A wee bit o' stir

After every shuttle mission the crew makes the rounds of the NASA field centers for morale visits (obviously our morale, since I doubt these whirlwind hops in the middle of their regular duties does much for the crew). They are nice events though. Generally the crew is gracious and genial. In the auditorirum they say a few words, show some cool video of their favorite parts of the mission, including a "blooper reel". I don't know if they get any sort of coaching from PR, but they do a good job of narrating the video, mixing the proper amount of humor and seriousness...even at the right time. After the program there is an autograph session, but it generally is kept to a strict 30 minutes to maintain the schedule. If you are not fast to hit the line and are over half way back, it depends on how much talking goes on as to whether you'll make it to the table or not. Well, I do go to some of these events, as my schedule allows, but the autograph line is not nice sometimes. Some employees bring all their relatives out. And a new trend is to invite a class or two. I have no problem with that. The kids need to hear this and be inspired. But that does keep employees from being able to attend sometimes when all the seats get taken. I suppose that is irrelevant. However, some people will kill you getting in the autograph line fast. I don't generally do that part unless I get lucky and it looks like I can get up front easily. But yesterday the STS-120 crew was at Marshall. That was the mission with the female commander, to refresh your memory, and they did the "potentially fatal" space walk to repair the solar array. I've been thinking for some time that I should get one of my shuttle paintings signed. I've done several oils of the shuttle, which I used to hang in my office...when I had a real office. (Not that it matters, but that gets mixed reviews from "great" to "geek!") So I brought in one of my favorite paintings and was going to attempt the auto line. Guess what...I was waaaaaaaaaay back in the line. I didn't watch the time...because I couldn't stand the suspense of whether I'd make it before someone broke it up to maintain the schedule. I got to the table at 11:30 exactly...cutoff time. And after all that, there was a lady from the public affairs office who was standing guard over the table where the astronauts were sitting. She was collecting the pictures to be signed and pretending to be glad to see everyone. She lost that attitude quickly when she saw me. To say she gave me a wilting look is like saying the sun's surface is warm. "I don't think they'll sign THAT!" she informed me in her best annoyed tone. (I think she practices it each night.) But then Pam Melroy, the crew commander, saw me and she said, "Bring it over!" I obliged her. Of course. Now that I think about it, I wish I'd looked at the PAO lady to see her reaction, but I had quickly forgotten her and never looked back. At any rate when Pam saw the painting she said, "WOW, are you sure you want me to write on that??" I was sure. I had thought about it and I knew that as much as I back space exploration and love my job, yes, sign it. That would only make it a more special painting to me. (Someone later said, "That will be worth a lot of money some day!" I didn't do it for that. I'd never sell it. To me it is priceless. My motivation had nothing to do with money and everything to do with who I am and where I am.) The entire crew very happily signed the painting. They were quite nice and cooperative about the entire thing. They were asking me more questions than I asked them...and I had thought of some (I hope) intelligent questions to ask, but never got to ask them. That's okay though. "Are you the artist? Do you do other space art?" "How long did it take?" "What medium?" "Where did you sign it?" You would've thought I was the celebrity. One other detail is that I had made my own crew shirt. I used to order mission shirts (with the mission logo on the left chest area) from Countdown Creations in Houston. However, I am still waiting on a shirt that I ordered 7 months ago. (I don't recommend them.) Needless to say, that was the last order I placed. I do have an embroidery machine. However, I like to do it for fun, not the stress of all that fine detail. And I'd rather stitch my own "stuff" that I design. But after that... Well, I don't do the entire patch. But I noticed that the astronauts have begun wearing golf shirts that only have part of the patch design stitched on it. Even I could do that. And I have done three missions now. So I wore my STS-120 shirt yesterday, like the crew shirts. I know you can't buy those anywhere. They make them especially for the astronauts. And Stephanie Wilson noticed mine. She asked me about it. So I told her I just copied theirs after I saw which part of the patch they were using and stitched it out on my machine. Not difficult at all. But she was as impressed with that as the painting. I don't stand in such awe of astronauts after 26 years at NASA. But impressing the astronauts was still something that made my day a bit brighter. They were great about the entire incident. And I have a very particularly special keepsake that I created and they acknowledged by signing.