The Launch of the Best Halloween Costume Ever

Once upon a time I went to space camp. I was 13 years old and a size 2. The space camp I went to was just for girls and was in Oklahoma City, so it was cause for my first-ever solo plane trip. Once I arrived, I was given a blue space suit with very official NASA logos and badges on it. I took a test to determine what post I would get at the end of our week when we went on our space mission in an old space shuttle. I was to be the nutritionist, a coveted position as I had one of the few positions in the space shuttle AND was in charge of allocating servings of freeze-dried ice cream.

Last year when I went home for Thanksgiving I discovered the blue space suit still fit. In an unbelievable act of foresight my mom had pulled it from the Goodwill pile; I am not a pack rat in the least. Since then, I have been saving it for the launch of the best Halloween costume ever. It launched last night and was well-received in our nation's capital. I enjoyed the many puns I was able to make like "Is this party ready to launch?" and being able to say "I went to space camp when I was 13 and this still fits!" every time someone asked me where I got the outfit.

And, because I am writing about this, I may as well share my favorite space camp moment with you. I was not really into science, despite going to space camp, and missed the whole sci-fi "stuff" and lingo a brother or male cousin may have filled me in on. I was sitting in the space shuttle, ready for lift off, and everyone kept saying "Roger this" and "Roger that." It was an all-girls camp so I could not imagine who Roger was. To my (later) embarrassment, I asked “Who’s Roger?”

Needless to say I know what roger means now.