Status Updates From Space Oddities: Ground Cont...

Withholding my truth may protect them, but it protects me more. And when I’m gone, will they always wonder why I left? Will they think it’s their fault? If I couldn’t give them the truth while here, couldn’t I at least give them the truth after I’m gone? So they don’t worry, or question, or somehow think they’re to blame for my leaving.

“This isn’t just anything, this is Vera Wang,”

“We’re literally wearing Wangs.”

“I figure she’s still in the Houston area. That clunker truck of hers doesn’t look like it’ll make it out of town.” Chewing. “That’s how I found her the first time. Apparently, it was her grandfather’s truck. Doesn’t look like she can make herself get rid of it.” He snorts. “Sentimentality always gets you caught in the end.”

I need a good five minutes of steady breathing, breathing I learned from Dr. Brown in case I started panicking due to my claustrophobia. Turns out it works well when you’re heartbroken and frustrated too.

Earlier: hoes before bros

Now: chicks before dicks

You can lie to yourself if you want, but don’t lie to me.

I guess that’s the funny thing about putting down roots, even those as shallow as my imagination lets me dig. Once you start, you just want more. You want to dig deeper.

in my opinion, any woman who has to pack up and leave when the man isn’t around is probably entitled to a bit of his shit.

even when I’m dealing with something, it’s only because I’m trying to manage something else.

I never understood the whole brain exploding emoji until now. I think Dr. Brown may have broken me.

defense mechanism your brain put in place. You grew up solving problems of managing your parents’ expectations while trying to remain your own person. W/restrictions loosened by distance you put between yourself & parents, brain wanted to grasp familiar. To still work within limitations. So plane, representation of all you were leaving behind, became substitute. It allowed you to move forward in familiar setting.”

Dealing with something can also be accepting things that cannot change. Managing is accepting things that can and should change.

“Just keep dealing with your issues instead of managing them,“

“Please tell me you upgraded your hotel. No wife wants to stay in Europe on government-issued accommodations.”

“what if she’s a plant by an animal activist group and she’s sacrificed herself to get red paint poured all over her for a political statement?” Rose laughs. “She chose the wrong state to make that plea. Texas is the poster child state for leather, fur, and all things anti-PETA.”

“Where are you from?”

“You said Georgia, didn’t you dear?”

“A red state.” The senator nods. “But it’s nearly always cut down the middle come the larger elections.”

I’ve always been man in room with most patience. It’s why I’m good at being gov’t employee when red tape & bureaucracy get in way of projects, pushing back deadlines over and over. It’s why I’m good at outmaneuvering father, because I can see long game. It’s why, despite always wanting to be armed with all info well in advance, I’ve not asked Trish to explain reason for private eye to show up knocking on her door.

When I asked Trish how all of this fit in her trailer, she laughed, saying, “Why do you think I don’t cook? All my cabinets are for shoes.”

“College bills don’t pay themselves, and any student loan I could have gotten back then would’ve had an astronomical interest rate.”

“I know the parent question is a cliché, but it’s a cliché for a reason.”

“You saw your mother trapped by her marital circumstances and may have felt trapped yourself. And your anxiety over this may have manifested itself in a physical aversion to being confined.”

“You don’t have to come if you’re uncomfortable. You don’t have to feel like you owe me or that you have to go.”

“I don’t know. Being Captain America’s shield sounds pretty awesome.”

“My father tends to make everything difficult, so I try not to deal with him head on. It’s easier this way.”

She goes from frowning to smiling to glaring daggers to looking tearful in less than a minute, as if she’s feeling what she’s writing. I’d be exhausted if I felt all that in such a short time.

“Porn writer just sounds cool. If there were more women porn writers there’d be more good porn. Nothing unfeminist about that.”

All federal employees have to keep an updated government passport at the ready.

Why is it embarrassing? Lots of people are claustrophobic. It’s like the peanut allergy of fears. Totally common.

the more romance books I read, the happier I felt. And I thought, wouldn’t that be nice to make others feel this way? To guarantee them a happy ending. To brighten people’s days.

If I spill all my secrets, if he knows everything there is to know about me, would he consider me solved and move on too?

now I can apply same principles to spacewalks. astronauts swimming in space, but instead of factoring in drag, it is absence of drag to worry about.”
“no walk is same. Just because you figured out math for one spacewalk doesn’t mean all others follow same principles. It’s not same lane you’re swimming in, back & forth. Each spacewalk has different objective. It’s changing all the time. New puzzles to figure out.”