Homegirl comes home from space

OK, my fingers are now uncrossed. Like millions of others, I've been following the flight of the space shuttle Endeavour for the past two weeks. I've always been a big fan of the space program, but this trip had a special meaning: Barbara Morgan, the teacher turned astronaut, is a former high-school classmate and friend.

I remember feeling bad for her when, in 1986, she was named the backup for first-teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe. I wished Barb could have been first.

Then came the awful Challenger disaster, and the loss of McAuliffe and her crewmates. I felt a twinge of something like survivor's guilt, relieved that my old friend had not been aboard the doomed Challenger.

And I confess to more trepidation than I expected this time, when Barb finally got her ride into space -- not simply as a teacher but as a full-fledged astronaut. And I breathed a big sigh of relief when the shuttle touched down in Florida this morning. Welcome back, Barb. Good on you.