Go For It! (JSC135 Tweetup – Part 1)

It was late Friday night, July 8th and I was driving home from the Space Camp Tweetup.  I had left for home shortly after our Tweetup crew’s last dinner together.  I wanted to avoid another day of 11 hours on the road, so I figured if I knocked out a few hours by bedtime on Friday night it would make it easier to finish on Saturday.  In addition, I figured stopping at a small interstate hotel would be more affordable than another night in the Marriott in Huntsville.  I took a different route back than I had come, figuring heading North briefly up through Chattanooga, Tennessee and then down I75 through Atlanta would be smoother going than the more direct way via back roads between Atlanta and Huntsville.

While I was in no hurry to leave the good times in Huntsville, now that I was on my way I was anxious to get home.  I was replaying all of the events of the last two days through my head and wondering how all the video footage I took was going to come out.  I also knew that while in Huntsville I was picked for the NASA Tweetup for the Juno Mission and wanted to get filled in on all the details regarding it.  Additionally, I wanted to make sure I responded to my notification email on time in order to secure my spot.  I also knew that I still had not heard back on the NASA Tweetup for the Johnson Space Center as they were having a Tweetup there during the final days of Atlantis’ last flight.  I figured it was silly to assume I would be picked for yet another Tweetup, but was wondering why I hadn’t at least gotten my rejecting notice yet.

While it wasn’t too terribly late, I was hitting my driving limit for the night.  I had already started out tired when I left Huntsville around 8:30pm.  Now somewhere between Chattanooga and Altanta I felt it was time for me to get off the road.

On the first exit I tried I found no vacancies.  I drove further up the road getting more tired hoping the next stop wasn’t much further away.  I started seeing billboards for the next exit and it appeared there was plenty of hotels to choose from.

I was feeling optimistic as I got closer and saw the road sign that displayed all the various hotels that awaited me.  However, it was strange that it was such a dark exit for all the hotels advertised.  Slowing down on the off ramp I saw the green road sign that pointed it’s arrows to the direction of the hotels and their approximate distance away. “0.1″, “0.2″, “0.1″, “0.1″ – They all were only a stones throw away.  As I came to a stop at the crossroad I only saw one lit hotel sign so I headed in that direction.  I passed what seemed like a two story building that was about hotel sized, but it was not lit up at all and had no cars in its parking lot.  I noticed a few of the restaurants seemed to be going through renovation, as if maybe they were no longer in business and were bought and being converted into a new form of commerce.  A few other side roads seemed to simply go nowhere.  Possibly the recession has taken its toll on this area.  But the hotel I was driving up to was new, well lit and was completely packed with cars.  If the recession was hurting this area, this hotel seemed to be getting through it just fine.

“Please let them have a room available” I thought as I entered the lobby.  I rang the bell for service and soon was talking to a very friendly attendant with a mild foreign accent.

“We have only one room left” she told me, “But it is our special suite, so it is $169 a night.”

“Ye-ouch!”  I know this was a new hotel and looked pleasant enough, but come on, it is just a standard chain hotel.  I don’t recall exactly, but I think it was a Holiday Inn.  ”Hmm, maybe I’ll see what else is available.”

The attendant informed me it had a Jacuzzi in the bathroom, as if that would entice me further, but I had no interest in that.  As I started to make distance between myself and the lobby desk the attendant made further offers until the price was down to $99 a night.  OK, that is a nice discount, but that’s how much our group rate at the Marriott was in Huntsville and I had intended to get a cheaper room on the way home.  I told the attendant I’d think about it and look around more.

As I walked back to my vehicle another car pulled up with a couple inside, “Any rooms left?”

Well, there goes the room if I can’t find anything else, I thought.  I looked to them and responded, “There’s only one left but it’s $169 a night, but they offered it for less.”

