You might remember a few months ago in the post 'How is Canada Cooler than the US?' where I mentioned that I was slightly stalking Canadian Astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield on twitter? Well it just so happens that Colonel Hadfield has just published his first book 'An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth' I've been reading about this book for months, and when I went to check about a book signing I just happened to notice that he was going to be in Chicago! Sure it's a 2.5hr drive but it would be totally worth it, I've never met a real famous person. I had told A.Drama about him awhile ago too and when I told her about this opportunity she was in.
We left about 3, and managed to hit Chi at about traffic time, yay! (not) but we managed to arrive with plenty of time for the 7pm start. This signing was at the Barnes and Noble in Skokie.
This is a picture from Col. Hadfields twitter and Facebook pages, this was the gathering as we waited for him to speak. I actually kind of thought there would be more people there to meet him, but it was a manageable crowd and very well organized. You bought your book and were given a number, we were 77 & 78 and we heard others mentioning their numbers in the 150's. The talk began promptly at 7.
Col. Hadfield began his book talk with a story about the bathroom facilities on your way up, as one would imagine they are quite limited. He said you are encouraged to really go before you leave, which ends up meaning 2 enema's. Yeah he went there.
Most of the talk time was allocated for a Q&A session. The first question came from a little girl about 8 or 9, her question to him was "What does it feel like to be in space" and "were you sad when you had to leave" With a short pause he repeated the question and his answer was "magic" being in space feels like magic. Um insert heart melting here. He went on to explain it in a way an 8 year old could appreciate, he says you feel like Tinkerbell and can do all kinds of Tinkerbell flips in space. He also said that he enjoyed being in space but was glad to have his feet back on the ground.
He went on to explain a little bit about his social media presence during his stay on the International Space Station and explained that it's not something meant to be a ploy or anything wanting you to donate your money to space, he looked at it as an opportunity to share. Space is a limited experience that only a few will have the opportunity to visit, and he wanted people to see where their money was being spent. He shared his thoughts about the future of space exploration. He thinks we will go back to the moon and that there will eventually be a collaborative International Space program that will allow us to pool multiple countries' resources to continue exploration of the unknown.
The evening ended with a final question "What is the prettiest thing from space?" He explained that while your in space the first things you look toward are the familiar, where you are from and places you have been. Then it just becomes something more and you are able to see the beauty of the whole Earth. After a short pause and really thinking about it, he determined that his favorite site from space is the Bahama's. He says the way the dark waters of the ocean meet the shallow blue waters over the reef's that it's just so beautiful from space to see all those colors coming together.
Then it was time to get in line for our signing. We were placed in numerical order from our tickets, I won't lie when it was my turn in line I was a little bit nervous. I was kind of star struck and didn't want to be one of those geeky people that wants him sign something weird. So I simply shook his hand and said it is a pleasure to meet you and thanks for sharing the images. He said, no problem and that he liked my shirt.
After the singing we couldn't help but notice there was a Cheesecake Factory a few doors down from the bookstore, so we stopped in and helped ourselves to a piece of strawberry cheesecake, and it was DELISH!
So if you haven't yet, I highly suggest googling Chris Hadfield and take a look at the amazing photos he shared from his time in space, then hop on over to YouTube and watch his videos. Check out 'Space Oddity' first then if you're curious check out how you go to the bathroom in space or how to brush your teeth in space, I promise you won't be disappointed. And be sure to check out his book, sorry yours isn't signed like mine is ;)
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