'Grandma's' Departure

Yesterday, mom left to go back home after her three week visit (note the spiffy new cut that she got while she was visiting here in Colorful Colorado).

In part she was here to watch the four-legged kiddos while Sam and I adventured for a few days through the Midwest, and in part she came just to get away for a bit. It's always a little bitter sweet, however, when it's time to leave. Though we were definitely ready to have the house back to ourselves and return to a semi-normal life (whatever that may be), it's always sad when a family member or friend who's visiting has to go home. It makes me miss living closer to everyone and then I start missing home (even though I'm still not sure where home is anymore). Little Gandolf ran up this morning, expecting to find 'grandma' in bed, but she wasn't there. It was kind of sad to see his little face, but, I think he's recovering from all the fawning and coddling that grandma provides with relative ease.

As for me, the last few weeks have brought about some additional thoughts on my future, and while I still would really love to be able to have a creative job, I just can't stand the idea of not having the possibility of repaying school loans when I'm done with this third ride through college life. I've decided to change majors and use all of my fine art studies as a minor, thus providing me an opportunity to hopefully be employable in the future. While the idea of going back into the workforce doesn't thrill me (its 8-5 schedule, the never-ending politics, the bore of the routine), I realize that I will have a lot of debt to repay and I should probably have something that is, at very minimum, a broad-based degree that would allow me to work in a variety of fields. So, the fall is bringing about a change in my focus, and I'm hopeful that all will go well and I'll still be able to wrap up school in close to the same amount of time, or at very minimum, only needing to add on one semester. For the first time in a very long time I feel as though I have some focus (let's face it, I'm never entirely focused on anything), so I believe that it will bring positive results.

I'm also still longing for Wisconsin. I believe in time it will leave my consciousness and life will return to normal. I think that I just need to have more focus on more pressing goals, and leave any sort of moving until an appropriate time. It's easier said than done, however, and I can't help but long for a nice long bicycle ride through Madison, around one of the lakes, etc.

Who wouldn't want to live there? It's so green and there are bicycle paths everywhere it seemed. Plus, Sam looks so cute there on the bike path. I know they have winters that are rougher, so I suppose I should focus on that and not the beauty that we saw in the middle of summer.

We now return to regularly scheduled life. I have the added bonus of a lovely sore throat that arrived just as mom was leaving, but hopefully it won't hang on long and I can continue enjoying the last few weeks of the summer break.