Indiana

Sunflowers from my Mom's garden

Visiting Indiana in August is becoming my new favorite thing. Not only is it the time of my birthday, my brother's birthday, my cousin's birthday, many friends birthdays, but now it my brand new niece Maggie's birthday as well. It is also the time I went to summer camp growing up and to the county and state fairs. It is the time of fireflies and singing crickets; of thick summer evenings and even thicker vegetation. The corn is high, the sky is blue, the grass is green, and the sun is constantly overhead. There is just something magical about it all - then again, maybe it is just my memories all swirling back at once. I particularly like these visits because for the most part they are genuinely relaxing.


Sunflower

Trumpet Vine

My Mom's garden

I got to see almost all my family that predominantly lives in Indiana on Sunday, when my parents threw a party for Maggie. They had a BBQ, Jeff and Amy opened cute baby gifts, and we played the Midwest's new favorite obsession, cornhole. My brother made a set of cornhole boards with an NPR logo theme. Lookout, Seattle.

Maggie is impressively tiny, with itty bitty fingernails and big curious eyes. She looks like she is going to be tall like her parents, and she has the soft fuzz of what may be blond or brown hair. She sleeps a lot, fusses very little, and spends a lot of time just looking around and making faces (she gets this from me I'm sure). She looks just like my brother - only tiny and female. Its kind of creepy really.


Maggie with her great-grandma


I also got to see some of my pals from grade school too. This is always a treat considering most of the time I am home, we are are busy with family over the holidays and the weather is bad for driving.


Me and my friend Rob (yes, THE Rob of that wild mercury sound). We go way back to '98.