Astronauts and Autographs.

A few weeks ago (August 8, to be exact) I had an opportunity to meet my very first astronaut. His name is Kevin Ford. He was on Space Station for Increments 33 and 34, and was the commander of Increment 34.

I totally fan-girl'd.

So the situation was that Commander Ford was visiting the HOSC as a part of his post- increment tour of the Stations Operations Centers. Earlier in the day, he'd made a speech to a general Arsenal audience. Unfortunately I couldn't go to that because I had just gotten off a night shift.

Either way.

I got off work at 7am. I went home and slept until 10am, when I then got up, got out the Puppy, showered, and got dressed for lunch. As excited as I was, I was the first person in the room, which was laid out like this:

For some reason, I had expected, at this lunch that Commander Ford was going to be speaking. Not eating. So I sat in a chair that, to me, seemed close enough to the podium, but not so close as to be creepy.

But then people started filing in and other people were setting up at the podium. I was a little confused. But then it happened.

He sat in front of me.

Now, when I say that I was freaking out, I mean it. Like. I was looking around the room, amazed at all the people somehow maintaining composure while I was near a catastrophic meltdown. How was no one else in awe? Surely they didn't realize they were sitting in a room with an astronaut.

I snapped some phone pictures in the heat of the moment.

I told you I was fan-girling.

Then he answered questions, and there were some Lessons Learned and Best Practices and work-related things that happened. Then it was time for autographs, and I was second in line.

I introduced myself, and told him a bad joke (as I've been known to do), and we shared a laugh. I asked him for a final favor (the first was asking him to sign a second poster, for my mom's coworker's son)- to take a picture with me:

After the autograph-and-picture moment ended (which felt like hours, and only lasted mere minutes), I had to go to my car to calm myself.

It was a big day for me.

Then I went back home and went back to sleep, since I was working another 11p-7a shift that night.

"To Nicole!" With an exclamation point!

Like he knew how big this was for me!

Weekend Warriors

I rarely start a post with a big picture, but how could I resist displaying one of Hubs and I at Grant Park in front of the Buckingham Memorial Fountain in downtown Chicago? But we'll get to this. Now let's start at the beginning.

Friday night, the Hubs and I drove down to Birmingham to see Matchbox 20 and Goo Goo Dolls at the Oak Mountain Amphitheater. It was roughly one billion degrees out, but our seats were in the shade, so it made it OK.

I said "I wonder how many chins we can have if we tried" and this is what happened.

We're a special breed.

I love Matchbox 20. I've been an avid fan since sometime in middle school. I have all their albums and I know every single one of the their songs. Word for word. I had tickets to see them a few years ago, but life's SNAFU occurred and I didn't get to go. So when I saw they were going to be in Birmingham with another one of my favorite bands, I knew I had no choice. I've been looking forward to this particular concert for months. I've been looking forward to a chance to see MB20 perform live for years.

The concert was amazing. The Goo's performed first and they were fantastic! Sounded perfect. They sounded like I was in my car listening to my CDs/iPod with 3000 or so of my closest sweaty friends. (Tight squeeze into the car, right? Right.)

The Goo Goo Dolls

Then MB20 came on and pretty much blew my socks off. Words can't describe how great they were, and I loved hearing them play hits from their older albums- the songs that made me love them- and hits from their newest album. (They do have that one album, Exile on Mainstream, that I can't stand. I call it their Dark Days. And of course they played a song or two from that.) Every song sounded perfect. The singing, the music, the stage were all just right for the show.

(Unfortunately, none of my photos from the MB20 show turned out well. Probably due my singing and dancing.)

That night we drove back home, arriving between 130 and 2am.

Saturday morning, we got up and started the 10-or-so hours drive to Chicago. I think the longest part of the drive was through Indiana. We felt so close, but we were so far. The trip was made longer thanks to lots of rain, lots of detours, and lots of I-65 construction along the way. Some pictures:

There was a huge wind farm in Indiana. It was probably the most exciting

thing to see in the entire state. Except for the building in Indianapolis

that had a lighthouse on the top.

Then we arrived. We stayed Saturday and Sunday night with Cynthia and her boyfriend Todd, in their apartment in the city. They've got a great view!

I could get used to a view like this.

After we unloaded our few belongings, Cynthia rode with Hubs and I to find free parking in the city, while Todd went to get a table at Gino's East so we could have some authentic Chicago deep dish pizza. Some pictures along the way:

During the infamous Chicago Fire, this building- the water

building- is the only thing that didn't burn.

This is the view from the 96th floor of the Hancock Building.

The four of us got drinks at the Signature Lounge.

The view on the walk back to their place was really nice too, if a bit blurry.

The next day, Cynthia and Todd made a delicious breakfast complete with eggs, sausage (which I swear was good!), french toast, hash browns and orange juice. We all played Frisbee for a little while before Hubs and I headed to Lollapalooza.

He was definitely the only person in Chicago wearing a Knicks hat.

(And yes, I wore a MB20 shirt and he wore a Hanson shirt to see The Cure)

(I had already worn my Hanson shirt to see MB20 and the GGDs)

He's using my umbrella to shade his pasty legs from the sun.

Me, reppin' my new MB20 shirt!

Our plan was to camp out at the stage where Dave's band was playing later that night, so we got to enjoy (and kind of endure) the two bands prior to it that we were there for. First was Tegan and Sarah. They were good! I'd not heard any of their music before. After them, we endured Grizzly Bear. A creepy/awkward excuse for a garage band that got lucky. I didn't care for them.

After the Grizzly Bears finally finished, I needed to pee. I knew it would be hard to get back up to the front where we were, so I told Hubs that I'd call him or text him if I couldn't get back. Unfortunately there was no cell service (apparently only for mine and Hubs' phones though, which was frustrating), so I couldn't call him.

Since I'm so short, I couldn't even see over the wall of people in front of me, so I went up to the tallest guy I could find and said, "Hey, do you see a guy up there in a blue Knicks hat?"

He said, (I'm paraphrasing here to keep this PG): "Oh heck no you're not getting in front of me!"

And literally pushed me over. To the ground. Onto my back. In a crowd full of people.

Two other guys who were clearly not OK with what they saw and came over and started yelling at the guy. Since I just wanted to find Hubs, I told them not to worry about it, and to let it go. I moved farther away from Mr. Tall Jerk and kept trying to text and call Husband some more. Finally, he texted me from another number, so I called it, talked to him, told him to find me to the left of the "Panda on a stick." A few minutes later he arrived and we prepared to watch the main event. The top banana. The reason we were OK with driving 24 hours this weekend (2 hours each way to/from Birmingham, and 10ish each way to and from Chicago). The Cure.

Robert Smith is not an attractive dude.

They played well. Husband was really pleased and he had a good time. He was singing and dancing along with the rest of the crowd (I personally wish they'd all stop jumping so I could see something though!). 

Then we had to do that thing you do at the end of trips... drive back. And got stuck in this:

But the night ended with dinner at Mellow Mushroom with Hubs' family, and a birthday party, only two weeks late, at their house afterward.

Wonderful weekend.

++

The view from the Signature Lounge.

The daytime view from Cynthia and Todd's apartment.