Yes, I am a Space Tweep...

WELL...what in the world is a Space Tweep? Eh??
A space tweep is a person who uses Twitter and has found, registered, tweeted about and enjoyed a Tweetup. A Tweetup is an in-person meeting of like-minded followers of an organization or each other. [See the Space Tweep Society, of which I am a proud member!]

My first Tweetup was FANTABULOUS! I was one of 150 people, randomly selected and invited by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to go to Cape Canaveral, Florida and participate in two days of lectures and activities before the launch of the MSL (Mars Science Laboratory, #MSL). I could not believe it! I hadn't even heard of anything like this until a week before the deadline and BOOM! I was selected! Needless to say, being a science and space freak, I was ECSTATIC!

After conducting the New Orleans Civic Symphony that evening, I prepared my suitcase and got to sleep by 1:00 a.m. only to wake up at 3 and leave for Fla. Driving straight there, a ten-hour drive), I was exhausted, but I had helped plan the pre-Tweetup dinner so I wasn't about to miss that.
I met amazing people at every corner and there was a super exchange of pins, patches stickers, and mlore. I was in heaven. Things that my friends speak critically of or for which they give me the "you're a dork" look, EVERYONE was excited about. Multiple folks also had a myriad of bumper stickers so I felt accepted. :-)

After dinner, I drove from Titusville to the Orlando airport and picked up a college student who needed a ride for the event. Then, I crashed at a Quality Inn where other Tweeps were staying. The next couple of days were PACKED with fun at the Kennedy Space Center, swag (pins, cups, shirts, free goodies from Lockheed Martin and NASA and the United Launch Alliance), etc. There were lectures by the engineering team, I got to meet Scott Maxwell, the Mars Rover Driver, and we were given a free pass to the Kennedy Space Center.

I met several astronauts and had arranged for a large group of the Tweeps to have Thanksgiving dinner at the KSC with an astronaut speaker. It was so much fun! The actual launch got moved, but luckily, it was set for Saturday after Thanksgiving and I was able to stay and watch! Because it was moved, we had one extra day with everyone in the area for social activities!

Launch day: After meeting at the countdown clock at an insanely early hour, we had several speakers and I got to meet Bill Nye the Science Guy (also the head of The Planetary Society ) and some more astronauts AND got to say hello to Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator. SO much press was there, but we had special spots. Then, the launch itself was BREATHTAKING. I have never seen anything leave this Earth, never to return. It was also a little scary. I can remember the Challenger breaking up into pieces while watching it at school - everyone in shock. We had toured the whole launch area the day before and got to stand outside the gate where the MSL was atop an AtlasV rocket. I actually cannot believe that they let us into that area, but they did! Amazing! The actual launch viewing and countdown clock location was several miles away. Sitting there in the sun, we all counted down from 10 to zero and then youj could hear a TINY beeping sound from someone's Mission iPhone app and then we saw a tiny light. It ascended into the sky quickly and we were in awe....then we all cheered and jumped up and down. I had tears coming down my face and so did a LOT of people there. Then, we felt a rumble and heard a LOUD sound as those waves reached us! More cheering!!!!!!!! It is something that I will never ever forget!!!

Here are links to more pictures from my Facebook albums!

1. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.842455729827.2277263.2613080&type=3&l=6e27217a2e

2. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.845969922357.2277735.2613080&type=3&l=e971bf7597

Also, Here is the article which was in the Thanksgiving Day newspaper in New Orleans. My friends Matt & Beth Rota saw it and let me know it had gotten on the front page!
NASA Invitation Puts Musician on Cloud Nine
http://blog.nola.com/new_orleans/2011/11/nasa_invitation_puts_musician.html

Me and Vlad Tepes statue

Carpathian Mountain village

WELL!!! Once again, it's been a year since I wrote! HA! It's like that organ piece by John Cage "As Long As It Takes" or whatever the title is. He began with a REST which lasted something like 40 years (I think) and then they filmed a subtle chord change which a handful of Cage worshippers witnessed in person. I think it's somewhere in Germany. Anyway, I just returned from a fantastic trip to Bulgaria and Romania. I've been to Bulgaria 6 times before to participated in the same workshop, but this gtime, I took some students and decided to simply sing and learn from those around me. It was GREAT!

Haystacks

Yummy vegetable soup!

The very first time I went, there was this depressive event in my life and Bulgaria just magically transformed me into a non-depressed person! It was a choral workshop. I like the country so much that I created a small proposal to teach a class on American music and Amer. Music Education there after the next year's workshop. It was so much fun! The course lasted a week. The third year, I went again and taught a smaller course afterwards. That year and the fourth and fifth years, I did both the choral and the orchestral workshops, one following the other. I learned so much. The 6th year, I just went to visit for a few days and then went to Northern Scotland where I rented a car for a whole week and drove across the Cairgnorms on single track roads and ate whisky pecan pie and angus beef. It snowed on the way to the Isle of Skye and I thiknk I drove through one of the towns where some of my McPherson ancestors used to be. THis year, I met some awesome new friends from Australia and Brazil and also got to see four of my American conductor friends there. I think I fell in love again, damn it for those romantic people who are also hot and extremely ingtelligent! Grrrr on them! Alas, here are some pictures from that trip. I'm glad to be back, but in some ways, the Transylvanian region of Romania and the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria have claimed some of my heart and soul. I also feel like I could just stay there forever, but I know I really couldn't!

