Time warp into my mother's youth.

I hate to admit it, but the homesickness faded quickly. Once I was safely ensconced in my room, I had time to write and finally enter in all the receipts that had piled up in Ottawa and Chicago. I think I was feeling disorganized and it was bringing me down, man. Also, dropping people off at the airport has a terrible effect on me.

Today I woke up and went to have breakfast. I invited two people to sit with me as the breakfast nook was packed. (The hotel was host to two kiddie baseball championship teams and two weddings). We chatted for a while. The woman was from the area and the fella from N. Carolina. Apparently they are dating and have been for years and years. I wonder why he was staying in a hotel. She told me she did not want to leave her job. But what about him? These are questions that are not truly appropriate to ask, though they burned. However, I did comment that it was cool that they stayed friends through such a distance and over this span of time. They giggled and said they were more than friends. (Ew). So, maybe the questions were not inappropriate.


I drove through Minnesota (at high speeds. Don't tell). I called a college friend of my mother's and he met me in Sioux Falls for lunner (Lunch/dinner). Then I followed him back to the farm he grew up on and now runs. I had been there before when I was seven. He has a llama and 50 sheep. We drove to Freeman, SD where he and my mother had gone to school. It's so different now. We talked for a long time and it was really great to get to hear stories about my grandparents and relatives, all of whom had passed through this area, or had been visited on one of this friend's many trips through Germany. (Please to notice the irremovable Canada Day Tattoo on me. I have been branded by the Canadians!)
He showed me the Studebaker he had bought new back in 1957 (I think). This is an alleged date mobile that had once carted my mummy around. He is going to rebuild it next summer.

Tomorrow I will meet with several others of my mother's friends. I hope they have some good stories. I am sure they won't disappoint. While making plans with one lady, I got to hear about how her husband had a crush on my mum in school and though this woman was then in high school, she approached my mother and told her to back off of her man. Apparently my mother was absolutely flabbergasted at her nerve! And, she also admitted, that my mother was probably not as interested in him as he was in her. She was adorable in the telling of that story. There have got to be more. After all, a beautiful German girl is going to make some waves when she comes to a new school.

This is where I am now. How beautiful the sunset is.