Spinal taps aren't free. Or fun.

I was in Starbucks this weekend, watching all of my neighbors on their phones and tablets, etc.--and was reminded about the mission lately to truly be appreciative of all of the small things.

Life has a funny way of putting you in your place. I was 19 years old, a junior in college, and wearing my life on my sleeve--until that fateful day I was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. Many of you have heard my story before, and if you haven't you can get a glimpse of it here in the Meningitis Research Foundation's Book of Experience. I distinctly remember sitting in that hospital bed willing to sell my left ventricle and American defense secrets for no more spinal taps, CBC's, and some ice cream--and lo! my friend for life, Chris, snuck down to the nurses' station and stole me some. I'll never forget it.

Anyway, a lot of these memories come to mind because it August is National Meningitis Awareness Month. In my uber cool role as an Ambassador, I speak with groups young and old about the importance of getting vaccinated and being able to recognize the signs and symptoms of meningitis contraction. It's important to me that my friends and loved ones be educated, too. I can't tell people enough how crucial it is to not only vaccinate your little ones, but to make sure that you're vaccinated too if you are in constant contact with large groups of people or live in close quarters, too (ie military, communes, etc). I'm sure I've also offended one or two of you, too--but when I look at you crazy when you ask to slurp my ICEE, just know that one month hospital stays have scarred me just a tad.

Please go visit the the National Meningitis Association's website here to learn more about the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of meningitis. Never downplay a headache that's unlike one you've had before, a stiff neck, sensitivity to light, a high fever--or more importantly, the feeling that something's just not right--ultimately, that feeling saved my life.

Experiences like this force you to look at life a little differently. So many people aren't so lucky. I realize my blessing and I want to make sure I do the little that I can to make a difference. If you have a group (students, parents, churches, etc) that you think would benefit from information about meningitis, let me know.  

If you'd like to make a donation to help support meningitis research and the development of new treatments, please support those efforts by donating here or here (you can also buy some cool stuff, too!)

Be well, friends!

C-Walking on Mars...

By now, you should all know I did the crip walk into the wee hours of Monday morning.  I have no shame, and when I retell this story in ten years, that will probably be my lead in statement. I can think of no better reaction, however, to the near-perfect landing of the Mars Curiosity Rover (MSL) that exceeded all expectations.

As a spectator, I've tracked the development and preparation that has gone into this mission-- it has spanned over 10 years, and 5,000 people from over 37 states...if that's not enough to stir some of your patriotism, then, well...I don't know.  And as I sat early Monday morning, slightly hunched, biting the right side of my cheek, attempting to decipher NASAspeak from Mission Control, NASA JPL director Charles Elachi spoke the following quote from Teddy Roosevelt as we waited for confirmation of a touchdown in Gale Crater:

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

And then, as if a nine month cruise through the universe was a small feat, it was finished. Wheels down, pictures up!

I love how the Rover sent back this picture as if to say, "hey...on my mama, on my hood, I look fly, I look good, touch my swag, wish you could..."

Through it all, this has to be my most favorite moment:

Why? Well, for starters, note my mullet friend around :26. Watch his face. Then notice the faces around him. People who have poured their hearts and souls into concepts and 'what-ifs' that challenge the possible. That's what it's all about...finding the passion and latching on to what fulfills you and what you believe in, using it for the greater good--and making things happen.  It's a notion that I still haven't figured out for myself, but search for daily. This little slice of inspiration was a great reminder that it can exist. Quite frankly, this mission reaffirmed that with all things, when you have the perfect mix of what's known with what can possibly be, the results can be--pun intended--out of this world.  

As the NYT noted, JPL Director Charles Elachi said he walked outside mission control about an hour and a half before landing and stared up at Mars. “You are going to have a visitor,” Elachi said he whispered. “And the planet smiled,” Elachi said. “That's when I knew.”

That's what it's all about folks. Once again, another giant leap for mankind. 

Bring on those pictures!!

Now playing: "Viva La Vida" - Coldplay

'Cause 6 yr olds know all about politics..

Ok, let's state the obvious here.  His parents wrote a great script that probably took little Billy a while to memorize, given the pauses for dramatic effect, inflections, sotto voce , and the 'sure shootin' ".

Parents do stupid things like this all of the time. It's a pageantry of sorts. The opportunity to live vicariously through a little person gives you the chance to say as much as you want, or as passively as you want and to label it as cute. 

