91109, Pasadena

Watching the last shuttle launch

 

Dear ——–,

I was don’t remember the first shuttle launch, but I remember the principal coming over the loudspeaker in 3rd grade to announce that the Challenger had been lost. We observed a moment of silence. It was a sober note in the booming, self-confident America of the 1980s, of which NASA’s space shuttle program was part and parcel. I remember being mesmerized by Kennedy Space Center as a kid, coming home with a t-shirt showing a shuttle framed by pink puffy paint. All of this contributed to where I am now — at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, writing about robotic explorers to the outer solar system. So at the final shuttle launch, I joined hundreds of others at JPL, one of the key places where our space program began to take shape, to commemorate the end of an era. The whole room clapped and cheered as the engines burned and the shuttle lifted off cleanly. I won’t mourn the shuttle per se so long as America keeps yearning to explore. But I do worry that the harsh economic reality will keep us from pushing boundaries, testing our limits, asking questions about the places we’ve never been. To me, these are the things that make us human.

91101, Pasadena

All Saints Church tower

Dear ——–,

Bryan and I spent Easter Sunday at church — the first time in a long time for both of us. We’ve been trying to figure out if we’re going to take our children-to-be to church. The first step was finding one that lined up with our values. I’ve never been super religious; my mom convinced me attend a Baptist day camp in exchange for no tuna fish all summer. Bryan’s parents took him to a Lutheran church on the holidays. I suggested All Saints Episcopal Church because I remembered that Jim Wallis had spoken there on his book tour a while ago. I’d been curious to see it for myself. On the way in, I saw a friend who used to be an L.A. Times reporter — and then saw two more as the day went on. I took those as encouraging signs. The rector’s sermon made more references to current events than I’d ever heard in a Sunday sermon before — referencing the unrest in the Middle East, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and the president. He encouraged the congregation to make decisions out of compassion, not from the fearful, reptilian part of our brain. He spoke of ideas he learned from other faiths. I found myself nodding several times throughout the sermon and I think we got out of it what we wanted in a church: some food for thought and the will to be better people.

91103, Pasadena

Old gumball machines for sale

Dear ——–,

We thought it would be fun to go to the Rose Bowl Flea Market on Sunday, but it turned into a nightmare. We’ve been in the market for a low, long credenza-type thing to hold the electronics under our TV. We did see a few cool stalls — one had old phonographs; another had vintage citrus crate labels. But we didn’t find the affordable mid-century modern furniture we’d hoped. We also didn’t think about sunscreen because it’s February. It turned out to be unbearably sunny and Bryan got half-sunburned. There was also no place to sit down. We tried to leave at about 10 a.m., but when we got back to the parking lot, our car was boxed in by a stupid Toyota Matrix with a stuffed Beijing Olympic mascot in its back window. The event manager said the flea market had no authority over this lot — a mulch-covered one where Seco Street turns east. The police said they had no authority to tow from that lot either. So we were stuck waiting for one of the cars around us to leave. Unfortunately, other cars came and tried to box us in further, but Bryan waved them off. Do people think it’s OK to box more cars in if some are already boxed in? I guess there’s no real penalty there for parking obnoxiously. When the car in front of ours finally moved an hour and a half later, we were so relieved. All I could think to do was leave a tsk-tsk note on the windshield of Matrix with a drawing of an angry face. I just hope they get their parking karma some day.

91106, Pasadena

I was so hungry I took a bite out of this burger before I took a picture

Dear ——–,

Why does L.A. do the burger so well? Is it that the city came of age in the same era (the 1950s and 60s) as the burger joint? We finally made it to Pie ‘n Burger on Saturday and stepped into a different world as we sat down at the formica counter. A sassy waitress took our order. There was a lady sitting next to us with a sweater tied around her neck, eating a tuna sandwich plate with fruit and cottage cheese. The walls were decorated with wallpaper — the first time I’ve seen that in years. Pie n’ Burger has a pretty limited menu — hamburgers come with or without cheese, typically with lettuce and thousand island dressing. They ask if you want grilled onions. You have to ask for tomatoes. I got the works. “This whole thing is a symphony of flavors,” I told Bryan. “But I can only guess that there’s meat in there somewhere.” Bryan, who got only bun, meat and cheese, proclaimed that the stripped-down burger was good as well, so I’ll have to take his word for it.

91103, Pasadena

The Rose Bowl and the lightly frosted San Gabriel Mountains

Dear ——–,

The skies have finally cleared after a week of rain. Everyone was out today even though it was a little brisk. Bryan and I barely found parking in Old Town Pasadena when we went to Le Pain Quotidien for lunch. It’s been a while since we have spent an afternoon together because Bryan has been recording and at the whim of the band. We decided to go for a long walk with our sweet, but senior whippet mix around the Rose Bowl. We could see a dusting of snow like powdered sugar at the tops of some of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. I don’t remember seeing snow this low in years. We won’t have the time to go to Mammoth, but maybe we can steal away to Mt. Baldy Sunday for a quick slide down the mountain.

91106, Pasadena

Wood-paneled dining room of Caltech Athenaeum

Dear ——–,

It was Carolina’s last day in our office, so Jane organized a lunch at the Caltech Athenaeum, a kind of faculty club for Caltech, the Huntington Library and the Jet Propulsion Lab. I’d actually visited the Athenaeum before because we considered getting married there. (We decided the maroon and forest green color scheme wasn’t exactly a match for us.) Over a tasty buffet of salads and roast chicken, Carolina regaled us with funny tales of her 10 years in the office, including the shipment of a suspicious substance a few years ago. Jane had written something about the Big Bang and Carolina handed her a piece of mail from someone at a Bible college in Tennessee. The envelope started leaking. Carolina took off in the vanpool home. Hazmat arrived and quarantined the building. They called Carolina and wanted her to turn the van around. The vanpoolers decided to keep going in the hopes that the hazmat team would figure out what the substance was in an hour. It turned out to be horseradish. A guy said his neighbor had grown horseradish with such a kick that he wanted to see if NASA could use it.