The picture to the left is my cousin Jesse's farm house.
I didn’t get to blog about my Thanksgiving trip yesterday because I was so swamped trying to get caught up from being away four days.
For those of you that didn’t know, I went to Wichita, Kans. for the holiday to see my family there. My aunt Phyllis and her friend Nancy drove all the way to Kansas City (about four hours) to pick me up and drive me back to Wichita. I’m so grateful to them for being willing to do that. Here in the Midwest public transit is pretty much non-existent. There are very few flights to Wichita these days (there used to be several a day) and the bus station is so far away from where I live that it’s $50 just to get to the bus – and then the bus ride is nearly eight hours because they stop in every town.
That makes getting to Wichita very difficult and expensive if you don’t have someone to drive you there. I wanted to make the trip this year because I’m really not sure when I’ll be able to do it again. Being in the drug trial, and the other things I need to do for HPS – I really don’t see another opportunity for several years. My grandmother is about 90 years old, so I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see her again.
We spent Thanksgiving at my cousin’s farm. Jessica and her husband graciously cooked a wonderful turkey and ham, beans and stuffing even though Jessica is quite pregnant and I’m sure feeling very tired! It’s hard for me to believe Jessica’s having a baby because I knew her best when she was a child. In fact, I remember when she was born! My cousin Danny was also there with his three children – another one making me feel way older than I should feel at 33 years of age!
I remember when Jessica was three and Danny was an infant they came to stay with us for a week while their parents took a trip. Danny cried and cried for about 24 hours straight! My mom woke me up at 6:00 am so I could hold him while she went to the bathroom because he had been so upset all night she couldn’t put him down. Now, he’s got three kids!
Sally is the youngest of the Mark clan. She’s a senior in high school and looking forward to attending Kansas State next year. Sally was born when we lived in Germany so I never knew her as a baby.
Friday Aunt Phyllis, Grandma and I went to a movie. That’s another big treat as most of my movie-going friends have now gotten married and are having kids and never want to go to the movie anymore. I don’t think I’ve been in about a year!
Saturday the family had a baby shower for Jessica. It was a quick event as her husband’s family, all from the nearby town where they live, were anxious to drive to Salina to see the local football team play in the state championships. Her husband comes from a large family and almost all the families on the neighboring farms are relatives of her husband. It was neat to see how much family support she’ll have when the baby comes.
That afternoon Phyllis and Nancy drove me back home again. They were wonderful and took me to Target! Yeah! Finally got there! So yes, got the toilet seat as well as some new pillows, some new placemats and some groceries. They saved me about $40 in cab fare – and I was able to use some coupons too. What a novel concept.
Sounds boring? Well, it was very nice to have a low key couple of days. I’m not good at low key. There were times when I found myself feeling panicky about all the things I had to do when I got home.
Sunday I got up at 6:00 am to start catching up. I worked the entire day on mostly HPS things until I went to bed about midnight. I’m still behind.
There were times when I hoped my lack of conversation wasn’t offending anyone during the holiday break. I was just so tired. It’s also sometimes hard to make conversation with people who don’t really understand the HPS world because that’s such a big part of my life. I go to work and I work on HPS things. Balanced, it is not. But, I don’t see how to avoid it. We’re at a critical time in the HPS world and when I know there are things that need to be getting done, but aren’t, I feel panicky about it. But, the flip side is I don’t have kids, or sports, or such things to participate in the run-of-the-mill family chatting. It makes me feel socially awkward in a way I’ve never felt before.
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