Sunday, August 26, 2007

Weekend Reflections


Annie noted how quiet the blogging world had been and I would have to agree. I know I haven't blogged in way too long. Hopefully I can do a little better this week.

Last week was a super busy one filled with late working hours and not a lot of fun. I worked from home until about 2 AM most nights and until 4 AM Thursday night trying to finish up a report for work. Fortunately I finished it on Friday and so that late night working from home should be over. From the end of the Summer up until the end of the fiscal year (end of September) is always a busy season for us but getting this report out is one of my main tasks, and it is taken care of.

On Wednesday evening I got to go to my hometown for work... which was nice. I had meetings down there on Thursday. The meetings were somewhat stressful but overall they went well.

Saturday was probably the most exciting day of the week. My parents came to the town where I live on Friday night and on Saturday morning myself, my parents, my brother and my brother's girlfriend all went to an academic symposium on the debate between government controlled space exploration and privatized space exploration. I am showing my true "dork colors" by telling you that I went to a symposium on a Saturday morning... but I am even more of a dork when I tell you that it has been on my calendar for at least six months.

One of the organizations that I was involved with in college sponsored the event and so I had been notified of the event and the speakers that would be there for quite some time. When I saw on the agenda that Burt Rutan would be there I knew I had to go. If you don't know who Burt Rutan is, do yourself a favor and click on the link above and read a little bit about him. He's an absolute genius and was named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of the World" after winning the X Prize for his work with Space Ship One .

I had the privilege of hearing him speak at Osh Kosh a couple of years ago and even got to see Space Ship One and Global Flyer fly that year. I was very excited to hear him speak, get a chance to meet him and even get his autograph on Saturday.

I did skip out of the afternoon part of the symposium. After staying up until 4 AM on Thursday night I was still pretty tired... and asking me to sit still and listen to people talk all day is asking a lot. My ADD tendencies kick in after about an hour. :-)

So this week I am thankful for lots of things. As always, I am thankful for my family and Brun. I am thankful that my report is finished and late work hours should be over (at least for now). I am thankful that I got to meet Burt Rutan and I am thankful for the rain we got on Saturday. We are suffering from record breaking heat and drought here so the rain was a welcome reprieve.

I hope everyone else had a great week!

4 comments:

Amberly said...

Hmmm, a symposium on space exploration...sounds boring, I mean...interesting. :) And the whole week just sounds exhausting. Hope this week comes with more rest for you!

Anonymous said...

Okay, I guess I am with Amberly, but I bet my brother would have liked that! He has a doctorate in aerospace engineering. He has always been my "spacey" younger brother. :)

lizard queen said...

I think the symposium sounds kind of cool. You are one busy woman! Hope you can relax a bit now. It is hot here in So Cal, too! We are having a heat wave and what can you do but crank on the air? Even when the electricity bill is outrageous.

Annie said...

2 AM? Yikes. Hope the late hours are over now!

Have a great Thursday!