Home for the next 10 months

Mississippi River by the campus of St. Cloud State University.

This Mississippi River is about a 10 minute walk from my house in St. Cloud - my new home - where I'm spending the next 10 months engaged in a volunteer program.

always a good option

{l}

more recently

Spent a weekend in Monroe, MI where I met some lovely people.

River House in Monroe. This is where I stayed. It overlooked the River Basin.
I'd love to go back and spend more time.

Drive home on the turnpike from Monroe.

I spent a week hanging out with these dogs (Cayleigh (L) and Maggie (R)).
Needless to say, I'm really not a dog person.

Missing

Kiawah

You Should Spend Your Summer at the Beach

You're a free spirit who is always thinking of new ways to have fun. And you don't just love summer... you live for it. So, you really should blow off your responsibilities and head to the beach!

Where Should You Spend Your Summer?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

We used to spend a week every summer at Kiawah Island in South Carolina. The entire family (mom's side) would go. When I was younger, my grandparents owned a cottage. A couple years after Hurricaine Andrew, Papa sold the cottage. We'd stay in various condos closer to the beach than the condo. My family stopped going when I was in middle school, but my aunts, uncles, and cousins still go almost every summer. This week, my cousin Sarah is spending her honeymoon in Kiawah. To say that I am jealous would be an understatement.

{l}

I'd love to go back to Kiawah - to see what's become of the island that I thought my grandparent's owned. Everyone says that it's become more tourist-y and busy. I miss the lazy weeks spent playing at the beach, learning to swim in the kiddy pool, fishing in the ocean, and dancing at parties.

Sometimes, I step outside and it smells like Kiawah. It's in the air - the humidity mixed with flowers and sunblock. For a minute, I think I'm walking to the beach instead of looking at the pot hole filled Glenwood Ave.

lower case letters

I've always had an affinity fower lower case letters. I was the smart kid in preschool who asked the teacher if she could right her name in all lower case letters. I promised Mrs. Cunningham that I knew how to make the letters and I even knew "that I's really should never be lower case." She let me - probably to see if I'd actually know how to write the letters. I remember sitting at the table and scrawling my name across the top of the paper. My classmates were struggling to write their names, but I could write my name in lower case letters.

{l}

Even today, I favor lower case over upper case. I hate the look of the capital "I." I hated when facebook no longer let me list my favorite movies, books, etc. in lower case letters. My fancy phone automatically capitalizes all letters after a period even if I don't want it to. I told this to my aunt who said it was because I always had to do what people told me was wrong. I think that's wrong. I simply like lower case letters better. I don't ignore the shift key because I'm lazy.

I'm still a grammatical snob. I can't begin a sentence with a lower case "I." I can't begin sentences with lower case letters when it's something for other people to read. I don't want someone to think I'm lazy. I don't want people to think that my language is text speak or whatever it's called.

...and the floor drops out beneath you