Ride, Sally, Ride!

I'm guessing it would be fair to use the word "geek" or "nerd" to describe my childhood. Definitely if you use the word "news" before either term. Quite possibly, my earliest news memory was when Reagan was shot when I was in preschool in 1981. I remember watching the news coverage with my grandmother. (Maybe that's where the news nerd in me began.) I also clearly remember where I was when the Challenger exploded in January 1986. I was in 4th grade and my class was watching the takeoff live on TV and of course I went home and watched the non-stop coverage. I was really drawn to that story and I'm not sure why. I was never obsessed with the planets or outer space. I was busy playing with my dolls. Maybe it was because there was a teacher on board the Challenger and maybe as a 4th grader, it hit home that it could have been MY teacher up there. I have no idea. Maybe it was just that I was a weird kid. In any case, I remember that I watched a lot of TV and read a lot about the Challenger and NASA and the space race with USSR. I remember that my piano teacher let me read a book of hers about the US space program and I never gave it back for some reason. (I am so sorry Mrs. Goff. If you need it back, I will mail it to wherever you are 25 years later!) I can still remember that the first person in space was Yuri Gagarin. And I didn't even have to google that for this blog. Ok, I lied. I had to make sure I spelled his name right. I promise. And I have also always known that Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. I wrote a report on her in the 5th grade about her.


So this week, when she was at the WH for an event on education and innovations, my network had an interview with her so I got to meet her and I told her about that report. I told her that only if I had met her 25 years ago, my report would have been that much better. I have no idea what I got on that... I'm remembering an A but I could totally be making that up! But meeting her was kind of cool. Since she had accomplished such an extraordinary thing, I had somehow put her on some kind of pedestal. But here she was, just as normal as could be!! She was such a nice, down-to-earth (pun is absolutely intended) person and we had quite a pleasant, yet brief, conversation. And another great thing to note is that she is only a couple inches taller than me. Seriously?! I had always thought I was too short to go to space and I pictured her as this really tall woman. But it turns out that being short is an asset in space because the living quarters on a space shuttle are quite small. So after all these years, I learned that I, too, could have been an astronaut and flown into outer space. But I think it's a little late. Especially since the manned space shuttle is about to become a thing of the past in the near future. Well, in other news... POTUS has begun to hit the campaign trail and on Thursday he headed to Connecticut for a couple of events. It was just travel pool coverage and it wasn't my network's day so I didn't go with him. But it did mean that I got to see him off in Marine One. It was a bit rainy but lovely nonetheless. POTUS didn't wave to me. In fact, I don't think he's ever specifically waved to me like the last POTUS did! I'm going to need to write him a letter!