So I thought I’d just throw a short post up because I have 63 minutes left in the mission and there are swarms of people crunching around the dome outside. Apparently we’re going to have about 70 media personnel up here in addition to HI-SEAS folks and the family/friends that managed to come. As for us in here…well, everything is done so it’s basically hanging out doing nothing till we get to leave. Dull right?

Can’t even have breakfast because there’s a huge buffet that’s just waiting for us and you can’t ruin your appetite for fresh foods with rehydrated milk and the other mummified food in here, no no!

So…just an hour of hanging out…le sigh!

It’s going to be cool to see family, with my travels and living in Hawai’i while most of the relatives still dwell in the misty forests of Montana I don’t get to see them often, some of them that are coming (Grandma!) I haven’t seen in like two years or more! It’d be nice if we could just hang out and catch up without hours of media (I hate having my picture taken) but what can you do…maybe if I bolt out the airlock while everyone is distracted at the other exit I can just jog down the mountain! Tempting…if implausible, I’m sure they’ve got scouts on the road…

Anyways! Just killing time till the door opens, I get fresh food and some Earth-coffee, and finally get to see my family! It’s nuts to think that in 5 days I’ll be getting on a plane and going back to Oahu to start school and look for a job. If any architecture firms in Honolulu need a space-intern I’m available! Still curious if we’ll have anything like…Earth culture shock, or a sudden decompression emotionally and cry a lot, or who knows! It still feels like I’m just going to be living here forever, and there are people outside on my lawn. Darn kids.

Well! I gotta put my dorky red shirt on and think of snarky things to say to stereotypical media comments. All of us are pretty sure that we’ll be asked what we want to eat when we return to Earth…when there’s a breakfast buffet right there. If I can time it, I want to belch at them. Classic.

I’ll talk to ya all in a bit, have some new shirts that are finished (we’ll just put those in one big post) and if you wanna follow my adventures in grad school, space architecture, internships, and life in general…well I could be bothered to write in here from time to time, why not right? It’s like a journal you know people read.

Looking forward to coming back to Earth! If I caught any Martian diseases, prepare yourself for the inevitable plague! Dun dun dunnn!!!