I recieved my 'contract' with NASA today. Ohmygosh to see it all in writing is very scary; it has my start date, my salary, vacation agreements, etc. It is real. 05Jan09 is THE date.
I'm very excited about doing something new. Most of you know that I'm a big chicken shit & a creature of habit, so for me to really pick up and leave the comfort of Bld 35 and my safe zone is a huge leap for me. More than half my day is now spent working on the new project and I learn more each day and enjoy meeting new people. Doing this project reminds me of my job ~11 years ago, when I was developing new ideas for how Station was going to work. And that all came together earlier this year when the international partners joined in and I saw my ideas and hard work flowing from country to country & then to onboard. It was a amazing. The thought of seeing these ideas that I am coming up with today fly to the moon and mars is getting me excited again about work.
I just wrote a letter to two of my programmers that I've worked with for the last 7+ years; they are great programmers and even more important great people; I began to tear up as I wrote them a note explaining where I was going. I also tear up at the thought of not seeing my posse of gals in the office everyday. Most of the time we communicate via IM, but every now and again we'll meet in an office and get detail of a story that IM just can't get across. I think I will miss the one girl, who at one time I didn't want to share an office with, the most for my day to day activities. I love how I can look past my monitor and say a quick word to Sandy and then keep going with my stuff.
I'm going to end this post here, I'm tearing up again...