So, I'm not posting any people here, but you can check my website to see MANY more pictures and figure out who my awesome new friends are! : )

Well, Friday evening's here and I'm watching Law & Order. I actually haven't watched it in a while so it feels ok. I can't believe I haven't seen this episode! I was just checking out Fourmilab's Earthviewer and noticing that you CAN really see big cracks in the ice covering the planet. One view of it that I zoomed in upon even looked like the cracked (sort of fuzzy, cracked) view of Europa they alays show you on NASA. I assume (as they all do) that is really is water frozen over there and it's cool to see how our planet's ice also fractures and makes patterns. Too bad we're losing large chunks of it almost daily. Wish we could fix that easily. Better buy my house in northern Canada if I want to have grass instead of sand for a backyard when I'm old!

I also wish that drivers would not drop trash out of their car windows. Since I've moved to New Orleans, I've been noticing this regularly and from all kinds of people: students, Mommies with their carpools, construction workers, businessmen, prissy girls, and people walking along the road. I can't stand it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I'm following someone who does this I honk madly at them and even once, rolled down my window and shouted that they shouldn't do that, but what I REALLY want to do is jump out of my car, run over to them and throw it back at them through their open window. I'm not just talking about cigarrette trash....and I personally DO consider butts to be trash! I used to see this in Macon, GA and came to think of that city as a dirty place with disrespectful citizens. Once, in Macon, at a CONCERT in the civic auditorium, I saw a mother walking with two children and her husband out of the building, presumably to pick up her other child who was just finished singing. That in itself was annoying because it wasn't fair to the rest of the kids who were left to perform. Anyway, she was walking past a trash can and then four feet later, DROPPED her fast food cup on the floor without even stopping or slightly pausing. I would assume that any normal person would either put the trash into the trash can OR hold onto it until they come across one. I've even taken trash home in the car or left it inside the car until I find a place for it. I used to think that perhaps it was a sign of poor upbringing or stupidity, but honestly, here in New Orleans, I have witnessed SO many people dropping trash out of their cars that I can no longer blame it on education, class of society, or full trash cans! It is sooooooo aggravating. For me, THIS is my kind of road rage and my blood just boils. I hope to one day find a proper way to scream at these idiots, GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

I guess I'll end on a lighter note : )

I found an awesome apartment IN the French Quarter so I can't wait to move out of this hellish place. There's this one nutcase in my current complex who I had to call the dept of children's services on because she can't handle it when her baby cries. Talk about Law & Order episodes......this was exactly like a few of them that I've seen. I've had to call the police on two other sets of neighbors, Grrr. My happy ending is that I am moving to a highly beautiful and very quiet place with a gorgeous courtyard and in the Quarter! Hurrah!

Here's another picture and if you don't know this particular flower, it's an awesome one to see and smell : ) It's called the Night-blooming Cereus. The leaves remind me of cactus stems, but the flower comes off of the end of the leaf instead of being on a separate stem. Here is a pic that I took.......

No, it's not blooming, you'll have to wait until it gets dark, DUH......Night-blooming : )
Here are a few websites to read about it if anyone wants:

This particular varity is called the Epiphyllum oxypetalum ....I think.

1. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2443/

2. http://rfovell.bol.ucla.edu/cereus.html

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_Night

So, the coolness of this new apartment will hopefully cancel out the crappiness of the old one. I move in July, but not sure when, depends on money....as does everything, for so many people in today's world!

Before I sign off, I just had to post a picture of my dear cat I mentioned below! AWWWWW! SO CUTE!!!! : )

Well the concert was GREAT!! I really can't believe a whole academic year has passed down here! I'm loving living here even though I'm still lonely as hell (waaannnh!) I will be in New Orleans next year and will wait and see what happens with the national search next fall. I think I'd probably like to stay put and explore the potential that UNO has. I musy say though that it kind of sucks to have obtained three degrees in my field and be making the salary I make! I guess at least I AM making a salary that I (think) I can live off of......BUT it's waaaaaaay less than some people make right out of college - GRRRRRR. I LOVE what I do, but it's shame that I have to rely solely upon that. Teaching at the university level pays much less than in the public school systems - I'll bet plenty of people don't know that! Maybe they do....regardless...it's a crying shame it's this way. After all, teachers pave the way for the non-teachers to be able to do whatever it is they do well (we HOPE they do it well)! Here's a picture from the concert last Tuesday! It was a nice ending to a year where the students worked very hard to accomplish some excellent musical offerings! I am so proud of them! They didn't believe in themselves at first, but when they went through the Moses Hogan concert on March 13 (we combined with Loyola, Dillard, and Xavier) they got a chance to measure up and also hear themselves (combined and as an indiv. choir)! Well, I"ve done my laundry finally so that's it for today - I dislike this apt complex greatly....there are so many inconsiderate tenants living here. Hopefully, I can find a cool apt, something like a half-house / duplex somewhere in New Orleans. My good friends live in the Marigny, but so far, I haven't found anything there that I can afford or that takes pets! I don't know what I'd do without my little Sasha!

concert tuesday night!!

Now it's 2007 andI'm in New Orleans! What a wondrously weird 5 years in between posts! I'm working at UNO now and liking it. I'm home sick today and actually should go back to sleep. My heard hurts so much I feel like it's about to explode. I HATE colds!