Little By Little

My brother and I surprised my parents by showing up on their doorstep Saturday afternoon. If they stilled lived in the old house this might not have been so shocking for them (as it was only a three hour trip) but not they live ten hours away in the mountains of Northern Idaho. We sneakily got directions to the house without giving away our plans and arrived around 3:00 PM their time. My little sister (the sick one) nearly cried tears of joy at our arrival.

After a long weekend (we took Monday off work for the trip back) in which several families in the area played matchmaker with their children and my brother and I. One grandmother proudly displayed her two oldest (and eligible) grandsons, while one mother listed all the qualities of her beautiful daughter like she was the first-place pie at the state fair. We smiled politely and endured.

The trip back to Utah on Monday was loooooong. Very, very looooooong. Between a loooooooong trip, with little sleep and an abrupt change in climate, it's not too surprising that I developed the worse head cold ever. Pain killer does nothing for it. I've been going to work regardless, as I have too many financial obligations to keep me in bed all day. I just keep telling myself that, come November, I'm home-free. I'll move up to my parent's place, get a part-time job to maintain car payments, and live off them for a while. (This is of course under the agreement that I help around the house, care for my sister, and save money for the spring semester.)

October is going to go very slowly.

But, for right now, I'll just focus on getting better. That's enough to keep me occupied for a while. No more evening classes in which I'm called upon to explain something and I find myself utterly stumped because my head is too fuzzy to have even comprehended the question--even after he repeats it three times.