Having a BLAST (Summer)

With Shane in SC, Carrie and I had a moment to ourselves. I did everything I could to leave the barn in a healthy spot for her in between moments together.

I was looking forward to going to BLAST, but concerned, too. It was a joint decision that I should go even though it would mean we'd have to celebrate our anniversary a day late. I'd only be gone for 2.5 days, but I admit I was anxious about stepping away. Carrie's seemed extra fragile lately. She had work to help keep her busy Tuesday, at least. Shane was at Nana and Pop's to keep her from being overloaded, too, but it meant she'd be alone. Cleaning up was the least I could do.

We streamed church online and then I was on my way Sunday morning. I spent the first 40 minutes stuck behind a convoy of slow moving RVs and trailers raising my blood pressure.

I was a little late for staff orientation, but it was understood. There was still plenty of time before the kids arrived.

I'd brought my luggage with me which turned out to be a mistake. There weren't any signs, so I had to orient myself. After lugging everything half a mile to get to the staff meeting place, I got to turn around and lug my gear over my previous steps to the dorms! It had been next to the parking lot all along!

A couple flights of stairs later and I got my morning workout in! Good thing I packed light (or maybe I could've left a dumbbell in for a better burn...).

I haven't lived in a dorm since I was in high school. It made me a little nostalgic.

I was glad to have a room to myself. I put a sheet on the bed, plugged in my laptop, and put my phone on the charger. With that, I was fully moved in!

I don't think I was on campus for more than an hour before it was go time (and a chunk of that was walking!). Parents and kids showed up and they started asking all sorts of questions! I'm used to adapting quickly and went to trying to make my 10 boys feel at home. I was a ball of energy day 1, because I needed to be until I could get the kids to connect to one another. Which went really well. I learned all the kids names, kept using them, and they seemed to settle in and start to get used to each other. I gathered them for dinner, claimed a table as ours, and the routine stuck the next several days. I didn't mind if the kids wanted to rest and play video games instead of talking as long as they knew they had somewhere they belonged and were welcome. One of the kids turned out to know the family of one of my past co-teachers! (Small world!).

I got a rude surprise Monday morning. The cafeteria's tea options were limited.

It was all herbal and decaf! Inconceivable! I could adapt to that horrifying revelation for a couple days, though. There was a cold tea option for caffeine through the soda machine.

Things heated up after breakfast.

There were four session over the next two days run by university staff. My job was to get the kids to and fro safely and to take pictures (two things I'm good at!).

Our first session was soldering. I took and uploaded a ton of pictures, but since you all don't know any of the kids you'll get the bare bones.

The kids had to figure out how to solder circuit boards and light up some diodes! I wouldn't have minded trying it myself, to be honest. It's much more fun to do something than to sit back and watch other people do the thing.

If I had wireless ear buds I suppose I could have listened to an audiobook, but I didn't. I did take a bathroom break and grab a quick selfie of my cool safety googles.

The next session was about microcontrollers. The kids had to play with a 'breadboard' just like the one I used in Electrical and Computer Engineering 301 oh so long ago! They did some coding, too. It was boring to watch, but they had a lot of fun doing!

Pro counselor tip: Make yourself stand out so you're easy to spot in a crowd. I brought my hat since I'm not tall! At least one kid commented it made me easier to find. The other days when I didn't have to wear my uniform shirt, I had purple and neon orange t-shirts (in addition to my brilliant, ginger beard!).

The evening session included some highly accomplished speakers. One of them was an epidemiologist from Ghana (Shout out to Megan and her family over there!).

The day ended with an impromptu volleyball game. I would have been happy to let the kids play longer, but once someone higher up made the call I backed their play. There were concerns about heavy storms coming through the area, but they didn't start until after we went to bed.

We were lucky in that the boy and girl dorms were in separate buildings. Nobody could cross back and forth without going into the courtyard and then having a key for the other side. That cut down on a potential source of drama that BLAST camps at other campuses have had to deal with.

No one knew anyone the first night, but friendships were forming by night #2. Teenager are teenagers, so there was a lot more goofing and running around. We'd come back early, too, so it's not like everyone went to bed. I told kids there were mandatory quiet hours in dorms (I think I riffed off a sign on the wall) and that helped a lot. I put down on my recommendations for next year that "Quiet hours" should be put on the schedule since it is a common dorm thing.

I stayed up later than I liked reading and keeping an eye on the hallway. Once I deem myself responsible for something, I take responsibility! I didn't mind kids staying up in their rooms, but I was going to do my best to keep things peaceful. I texted and talked to Carrie throughout the day, as well. She'd gotten mixed up and thought today was our anniversary after she couldn't sleep with me gone. She wasn't handling my absence as well as I hoped, but it was the halfway point of things. She's never been thrilled for me to go off, but she moved to Cville without me back in the day. I hadn't thought a couple days would be as big of a deal as they seemed to be now (and Beach Week was still to come).

