What do baseball cards, recorders and space science have in common? Absolutely nothing, for everyone other than me.
So I wanted to write tonight. But no topic came to mind. So I decided I would google "random blog topics." And believe it or not, I came across a blog topic generator. So I clicked through a few of them. The Wright Brothers- um...I said write, not research. Newfoundland Government- see previous. The next one I pulled-selling baseball cards.
Interestingly enough, I sold baseball cards once. My dad once bought me a large box of boxed sets of baseball cards. He worked for a department store as a graphic artist. The store would have "sales" for employees to buy random things. Once I got a pogoball. Remember those. Anyway, he also bought me these baseball cards. So what was an 8 year old girl to do with I can't remember how many packs of baseball cards. Of course, sell them to my nearest and dearest and closest 4th grade friends. I made a killing. 50¢ a box. I had canteen money for weeks. It was great.
So I continued on to see if I could find any other useless topics. And after a few scientific words I had never heard of, that would have again required research, I came across playing a recorder. I played a recorder in the band in 6th grade. In Connecticut, where I lived when I was 8, they start band in the 4th grade. In Louisiana, where we moved back to when I was 11, they start band in the 6th grade. And when you start in band in the 6th grade, or at least when I was in the 6th grade so long ago, you started by playing a recorder. I still have my 6th grade recorder somewhere. Because, I, of course, am a pack rat. When I come across it in a random box from time to time, I take it out and play it. It has been awhile though.
The last topic, after Martha Stewart Jail Time and the Romantic Life of George W. Bush, that I decided I could write about was space station technology. Now I have never been to a space station. I have however been to summer program at LSU called the Young Scholars in Astronomy and Space Science. It was between my sophomore and junior year of high school. I went because I understood that I would receive a weekly stipend, which I thought was big money at the time. And also because it would look good on my college applications. I stayed at LSU in Blake Hall (I think. My how your mind starts to go after you pass 30.) I made a few friends. One of whom, I keep up with on Facebook today. All in all, it was a great experience. We had a slumber party in the planetarium. When we went on field trips, we called our driver "A Bus Driver Named Bill." He was a jolly fellow. I felt grown, at college, all by myself, at 15. Going to eat in the cafeteria, living in the dorm, walking to "class." It was one of those times that I remember fondly. And one of those experiences in life that I feel truly shaped me. It was one of those things that I look back on and say "Man, I'm glad I did that."
