Day 14: Adjusting my attitude, pitch, and yaw

Well hello, everyone! You're looking LOVELY today, blog readers. I'm feeling really, really good today. I did a review packet for AP Bio and it kind of failed miserably. It turns out I don't remember much. I need to start some hard studying soon. I still have a lot of bio left and not much time to do it. It's 21h00 now and I've got rehearsal for SEVEN HOURS tomorrow. Plus I have reading for English. But I don't care and I'm okay and I know I'll get it done. Do you know why I don't care?

Well, I'll tell you.

Right now I'm listening to Liam Payne's X-Factor audition and it's AMAZING. I will begin to accept marriage proposals from Liam Payne starting NOW. I watched the One Direction iCarly episode and it was great. I think that Sam represents all of us when she drags Zayn into a dark corner at the end of it. Oh those boys. Right before that I watched the episode with Michelle Obama and I laughed and I cried and it was beautiful. Have I mentioned recently how much I adore Mrs. Obama? Because I do. A lot.

(I'm now listening to the One Direction "All You Need Is Love" cover form X-Factor. It's so good!)

So those are a couple reasons why I'm happy but the main one is a bit bigger.

Today I went with my dad to a disused ice cream factory to go to a program/showcase on Apollo flight simulators. The Blue Boxes. We got to fly one remotely form another simulator and it was so much fun! There were pictures from Mercury and other programs including one of the Finger Lakes. You could see my dad's hometown on it. There was the intended flight path for Apollo 13. A flight suit with a silk map of Europe. Airplane engines. Cockpit instrument panels. A flight instructor station that charted the simulators progress. Photos from training. Mission patches. A coloring book on the film used in John Glenn's camera that said there were "good rockets" and "bad rockets" and that we launched "good rockets" and how an astronaut is a "very brave man" who wears a "funny suit" and how "Wally Schirra is special. He is very, very special."

Then there were talks from the man who was in charge of making the Link simulators and Frank Hughes, the former Chief of Space Flight Training for NASA. They told us stories of the old days of NASA and the training of the astronauts. It was amazing. I had been reading Walter Cunningham's book The All-American Boys in the car and so I asked Mr. Hughes if he could sign it and he said that Walt would be pissed at him if he did. But he signed it and told us to "keep reaching for the stars." Then he asked me what I did and I told him I was a student and he asked if I would be joining them, meaning NASA and everyone else who makes space flight possible. I told him maybe and he said that they would be glad to have me. To put this into context, it would be like someone asking Alex Dahlberg to do a show that Darren Criss has worked on. I feel like everyday my resolution and desire to work in the aviation and aeronautics field grows stronger and stronger. And Frank Hughes encouraging me to just about seals it.

So, feeling confident, happy, and inspired, this is Heather Ryan, signing off.