First Shift!

Hooray! With the successful launch this afternoon at 4:00, I am officially on duty for my first flight. I start work in a few hours at 1:00am and I'll be working nights for the next week and a half. I'm excited!


For detailed information, keep your eyes posted to www.spaceflightnow.com. They seem to have the most accurate information as the flight continues...

*Hugs*

To be honest, I don't want to talk about my last post. I'm still hurting, but I'll be okay. I just want to say a quick thanks to all of my blog readers who have expressed your concern, love and friendship for me since it was posted. Deep down I knew that I was surrounded by people who care, but your e-mails and messages have meant a lot... And also prompted my removal of anonymous comments. ;-)

In other news - I was inspired by Lisa's post about her garden so I decided to take pictures of my florishing tomato plant. Instead - I got pictures of BUGS! These HUGE (okay, not huge, like quarter of an inch big = HUGE) ant-like beasties have infested my tomato plant!! I have real pictures from my own camera, but after some internet sleuthing I found this specimen online:

Coreid Nymphs - Leptoglossus

My pictures are trapped in the abyss that is my camera, but LOOK! Most of mine are the medium sized dark orange ones, but I discovered one monstrous grey one this afternoon. HUGE! I think my heart stopped a little the first time I saw them. Seriously. Not only are they the creepiest looking things I've seen since I moved into my house, but they are on my TOMATO PLANT!!!

I am unbelievably excited about the fact that I now have 7 (yes - SEVEN!) tomato babies growing on the plant and I've already enjoyed the fruits of the first fantastic ... well ... fruit of the year! It was as tasty as I'd imagined and I would be sad as could be if I couldn't enjoy the rest of them...

The only other house news I have (with, yes, pictures! Okay... old pictures. It's not nice enough to take with my stuff yet.) is that I've finished painting the guest bedroom and I'm slowly making progress on my master.

Lillie and Pad(ua) (the new girl) are getting along and Pad will be officially mine in a couple of weeks (I hope)! I'm getting the impression that the adoption agency forgot about her, so I might just take her to the vet and claim her as mine... Just kidding. I'm calling them on Saturday if I haven't heard anything. Here are her adoption pictures... She's so squirrely I have no idea how they got them. I think she was drugged, but it's safe to say none of mine have come out like this!

When?

When is it time to just say, "when."? To step out of the ring and realize you're only doing more damage than it's worth? What defines that line?

Is it when you hurt worse than you've ever hurt before? Some say that's how you know you've finally made progress...

Is it when someone else asks why you thought about fighting in the first place? Are you being courageous at that point - or just plain stupid?

What do you listen to? Your heart saying make it stop? Your mind saying you owe it to yourself to try? Or do you listen to your conscience saying you know this will never work...

I've been told that to crash and burn is the only way to learn to fly... But I'm bruised, scarred, bloody, and I'm losing hope that someone is going to be there to pick me up the next time around.

I got sucker punched this time... I'm trying to tell myself it was a one time deal. I'm trying to convince myself that they slipped when trying to pat me on the back. I'm trying... But man - I'm failing miserably.

--- Update ---
I lied. I know when. When is now.

--- Update #2 ---
The big reveal? You're looking at it.