Sunday, June 12, 2022
By:
Week 2: If John Mather says jump, I jump.
This week has been a chaotic masterpiece. Before I get into that I’d like to say that all of the Interns are getting along very well, and we all have bonded over our experiences while pursuing our degrees.
Beginning on Sunday, June 5th, a couple of the interns all went to City Tap Brewing for a ‘Drag Brunch’ performance. I honestly didn’t know what to expect going into this, but I can say it exceeded anything I have ever experienced before. You could even say there was magic all around, even the DJ, mike, was having a blast. I enjoyed the music he was playing. Ben, the Potomac Research Lab Intern, even requested a song. At the brunch a couple of us enjoyed a $9 mimosa with an accidental refill and foods like ‘Brewer’s Breakfast’, ‘Chicken Sandwich’, and ‘Avocado Toast’. Their menu was a little smaller, but the food was delicious. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of these infamous Drag Brunches, do it!
I’ve found that I quite enjoy working from home, but I love the atmosphere at ACP. Monday consisted of solidifying any demos that I want to take to Astronomy on the Mall. There were about 9 on my list and 2 of them I had to do a little more research on regarding materials that need to be purchased. My favorite addition to the demo list is ‘Cloud in a Bottle’. It’s very simple and quite interesting. This demo is used to show how releasing pressure affects water vapor and turns it in to a rain cloud.
Tuesday, I built my first demo! I did a very easy version of an electromagnet and about an hour later I graduated to intermediate level electromagnet.
This will be my first video on the SPS website along with an instruction document.
The next demos I would like to do are ‘Laminar Flow’ and ‘Density’.
These demos are fairly easy to create so I’m sure I will have that done soon. Also, my SOCK theme has been finalized to be Eclipses. Brad, Mikayla, and I have a few ideas brewing on how to create a fun and interactive kit for SPS Chapters.
June 7th will also be forever known as ‘Janessa Day’ for a very good reason. A particular Sandwich shop did not meet the expectations of many of the wonderful ACP workers (if you’re reading this…hey). Not only were the ordered sandwiches 2 hours late, but they were also 95% wrong! Before the sandwiches had arrived, I decided to make a few phone calls and see what can be done. After talking to a sandwich shop that will not be named customer service rep, my information was passed on to the store owners. And yes, they do know I work for THEE Rachel. And they’re scared. As they should be. After finding out that the sandwiches were wrong AND THERE WAS NO PICKLE IN THE ORDER, I wrote a lengthy email in the feedback section of their website. Thus, Rachel dubbed June 7th, ‘Janessa Day’. Anyways, that’s the scoop from this week.
All the interns gathered in the Consignment to play boardgames and Jackbox for a few hours. After a quick round of Exploding Kitten (well, quick for Emma and I—we were the first to die) we fired up the projector and laughed for an hour as we all came up with things like three things everyone must do on their wedding day.
On Thursday I and all the other interns had the honor of meeting Dr. John Mather. John is a Nobel Prize in Physics Laureate for his work in solidifying the Big-Bang Theory. He had a lot of great answers to our questions, and I’m not going to lie—I was very starstruck. I was able to ‘plug’ my research in when I got the chance to talk to him, and he gave me advice on pursuing theoretical physics. He gave me the idea to look further into a career in quantum optics, and I will. His story is very inspiring, he is very passionate and from what I saw, very kind. He encouraged all of us to say ‘yes’ to all opportunities, because that is how he got to where he is today. Meeting him was truly inspirational, and I am thankful to Brad and everyone else at AIP/SPS/ACP (etc..) for giving us this opportunity. Maybe, well hopefully, I’ll work next to John Mather somewhere at NASA. John also said it was an honor meeting all of us and it made me tear up.
Ben, Emma, and I have been going to watch the sunset around Lincoln Memorial as much as we can.
It’s very surreal that we can just walk about 10 minutes to the National Mall and enjoy the sunset and laugh and reflect. Being that this is my second blog post already, I just know time here is going way too fast.
Friday evening the interns joined the SPS Executive Committee at the Nationals baseball game. Brad was generous the entire time and I am so thankful to have him as my mentor. I was able to meet many people (even the SOCK Intern from 1998!). I enjoyed the game, especially the walk-out songs. After the game—Pride events for the interns had begun.
We started with a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had never heard of this before but even Brad encouraged us to go. It was super fun and not at all what I was expecting. Definitely look it up if you haven’t heard of it.
Then in the morning after a few hours of sleep, Emma and I started our long day. We marched in March for Our Lives, where something unfortunate and heartbreaking happened.
We must continue to have courage to act against gun violence.
Pride events continued throughout the day as we got ready to join in the festivities. We all ‘glittered’ up and headed to Dupont Circle to catch the Pride Parade.
It was fun and uplifting to see the support for the LGBTQ+ community. After the parade we went to the Pride Block Party, there were lots of people, so we didn’t spend too much time there. We went back to Amsterdam Hall to gather some of the other interns and walked to Lincoln Memorial to watch the fireworks that were happening at the pier. Pride events continue today with a festival and free DNCE concert.
As John Mather said, “It seems chaotic, and that’s because it actually is”.
Janessa Slone