Fly me to the moon!

Got a call tonight (don't know why the last-minute call but I don't care) and I've been asked to interview NASA astronaut Col. Benjamin Alvin Drew tomorrow! I'll get 10 whole minutes with him before he's scheduled for the grand opening of a new school in town. I'm really excited about this assignment. And, he's so hot!

Thanks, everyone. I pulled up his bio and am thinking of a few questions to ask him tonight. I guess it's NASA week at the school. For being such a small town (we were 40k until a few weeks ago when some county areas were annexed) we sure get a lot of speakers and such to come in. And, since we're a small town, (and our paper is always understaffed) I often get the opportunity to interview them. It's so cool. Man! I love my job!

It was a lot of fun. I got there early and got to spend a little time with Col. Drew. But it turns out this school was quite a story in its own. And no one has written about it. There are only two schools in all of California in this NASA partnership -- and one is in my hometown. Imagine that. Anyway, I ended up doing a second story and interviewed the principal, the science teachers, etc.

The program itself was so interesting. By the end of the session, I was ready to sign up for the space program.

The hard part was when it finally ended at 8 p.m.and then driving to my town (45 minutes away) and by the time I finally settled down to write, I had only 40 minutes to write the story before the deadline.

I usually start thinking of the lede as I drive, but it was still a bit stressful. But I did it. And it was center front page in today's newspaper. I love it when that happens.

Story didn't come out too bad either.