The couple looked at me with disgust over the rate.  They were headed North and I was headed South.  They told me they had not found any available vacancies during their stops.  If I was headed the way they came, then it looked like it would be a good bit more of driving to get a room.  I mentioned if that was the case I’d likely head back up the road to Chattanooga to find a room.  They decided Chattanooga sounded like the ideal stopping point for them and headed back to the interstate.  I sat in my truck, looked at my GPS and looked around for all the other hotels that were supposed to be at this exit.  The idea of heading back to Chattanooga was not a comforting thought as it was at least an hour back.  Continuing forward without anywhere to stop didn’t sound promising either, so based on a decision made completely by a need for sleep I walked back inside the lobby and claimed the room for $99.

The next morning I was ready to get back on the road.  I took my belongings back down and loaded up.  Since the hotel was booked, there wasn’t anywhere for me to park so the lobby attendant told me to just leave my vehicle under the drive up covered entrance.  This was quite handy and gave me a little bit of VIP treatment feel.  It also made me feel a little awkward to the other guests that may have been wondering who the arrogant person was who left their truck parked under the covered entrance overnight.  ”I was told to park there, don’t blame me!” I defensively thought to myself.  Sometimes I worry too much about what others think of me.

The hotel I was staying in was up on a small hill with a good overview of the surrounding area.  As I pulled out of the parking lot it hit me, “Oh my God!  This entire exit is destroyed!”

A few months earlier there had been a bad series of tornadoes that had hit the Southeast.  I was very familiar with the ones that hit Huntsville as it had a direct impact for the participants in the first Space Camp Tweetup.  That event had to be rescheduled as the town was hit very hard and power was out everywhere.  On the way up a few days ago, I had passed a couple of spots where I could tell a twister had crossed over the road, but I had turned West at Atlanta and had never passed this area on the way up.  It was a complete war zone and a sight I knew all too well as I am a survivor of being inside a funnel cloud that leveled acres of property including homes.  I have witnessed the raw unforgiving power of nature as well as it’s random selectiveness of what gets spared and what gets destroyed.  The signs on the interstate that claimed all the various hotels at this exit hadn’t lied, it’s just that they were put up before all this destruction.  Everything was a disaster except for the hotel I was now leaving.  It was as if it was perfectly dropped down out of the sky in the middle of all this mess – there wasn’t anything out of place on it.  It’s no wonder now why business was so good as it was now the only hotel open among the wreckage.  The twister leveled everything, including street lights which was why it was so dark the night before and why the true nature of the scene was not known.  In the light of day I was shocked and saddened, not really sure whether to stop and reflect or quickly put it behind me.

I made my way towards the on ramp, past the crumbed and boarded up buildings.  The dark silhouette I had seen the night before and figured to be an out-of-business hotel was indeed that.  The roof was completely missing and damage could be seen up and down the structure.  What I thought might be restaurants under renovation were restaurants preparing to be torn down as they were too badly damaged to salvage.  As I pulled onto the on ramp I had thought maybe I should have took pictures, but that just seemed inappropriate.  I quietly took a last look before merging onto the interstate.

When I arrived at home all I could think to do was go through all my footage of from the Space Camp Tweetup.  I dived into it watching hour after hour of all the moments I had recorded.  But there was one small distraction that was on my mind.  There still wasn’t any emails from the NASA Tweetup team indicating whether I had been picked yet for the JSC Tweetup that was only a little over a week away.  I poked around on Twitter and was seeing a lot of activity from others who were already picked.  Most had already made travel arrangements, having their flights booked and hotel rooms reserved.  I still didn’t think I had any chance, nor did I really relish the thought of another expensive, out-of-town trip in the same month, but I guess I wanted closure.  I wanted to read the email that said “We regret to tell you that you were not picked…”  This would make it official and allow me to put it out of mind and move on.

The big draw for me on the JSC Tweetup was the chance to fly the actual shuttle simulator used by astronauts to prepare for their missions.  This was a motion simulator with a complete and accurate mockup of all the controls in the the real shuttle.  Sitting in the cockpit of this simulator would be identical to being in the cockpit of the real shuttle – the motion based simulator even tilts up 90 degrees to put you on your back for launch.  Since STS-135 was now in orbit and the last shuttle mission to fly, this simulator was going to be decommissioned only a few days after the JSC Tweetup.  To me, this was the closest I was ever going to get to being an astronaut, so I felt like it was a now or never opportunity.  I didn’t have funds budgeted for the trip, but figured I’d try and make it work if on the rare chance I happened to get picked.

