BLASTOFF!

Yes, it has been forever (or at least too long) since I last wrote a blog entry - what else is new?

I just watched my first (and likely my only) space shuttle launch in to outer space! Yes, I am still here in Titusville, Florida. Still performing 'Mad Mission to Mars' for families at the Kennedy Space Centre. Still living and working with Dave and Julia at our apartment in Titusville, conveniently located just across the river from the NASA launch pads.

Today Dave and I performed five fabulous and fun shows for excited space-geek families and then busted out of work to make it home in time to watch the launch from our balcony. Julia returned triumphantly from her personal fitness trainers weekend course in Orlando and the whole 'Mad Science Family' was home together to watch six astronaughts blast off in to outer space. Launch time was scheduled for 7:40pm and it all seemed to go off without a hitch.

I made a conscious choice not to waste my attention on capturing the experience with photos, because I have recently become enamoured with 'that which we cannot hold on to' - as in, moments and memories that are not 'captured' in digital images or even words (though I do realise I am writing about this now, but anyhow...). So I didn't really take pictures (I took a few once I lost sight of the shuttle... the smoke was beautiful!) but I experienced the moment. It was beautiful. I couldn't help but be completely awed by what I was watching...

Six men, astronaughts who had been preparing for years for this, strapped in and being launched away from our planet... in to space... They left our planet. Not a lot of people can say that. How incredible.

It was truly a beautiful sight and I know that it is one of those precious experiences that I will always remember. I am so thankful that I got to be here, now, for this. I am thankful that this incredibly fun job - that has me spending my winter in sunny Florida on stage performing for kids and their families - has allowed me the experience of watching a space shuttle launch!

I know that if there is actually anyone out there still reading my little blog, you are probably wanting me to give more of an update on my life these days too... and hopefully I will feel inclined to do such a thing sometime soon... and if not, know this: I am lucky and I am thankful and I am still here... in Florida until the end of April and then...

who knows?

"to infinity and beyond" ?