Pi Day with the NASA I.T. Gods!!!

I knew this entry was coming, and have put so much more thought into it then any before it. I have pondered at length what exactly I wished to convey, any yet it all seems so inadequate. A description which at best is corny, and at worst is down right silly. How on earth could one possibly understand this eccentric woman’s passion which permeates from the sheer glee of scheming, plotting, and executing a totally geeky celebration such as Pi Day? I went under the guise of better to ask forgiveness then to ask permission. I work at the greatest organization in all of the United States of America… within a department of the most brilliant minds, hardest workers, and truly talented individuals, for a Chief Information Officer, and a Deputy CIO that I really admire, like, and respect. And here is the best part, they don’t know their own value!!! In fact for so long I have been alone in my bizarre fascination with the weird techy, nerdy, totally out of the box, brain boys playground, that I began to see myself as unique, and strange. And while this still may be true to some extent, I have found others out there just like me, and I am finally home. Rob literally has a binary welcome mat in front of his door, and obsolete original hand held calculators with the magnetic memory strips in his display cabinets in his office. I love it here, finally I look mild mannered. Living in Boron who could help resist wanting a shower curtain with the periodic table on it? Or cubicle toys such as floating magnetized pens for the desk? I am telling you, if anyone understands me, it is this group of people I work with now.

It all began innocently enough… Rob meanders up to the counter and says “Hey, you know Pi day is coming up. You know Pi, as in 3.14…., Well, March 14th is coming up. We should celebrate with a real pie.” We all laugh, and everyone walks away. But a wheel is turning, a circuit fully connected as if by the flicking of a switch….hummmm Pi day. I bet I could make that happen. This is when the treasure hunt began. It started simple enough… making a simple banner off the computer. My mother is known to many affectionately as the Pie Lady. Of course, I am no Pie Lady, but I mean, if anyone could pull off Pi day it should be the Pie Ladies daughter. Initially I thought of selling out and getting Marie Calendar’s to make a bunch of pies, but since I live in the middle of the Mojave Desert and Marie’s is over an hr away, I took it upon myself to create them myself. I mean, if my mother could make a zillion pies for Thanksgiving each year why couldn’t I do a much smaller scale for my co-workers? Then it became apparent… I am so not my mother. This pie buffet is tougher then this woman has EVER made it look before. So how, am I going to pull this off? I mean what am I thinking? Do I really think I could fill my mother’s shoes? Uh No! So it occurs to me, as Hitch so eloquently taught me, stick to what you are good at. If you are the Pie Lady do pies, if you are me, you go mass cookie production. But how on earth does one make a Pie Cookie, let alone a Pi cookie? Thank Goodness for the World Wide Web… I hit online on a Pi Cookie cutter, oh it is too easy!!! This is going to be soooooo good! The excitement is building; I am giddy with my find. The days prior to its arrival were like a kid waiting at Christmas to open the presents until AFTER breakfast. While the childlike anticipation grew with each moment, floods of ideas came… what if I made us shirts? Would Rob or Ken even wear them if I did? And if I did, and they agreed to wear them what would I say? Memories wash over me of my son, Colton, now 14 years old, but then no more then 6 years old standing in front of me listening to some horrible lecture, in serious trouble, and out of no where he looks me in the eye and says “I like pie.” It dawned on me that to this little tyke I was nothing more then a Charlie Brown adult, and all he was hearing was wa wa,wa wa, wa wa. And I lost it, I began crying with laughter so fierce that is brings tears of joy to my eyes with just the memory. THAT is what I was going to put on the shirts. I like Pi. I created the designs, and took them to a shop to get them done… with one slight modification. My shirt, the space princess herself, in all her glory put Cutie Pi on her shirt. In retrospect I wish I would have put QT Pi, but hey it worked.

Then like so many of us the week went to heck in a hand basket. Rob had the day off so he wasn’t even going to be able to come. Friends were on travel assignments and missing, old boyfriends showed up in town doing drive bys, the church asked me to make lasagna for their relief society birthday dinner. There were just not enough hours in any day to make this come to fruition. And yet, faith precedes the miracle. I knew I could do this, I just did not know how. Friends, Family, and community came together to orchestrate the neatest turn of events for MY Pi Day. The cookie dough batter was made on one day… 6 batches of sugar cookie dough. The next day 200+ Pi Shaped cookies were baked and cooled on my kitchen counter. (Kudos to Mrs. Claus, and her manly man elf!) The next day 6 pies were baked, including my favorite of all time… a cherry one with the Pi Symbol out of the top. Mmmmmmmmmmmm Tons of soda flat boxes were taped and stacked on end to be filled with decorated cookies for transport. The house smelt heavenly, I finally understand those infamous words “slept with the vision of sugar plums danced in their heads”, for as I put my head to my pillow that Pi Day Eve Night, I was excited, and giddy, and full of childhood delight.

Arriving that morning with a smirk, and a smile at the back of Code V the guys were walking in as I pulled up my PT (Cruiser that is). As I opened the door the smell wafted through the air. It stopped one, curious. I began taking flats of goodies to my desk, and the choir rang out,” Do you need some help?”. Several big old IT Gods helped me bring in the goods. People were shocked, excited and happy. For the first time I got to see, first hand, my enthusiasm flow from me to them, passing forward my exuberance. It was contagious. Who would have known? The cost for supplies…$30 tops, The cost of labor… happiness and love. The cost of finally feeling like I am at home? Having Pi Day at NASA??? Eating Pi Shaped Cookies with REAL I.T. Gods? Some people go to Disneyland for magical memories and pixy dust, but to me… this was Absolutely PRICELESS!!! ***Now if ONLY I could write the word priceless in binary code!!! :) ***