I had planned to go to bed at a reasonable time the day I got back from Space Camp, but as I watched my video footage I kept thinking about an idea I got after seeing a tweet by one of my fellow Space Camp Tweetup crew members.  This tweet came from Sierra (@Sig727) who posted the following a few hours after yesterday’s launch:

“Listening to @u2com “Beautiful Day” thinking about the beautiful launch today and how lucky and thankful I am. #SCTweetup”

When I saw the tweet I immediate heard the song in my head with various footage I knew that I had taken from the Tweetup playing in sync with it.  I know how my creativity works and if I turn it on it won’t shut off.  I had been on the road most of the day and really wanted to get a good night sleep before getting started on any projects.  But by 11pm I couldn’t stop myself and I figured I’d at least lay a few things out before going to bed.  It wasn’t until 3am Saturday night until I went to bed.  The song was a perfect soundtrack to my footage and it was just a matter of moving all the various clips around to see what wanted to fit where.  By mid-day Sunday I had the video done and uploading to Vimeo.

Space Camp Tweetup

I had taken 3 days off from work for the Space Camp Tweetup and had exactly 2 days off left for my 2011 calendar year.  Since I was picked for the Juno Tweetup which would happen on a Thursday and Friday early the following month, the next Monday at work I put in for these days off.  I now had no vacation days left for the next 6 months until my 2 weeks of annual vacation renewed.  I wondered to myself, “If by chance I was to be picked for the JSC Tweetup, I have no vacation time left – what would I do?”

Checking my Twitter stream during my lunch break, I was noticing a lot of individuals besides me were inquiring about the lack of JSC Tweetup notices.  Word was going around that if you had not gotten a notice, then you were on the wait list.  There was also mention of a new set of notices going out the following day.  It was Monday, the 11th of July, and the JSC Tweetup was only 8 days away.  If anyone else gets picked they are really coming up against the gun on prep time and booking an affordable flight.  In addition to having no vacation time left, we also have a rule at my office to give 2 weeks notice before taking any time off – everything was really stacked against me.  I really wanted to get my rejection email out of the way so I could stop thinking through all these no-win scenarios. I couldn’t stay consistent with my thoughts, one minute it was “oh boy, maybe I’ll still get picked” while the next it was “what am I, crazy?  Three expensive Tweetups over a four week period!?!”

Tuesday came and went but still no notification email from NASA.  I started tweeting the @NASATweetup account and got some feedback that sounded somewhat positive as if there was a chance for those of us who hadn’t heard anything yet.  Another individual that was waiting for their confirmation email was Joe (@JoeCLucas).  Joe got my attention as he was a fellow alumni of the NASA Tweetup for STS-132.  I told Joe to make some polite noise too to see if the attention would help garner some positive feedback for him too.

The NASA Tweetup Twitter account was telling us new notifications had been sent but still there was no email from them in my inbox.  It was now Wednesday, July 13th and we were being told we had to confirm our attendance  by 5pm that afternoon in order to be included – that was the absolute cutoff.  That afternoon I emailed the NASA Tweetup reps letting them know I was confirming if I had been picked even though I had no idea whether or not that was the case.  I figured I’d confirm regardless, even though I still was fighting internally over whether it made sense for me even to consider trying to get a spot.  For days now I had been expecting my rejection notice, but with all the delays it allowed the excitement of the thought of going build within me.  I had too much emotional investment in the Tweetup by this point, so I was getting desperate in these final hours leading up to the 5pm deadline.

At approximately 3pm I got the email I had been waiting on.  I opened it ready to read  ”We regret to tell you that you were not picked…” and return disappointingly back to regularly scheduled life.  Besides, I had the Juno Tweetup coming up which I wanted to have ramp up time for.  I was all prepared for the letdown and read the email, “Congratulates, you have been selected to….”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!?!”  I sat stunned at my desk at work.

