Happy Dorkus

So even though I look like a total dorkus when I'm working Station console, I don't think there's anything else (within reason at this time) that could make me happier, job-wise.

Between the glasses and the headset, I really am a dork.

But I'm OK with being a dork. I was the kid in high school who enjoyed math and science. I have a degree in Physics. Those definitely qualify me as a dork.

But I'm a happy dork. An ecstatic dork. A blessed dork.

The following are pictures I've taken either yesterday or today while working on console.

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano holding a live public affairs

event from the International Space Station. During this event, he

answered questions from the ground, from scientists and those tuned in,

in Germany, Italy, France, and Israel.

I took this on my way in to the console building, which is called the HOSC

(Huntsville Operations Support Center). 

Different views of the Earth from external Station cameras.

These are from today:

Today astronaut Mike Hopkins is testing a space suit for leaks, so there aren't

anymore situations like what happened a few months back to Luca.

Front shot of the suit! Bonus astronaut legs in the background on the left.

Although the photo is funny, you can easily see astronaut Karen Nyberg working

on a payload experiment in the low center.

This is the view of the console room where we work real-time 

operations with astronauts, scientists in Houston (at Mission Control),

ESA (the European Space Agency in Germany), and JAXA (The

Japanese Space Agency), as well as other scientists around the world.

A photo of the desk where I sit. All of these monitors are packed with the

tools that allow me to control and command to the Station systems onboard, 

making sure of the safe reception of data on the ground.

If I were a person who used hashtags in a non-ironic way, I'd say: #winning #blessed #Ilovemyjob

26

Today is Husband's birthday! He's the big 2-6! I'm constantly surprised that I've known Hubs in some capacity for 7 years and 3 months.

As a tribute to the 7 years I've known Husband, here are pictures from each of his birthdays (or close to his birthdays) that I've been able to share with him.

2006

2006- the year we met. We spent most of the evenings in our first semester at UAH in a group project to create a human-powered water filter. This picture was taken on one of those evenings when we (as a group) just had to take a break and eat a tube of cookie dough. Shortly after this photo was taken, Hubs woke up.

2007

2007- Chris and I decided it would be fun to prank Hubs. While he was taking an engineering test, Chris and I saran-wrapped his car. It's unfortunate that it was raining. Later that evening, Hubs and his family (and Chris and I, as designated best friends) all ate at Buffalo Wild Wings.

2008

2008- The year we officially invested our Wednesdays to our cause: Wednesdays with Brown. If I recall correctly, this photo was actually taken two nights before his birthday, in Bridgestreet. 

2009

2009- The year we started dating, and the year we got engaged. This is a picture of a few of the guys from a poorly planned surprise party I threw Hubs. I did not pay extra for the special Captain Jack Sparrow appearance.

2010

2010 - One must always bring one's felt animal caps to Tony's Little Italy in Providence (now closed, and replaced with a Mexican restaurant).

2011

2011- The year we got married. Here's Husband blowing out the candles on the cake his mom made him. Notice Big Bird, as well as a plane (to signify his new job at Boeing).

2012

2012 - We celebrated our first wedding anniversary, and traveled to New York (the day after his birthday, actually). Here's Husband cutting his Great American Cookie Knicks cake. And yes, I made everyone in attendance for Hubs' birthday wear birthday hats. Husband's was embellished with extra ribbon and curly-q's. 

2013

2013 - Unfortunately I don't have a picture of him/us yet for this year's birthday (mornings in our house can sometimes be a bit of a blur for me). But this is a photo from October 12 when we went to Tate Farms with friends.

My only hope is to get to spend the rest of my life with this face. His quirks, imitations, likes and dislikes all make him who he is, and they are what makes him the man I love and cherish.

Furloughs, Weddings, Arabians, Triathlons and Dashes.

There are a lot of things coming up in our lives! (Well, a lot of them are just me actually.)

