Back from Vacation
posted by Jen | 12:07 AM
Well, it's over. I spent hours working on a photo album of our trip to Whistler tonight when I should have been working on Yuri's Night stuff. The fruits of my labour are here. I'll write up more of a narrative about this trip in a couple weeks. Some of the pictures are labeled and some aren't, but I think you will get the idea. If you're on a modem (Mom and Dad) you may have to wait a while for the page to download. There are over a hundred pictures on it.
I'm right back into the swing of things here. Work was busy today. The desk that I ordered a couple weeks ago came and I assembled it while dinner boiled (BBQ meat in a bag is a lovely thing). I really like it. Maybe I'll get a picture posted of it tomorrow - it's much too late to start another project like that tonight. Yuri's Night is less than a month away, and this is where I start freaking out because there's so much left to do and not much time left.
So it's past my bedtime. It's hard to pull myself away from my laptop, though, with all the associated fun of reliving my vacation in a wonderful, gorgeous, non-polluted, nearby country. I was seriously depressed getting on the airplane to come back to Houston. Gavin wasn't really helping by trying to convince me (pretty seriously) that we should apply for jobs at Blue Origin and move to Seattle.
I'd love to move back to Seattle, but I don't feel like I've accomplished what I came to NASA and Houston to do. And I just don't have the kind of personality that can walk away from a job I don't feel is complete. I think I need another 5 years or so. I'd really like to work as Lead for a flight before calling it quits on my flight control career. Because, no matter what anybody says, I'm not going to find this job anywhere else, and I really don't anticipate liking anything else as much as I do what I'm doing right now. Yes, it sucks that it's in Houston. Yes, I thought I might need an anti-depressant to get me onto the airplane that was bringing me back. Yes, I would love my life outside work if I got to be somewhere more in line with my leisure desires. I can't quit on something that I decided to do, though. It is really not in my nature. So, oh well. I guess we're here for a while.
I'm right back into the swing of things here. Work was busy today. The desk that I ordered a couple weeks ago came and I assembled it while dinner boiled (BBQ meat in a bag is a lovely thing). I really like it. Maybe I'll get a picture posted of it tomorrow - it's much too late to start another project like that tonight. Yuri's Night is less than a month away, and this is where I start freaking out because there's so much left to do and not much time left.
So it's past my bedtime. It's hard to pull myself away from my laptop, though, with all the associated fun of reliving my vacation in a wonderful, gorgeous, non-polluted, nearby country. I was seriously depressed getting on the airplane to come back to Houston. Gavin wasn't really helping by trying to convince me (pretty seriously) that we should apply for jobs at Blue Origin and move to Seattle.
I'd love to move back to Seattle, but I don't feel like I've accomplished what I came to NASA and Houston to do. And I just don't have the kind of personality that can walk away from a job I don't feel is complete. I think I need another 5 years or so. I'd really like to work as Lead for a flight before calling it quits on my flight control career. Because, no matter what anybody says, I'm not going to find this job anywhere else, and I really don't anticipate liking anything else as much as I do what I'm doing right now. Yes, it sucks that it's in Houston. Yes, I thought I might need an anti-depressant to get me onto the airplane that was bringing me back. Yes, I would love my life outside work if I got to be somewhere more in line with my leisure desires. I can't quit on something that I decided to do, though. It is really not in my nature. So, oh well. I guess we're here for a while.
9 Comments:
Five more years to accomplish what you want before you can think about leaving Houston? Wow. 10 years in Houston is a long time.
Sure, 10 years is an eternity in Houston. But think about it. The rest of this year to get through the next two flights. Next year, let's face it, I'll probably be taking some serious time off for maternity leave. So we're into 2007 for getting back into the swing of work and flying my first couple FDO flights. 2008 to train for Rendezvous and get assigned to a lead flight which I might get to fly in 2009 if I'm lucky. And, there we are at 2010 before I've done what I came to do.
Maybe it will move faster than that - I hope so. But I'm just being honest with the timeline that I expect.
I think staying at JSC is fine if CEV happens like people expect it to. I'd like to be part of going back to the moon and Mars. But if something goes wrong, if the budget gets cut, or whatever... around 2008 I want to re-evaluate and see whether staying in Houston really is in our best interests.
Let's all move to Seattle!
You're all going to move to Seattle and leave me! :( Not that I like Houston all that much, but I like my job enough to stay here.
Seattle is nice. But the other thing is, don't you feel, even a little, that the gov't space program is in a huge bureaucratic rut, whereas there are these "other" places that are going to be legends in a decade. So, if you leave here in 5 more years, you've lost your opportunity to be in something like that from the ground floor. Something really risky and groundbreaking? That's part of the appeal to me. Obviously location isn't a high priority in my life or I wouldn't have come to Houston in the first place. Ah, Switzerland.
what's all this talk about seattle and switzserland-shmand. are you people icepicks? come on people, hawaii... just think h-a-w-a-i-i!!! ;)
Come to Seattle! Bring Everyone! I'll throw a BBQ!
- Irwin
Come to Seattle! Bring Everyone! I'll throw a BBQ!
- Irwin
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