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OMG EVENTS
Monday we spent all day at Johnson Space Center, because yo, it's Houston and if you're going to be a European tourist, you should go to NASA. We took the tram tour and everything; Mission Control, which was a little sad because nobody's in there since the space station's run from elsewhere and the shuttles are over. The mockup of the space station (and the shuttle, which they're taking apart and taking out) and a bunch of moon rovers and a Precision Air Bearing Floor which gives you a frictionless surface to drive stuff on so you can manipulate big heavy things like you can in space. And the Rocket Park, which has a Saturn V rocket, which is bigger than most things. Man it is so big. Space travel is amazing, guys. Also, the space station.
There were some other fun things, a shuttle-landing simulator, a bunch of movies, and explanations from various live presentations of feeds from the space station. Microgravity floats things around. Heh. All the people with long hair looked like Hasbro trolls. Martin stopped by the store on the way out to get some mission patches for his nephews, and he got a pair for himself, too (one of his professors was on the D-2 mission, and he just really likes the Hubble one).
We made it back into town just in time to get to Chorale rehearsal, which went quite well (it's odd being the rehearsal soprano soloist and singing alto the rest of the time), and Tom chatted for a bit with me afterwards about how he's worried for Ben, and wondered what Bryan's up to these days.
We had time to scarf a ham sandwich (or in my case, some pieces of ham) before setting off for downtown. The train route is slower, but mama had a rehearsal in the opposite direction, so we made the schlep. Once at rehearsal, awesomeness continued apace. We spent an awfully long time on the King's Singers arrangement of Swimming Over London, which he seemed to appreciate. Magpie Chatter went more smoothly when we arranged ourselves in a sectional circle. The German pieces came next, and Bob invited Martin to sing with us, and sat him right down in the bass section. It seemed to make his night. The Schubert, which was just the men, was at the very last, and we had a fun time analyzing the poetry and the period German.
Foolishly, in the middle of this German brouhaha, I made a deal with Martin that if he spoke German, I'd try to speak it back. Oh dear FSM. It's been over two years since I spoke a word, and I was never more than slightly conversational.
We watched a couple things downstairs with everybody, but we stayed up till 4 talking and listening to music and watching things. He's almost excessively patient with my nonexistent vocabulary and intensely frustrating lack of grammatical coherency. I am not accustomed to being unable to say what I mean, especially in response to people I like and respect. It's exhausting and discouraging. I can feel the other way of thinking slipping around the edges of my brain, crumbling off a piece of syntax when I hear it again, reexpressing some blueprint ideals.
We slept lateish, but got up in time to walk to the museum by way of Rice and Hermann Park. Misty afternoon. Half the dinosaurs, the ammonite and fluorescent light/stones were both in storage, but Martin seemed to enjoy the rest of it. The gem hall particularly. Which is my favorite. :D
The walk back was through the medical center, by way (quite intentionally) of Chipotle. Oh, Chipotle. Yes. And then we made it home, and almost immediately it was time for rehearsal. Paul's, this time; Martin didn't come with me, and it was unfortunately draining. Dan and Martin both asked if I was okay when I got back. It was close; I was drained. The occupation of getting a new headshot for Dan (Martin's camera is fantastically awesome, and Dan needs a new headshot) brought my happies back; we didn't really have any light, but Martin made it work. And then Dan tried to figure out how to use Photoshop, and sort of even did.
See, I told you. EVENTS.
Monday we spent all day at Johnson Space Center, because yo, it's Houston and if you're going to be a European tourist, you should go to NASA. We took the tram tour and everything; Mission Control, which was a little sad because nobody's in there since the space station's run from elsewhere and the shuttles are over. The mockup of the space station (and the shuttle, which they're taking apart and taking out) and a bunch of moon rovers and a Precision Air Bearing Floor which gives you a frictionless surface to drive stuff on so you can manipulate big heavy things like you can in space. And the Rocket Park, which has a Saturn V rocket, which is bigger than most things. Man it is so big. Space travel is amazing, guys. Also, the space station.
There were some other fun things, a shuttle-landing simulator, a bunch of movies, and explanations from various live presentations of feeds from the space station. Microgravity floats things around. Heh. All the people with long hair looked like Hasbro trolls. Martin stopped by the store on the way out to get some mission patches for his nephews, and he got a pair for himself, too (one of his professors was on the D-2 mission, and he just really likes the Hubble one).
We made it back into town just in time to get to Chorale rehearsal, which went quite well (it's odd being the rehearsal soprano soloist and singing alto the rest of the time), and Tom chatted for a bit with me afterwards about how he's worried for Ben, and wondered what Bryan's up to these days.
We had time to scarf a ham sandwich (or in my case, some pieces of ham) before setting off for downtown. The train route is slower, but mama had a rehearsal in the opposite direction, so we made the schlep. Once at rehearsal, awesomeness continued apace. We spent an awfully long time on the King's Singers arrangement of Swimming Over London, which he seemed to appreciate. Magpie Chatter went more smoothly when we arranged ourselves in a sectional circle. The German pieces came next, and Bob invited Martin to sing with us, and sat him right down in the bass section. It seemed to make his night. The Schubert, which was just the men, was at the very last, and we had a fun time analyzing the poetry and the period German.
Foolishly, in the middle of this German brouhaha, I made a deal with Martin that if he spoke German, I'd try to speak it back. Oh dear FSM. It's been over two years since I spoke a word, and I was never more than slightly conversational.
We watched a couple things downstairs with everybody, but we stayed up till 4 talking and listening to music and watching things. He's almost excessively patient with my nonexistent vocabulary and intensely frustrating lack of grammatical coherency. I am not accustomed to being unable to say what I mean, especially in response to people I like and respect. It's exhausting and discouraging. I can feel the other way of thinking slipping around the edges of my brain, crumbling off a piece of syntax when I hear it again, reexpressing some blueprint ideals.
We slept lateish, but got up in time to walk to the museum by way of Rice and Hermann Park. Misty afternoon. Half the dinosaurs, the ammonite and fluorescent light/stones were both in storage, but Martin seemed to enjoy the rest of it. The gem hall particularly. Which is my favorite. :D
The walk back was through the medical center, by way (quite intentionally) of Chipotle. Oh, Chipotle. Yes. And then we made it home, and almost immediately it was time for rehearsal. Paul's, this time; Martin didn't come with me, and it was unfortunately draining. Dan and Martin both asked if I was okay when I got back. It was close; I was drained. The occupation of getting a new headshot for Dan (Martin's camera is fantastically awesome, and Dan needs a new headshot) brought my happies back; we didn't really have any light, but Martin made it work. And then Dan tried to figure out how to use Photoshop, and sort of even did.
See, I told you. EVENTS.