I'm Back...and Back to School

Hello. I'm back!! (Did you miss me?) I had a wonderful time at homehome with Mom and Dad, and now I'm back to the city and the normal routine, if such a thing exists. I'm teaching a section of Technical Writing during the first block of the summer session, so it's back to school tomorrow (already). I think I'll spend a little time this evening rambling about homehome; however, I'll divide things into sections (complete with headings) so nobody has to wander through massive paragraphs of wandering ramblings. (Thus the headings will be of benefit to both the reader and the writer.)

Chasing Children
Mom and I spent a couple of days going to some of the school activities that my nieces and nephews were involved in. We went to Krysten's senior tea one evening, and that was a lot of fun. (To all family members: If you see Krysten any time soon, be sure to ask her to tell you about the things that were in her box.) We got to spend a little time visiting with everyone, which was good since I won't be able to make it back to Kansas for her graduation later this month. On the next day, Mom and I went chasing musicians. We first went to the league music contest where Eric was playing his trombone. He played a solo and played in an ensemble as well. (BTW, does anyone know what rating he got on his solo? He did a nice job on the solo, but Mom and I didn't stick around long enough for ratings to be posted.) After music festival, Mom and I went to Megan's band concert. The concert included the regular bands and the jazz band, and it was a good concert too. We all went out for a quick supper after the concert, and we got to spend some time visiting....

Books on Tape
As everyone probably knows, I like to read. I also enjoy listening to books on tape (actually it's CDs for me now, but 'books on CD' doesn't quite have the same ring as 'books on tape'). While I don't typically take the time to locate and listen to audiobooks, I do check them out from the library when I'm going on car trips. I checked out Steinbeck's East of Eden for this trip. It's a 25 hour (22 disk) set, so I only managed to get through part of it on the trip. I'd planned just to return the audio to the library and read the rest of the book, but I'm enjoying the audio so much I think I'll actually bring it in the house and finish it. The story's great (though not quite like the James Dean movie) and the reader is excellent as well.

Flatlanders
Though I'm currently stuck in the city, I'm figuring out that I will always be a farm girl at heart. When I go homehome, I always remember how much I like the open spaces and the beautiful skies of Kansas. (I took some pictures this past week. If they come out well, I'll post some up here whenever I get the film developed.) I like being able to see for miles during the day and see a sky filled with stars at night. There's a certain tranquil beauty in the stillness and openness of the Kansas prairie....