Springtime in NASA Education

It is March. And therefore, it is CAS. For those of you that aren't up to par with the NASA acronyms that I now define my life with (I like to call them the AS-es, not to be confused with the ASSes), CAS is the Community College Aerospace Scholars, a program I run for CC students in Texas. There is also NCAS, the national version, which will occur in April and May (and October and November, if my boss gets his way, and I get my raise...). There is also HAS, MAS, NHAS, TAS, and WISH. But, really, we would be here all night if I defined them. I would say google them, but our website has been down for the last three months (not adding any stress to my life...at all...ok, fine, it is killing me). Anyway, they are not nearly as important as CAS (I can say that, this is my blog). And CAS is the reason that you people who have called me are not getting a response, and those who have emailed are wondering how I so quickly responded to you with a message entitled "Out of Office." I will call/email you back, I have 2 weeks off in May. Until then, I'm gonna need you to be a little patient (note though, that if you are a California friend, this program will be taking me there in April, so maybe you will get a little visit from me...I know, I know, try to contain the excitement).

So, for the last five months I have fought with several college faculty for long enough to get them to sucker some students to do some lessons about going to Mars in exchange for an all expense paid trip to NASA. Seems fair, right? In return, I provide these students and their faculty with 2 days of NASA fun. They take tours, we feed them Cisco food, we provide some NASA engineers to talk to them about what really happens at NASA (ok, not what really happens, but what is supposed to happen...we ask them to leave out the part about the free food at Sherlock's happy hour and the security guards who sometimes fall asleep at their gates). It is a fun time had by all. And I can say that, because this week, the fun time is over, and I have napped. So I can look back and call it fun. Pretty sure if you were Becky and you had stopped by at about 3pm today, you wouldn't have said fun. In fact, fun might have been the furthest word from your mind at that point. Chaos might have worked. Becky rolled in today as I was pulling off felt from science fair boards with 5 interns and a handful of coworkers. She witnessed the moment when I stepped on the cotton ball with the pushpin hidden in it that went right through my shoe and into my foot (Kat confirmed that it has been 10 years since my last tetanus shot). She saw the blood. (I'm ok mom, I promise, and I WILL update that tetanus shot). She saw us pack up 20 computers in record time and throw (I mean put gently if anyone from work is reading this) them into the back of my car. Pretty sure Becky thinks I am a crazy woman. But, she was the only office visitor this week (yea, thanks management), so she gets to star in this blog. So Becky came in at the end, but the entire two days was pretty much this kind of chaos. Luckily, this is year four for me, so it is completely expected, and even a little fun (ok, a lot fun).

Anyway, so this week we had our smallest group. 27 students, 6 faculty. They were in 4 small teams, and were highly stressed the entire two days (this somehow translates to fun they tell me). They designed Martian rovers to present to NASA (ie David, our "Software Engineer" and Nora). And dang, they were good. I think the future of NASA might be in good hands. There were some flirty boys hitting on my cute little interns (sorry ladies, didn't actually mean to call you that on the microphone earlier, but that will teach you to be so cute), and some program alumni returning to mentor. These guys made my week, they were cracking me up and keeping me on my toes...My staff was awesome, they kept me from curling up in a ball this morning when I just wanted to sleep. They fed me wheat thins and churros (ahem, three in two hours, one for each hip and probably one for good measure). Next week we have 60 students and 12 faculty. Doubled. Ughh. But, I love it, and this is why I do my job. These kids think I am God. Ok, not God, but they seem to appreciate me, and that somehow makes it worth it. (I should say, I say kids, but these students range in age from 18-75, so really, they are all adults, it's just the teacher in me). ANd it's a good thing we got to this point, because I needed the reminder. Otherwise, I would be working in one of my current dream jobs (Starbucks drive through lady, paper delivery woman, the key cutter at Home Depot, or an x-ray technician). I guess I'll take NASA. At least for the time being. ;-)

Now I will proceed to sleep for 20 hours straight and possibly use the hot tub for the first time this spring. And then I will sleep some more...