But hey, parents--your child isn't singing Raffi, or breakdancing here. This isn't a 'kids say the darnedest things' moment. He's spitting political ideology and carefully crafted statements of hate that he should have no opinion on. While he should have been outside playing, you had him on the steps denouncing a world leader. While you should have been making that PB&J sandwich for him and asking him about school, you had him spitting lies about welfare. While you should be teaching him gun safety, you have him pointing, shooting, and blowing smoke off a gun. And my favorite--why didn't you take the time to teach him the countries of the world instead of having him question the President's nationality?

I've got a great idea. I think the 'parental patriots' need to post a follow up video.  I would love to hear the sweet child explain to us his interpretation of welfare, who the 'good' people are that we are taking guns from, and once again, I would love for him to start naming some of those countries on the map. Maybe he can show us some age appropriate skills, like spelling 'America', or adding up 4+4. That equals, eight, by the way--you know, like two presidential terms?  Poor child.


Now we know, contrary to what makes 'sense', studies actually show that parents and family don't always have the most influential effect on crafting our lens when we are young and spongy, but to some extent they do. Dr. Joe Feagin (allow me to fangirl for a minute), one of the best professors I've ever had and one of the best researchers on race and America, co-wrote a great book (among countless others) on children, race, and sociological and psychological development entitled The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism.  We simply don't give children enough credit, folks. They're listening, watching, repeating, and trying to process everything we say on a daily basis.

Anyway, shame on you, parents. Hopefully some of our scholarly studies hold. Maybe he will look back on this video 20 years from now, cringe, and wish this never happened. Kind of like those horrible pictures your parents took of you in the bathtub and the rubber ducky?? Shudder....

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Should bucket lists kick the bucket?

Now Playing - In The Journey - Martin Sexton


This blog post was supposed to be about the organizational politics behind the Olympics....guess that'll be another day soon!

I've always thought the notion of creating a bucket list so people could see how awesome you thought you were was, well, rather lame. (See Slate's take on the phenom here). I mean, who DOESN'T want to backpack to Europe before they die? Learn seven languages?

Joe Queenan puts it so eloquently (ha!) in his article in the Wall Street journal--"a proper Bucket List should be more like seeing Radiohead at midnight on New Year's Eve at the North Pole beneath the aurora borealis on a quadruple bill with Björk, Willie Nelson and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Or seeing Celine Dion performing "My Heart Will Go On" underwater on the deck of the Titanic. Or the Lusitania."  My list of crazy things to do before I die is definitely different than my list of ways to life my life better--and some of those crazy things are most definitely contrary to the things on my other list.

I've found, however, that I have all these little scrap pieces of paper with hastily written notes/ideas on them--websites to check out on things I want to do and try, financial goals to fulfill, etc. They're tucked in the most arcane of places (I found one stuck to the back of my checkbook in my wallet, and one tucked into the side of a box of garbage bags..I remember writing that one in the checkout lane.) What I've determined is that a list of sorts can be helpful for helping you distill the ACTUAL goals you're trying to achieve or the harmony you're trying to find. You're not going to find the answers in the 20 seconds that it took you to bungee jump or ride a roller coaster, but as I always say (via Martin Sexton, of course), you're always in the journey...the process that it takes to get you there is where you really learn what you're made of.

Anyway, I put all of these notes that I've been finding together along with some things that I've been thinking about.....some of them I want to conquer immediately, while some of these will take forever. I see a definite theme emerging.

1.  Eat something I've grown myself.
2.  Write my ideal job description, then go from there.
3.  Spend a week social medialess.
4.  Rock full-fledged, chemical free, natural hair.
5.  Re-read the Bible.
6.  Learn how to fish.
7.  Sell at least 10% of the stuff I own.
8.  Write a letter every month to someone who has made an impact on me (good, bad,    
     living, not.)
9.  Reread at least 10 books from my high school reading list.
10. Get a heritage DNA test.
11. Learn how football works.
12. Re-visit NASA.
13. Fall back in love...with Louisiana.

I could now proceed to go through all of these and make them sound awesome, but the whole point is that they aren't supposed to be, to you. They're supposed to be, to me. Most of them aren't sexy and actually require work. That's the point. 


Have you looked at the things that you want to change in your life lately? Do you see a pattern? And are they things you should conquer long before you kick the bucket??

Can you light candles in space?

