going home

No blog posts happening this week – that’s what happens when I get preoccupied with things.  Keeping up with my survey has made me a busy lady this week and hallelujah for that!  I can offer a gift card now and with this ever-so-tiny bit of incentive, people are signing up to take my survey.  I’m almost halfway to the minimum number of people needed.  It’s way better than where I was, but there are many, many long miles to the finish line. 

Halloween was a nonevent this year.  Our city leaders decided that with the cold rain brought through our area by Hurricane Sandy, they should postpone Trick or Treat until November 1^st.   Evidently, people skipped or went someplace else for Trick or Treat because not a single kid came to our door.  It’s too bad because Erin went all out decorating our house with spiders, ghosts, a graveyard, and a sinister jack ‘o lantern.  And now we have a giant bowl of candy nobody wants, but I imagine teen girls will take care of any unwanted junk food before it should be tossed out. 

 

 

 

My girls had a writing workshop today on the campus of Morehead State University, my Alma Mater. It felt a bit like going home, if it’s ever really possible to go home again.  I thoroughly enjoyed walking around campus to see what has changed since I last visited.  The campus has changed considerably and it’s a good thing to see the university thriving through expansion and improvements. 

My favorite hangout - Eagle Lake

 

view of campus from Eagle Lake dam

My grandmother was very displeased that I enrolled at Morehead, believing all I was going there for was to find a husband, and I could do that at the local community college just as well and for less money.  My grandfather voiced no opinion, but that was typical for him.  He rarely spoke, but I think he was OK with my decision.  I had saved enough money to pay for freshman year and because I needed no money from them, I did what I wanted.

I had no car in those days, so my grandparents drove me to campus and helped me carry my things into my dorm room.  In those days, Morehead was about a three-hour trip from where they lived.  When they said good-bye and left, it was like somebody flipped a switch – something changed.  Maybe it was me who changed.  It was early afternoon and a very hot August day, but for some reason the first thing I wanted to do was take a long, hot shower.  Perhaps the shower symbolized washing away every last trace of my former life.

After that shower, I set off to explore the campus and to go buy textbooks for my classes.  It was exhilarating to be in a place by myself and completely on my own with nobody to answer to.  That first walk down through the center of campus on my first day was a walk I will never forget.  It was like starting a new life...in fact, it was the start of a new life for me.