habitat with them, I would love it! I'm trying to think of other service groups here...

I'm sure there was other stuff I was going to write about. But I can't think of it, now. Phoey. Oh well. I hope everyone has had a good start to the week.

Peace, Love and Throwing Every Feeling Completely Into Music,
-m

Happy Friday!

Last night wasn't much fun. I didn't get much sleep. I was in bed by 10 and fell asleep by about 10:15. That's great, right? The bummer was I had dreams (I haven't had dreams that I've remembered since the summer) that woke me up every hour or so. Talk about frustrating. So every hourish my light would go back on. Pete wasn't too happy and after about three times, he looked up at me, glared, stood up, turned with his back towards me and plopped down with a sigh. I finally woke up the last time around 3 or 4 before falling back asleep until my alarm woke me up. Yippee.

I've been hanging with Kimberly most of the morning. We've had some fun chats today. :)

Yesterday, a guy here asked me to help him with a piece of hardware that they needed to ship off to Kennedy. He wanted me to clean it, box it, do the paperwork, take it to Shipping and get it sent off. Knowing that he was supposed to do that, I offered to help him. But I told him he had to do the paperwork. I went over to where the hardware was and began to clean it. He stood there, watching me the entire time. To say the least, I was pissed. It only took about three mins to clean which he was there for. He could have done it. Anyway, the thing that bothered me the most... I asked him if he wanted me to pick it up and clean the other side. He told me he would never make me do that. So he started to pick it up. I told him I could have done that and he said that he didn't want me to break a nail. Now that just pissed me off. I asked him if he were worried about breaking a nail. He said no. So I told him to not assume I would be concerned about it, then. I was super proud!

Ummm. Let's see. I need to run some errands today. The bank, the apt, the usual for a Friday.

Hope everyone is staying warm. I know it's rather chilly down here... And MN is getting a dumping of snow this weekend. Everyone drive safely, please!

Peace, Love and Peacocks,
-m

I <3 my job!

My boss received a Silver Snoopy today. So this morning I headed over to Kimberly's office to see if she wanted to walk over with me. Long story short, I stood through some heated discussion before heading over. I wasn't really in the mood to go but Kimberly told me "you want to go, trust me". So we head over. I'm sitting there and the president of the company walked in. Immediately behind him walked someone with a blue flight suit. I turn to Kimberly and super happily said "That's Suni!". Yup! I just met Sunita Williams. :D I stood in line afterwards and got a picture. When I got up to her, she asked me if I was going to apply for the 2009 Astronaut Candidate Class. This is exactly what I needed. I keep getting kicks in the butt to keep on, keeping on. I've been in a funk for awhile; There's a lot of stuff going on. I'm terribly worried about classes. I'm afraid no matter how hard I try, I won't make it. I'm trying to not let what people have told me get to me. I don't give up. The trip home made me question why I'm really down here. I know its passion. But I've hit a rut and I think I needed to be reminded. Next semester is really starting to scare me.

Today is the same ol' some ol'. People, especially in Manufacturing, are getting really stressed out, so I try to only go over there if they've asked me to do something or to check to make sure they have nothing for me to do. I'm almost done with the 10 hour days. So that will be nice.

Pete had a lot of fun yesterday with Fergie and Melissa. Fergie and Pete ran around for awhile. Pete is freakin' fast. After awhile Fergie got tired so we both headed home and then back to work. When Claire got home last night she wanted to go jogging (ha!). I had a feeling it would turn into a walk after not long, so I brought Pete with us. By the time we got home and he got his dinner, he was fast asleep. Though he would wake up every once in awhile, toss a toy and pounce on it until he fell asleep again. When I went to my room at 8:30, he crawled under my bed and fell asleep. I'm super excited to bring him to Minnesota! :)

I don't think I've had my Huntsville restart since I got back. I feel like I'm just running around with my head cut off. I'm hoping this weekend will let me relax. I really want to go hiking. And then I'll be back in the Huntsville swing. Just in time to go home for Christmas. Lol. You would never thinking having to get used to different cultures would be this hard. Oh well. Hiking will help! :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday!

Peace, Love and Going After Your Dreams,
-m

ola, ola, eh.

Yes, I have the cheer stuck in my head. Sad days. Anyhoo...

Today is one of those days that you just seem behind everyone else. I woke up late but took a shower and got ready in about 30 mins. That included having to wait till my wash dried. I put it in the washer last night and was going to throw it into the dryer when I woke up. Well, when you don't wake up early enough, your clothes don't get dried in time. Lol.

I'm taking Mister Pete over to Huntsville's new dog park to meet Melissa for lunch today. I'm excited. I haven't talked to her since three weeks ago (?). And there's some stuff I need to catch her up on. :)

Um. Other stuff.... I got the carrier for the airplane for Pete last night. It'll be a tight fit, but NWA doesn't have a policy about the fit of the animal. Just as long as the dog is comfortable. Which I've already made sure of. I figure I'll have to sedate him, anyway. Yay for coming home! And Yay for having a puppy! And Yay for getting to spend time with those I love! :)

I'm off to a meeting. Hope everyone else's Wednesday goes a little more smoothly than mine. :)

Peace, Love and Contemplations,
-m