Traveling

Today I spent most of the day traveling.  All total I was on the road for about 6.5 hours.  But, it was totally worth it.  My nephew is, hopefully, asleep in the next room.  (I know he's in the next room, I'm just hoping he's asleep.) 

So, the point of this blog is to show photos of my day to day life, but I would like to just add a quick anectdote today. 

As most of you know, I am not a morning person.  I hate mornings. I don't function well in the morning.  I don't like to talk in the morning and pity the person who wakes me up.  I hate mornings.  I am a night person and as such like to stay up late (often too late) and am barely able to survive until around 10 am.  (And tomorrow I have to be up, showered, dressed, get a child up and dressed and fed and at work by 7 am.  Kill me now.)  But, I do it for work and at least pretend to be happy and silly and jovial when I arrive at work, often around 7 am, especially during the summer months.  Yuck.  But, back to my story.

This week, as I mentioned earlier, my nephew is with me.  He'll be at my day camp during the day having fun with the other kids (and hopefully me a little bit) and in the evenings we'll have lots of time to do stuff together.  So, it was rather appropriate that the hymn Morning has Broken was played today in church.  You see, every morning at sleep-over camp when I was a little girl, that was the song played to wake us up.  Every day over the loudspeakers, a-nnoy-ing.  And as I sat in church this morning listening to the hymn it made me stop and think.  This is Nick's first long time sleep-over away from his parent's.  I remember what that was like.

I was a bit older, but for me camp was on your own.  Andy (my older brother) was there, but wanted ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with me while we were at camp.  That was his time away to forget he had younger siblings.  My cousins both worked at the camp and I saw them pretty regularly, but they had their own things to do, so it was just me.  I was not a child (or am an adult) who makes friends easily.  In addition I had an absolute hatred of being away from my parents (especially my Mother).  I was miserable.  And I should mention that my first year of camp on the Sunday we were brought to camp, it was my 2nd day of wearing glasses.  Ever.  I hated them.  They hurt and were awful.  Life was not fun. 

So, I'm going to try to keep all these things in mind this week as I help my nephew get through this first full week away from home.  I know, in the end, it is a great thing. We'll bond, which is awesome; he'll make new friends and have fun at camp during the day; and he'll learn a little more independence and grow.  I know personally, that if it wasn't for my Mother pushing me to go to camp; go to school; spend the night at grandpa's; leave her side for 2 seconds!!!!; I wouldn't be the independent woman I am today.  It's tough, but in the end worthwhile.  So, I'll pray I am a good Aunt and can help my baby learn a few things and get us both through this week and have a great time. 

Alright, enought rambling.  I'm not even sure all of that makes sense.  Sorry, I'm tired, it's late and I still have stuff to do and I need to be up at 5:30 am.  I am insane.  So, here's some photos from my day.  (Please forgive the quality.  All were taken with my Blackberry so they're not great.  Except for the subjects, that is.)

Nicholas in the car as we were preparing to get back on the road.  He was a great traveler and we enjoyed a nice dinner at Bob Evan's in Columbus.  Also, he is so cool in those shades!!

A building (and the highway) in Columbus.  I like to go North via Columbus as there are more places to stop between Athens and home; and over the last year and a half I have become very familiar with this great city and I love it there.  I really want to find a job and move there.  Really, really, really bad!

My hydrangea.  I 'stole' this off my own hydrangea plant, that just happens to be at my parent's house.  And they weren't home.  But, it is my plant, it was a gift several years ago for my birthday.  Unfortunately, I thought I had a bottle of water in my car and I didn't.  I also thought I had the keys to my parent's house in my purse and I didn't.  (I needed to get something and could not as they are on vacation and I had forgotten my keys.)  So, my flower withered.  I am attempting to revive it, but it doesn't look good.  At least I got this picture while it was beautiful.