Blastoff!

At long last, my fellowship at NASA has finally started!

It was a great first day! Despite not having a computer (which I REALLY need to do my tasks) - turns out I haven't been officially "cleared" yet - I really enjoyed the experience. I attended two meetings - one with my sponsor and one "solo" - and got my bearings a bit; there are a LOT of acronyms I still don't know. During one of the meetings, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they kept talking about "KFC"... and then I figured out they were referring to KSC, which is Kennedy Space Center! I was a little surprised that I actually knew some of what they were talking about, though; I just need to do a little more studying!

My cubicle is pretty sweet, too. A lot of my fellow Fellows have to share an office or have a very small cubicle, but mine's a decent size - and you know me, I can't WAIT to decorate and have things to organize! Every time I left "the cube" for a meeting (or just to try to find something) there would be something - or a lot of somethings - left on my desk when I returned. I have a couple of great posters - Mary (my sponsor) found me one of the ones I've been COVETING since I saw it on someone's door last week - and one's an autographed astronaut poster. I also got a BUNCH of 40th anniversary Apollo stuff - enough to share with friends and Fellows! One of my fellow "cubies" brought me some cute temporary tattoos (shuttles and NASA logos) and some squishy astronauts (think stress balls, only shaped like space explorers), among other things. I even got several packages of gummy space shuttles - bet Tyler and Sophie will like them better than the "astronaut ice cream"!

All in all, a great first day. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!