First off, I'm happily back at work, thanks to the government of the US putting a tiny band-aid on the debt problem of our great nation. I spent two weeks furloughed. At home and miserable. I've never been a person who is good at sitting still. I can hardly watch a movie straight through without having to get up and move around! So not being at work, which meant not being able to do the things I love, was horrible. I spent the first week (Tuesday afternoon through Friday) doing the things around the house that had been put on the back burner because we both work. Things like laundry, dishes, vacuuming, and such.

The second week I was miserable. No one expected the furlough to continue into the next week, and still I heard people talking that "we'll be back at work by Wednesday." Well Wednesday came and went, and I was still at home. I spent this week moping and trying to keep busy. I met my coworker's new puppy:

Cooper. 1.4 pounds of love and exhaustion

And I became a mall-walker. On Tuesday I walked 7.5 miles between the two Huntsville indoor malls, and then a quick once-around the UAH loop. Then I tried my hand at gardening. I failed at my attempt. I was actually doing well, until I began to dig holes for the tulips bulbs I wanted to plant.. and found that our builder had laid an unfortunate bed of concrete about 7 inches down into the flowerbed. For those interested- concrete is not conducive to flower growth. I had to give up because I am not capable of superman-ing concrete out of the ground with my sheer willpower.

The third week (Monday through Wednesday) I finally decided I was going to embrace the furlough. I rode my bike and ran a collective 15 miles in those three days. I did house things, and prepared for my tutoring sessions. Basically I brought myself back to the real world as much as possible.

Then on Wednesday night. I did something I've never done. I watched a combination of CSPAN and Fox News waiting to hear how the House and Senate would vote to reopen the government. It reopened and I oh-so-gladly went back to work.

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Aside from furlough news, a few other things have happened in our lives. We went to a wedding on October 5th. The groom is a young man that Hubs had gone to elementary, middle and high school and college with. The bride is a woman who graduated a year (2 years?) after me with a degree in physics; she and I also took a few ballet classes together earlier this year. The wedding was beautiful.

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Speaking of ballet, have I told you that I'm in one? I auditioned for Alabama Youth Ballet's The Nutcracker and actually got a part! I'll be in the Arabian scene (yes, I, too, think it's funny that I ended up in that specific scene). Rehearsals for the show have been going well. I'm not too talented, and I don't know the terminology, but I'm catching on quickly enough. And I'm really very happy to report that I really enjoy the rehearsals and the other people in my scene. I'm happy there are other adults in the Arabian Corps with me.

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Now, to a general topic of athleticism: This weekend (3 days from today) I'm participating in my second Indoor Beginner Triathlon with the Huntsville YMCA. I've been running and biking regularly enough, but because the weather has turned colder (without my permission, I might add!), and we got busy with life in general, I haven't been able to swim much since August. The last tri I did went well enough except for the swimming portion.. I seriously thought I was going to drown in 4 feet of water.

Next weekend my mom and I are doing the Warrior Dash. I've read a bunch of tips and tricks about it, and I'm feeling pretty okay about it. I'm excited to get to do this with my mom! She flies into town on Halloween and is staying until November 4. I'm excited to have her! We're going to do a miniature birthday celebration for her since her birthday will be the next week. Maybe I can convince her to wear a birthday hat during the Dash?!

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I don't have anything else to update on! Sorry this post got away from me!

Shameless photo of Puppy:

In fact, I should be ashamed of this picture. This is an old picture of her

from before we got her shaved. I think she's much cuter fluffy.

'2.' Not 'S.'

Husband and I celebrated two years of marriage together last week.

To celebrate, we went to Nashville for a concert- we saw Hanson (and we're not ashamed of it, thank you!). This is now the third time we've seen them, and they never disappoint. Yes, they're the "Mmmbop" band, but they've really come a long way from that. Check out this and this and this. And what's more is that they write their own music. All of it. And they play it. Live. At their shows.

