I would say that it felt good to sleep in my own bed last night, but unfortunately my bed sucks, so it wasn't all that great.
In any case, here are the last of the pictures that I took that I wanted to share. There will be another post featuring scans of some old pictures I found and took back with me.
Saturday evening while my parents and I were at the reunion dinner my brother-in-law Dean, along with Jeremy and Jacob, took his boat out and went fishing.
Evidently Dean never has much luck and was annoyed that Jeremy had caught three, and even Jacob had caught one.
Sunday it was rainy and dreary all day, so they didn't go out in the boat at all but did spend some time fishing in the river behind my parents' house. That's when Jacob caught the fish he's displaying in the picture.
Eventually Dean caught three, catching up to Jeremy, though I pointed out that a "tie" is just a fancy word for losing.
Throughout the years my dad has been slowly but surely clearing a path to the river, cutting down trees and trimming back brush. He's now at the point that he can set up a dock, which is where Dean and the kids, such as my niece Jenni, seen here, could go fishing.
The river, by the way, is called the Misery River. I think there's a tremendous symbolic resonance to be found in the fact that I grew up in a place where Misery flowed through my backyard.
It's pretty much a given that when I go home my dad will eventually put me to work. You can't see it very clearly in this picture, but my hand bears the marks of having egaged in manual labor.
I actually got off pretty light this time around; all I had to do was help him lift up a building.
Here we see Kim's kitchen on Monday night when we stopped in for me to bid everyone farewell, as I had to be at the airport really early the next morning.
On the right is my niece Jourdan relating some story that I'm certain involved using the word "like" as much as possible.
I didn't see much of Jourdan while I was there, as she took off for some festival in Minnesota over the weekend.
Her first year in college seems to have been kind of a waste, as she's been having way more fun than you really ought to if you're interested in actually doing something with your life. I tried to guilt her into becoming a little more focused by telling her about Lisa, the girl I sat next to on my flight to Minneapolis. Lisa, like Jourdan, is Pre-Med, but unlike Jourdan she's totally focused, as she's only 20 (about a year older than Jourdan) and is already a senior preparing to take the MCAT, is talking about doing a semester at Oxford, and going to NYU for med school.
Of course, Jourdan countered my arguments with the ultimate counterargument: a shoulder shrug and an "Oh well."
You can't argue with that.
Still, while I was talking to Lisa I couldn't help but think, "Hmm, I should to a trade-in and have you be my niece." Of course, the fact that I kind of wanted to bang her made me toss that idea aside quickly.
And of course there is the fact that I wouldn't trade Jourdan for the world. I just wish she would throttle back on the wildness a little. I'd hate to see her just waste her long-term potential for the sake of short-term gratification.
In any case, the ramblings of a concerned uncle aside, this concludes my photo essay detailing my trip home. It was about as exciting as it looked. Of course, if I were a better tourist I'm sure I'd have lots more pictures, but I think what I have pretty much gives you the gist of things.
As I said, there are some old pictures I found while I was there which I'll be scanning in and posting, and I'll also be writing up a more standard entry that fills in some of the blanks left by the photo essay.
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