When an astronaut has a conversation with you...

I love the odd things that happen in my life. Let's take last Thursday's conversation with a well known woman astronaut. She is having a discussion of isolated thunderstorms and the conversation goes something like this...

Let me tell you a bit about my time in space. We don't have lots of time to look out the windows, so when we do we are really lucky... We had been noticing lots of isolated thunderstorms over the Medaterranian, and over Africa. It was getting dark as we approached the east coast of Africa and it was all lit up - yes - it's true - everyone likes to live on the water - and we could still see the isolated thunderstorms. Suddenly, one of the isolated thunderstorms filled with lightening, illuminated, and then set off many other isolated thunderstorms - one by one. It was then she realized there are no such things as isolated thunderstorms.

First, how often do you hear someone casually say "as we were flying over the east coast of Africa" and realize she's talking from space - not from British Airways. And then she wove the whole thing around to teaching - you never know which mind will light up or flash in your presence or because of your presence. Totally cool woman who was honored that we had invited her to this mega conference. And second - that she actually spent time talking to me when she realized inviting her to this conference was my brainchild - and noticed that the invite came while she was in flight last fall. (All because I am a morning show news junkie and was getting my fix when her interview came on...) That was the coolest thing about the weekend.

This event is something many have compared to childbirth - 9 months of planning - a long labor - exhaustion - and then bliss that it's over (helped by a few glasses of wine at the reception). The pain dulls after a few weeks and then it's time to get pregnant again. By that time the pain is fuzzy...and so it continues.

Jane Goodall signed books for 3 hours - until the last person got their book signed, and she looks like a gently older version of her pictures from the 1970s - still beautiful, and still almost too elegant for field work.

I can now say I've met an astronaut, thanked Jane Goodall, and met hundreds of really cool teachers. And in two days when my staff returns to the office, I can thank them for all of their hard work - and figure out a way to more formally recognize their efforts - because I am not going through labor again without them.