Space Ships and Apricots

Yesterday, despite nearly every little muscle screaming at me to quit, I got dressed and headed to the gym. To be honest, the only reason I went was because I paid for the sessions in advance. After talking about the squatting situation (again) I was instructed through a series of upper body exercises. Although my muscles were burning and my arms felt like limp spaghetti, I was happy that my leg survived the workout unscathed. Hopefully my situation is understood.

Sweaty and trying to gather up my energy to move my arms so that I could drive home, I was content just to sit in my car and feel the air conditioning hit my face for a few minutes. I would have fallen asleep if my phone hadn't rung. The caller was from Robby's school and, although my arms felt like they had been rung through a pasta machine, I quickly picked up the phone.

Robby's teacher was on the line and after apologizing for disturbing me, she explained that Robby was absolutely insistent that she call because he needed to talk to me. She put him on the phone, and our conversation went something like this:

me: "Hi Buddy. What's up?"
Robby (excited and speaking quickly): "Momom, you will never believe this. Today I met a real live apricot who has been in outer space. He's been with the stars Momom- I didn't know that you could do that. He showed us pictures of his space ship and, well this is going to blow your mind, we went outside and the space ship flew right over our school! Momom, I saw a real live space ship in the sky! The apricot told me all about it and you can float in space and you have to pee pee into a special tube or it floats too. I want to do that. Isn't that cool? I am going to be an apricot when I grow up."

It took me a few seconds to realize that the "apricot" was an astronaut. The father of a little girl at the school, a retired astronaut, graciously spent the morning at the school talking about his space adventures and the shuttle. Obviously he realized that the school was directly in the center of the flight path as the shuttle was being flown to Dulles Airport. Robby was (no pun intended) over the moon with enthusiasm and excitement about seeing the space ship and meeting the apricot and wanted to share his experiences with me.

I have to admit that I felt a tad emotional when I saw the shuttle fly by our house. Watching the original shuttle launch is such a strong childhood memory. I doubt I'll ever forget the palpable excitement in our house when we saw the first launch. I was young, but I realized that I was watching history.

In a way I was sad to see the shuttle fly by, knowing it is the last time it would ever soar. At the same time, Robby's experience did a lot to lift my spirits. It's wonderful that we will both have strong memories of the shuttle flying. Although he'll never see it reach space, he has been introduced to space exploration. When I picked him up at school I could see the same hopeful enthusiasm and awestruck amazement that I remember feeling when I was his age and saw my first launch. I love how things work out sometimes!