I was tired the next day, but we did my favorite session after breakfast: Light! And that meant lasers!

I enjoyed the presentations! I would love for Shane to do this when he's old enough (and more mature). If Carrie can't get healthier and handle it, I'd love to do it again next year to keep that door open for him. 

My boys group (Named Io after one of the Galilean moons) was paired up with the same girls group all week. By now, I'd learned their names, too. I complimented one girl on her Spider-Man art with polarization and went around keeping an eye on things.

The kids who were picked for BLAST were all the curious sort. They liked what they were doing and it was best to let them do it! I tried to frame comments that would get them to talk to one another to start conversations and help them bond. The hope being they'd make lifelong connections and maybe see each other again at other similar events through NASA.

After lunch, we went to the library to look at a collection of rare books. I honestly thought it was going to be a major flop, but most of the kids were still curious! I did slide in an ear bud in one ear(sadly wired) and listened to a mystery while kids quietly stared at books while gloved librarians supervised.

Our final session was on bio/medical oriented. We went up three flights of stairs, got some cups, and went back down three flights of stairs to collect soil samples.

Then we got to go back up those same three flights of stairs to the lab to look for strains of bacteria in the soil (We did a LOT of walking all week - My counterpart had a hard time keeping up).

The room was crowded, so I stepped outside and looked around a little. It's been a while since I've been on a college campus, but some things are never gonna give you up...

It was in this time period that I talked to the Pastor from Youth Week. I was stressed about Carrie, too. She hadn't responded all morning and I noticed she posted something on Facebook saying she "was not ok..." I kept reaching out through the day mainly with texts, because I knew she was at work. I knew it was affecting me, because I could feel the start of a fever blister (all the walking, sun, and lack of sleep

factored in, too, I'm sure).

The kids were having a BLAST, at least. They had to wait after a little bit after centrifuge. We went down more stairs before coming back up them to the lab again.

I uploaded HUNDREDS of pictures to the server. I didn't bother sorting out the best. I figured that's what my superiors have their media people for.

I like exploring, so my group and I tended to take different routes and look for shortcuts wherever we went. It paid off and we found some cool trails in the shade! 

The kids got some sports/outdoors time at the end of the day Tuesday as we wound down. The more tired the kids got the better! Tired kids were less likely to have an overabundance of energy and do dumb things once we got back to the dorms for their final night (and our main consequence was to send someone home...).

I spotted a Battlemech before the final presentation! It figures there'd be sci-fi fans in the science departments at a college! 

We got to see a magic science show at the end. I thought it would be hokey, but it was fun! The funniest event was unscripted, though. The magician/professor had brought a book of celebrity fail quotes as a prop. He flipped to a random page to read and I know it was random, because it was a Charlie Sheen quote that he had to start censoring and stop reading as he realized what it was! Think "Explicit in nature" combined with "Diversity in women" and you'll get a picture of the dawning horror on his face (I mean, the book was celebrity FAILs in retrospect!).

The staff made liquid nitrogen ice cream for the kids as a send off. You may notice this is one of the few food pictures I've taken. The cafeteria was livable, but I was looking forward to eating elsewhere even though it was free!

Kids were all over the place that final night packing and having their final fun moments with their newly bonded friends. I had one student go home early, but the rest cleared out after breakfast Wednesday morning. I showed the mom of the kid going down the stairs some pictures were I was trying to catch him smiling and laughing out loud during the light presentation. I got side shots, but whenever I came around for a frontal he clammed up! It got her smiling.

All of my student cleared out but one. I wanted to get home, but I had the last student! I stayed and talked for a long while trying to keep him comfortable, but eventually excused myself. I was terribly anxious to get home and check on Carrie.

I raced home mostly obeying speed limits to make sure Carrie was alright. We'd have some days to ourselves with Shane out of town. That was something to look forward to!

I definitely had a fever blister, though. It took a couple of weeks to fully go away. 

Thankfully, I was able to point at it during my physical and get a prescription for the next time one pops up. I usually only get them a maximum of once or twice a year, but yech! Hurray for meds! 

The check for BLAST showed up a few weeks later. It was a lot of effort, but I'm definitely considering doing it again next summer. I want to keep it up until Shane has a chance to do it and maybe I'll even continue it afterward. It seems like a worthwhile program to give kids a free summer activity involving science education.

Also worth noting - Carrie bought fancy tea as an anniversary present! She spotted it online and loved the tin.

We've both been enjoying the flavors. My favorite is the Italian Wedding Cake. Carrie's usually a coffee drinker, but she's found the Banana Bread Herbal to be amazing!