Max and Jinx...

When I was junior high, I went to SpaceCamp. Ok, technically, at that age, it was SpaceAcademy. But that's just SpaceCamp for older kids. It was really, really awesome. I grew up on the east coast of Florida, but they hadn't yet opened the local SpaceCamp, so I had to go to the one up in Alabama. I sincerely had an amazing time. We did not get launched into space accidentally, and I didn't meet Joaquin (The Artist Previously Known as Leaf) Phoenix, but regardless, it was still way cool. I kept in touch with some of the people I met there for a very long time. One of the guys was named Duff. He was named for his family's castle. I mean, come ON. How can you not keep in touch with a dude who was named for his family's castle?

Space and kids just seem like two things that go together to me. It's such a great way to feel connected to the things that science and research can accomplish. I like to tell people that for us regular folk, there are few more patriotic or awe-inspiring moments than watching a rocket launch. It is just TREMENDOUS what has been achieved. And that is why this is just a tragedy. Here's a screen cap of a page on the NASA website my mom recently stumbled upon:

Seriously, though. How fun would this be?

And here's a close up, since the problem is hard to see:

It's the caption for the photo on the right, above.

Yeah, it's Brevard County. Not Country. It's actually a little terrifying to me to think of it as its own country. Remember when 50 Shades of Grey got banned from a Florida county's library system? That's the same county. I'm not sure they should have even that much power, much less the governance of a country.

If I had my own country, I wouldn't bother with banning books. I would start by banning the phrase "baby bump" and those super platform stiletto heels that real people can't actually walk in, and work my way out from there. I might also ban olives. And cheap, runny mascara. Oh! And any purse-sized hand lotion that doesn't have a flip top. That is an abomination.

Clearly, I'm not really cut out for this level of power, either. I might wield it TOO WELL.

(Thanks, Mom!)