So they write, then play and sing live, and they do it well. Which is more than I can say for many other "musicians" who "sing" with autotune and synthesizers.

Anyways, the concert was amazing.

Amazing.

On an unrelated note, the camera I bought for the Hawaii trip has been a-may-zing. Our seats for the concert (since last time we saw Hanson at this same location, we had "standing room only" tickets, so I couldn't see anything because I'm typically 5-6" shorter than the people around me, we decided to get actual seats.) were on the second floor right along the railing, which ended up being pretty much perfection. But this camera made it even better:

amirite?

Though, to be honest, Taylor isn't my favorite. Zac is.

Typically he is the drummer, but it's hard to get a decent picture

of a person while they're drumming, so I took this one while

he was showcasing his other musical abilities. And yea, he also

played the piano/keyboard during the show.

Pretty amazing, even if you're not a Hanson fan.

Then, on Saturday, I finally got to use my birthday gift from Husband! You may recall that he bought me a gift card for skydiving. I tried to use it in August, and even showed up for my appointment (with the Corleys in tow), but after an hour of waiting around, we decided to call it a wash and try again a different day due to the impenetrable cloud cover that would just not let up!

So Saturday was our rescheduled date, only one and a half months after my birthday! No matter, I still got to jump, and that's what counts. Except that I somehow managed to delete the few unprofessional pictures that I had from skydiving this weekend, so I have no photographic evidence :(  (Side note, I have asked Ashley for pictures, so when she sends them, I'll include them here)

Now on to the anniversary pictures Sarah took for us!

It was surprisingly difficult to get that "2" balloon to say "2" and not "S."

See?

Happy anniversary to my best friend and the love of my life! I look forward to many more years with you :)

(And Puppy's posing still needs work. She was so distracted by cars driving by, people on the trails, dogs with the people, and squirrels.)

Rollercoasters and Races.

*Edit* Two weeks after this was posted I just noticed that I misspelled the title of the post. Now it's corrected. I know you were worried. *End Edit*

Quick pictures from my trip to Cedar Point with my mom and sister, as well as a few pictures from The Color Run!

Cedar Point is in Sandusky, Ohio and it located on a tiny peninsula that juts into Lake Erie. It's often called one of the best rollercoaster parks in the world, and I think my sister and I agree. It's become a bit of a tradition that the three of us doing something exhilarating for a weekend during the summer, and typically the men come too. The men = Husband and Melissa's fiance Lu.

Last year we all went to Six Flags in Atlanta and then white water rafting.

Anyways, since the boys don't particularly care for rollercoasters, the girls decided to go alone. Granted my mom doesn't like coasters either, so she prefers to go to the parks, and use the time to sit and tan. Seriously.

Pictures:

Then we went to the lake to dip our toes in (the water was colder than we anticipated considering it was August)-

Then at the airport, I got bored and mom because my canvas for art-

Then we had go home and resume normal life.

But then this past Saturday, Husband and I ran (Walked? Jogged?) The Color Run! Keeping with traditions, it stormed for the entire drive down to Leeds, AL. Then it rained the entire time through the run (OK, that's a lie. There was about 5 minutes when it did not rain. But then it rained again).

Last dry picture!

People were so excited that they were already throwing their color

pouches.. which were supposed to be saved until the end of the race

at the Color Party. So this was taken before we even crossed the

Starting Line.. and he (and I, below) are already colored.

Husband was so easy-going. He's not exactly the type of person who

enjoys going for a run in the rain, to get soaked and have colored

powder thrown at you every kilometer, but he did it for me, knowing

how much I love being exactly that type of person. And he let me take 

his picture after each color zone :)

Notice the skin-colored stripe across his forehead where

his headband was during the race.

The change from uncovered and colored to fully

covered and uncolored skin is astonishing.

In addition to all the pictures and explanations of the pictures, please notice the fanny pack has reappeared. I'm bringing it back, one event at a time. You'll see.