For the record, I signed up for multiple Tweetups around the same time.  I had no expectation that I had a chance to be picked for any of them.  It’s like buying a few lottery tickets to increase your chances of winning only to find out that each ticket won a different lottery.  I was beyond flabbergasted.  The previous week I was in Huntsville, Alabama for the Space Camp Tweetup.  In less than four weeks I was going to Titusville, Florida for the Juno Tweetup.  Now, for next week, I was selected to go to Houston, Texas for the JSC Tweetup.

Although I immediately responded with my confirmation, I still wasn’t sure I was going.  It was so last minute – I still had to get approval for the time off from work and book affordable travel.  It was late afternoon Wednesday and my boss, Greg, was out of the office so I couldn’t ask for the time off yet.  Plus, I wanted to see what my potential flight schedule would be – maybe I could get a flight out late next Monday, attend the Tweetup on Tuesday and fly right back after.  This would require only asking for one day off.  It would make for an awfully hectic schedule, but that was my plan – sell the boss on it being low impact on my work schedule and maybe I had a shot.

I mentioned my selection to the Tweetup to my immediate co-workers and they seemed quite enthusiastic about it.  What, no one telling me “Brent, you’re crazy – you just got back from vacation and now you what to leave again for another Tweetup?  You can’t afford that!  Greg will never approve that.” Instead I got “Woohoo!  Go for it!”  I shared the enthusiasm, but almost wanted someone to challenge me with some reasoning.

After work, I stayed late to talk to Greg.  He was back in the office but tied up in a very long meeting.  I used the time waiting to surf the travel sites for plane tickets and wasn’t very happy with what I was seeing, both dollar and scheduling-wise.  Clearly I was going to need more research time before confirming anything with Greg, so since he was still tied up I figured it best to head home for a night of extensive travel research.

On the way home I stopped by my parents house as surely they would be my voice of reason.  They have been waiting for me to grow up for so long.  I just knew they would tell me it was time to refocus my priorities and not spend precious resources on playing astronaut for a day.  So when I got another enthusiastic response and a “what can we do to help out” I was really sweating then.  Someone had to tell me no – please!

I was up late that night – really late.  I scoured every online flight ticketing site known to man.  When disgust of pricing got the best of me, I turned to Twitter for more advice.  A few folks such as my friend and fellow Space Camp Tweetup alumni Joseph (@JosephGruber) suggested I try flying into San Antonio and then drive to Houston from there.  It was a good suggestion in trying to save money, but I couldn’t work the logistics of timing as I researched it.  As the night wore on, I was able to at least find flights below $1,000, but as I’d go back to them just a short time later their prices would already be inflated.  Maybe this was the voice of reason finally talking to me?

Before I finally went to sleep I found a pretty good rate for flight, hotel and rental car all under $1,000 total.  OK, let’s sleep on this and if it goes up in price considerably tomorrow I’ll consider it a sign that a higher power doesn’t want me to go.  The only downside to this combination is my flight would be leaving late Monday and coming back early Wednesday.  This broke my goal of only asking for one day off from work.  It looked like either God or Greg would be my higher power to determine my fate.

The next morning on Thursday the 14th I did a quick check online and the flight combination I had researched the night before was still available at the same price.  I was able to catch Greg alone in his office and I apologized for the short notice indicating I needed to ask him for next Tuesday the 19th off and maybe a little more depending on plane flight schedules.  I also mentioned that I was out of vacation time.  This was it.  I knew short notice for time off when I had already used up all my vacation days was going to get shot down.  I was all ready to say “Yes sir, I understand” and tell NASA to pick the next person on the wait list.

Greg calmly responded, “I’m ok with that.  I know these Tweetups are important to you.”

I couldn’t believe it, everyone I had talked to was fully supportive of me going and now I had official permission to go.  Greg was very generous and said I’d need at least two days to pull it off.  I still had intent to minimize my out of office time out so figured I’d still shoot for the early flight back on Wednesday so I could make it in the office for the second half of the day.

I booked my flight during my lunch break.  In just five days I would be flying the shuttle simulator at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Part 2 – Click here to keep reading!