The answer is yes. But because there is no gravity and therefore no 'up', warm air can't rise and create a convection current, thereby creating a spherical flame unlike the conical we know here on Earth.

The more important takeaway from this is that we'd never know this if we hadn't tested it in a microgravity environment. And we'd never have access to that type of environment if it weren't for the dedicated men and women, engineers and scientists--and policy makers working at NASA. Today is a special day in our nation's history, for it was on July 29, 1958 that President Eisenhower signed into law the National Aeronatics and Space Act, creating America's agency designed to slip the surly bonds of Earth--and beyond.

I've always been fascinated with space. As a young child, I protested for my parents to add NASA TV to our lineup, to no avail. And while my parents ignored my pleas to send me to Space Camp, they did acquiesce to a summer vacation to the Johnson and Kennedy Space centers. I can remember running my hands along the life sized replica of the sleek shuttle Discovery as I munched on my freeze dried pizza and ice cream sandwich, stopping at moments to finger my four dollar NASA wings from the gift store. I was convinced that if we hung around long enough, we'd see an unscheduled shuttle landing. And surely I wasn't the only child that tested the holds of Earth by jumping as high as I could in my parents' bed to enjoy a nanosecond of free fall?

I've witnessed several defining moments in our quest for space exploration. I watched our launch--and momentary fail--of Hubble, the first launch of our initial Mars Rover, numerous successful shuttle launches and one horrific shuttle re-entry that claimed the lives of astronauts on Columbia. As I've gotten older, my love affair of all things space hasn't waned, but the realization that NASA is an agency run by extraordinary humans, bnot immune from human error is also apparent. Graduate school gave me the perfect opportunity to explore NASA from a policy driven perspective, reaffirming my respect for the amazing work they do, but the discovery of flaws in organizational culture, and hierarchal rule did put a ding in the once impenetrable image I had of our perfect agency dedicated to space. Accidents such as Skylab, Challenger, and Columbis highlighted these discrepancies. (here's a look at NASA's response:) 

NASA's response to organizational change.

So 54 years later, where are we now? Well, from the first moment Alan Shepard took his 108 minute orbit into space, we've landed on the moon, launched an international space station, and conducted hundreds of experiments that have enhanced life as we've known it here on Earth. And even as we've suspended space flight to engineer a new, savvier, revolutionary fleet of space exploration vehicles, we are only days away from the landing of one of the most innovative and scientifically advanced space instruments on the surface of Mars--the Curiosity rover. Read all about it here!:

All about Mars Curiosity!

Don't miss out on the awesome video by NASA, Seven Minutes of Terror: 

So, happy birthday, NASA. Here's to 54 more years of Mars, the moon,galaxies, and everything else between and beyond!!

Now Playing: Amber - 311

The Spice of Life...

Now Playing: "Wonder" - Emeli Sander'

It's been quite a while. Life has a tendency of getting you so intertwined in the things that have to be done immediately that you put aside the things that are necessary to keep you stable and fed for the long term.

There are two things for me that serve that purpose--people and writing. I guess it all boils down to, at its essence, communication. And when I get consumed and deprive myself of that interaction with paper and my friends--well, I get a little testy, to say the least. :) I've been that way lately, but luckily, I've got some great friends--all special to me in so many different ways.

It's those differences that feed and nuture me with their own special methods. I was just reminded of this today when, hilariously enough, I was severely checked and uplifted by two separate friends, both of whom love me, care about me, and approached me in those divergent ways based on their knowledge of me and their unique personalities. And even though their approaches were completely different and in lots of ways, contrary, they were both exactly what I needed.

My friends are the spice of my life. They are male, female, young, old, black, white, conservative and liberal, religious and not. I have the friend that knows exactly how to make me laugh, the friend who makes me forget all the challenges of life; the friend who can be my 'misery loves company'; the friend who walks besides me and lets me know precisely when I'm not in my lane; the friend who constantly motivates me and encourages me, and the friend that makes me feel so gosh darn beautiful on the inside and out.

I can only hope that I can be one (or all) of these things to my friends. Lord knows I try, but Lord knows I'm not perfect, either.

Here's my parting thought, one that I find comforting and nice: we meet so many people everyday, but so few of them become our friends, the bastions of our trust and the keepers of our vulnerability. I'd like to think that the initial "sparks" and qualities that draw special people together are enough to hold them together when things happen along the way that test the bounds of friendship and loyalty.