Home again, home again jiggety-jig...

Hi all. I was home in Michigan till yesterday evening. Well, technically I was home in Michigan until Monday morning. Then I hopped in my car and drove to New York. State. Not city. I stopped in Williamsville (near Buffalo) and visited with some of my future family -- Mike's sister, Jean, her husband, Jerry, and their adorable little girl, Molly. They were a lot of fun to hang out with for the day. I've pretty much known them since Mike and I started dating, so it's not like this was going to be an awkward-I-hardly-know-you thing anyway. It was great hanging out with Jean especially, though, because she wanted to know all about how the wedding planning is coming. She is very excited about it all which is awesome. :)

I left Jean and Jerry's yesterday morning and rolled into Taunton around 6 o' clock-ish. I think all of western Massachusetts got rain yesterday. I was traveling with the storm, so it was a riot. I was lucky to experience almost all degrees of rain, from the annoying light mist to the visibility-blocking downpour. Yay. I made it safely and soundly, though...to an empty apartment. :( I knew I was going to beat Mike home, but it was still kinda sad and lonely to come back to a place with no one there. Especially when you think about the fact that I was coming from a place where I was never alone once. Someone is always home in Michigan. Ok, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but seriously, not by much. Rare are the days you call my house back in Michigan and there isn't a single person there to answer the phone. If you don't get an answer, the more likely culprit is a phone with the ringer shut off. (My mom gets sick of the phone if we get too many phone calls in one day. Or if she's trying to watch TV.) Anyway, the point of all of this is, I missed my family. I was home for a little over a month and there were things I wanted to do that didn't get done. My mom and I were supposed to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and I was supposed to take Nick (my lil' bro) to the big mall he likes. I'm sure I'm probably making them to be more important than they really are, but I hate saying I'm going to do something and then not doing it. I don't like letting people down. Especially when I know it will be months till I see them again. And it wasn't just family stuff that didn't get done. I didn't get to see my friend Jenna or most of the people I wanted to visit with at Whistle Stop (my former place of employment). I was hoping to get a visit in with Rita (my neighbor down the street). Sorry to everyone I missed...I'm aiming for the next visit for sure. Somehow times just slips away and you don't even know where it went or what you did during it.

I know I'm glad I did what I did, though. I got to have the video game night at Adam's. I had a few family game nights at Lucy and Hassan's. I spent a night in Grand Rapids with Mary and Andy. (Nick even got to come for that one!) I played a LOT of video games with Nick -- Sonic, MarioParty, WarioWare. I had some fun really late nights with Laura. My parents and I talked about wedding stuff and they even came with me to a couple of potential ceremony and reception sites. It was fun.

Now I'm back in Taunton, trying to motivate myself to not be lazy and waste the rest of the summer. I know school will creep up on me awfully fast. I'm practically counting down to semester break already.