Thoughts from a Coffee Cup

I woke up early this morning (read: 845am) to the sound of the janitor's keys outside my door. While trying to prepare myself for the possible entry into my room (I slightly forgot she doesn't have keys to it) I silently cursed the upcoming events that they're cleaning the habitat for. Why? Because it's a rainy day, perfect for sleeping in. But whatever. That's when I forced myself to retreat 4 levels down for a blessed cup o' joe. PS... did I mention that I get to live at my job? Anyway.

Motto for the day. Bonus: totally swiped this from a friend for my coffee :)

I have a lot of random thoughts this morning. A lot. Some of them include

• Why am I a horrible pen pal with friends? I had a friend send me an email a month ago that I just replied to. I wish there was a way my email could remind me "hey Blondie, you still have an email you haven't replied to!"
• I love PanAm. Yes, the show is a little ridiculous, but let's be honest: I love the 60s; I secretly want to be a flight attendant; the wardrobe on the show is beautiful; the men... gorgeous; my favorite character, hands down, is Colette. I love her.
• Why do I hate packing? I'm so excited for my trip to Delaware but seriously... packing? Ick. 
• Yes, I am going to Delaware. Why? It's a trip. I'm flying. Last time I flew on an airplane was in 2004. It's been too long. I'm going with home with a good friend just to see this great festival that she's talked about non-stop since I met her in February. I'm sure I'll get some good blackmail great photos. I just want to see her in her pig costume. Yes, pig costume.
• I still have no clue what I'm going to do about school next semester. I thought that taking a semester off would help me decide, but I still have no clue about what I will do with my life. 

And so, I suppose this concludes the rambling blog. I guess it's time to conquer the suitcase once and for all.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

My Favorite Season

Unitarian Universalist Church, Lexington, MA

Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year. Summer is great for tans and trips to the beach, spring makes everything feel renewed, and winter is the time for creme brulee latees from Starbucks and watching Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!


But to me? Autumn is magical. The air is finally cooling off from hot summers, leaves are changing colors, days are getting shorter, rain is more frequent, and you can wear your favorites sweaters, boots, and jackets. Living in the Boston area definitely contributed to autumn being my favorite season. Up there, it definitely is like no other experience. The leaves turn into colors you could never imagine you would see. The centers of the town have leaves on the ground, the little white churches stand out, everyone is walking everywhere anticipating that winter that will come and occasionally make you house bound for a few days. To me, that is fall. More recently, since living in Alabama and working at a camp, I love the fall season because that's when we have a bunch of stuff happens that you don't have in the spring or summer. Fall is our off season but we have Adult Camp, Be Ready Camp, SCI-VIS, and recruitment for next year's new class of crew trainers.

As a veteran crew trainer, I get the enjoyment of being involved in these programs. Be Ready fully has my heart. We train a group of about 90 kids for 4 days, teaching skills such as triage, search and rescue, extinguishing fires, first aid, along with other skills. Then we have a mock disaster, complete with "victims", fire and rescue squads, paramedics, the American Red Cross, FEMA, and other local emergency agencies that work with the kids. The best part of the disaster? The kids are the ones in charge. They're the Incident Commander, chiefs, captains, search and rescue teams, medical teams, and logistics. Seeing 6th graders switch into adult mode and taking charge is amazing.

SCI-VIS, Space Camp for the Interested and Visually Impaired Student, is a completely other experience. For a week at camp, the programs are only open to kids and teenagers who have some kind of vision loss. Every kid that comes has a story. They often teach you more than you could ever imagine teaching them. Do they have their own unique challenges? Most definitely. I will not lie about that. I've worked with a lot of kids who sometimes just decide to quit; but in SCI-VIS, none of those kids quit. We refuse to let them think that they've failed activities. Sometimes, they have other handicaps that prevent them from completing tasks, but they still try to do it. I've experienced 2 SCI-VIS sessions, and none was like the other. They were both amazing, but each had their own experiences and lessons that I've taken from that experience.

If I could make autumn last all year, I definitely would.

I'm Back to the Blogging World

It's been over a year since I've last blogged. I fell off the face of the earth to the blogging world. I'm not sure what happened and what made me regress. I had a page, but there's so much stuff on there and I want to start a fresh blog from scratch. One that isn't tied to my teenage years. I mean, what 22 year old wants to be reminded of the bad decisions she's made?

My blog title comes from a quote from Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 CSM pilot. It completely describes me... I love space. My Netflix queue has a bunch of space movies in it, no lie. And by movies, I mean documentaries. I work at a place where I get to teach space and aviation to the next generation and LOVE it.

Anyway, my blog's still getting adjusted and tweaked; I'm sure that will take a while since it's hard for me to decide on a color scheme, background, layout, and all that pretty stuff.

Enjoy :)