This Side of Lost

We're back in Bloomington now. Coming home seems to have been a lot easier than it was last year, for some reason. Perhaps because my definition of "where home is" is less complex now. My home is with my wife. That's easy. Just one of the many reasons we did things the way we did.

The rundown of where I've been for the last three weeks:

We spent two days in Indianapolis at Uncle Rich and Jim's place. We chilled, had good Italian food at a local spot, almost completed our Christmas shopping at the Castleton Mall and watched Pirates of the Caribbean. Did you know they're making a sequel? I'm excited for it, though I can't really say why.

We took a taxi (expensive) to the Indy airport and jetted quickly to Atlanta, to find our chauffeur (brother-in-law Ben) waiting. We poked around the Five Points neighborhood and another mall (sensing a theme yet?) before meeting Samantha's pseudo-parents Pete and DJ for dinner. Then off to Statesboro, where we arrived at about 2 am and crashed hardcore.

We spent a week in Statesboro (which is Samantha's hometown, natch), mostly lazing around. We stayed with Samantha's father, Michael, who still occupies the family stronghold, though three of the original five from the family unit are now gone (mom, Cyndi, via divorce, and brother Tim, via his own apartment). Unfortunately Mike and Ben have pretty much turned the place into a bachelor pad (read: dirty). So we spent a little time cleaning up to make ourselves more comfortable. Which it was, thereafter. We were fed well, thanks to a combination of Mike's excellent cooking (mmmm, star biscuits) and the local restaurateurs of Statesboro (check out Holiday Pizza should you, God forbid, find yourself there). All in all, a good visit.

Highlights from Georgia:

• Birthday party for Ben. Fun people, good occasion... and alcohol flowed freely (though not through me). Good times.
• Gifts with Samantha's family. The meaning of my marriage hit home in an entirely new way with giving and receiving presents to/from these people, my new family. Really cool.
• Throwing a frisbee around outside on Christmas Day. Can't do that in Minnesota.
• Seeing the Narnia flick again with Cyndi.
• Awesome game of Cranium with fun people.
• Hanging out with Ben Ellis, UGA grad, grad student at Georgetown and all-around awesome dude.

We drove back to Atlanta and caught our flight back to Indy the next morning. And then jumped in the car (my car's last big trip!) to head to Minnesota for the second half of our trip. Yes, this was kind of a hellish travel day, but so it goes. We crashed in Wisconsin Dells for the night and then made it to Stillwater by noon the next day. For those of you playing along at home, that's 1055 miles in approx. 42 hours. Or a mean speed of 25 mph. But we were sleeping for about 16 of those.

So very quickly we went from light-coat weather to hats-and-gloves, snow-on-the-ground-and-more-coming-tomorrow weather. We spent about a week in Minnesota, too. There, we hung out by the fireplace, read a lot, and assembled a 750 piece puzzle given to us by Cyndi. And ate well, again. Yeah, we're fat now, so what? You are too. Just kidding. We also drove around and saw people quite a bit.

Highlights from Minnesota:

• The wedding of Kelsay Ludwig and David Parker. A lovely affair hosted by Luther Seminary, where I saw all sorts of old friends and acquaintances. Plenty of Lutheran pomp and cheesy wedding cliches combined. Yet another one of my friends to add to the growing list of "attached" persons...
• More malls. Rosedale to find a gift for said wedding and the Mall of America with Matt Merkt, just 'cause it's fun to go to the mall with him. Hee.
• Gifts with my family. Same sentiment as above, but slightly inverted.
• Went to Cheapo and bought the CDs I didn't get for Christmas. I'm currently addicted to Eddie from Ohio's Quick and Butterfly Boucher's Flutterby.
• Recording two old-timey radio scripts with the Enclave crew at Peter Pearson's parents' house. Oh my goodness, I can't wait for the mp3's of this.
• The Science Museum with Josh Dierks. My gosh, I missed that boy.
• Going to sleep at midnight on New Year's. Okay, so this wasn't a highlight and I'm sorry I missed out on the three (3) party invitations I had. But we were tired, and that's the night we did presents since we were in Georgia on the 24th-25th.
• Getting my new car! Woot! Well, it's not new, really, but it's newer. It's my family's wedding present -- a 1994 Honda Accord. Champagne-colored, very clean, with all the trimmings and 80,000 fewer miles. I'm totally pumped. It drives like a dream compared to Barry. Alas, poor Barry (I knew him, Horatio) -- who will likely find an ignominious end with whoever shells out $1k for it in MN. He's worth a lot more -- in memories, at least.
• I also successfully transplanted my new radio from my old car into my new car, and vice versa. Aren't I cool?

So now we are back, and there is one more semester staring us in the face. It will be busy -- what with the job search, planning for the wedding-esque event (on June 10, lest you need reminding) and my internship at DePauw -- but it will be a good one. We are looking forward to it.

That's all. Will try to post more. I always say that. Time for bed, I think. Peace, and Happy New Year. May it be a good one.